Yahoooooooooooooo!
When I worked at Yahoo, my team oversaw internal marketing. One of the areas we led was our weekly global all hands meeting.
As we were going through a challenging transition of the company, when ultimately Verizon bought Yahoo, I wanted to help boost company MOJO.
So with the blessing of our CEO, we built a large Yahoo yodel button that when someone shared a win on stage during the meeting, anyone could run up and push it to signal the yahoooooooo.
Why? To create an employee experience that would support morale and retention during
the transformation. And, because I wanted to remind people of the day they received their welcome packet for their new job at Yahoo. In it was a desk-sized yodel button. It was so exciting to receive it and I remember the joy it brought. So I figured a larger than life sized version might do something similar.
It was hit! The button was pushed often and every time someone did, the crowd cheered!
So what's the secret?
On the final global all hands meeting, I shared with the company that the yodel inside the button wasn't the same one being used externally.
Our CEO said she wanted something different. Something that had more grit to it. And since we knew the cost it took to get the external one made, I didn't want to loose this great idea over needing that kind of a budget again.
So I went home and while seated in the bathroom with a towel over my head and my computer in recording mode, I began to yodel.
Over and over again I yodeled. I yodeled till I had a few good takes. Which, as you can guess, one of them was chosen as the new yodel to be used inside the company.
Every Friday, when that button was pushed, it was my voice that came out of it! And I will forever be the voice of the yodel from the big Yahoo button used inside the company.