How we should re-imagine what we honor—and measure

Years ago, I was greatly honored to receive an Athena Award. On the statue itself was a quote from Plato that seared itself into my brain:

“What is honored in a culture will be cultivated there.”

In other words, what we reward, whether in the form of statuettes, raises or promotions—is what we want to grow more of. Simply admiring an attribute is not enough, we have to reward good behavior that fosters that attribute.

If you’ve ever participated in judging an award ceremony, you’ll be familiar with this process. I remember judging an award for an association that fights heart disease. We were judging newspaper coverage and told to award our points based on the accuracy of the information in a story, whether it contained specific heart-healthy messages, and its persuasiveness at getting people to act healthier. The reward was a hefty prize, with the idea that it would cultivate more people to write such stories. It worked: Year after year the stories got more frequent and more compelling.

Given the events that have taken place in the last couple of years, society seems to be demanding that we cultivate authenticity, integrity and diversity. If recent Grammys and other award shows are any indication, we are also finally starting to honor diversity in the arts.