Leadership Minute: Making Employees' Wishes Come True

A wish granting program is an easy, cost effective way to wow your employees and strengthen your culture. Here's how to start one.

When I recently gave a keynote at Milo’s Tea’s annual conference, I had a front-row seat to an example of their industry-renowned people-first culture.

The CEO of Milo’s brought one of the company’s leaders onstage during the event. She explained to the audience that the leader was missing the opportunity to see his daughter at a recital a few hours away so he could attend the conference. The CEO then excused the leader for the afternoon so he could see his daughter, and even gave him a bouquet of flowers to bring her.

They called the announcement a Milo’s Moment. It brought back fond memories of the best part of my job as CEO of Acceleration Partners.

About 10 years ago, I’d heard a story about a CEO named John Ratliff, who ran a call center called Appletree’s Answering Service. John had read a fictional parable called The Dream Manager and decided to turn the employee wish granting program from that book into a reality.

Appletree’s set up a card box where people could make personal wishes. Each quarter, Appletree’s would set aside some money to grant a few of those wishes.

The program had immediate results; employee turnover dropped instantly, and customer turnover dropped as well, likely due to Appletree’s more engaged workforce.

Inspired by John’s story, I decided to try it out at our company. My leadership team was skeptical initially, especially since our business was very different from a call center. But after the first time we tried the wish granting program—which we called the Dream Awards—everyone saw the program’s power. It became a stable of our culture and an important tradition that we have done every year since.

Any company, department or even small team can make their own wish granting program. Here’s why—and how.

Why Start A Dream Program

While it’s nice to get a bonus, most people won’t even remember what their bonus was in a given year, and the goodwill of that cash expires within days of it being deposited. Conversely, people’s lifelong memories are often meaningful moments or personal experiences, such as having the opportunity to do something on their bucket list or achieving an important personal goal.

A wish granting program demonstrates your investment in your employees’ fulfillment outside of work. Providing a push to help employees achieve their personal goals, helping them solve a problem or even just showing that you want to help serves a dual purpose.

First, you're providing the employee with a memorable experience they'll treasure. Second, you're allowing the entire team to celebrate their colleague's joy.

To paraphrase Maya Angelou, people never forget how you make them feel. Creating opportunities to give employees fulling experiences outside of work has a tremendous halo effect.

How We Did It