9 June 2008 2 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

One of the most recurring question in the book ‘The Dream Manager’ by Matthew Kelly is “What is your dream?”. Readers take this question along with them even after they keep the book down.

The book starts by taking on the problem of high rate of employee turnover, their disengagement from work and how it impacts business. Two people, Simon and Greg, set out to find an actual solution to this problem and not a quick fix. They realise that increasing salary, giving promotion, etc are not real solutions. For what motivates, differs from person to person.

In their quest to find out what employees really want and how to keep them motivated, they learn two very important things :
* Never assume what employees want. Ask them. Chances are high that they will come up with things that you would not have thought of.
* Treat people like people and they will act like one - take interest in your employees’ life and growth, show that you care and appreciate them and they will reciprocate.

They realised that what drives humans is dreams. What ignites passion in them and make their lives worthy is their dreams. If someway the employees can think of their job as a way to make progress in life and fulfil their dreams, the employees are bound to stay motivated and dedicated.

To find out what kind of dreams their employees have, they conducted a survey. The replies were varied and totally unexpected. Dreams were as simple as having a good Christmas, learning a language to big ones like owning a house. That’s when they decided to introduce a Dream Manager. Since most dreams have a financial component, they found someone from finance background with a keen interest in making a difference in lives of people as their dream manager.

The roles of a dream manager are as following:
* Ask employees about their dreams
* Listen without judgement
* Help employees articulate their dreams
* Help employees in creating a plan for their dreams
* Follow up
* If there is something that can be done to help, do that.

Any employee who is interested, gets to meet the dream manager on a monthly basis to assess his/her progress and discuss new plans.

As expected, this initiative was met with resistance by some and welcomed by some. For all employees to believe that this dream manager was for real and it worked, a lot of convincing would be required. And who would be a better person to market this than someone who’s dream has come true. In the months to come, they ensured that some big dreams get realised. Like helping a employee with owning a house. As employees started realising dreams, they started sharing excitedly about it and the message about success of the dream manager spread like wild fire.

Usually employees started with smaller, simpler dreams which they knew if they worked on can be realised. As dreams started coming true, employees started picking up on bigger dreams as if, with each dream getting realised, their belief in themselves and their dreams increased.

Some of course were found to have stopped dreaming altogether about what they want. In day to day existence and struggle for survival some stopped dreaming and did not even realise it. However, with time, it changed.

The book then goes on citing examples of varied ways in which the dream manager helps employees with their dreams, and how that affects employees, their family, work and organization.

The rate of employee turnover drastically reduced, people took lesser sick leaves, came to office on time and worked productively and happily. The most important of all, employees and clients stayed loyal to the company. Business boomed, profits increased. The annual numbers in terms of revenue, costs and employee turnover were astonishing.

As much benefit Simon and Greg saw at organisational level, they saw at personal level as well. They realised that every relationship is in existence so that one party can help the other to progress in their dreams. Which in effect means that each of us is a dream manager in lives of people around us. For every one dreams and needs some kind of dream manager to keep them on the path of realising dreams. People need someone to ask them about their dreams, listen to their dreams, help them put dreams in words, help them in planning and most importantly hold them into account.

So, What’s your dream?