Let’s Stop Penalizing the Dreamers

I had a wonderful, powerful get-together the other day with a friend of mine. Like me, he's a dreamer. It was a chat long overdue. We hadn't shared a latte for well over twelve months. "Aaron" and I met about six years ago and from that first moment I felt a sense of connected kinship. Our discussions are futuristic, fun and absolutely freeing. For me they are soul food exchanges. When we chat, we seek ways to better our respective organizations and society in general. They often revolve around the use of technology to create experiences that enhance the human spirit. During our time together last week we delved into topics such as 'drones for good', robotics, wearable technologies and health bars. Not the kind you eat but the kind that should be found in company buildings as a way to promote openness, collaboration and healthy eating. You get the point. We're dreamers. Disney calls it 'Imagineering'. I asked how things were going in his role. (He works for a rather large organization.) That's the precise moment his ear-to-ear smile shifted to a glum, forlorn frown. "Dan," my friend questioned me with a palpable display of meekness.

"Why is it I get penalized for dreaming on my performance review?"

It was at this moment I wished our lattes might have been mistaken for Irish Coffees. "I've got ideas and thoughts for the future of this company -- and for our customers -- and yet my performance review stinks," he explained further. "I'm told to focus on my presentations and my deliverables, but I never get rewarded for my ideas." He then added:

"I'm punished for dreaming."

My heart sank. Aaron is gifted. He's a dreamer. He's an innovator. He's a thinker. It was clear to me his role if not career growth is being stunted and his ideas are being ignored. I can't begin to fathom what fantastic and positive contributions he would make to his company if only he were permitted to dream; if only a portion of his performance development plan (ie. his objectives) were re-engineered to dream. Which brings me to my ultimate point if you are a leader of people.

Are you penalizing the dreamers in your organization?

Or, are you somehow enabling the dreamers such that their ideas and thoughts are -- at a minimum -- being considered or better yet, being incorporated into future plans? Yes, boundaries and expectations need to be set. But crushing the dreamer is heartless. It might even be gutless. If you can enable the dreamer, you and your organization are bound to benefit. I liken dreaming to doodling, made famous of course by Sunni Brown. By using common sense, experience and neuroscience, Sunni is proving that to doodle is to ignite your whole mind. For me, it's a form of dreaming. (And you should rush to your favourite bookstore or online site to pick up her book "The Doodle Revolution") Every organization needs builders, doers and practitioners. That goes without saying. But every thriving organization needs the doodlers; it needs the dreamers. Let's stop penalizing the dreamers. Let's park the ego. Let's empower the dreamers to dream the dream.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. Carl Sagan