Shared organisation dream- a driving force for the staff

[Rituu B. Nanda]

In my role at Global Fund for Children, I am fortunate to work  with NGO Avani. I facilitated Community life competence process (CLCP) at organizational level with some members of Avani team- deeply listening to them and learning about their individual and organizational strengths and gifts they have. When I facilitated a common dream with them, the dream was in the form of text, drawing and song. 

Team reflections after the  dream building process. 

• We as individuals had a dream for Avani but we had not shared it with anyone
• We felt proud sharing our dream, it motivates us that someone is asking about our dream; there is a lot of talent within us, and we are always working towards our dream. But we forget our dream; “if our work and our personal dream match, then it is a win-win situation."
• We were surprised to discover similar dreams; We learned new points from dreams of others खूप छान,मी खूप काही शिकलो आणि सर्वांचे विचार समजून घेतले- Abhijeet 
• When you share your dream, it deeply connects you to yourself. it has motivated me to work towards it. Responsibility has increased as I have shared with others. 
• We felt proud of others, I will help them in fulfilling their dream
• Importance of teamwork, we should not wait 10 years to fulfill our dream, we have to work hard; have got new energy
• when I heard about our dream, I felt we have to achieve it as early as possible- Puja

Imran, one of the staff members, puts it very eloquently, “everyone joins an organisation with a dream to achieve something. Generally, no one asks the staff what is their dream. So when you asked this question, it forced me to think about my own dream. Collective dream building enabled me to align my dream with other staff. Now feel that I am working towards a personal as well as organizational dream.”

Shared dream fuels ownership towards the organisation & enhances performance

My takeaway is that sometimes the mission and vision can remain limited to the founder or senior management. They want it to transfer to the team in a way that instills a sense of ownership. As seen from Avani staff responses, developing a common dream gives a sense of direction for the staff who feel their contribution matters in the overall vision of the organisation. It binds the team, motivates them to collaborate and accomplish the dream they have set for themselves.  

H Sippy says, “Once the vision is conceived by the leadership, it has to be communicated to each one in the organization. Mere communication to create awareness is insufficient, it is imperative that the vision is cast in such a way that people take ownership of the vision.” He further adds, “ It helps you channelize energies. It determines the destiny.” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tema-emerging-power-vision-haresh-k-...

CLCP is one of the powerful ways to create ownership of shared dream based on the strengths of the staff. Self-assessment of the dream guides the action plan, which then is even more inspiring.

(Grateful to Avani team for helping me get clarity and learn from their insights; Photo of the text dream Vanita Kamble and video by Koushalya)

[Marie Lamboray]

Thank you for your insights Avani team and Rituu!

Best wishes