What Do Work Nightmares Tell Us?

Since today is  Halloween, I couldn’t resist taking a look at nightmares.  Work nightmares in particular.  These night terrors fall into two categories for me, waking horrors, things that happen at work that embarrass or freak you out, such as calling your boss by your spouse’s name during a meeting, (I won’t touch the Freudian implications of that one). Then there are the nightmares where you suddenly realize that you have to give a presentation in 15 minutes on a topic you know nothing about.  In this post, I’ll explore the sleeping nightmares and what they are trying to tell us.

Our dreams are messages that we send to ourselves. They tell us what we really think about a person, issue or activity. They are also one of the ways our subconscious tries to solve problems that have been presented to us during the waking hours.  Our dreams, even the awkward ones, give us some insight into our own minds.  

I once had a dream in which I was in a huge auditorium with thousands of people. My boss was standing on stage with a microphone when he announced that I would be leading the next part of the presentation. Presenting didn’t faze me, nor did being called upon to do the work unexpectedly, the nightmarish bit was that I had no microphone, no slides and no way of being seen or heard. I couldn’t get to the stage and I couldn’t get my boss’ attention to tell him. When I recalled the dream the following morning, it made me laugh…at myself.  I’d been worried about my budget and the tools I had for my job. My concern was that I would not be able to deliver on objectives because I didn’t have the right resources.  I thought I had resigned myself to working with what I had, but apparently, my subconscious had other ideas and wanted to demonstrate the outcome of working without the right tools.

Looking at your dreams is an opportunity to get to know yourself better, but you can’t be too literal. Just because work shows up in a dream, doesn’t mean the dream is about work.  We spend so much time at work that it makes it easy for our minds to call on those elements to send us messages. The opposite is also true. You could have elements of your personal life in a dream that’s really about work.

If you dream about sharpening a million pencils it doesn’t necessarily mean you are worried about dull pencils. You could be frustrated about menial work you have been doing or a repetitive task. The point is, dreams and their interpretation is a very personal thing.  The same item appearing in the dreams of two people can have dramatically different meanings for the dreamers. What we see, feel and hear in our dreams is all about us. Remember, everyone in your dream is you.

There is also some research that suggests that the flow of a dream is a reflection of your subconsciousness trying to make sense of the random images flowing through. Have you ever woken up to the sound of a radio?  If there is a news broadcast playing, then elements of the news can filter into your sub-conscience before you are fully awake and create interesting and random dreams.  This is true for any external stimuli that might leak into your dream.

Interpreting Your Dreams

What’s important to note is that if you have repetitive, stressful or particularly vivid dreams that feel associated with work, you could be sending yourself an important message. Your challenge is to interpret what that message means for you.

One of the simplest ways of analysing your dreams is to start with what is happening around you. Your waking life will be full of clues about what’s causing the dreams, its generally something that has happened in the immediate past, the last day or week.  Our subconscious doesn’t usually store things for later review. Something in your immediate world has to act as a trigger.

The biggest indicator of what a dream means for you is how you feel in the dream. Although scary things may be happening all around you, if the dominant emotion you are feeling is NOT fear, then the dream’s intent isn’t to frighten, believe me, your subconscious knows what buttons to push to frighten you. If you’d like a little help interpreting dreams, check out Susan P. Cooper and Cheryl Therrien’s, “Dream Catchers“.

Have you ever had a nightmare about work?  Ever come to a realization or a solution based on a dream? What do you do to get rid of scary dreams?

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9 Ways Social Media Does Good

We regularly hear about the destructive power of social media. There’s no doubt that it can create a variety of problems, but social media also has a positive side.

  1. Continuous Improvement Process: One of the most interesting aspects of social media is that it behaves like a continuous improvement process.  The algorithms of social media are always assessing and adjusting, which means that as participants we must continuously adapt. Whether it’s changing the interfaces we use to access our favourite sites or changes that make businesses rethink their approach social media keeps us on our toes.
  2. Brainstorming: Looking for a solution to a problem? Try engaging online. Social media is one of the few places where brainstorming actually produces a number of innovative ideas. In addition to the many useful blogs on an array of issues, there are also many brainstorming apps.
  3. Measuring Progress: Social media comes with an array of metrics. Even in its most passive form, it tells us who we are connected to and with whom we have interacted. For business, it produces metrics that can measure performance and it never stops changing those measurements in a continuous effort to better measure.
  4. Free Advice: Not sure what to do next? While everything you find on social media isn’t necessarily helpful or accurate, there is a lot of good and useful information. There are also lots of people who are happy to share their experience and advice at no cost. LinkedIn’s professional groups are a great resource when you are looking for advice or suggestions and the same can be said for Facebook social groups.
  5. Tribes: Social media allows people with similar interests and values to meet and exchange ideas. No matter how unusual your preferences, you can generally find someone online who shares them. For some people, their online friendships are often the only ones in their lives that are supportive, creating a necessary lifeline.
  6. An Equal Playing Field: Social media allows individuals to have a voice as powerful as large corporations or governments. This has gone a long way towards improving customer service and making large and small organizations more responsive. While it may not always work for everyone, it has gone a long way towards building powerful platforms for the little guy.
  7. Better Informed: While mainstream news on traditional platforms like print, radio and television are good at sharing those things the majority of people are interested in, it can ignore critical information for minority communities. Social media allows alternative voices to be heard. It also allows us to focus in on those news stories we care about the most.
  8. Social Awareness: Social media is amazing for gathering and coordinating support in times of need or crisis, like during natural disasters. It is often the first place people go to find out how loved ones caught in disasters are doing.
  9. Keeps Us Safe: Social media is a great tool for focussing attention on organizations or individuals doing harm. Social media was used to bring attention to and undermine the power structure of Joseph Kony. Social media can also help authorities to track and find criminals, such as the Boston Marathon bombers who were identified through posted images from the day of the bombing.

Related Articles:

5 Lessons on Advocating with Social Media

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What was the message?

Imagine planning a message for two months and then forgetting to deliver it.  Sound impossible?The following story really happened.

The real estate group had been planning their presentation to the Minister of Industry for about two months.  They had prepared slides and organized who would speak first and who would address the series of itemized issues.  The Minister was next to impossible to book and so this meeting was considered quite a coup within the organization. The presentation went like clockwork.  The Minister and his staff had sat with rapt attention through the slides. The assistant had made occasional notes and the Minister had asked questions.  It was, therefore, something of a shock to the group when the Minister at the close of the meeting turned to his assistant while the group was packing up and quietly said, “Why did they want to meet?”

It was no less surprising when the assistant shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know; I assumed they wanted to address the pending legislation but they never mentioned it.”

Since the real estate group was under the impression that everything they said was related to the legislation, though they never actually made the link, they were somewhat dismayed.

Tips

  • Assume nothing before a meeting. Always clearly state why you are meeting and what you would like from the meeting.
  • Decide on a facilitator, someone who will lead the meeting and keep things on track.
  • Be clear on what you specifically would like the person you are meeting with to do next.
  • Make sure that you are always linking your information back to your objectives.
  • Avoid jargon, it is difficult to follow and may disengage or confuse listeners.
  • Ask if there are any questions before you conclude the meeting.
  • Follow up in writing restating your request and the highlights of your message.

Although the story relates to a failed government relations venture the same lessons can be learned by anyone trying to communicate. Essentially don’t get so preoccupied with how your message is going to be delivered that you don’t spend enough time ensuring that your audience actually gets the message. Imagine taking out a full page ad in a paper your audience doesn’t read or posting an important family message on Facebook and assuming all your relatives will read it.

 

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