Dream a little dream of you

 

I'll be dreaming as you read this blog. So will scores of other Peppercom employees. We dream once a year. And, we dream for a full day. But, we're wide awake when we dream. Because, on Dream Day, every one of our employees dream about what Peppercom should do or become or alter in the coming year. We hold Dream Days in London and San Francisco as well.

I ripped off the original Dream Day idea from Google. They give every employee an extra day off each year to dream dreams about Google. I loved the idea, but doubted that any of our employees, including this blogger, would dream about Peppercom on a day off.

So, instead, everyone from receptionist extraordinaire Ray Carroll on up to Sir Edward Aloysius Moed, gathers for a full day of offsite dreaming. We shut down the firm and open our minds. And, in five years' worth of Dream Days, we've come up with great ideas, including:

- Hiring an academic to provide a totally distinct P.O.V. MIT's Sam Ford joined us three years ago, is now our director of digital strategy and has become a social media superstar.
- Our London office re-structured its go-to market strategy and now focuses almost exclusively on mobile. It's even changed its name to PepperMobi.
- Our SF office created, refined and brought to market our firm's first sustainability offering, GreenPepper.
- We've changed antiquated internal reporting and staffing procedures, identified ways in which to work smarter and not harder and taken other strides to improve internal morale.

Dream Day is one of the best things we've ever done. I love it because it enables each and every employee to feel a little more invested in Peppercom's future and to feel as if they're actively involved in shaping it. And, our clients respect us even more for taking a time out to make ourselves a better partner.

Dream Days aren't for every organization (especially those with an autocratic, 'it's our way or the highway' mentality). But, it works for us. So, please excuse me if I don't respond to any comments you may post. I'll be dreaming.

Comments

[Aaiello]

Absolutely love this idea, Rep! Going to share with my colleagues.

[JulieFarin]

WOW - What a fantastic idea! Kudos to you for encouraging your employees to dream big dreams. If more companies got on the dream bandwagon, there would be less snoozing on the job :-) Seriously - great idea; very progressive.

[RepMan]

Thanks Aaiello. As I said, I merely stole it from Google and adapted it for our needs. Google is something else.

[RepMan]

Thanks Julie. Our fifth annual Dream Day proved to be quite the success. We dreamt about ways in which to make ourselves a better organization as well as the best ways for spreading our mantra of ‘messages in motion.’ But, perhaps more importantly, we also handed out ‘Little Eddie’ Awards for best performances in our highly-acclaimed ‘Fifteen’ holiday video. A good time was had by all.