Ribbons of shame
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ribbons of shame is a Japanese management training practice of giving ribbons with criticisms to those employees who fail to meet the expectations of the management.[1]
Ribbons of shame are a prominent feature of the Kanrisha Yosei Gakko (KYG), a management training "hell camp" that became well-known in the 1970s and 1980s.[2] Trainees were issued with 13 or 14 ribbons upon arriving at the camp, each corresponding to a task or a shortcoming that the trainee had to overcome before graduating. In the late 1980s, KYG opened a branch in Malibu, California, where the ribbons of shame were renamed "ribbons of challenge."[3][4][5] The ribbons remained in use at KYG as of 2024.[6]
The concept was popularized in the United States by the 1986 movie Gung Ho, starring Michael Keaton.[7]