The Dream Manager

A few weeks ago, my work department was given homework. We were assigned to read a book titled The Dream Manager. I was a bit surprised, though silently excited to have the chance to read a book on company time.

In short, and according to the website, The Dream Manager is: "A business parable about how companies can achieve remarkable results by helping their employees fulfill their dreams."

Further, "Managing people is difficult. With disengagement and turnover on the rise, many managers are scratching their heads wondering what to do. It’s not that we don’t dream of being great managers, it’s just that we haven’t found a practical and efficient way to do it. Until now…

The fictional company in this remarkable book is grappling with real problems of high turnover and low morale--so the managers begin to investigate what really drives the employees. What they discover is that the key to motivation isn’t necessarily the promise of a bigger paycheck or title, but rather the fulfillment of crucial personal dreams. They also learned that people at every level need to be offered specific kinds of help and encouragement—or our dreams will forever remain just dreams as we grow dissatisfied with our lives and jobs.

Beginning with his important thought that a company can only become the-best-version-of-itself to the extent that its employees are becoming better-versions-of-themselves, Matthew Kelly explores the connection between the dreams we are chasing personally and the way we all engage at work. Tackling head-on the growing problem of employee disengagement, Kelly explores the dynamic collaboration that is unleashed when people work together to achieve company objectives and personal dreams.

The power of The Dream Manager is that simply becoming aware of the concept will change the way you manage and relate to people instantly and forever."

While I wasn't overly impressed with the book in regard to its aesthetics-- forced dialogue and an unsound plot for the fictional portion-- the message was simple: we all have dreams, personal and professional, and we owe it to ourselves to develop a plan in which to pursue those dreams.

In addition to reading this book, we were assigned to write our "top five dreams" for our work department. I probably put more effort into this than was necessary, as I quoted passages from the book, using proper citation and punctuation. I suppose that's just the English Major in me.

What do you want to get out of life? What do you want to pursue?

I'll let you ponder that for a few days before I present my list of dreams...