2023 Awards

Sometimes a problem or issue is too challenging or substantial to be overcome by just 1 person. Penguins have known this and demonstrate the most extraordinary teamwork so as to protect themselves from adversity – from forming dense gravity-centric groups to defeat the worst of an Antarctic winter to combining with effortless grace and coordination to outwit a prowling killer whale. You decide whether your team has delivered something worthy of the Penguin Teamship Award!
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On the night of May 7th 1765 Hartly Larkin, a dockyard foreman at Chatham marine docks was deeply troubled. HMS Victory was to be launched the next morning in a fanfare ceremony and he had just had a terrible thought. At first light he hurried to the dock with a tape measure and his dire worry was confirmed – Victory was 9.5 inches wider than the dock exit. Acting entirely on initiative, he convened a gathering of shipwrights and carpenters who set to work cutting away the docks timbers. Victory launched on time, squeezing through the narrowest gap. Larkin and his team, quite simply, had done what needed to be done. If this has resonated with you via the parallels with your recent project, then a fanfare could be yours!
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The author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once said "too often we underestimate the importance of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring – all of which has the potential to turn a life around". We agree. Often the biggest impacts are made by the smallest actions, and the Academy of Fab NHS Stuff wants to recognise, share and celebrate everything, no matter how small – hence the TNT or Tiny Noticeable Things’ award for a project or person that has embodied this sentiment.
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The 2 Ronnies, featuring Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker, first broadcast their ‘4 Candles’ sketch in 1976. It features a shopkeeper, played by Ronnie Corbett, becoming increasingly frustrated by a customer, played by Ronnie Barker, because he continuously misunderstands what he is requesting. At Ronnie Barker’s memorial service in Westminster Abbey, the cross was accompanied up the aisle by four candles instead of the usual two. If your project has relied on an ability to listen and respond to feedback from any source, then the 4 Candles award could be yours!
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On December 1st 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42 year old African American woman who worked as a seamstress, boarded a bus in Montgomery City, Alabama and took a seat in the row behind the 10 seats at the front reserved for white people. Soon all of the seats in the bus were filled and when a white man entered the bus the driver (following standard practice) insisted that Rosa and her 3 other black passengers just behind the white section give up their seats in order to accommodate him. Her 3 fellow travellers complied. Rosa Parks did not – and fuelled a civil rights movement. If you have been brave enough to reject mindless conformity and find a new, inspiring and effective means of doing something, then this award is for you.
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Absolutely committed. Fiercely determined. Brim-full of self-belief. Refusing to compromise. Dedicated to perfection. If you win the 5127 award you will have demonstrated all of these attributes. 5127 refers to the number of prototypes that Sir James Dyson developed before finally marketing his first Dyson ‘Cyclone’ vacuum cleaner. If you have seen a project through from start to finish, hurdled obstacles, converted nay-sayers and delivered ultimate success, then you might be in the running!
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