Creating a Dream Culture with Suter Company’s Chris DeVlieger

CHRIS DEVLIEGER [: 00:00:01

We love the people that work for us. They take care of our customers, and so why wouldn't we want to hear about their dreams and help them personally and professionally to be the best versions of themselves?

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:00:15

lemented the Dream Manager in: 2017

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:00:48

Before we dig into Dream Manager and all of the incredible things that you've done over the past five years with that program.

I would love to hear your idea of culture. Like, what does culture mean to you and why is it so important?

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:01:45

That's a great topic. I feel culture is so important in today's world because people want to feel valued and they want to be engaged. And there's such an energy when you go to work and people don't dread coming to work.

Right. I mean, you spend a lot of time at work. It should be fun. I call this my work family because it's just like, I'm working with my family and friends, and we're working for a common cause to enrich lives for generations to come. And so that's what's at the heart of it for me.

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:02:22

Yeah, it's that feeling, right? Like, when you know that your team goes home and they feel good about the work that they're doing and they are speaking well of their team members and their work. That's the best. It's the best because we do spend a lot of time at work and with these people. So obviously you are very intentional about creating a great culture. You've been in the HR space for, oh, my gosh, three decades. It's a long time, Chris. It's a long time. I don't feel like it's been that long, but that's what the calendar says. Hey, time flies. Time flies.

It's been fun. Well, you get to work with people and you get to implement a lot of really incredible programming. And one of the things that you've done that has made a really big impact on your organization is the Dream Manager. So talk a little bit about how you discovered Dream Manager and why you felt that it was the perfect program for you and the Suter Company

CHRIS DEVLIEGER [: 00:03:29

Well, as I always say, it starts with the book. And if you haven't read The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly, I just hand them out. I have, like a couple dozen and by shelves, and when people stop by and visit me either at work or home, I hand it out like candy.

KATE VOLMAN

It's just like Oprah. You get a book and you get a book. Everyone gets a book.

CHRIS DEVLIEGER [: 00:03:49

an you believe Kate, November: 2017

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:05:00

Oh, my gosh. I know. It's so crazy, and it's been so fun to watch because you really took the program and you ran with it and you trusted the process. You did the dreamstorm and people signed up and you got the program rolling. And what's so cool is that you've had more than yourself get certified. So you have multiple Dream managers. You have two full time Dream managers right now, which is so amazing.

And how many Dreamers do you have going through with the program?

CHRIS DEVLIEGER [: 00:05:27

Currently, we have about 80 or 81 Dreamers right now that are full time, and then we've had 93 complete the program. So, yeah, if we've impacted almost 200 lives through the Dream Manager program, I didn't think about it until today when we were going to meet, and then I got thinking, I'm like, it's my fifth year anniversary with the Dream Manager program. And so you start to think about all the lives you've touched. You can't even find words to express how cool it is

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:05:57

Because you're talking to people about their dreams. It's so awesome. So for leaders that are listening that are thinking because we get some leaders sometimes that are like, oh, dreams, that's so woo woo. Like pink, fluffy little things, right? So why does this work Why does this make sense that you are helping your team with their dreams? Like, what have you seen firsthand using this?

CHRIS DEVLIEGER

Sure. I think one of my favorite stories to share with leaders is we have an employee who came in one day. I was still new in the dream manager role, maybe a couple of months, and she was a dreamer.

And she came in and she was crying. And she says, Chris, I want you to be the first to know I'm going to resign from the Suter company. And so I sat and listened to her for a while, and he said, well, guess what? It's your lucky day because I'm not accepting resignations today. We're going to work through this.

The problem was that she didn't have daycare. She had lost her daycare. And so I said, why don't we take it personally for a week? I'll put all my resources into play. I'll find some daycare providers for you.

I'll reach out to my connections. You go check them out, like, go interview them like a real mom. Go get them. And I said, and then hopefully you find somebody who you feel so comfortable with your kids and then you can come back. Well, she took the five names that I had given her, and luckily, I think she interviewed a several of them, but she found one that hit home, and within three days, she came back.

She goes, I'm done. I got my babysitter. Can I come back? I'm like, well, yeah, you never left. Now, flash forward to a year later.

She was going to resign. And if she didn't have somebody like a dream manager or a caring employer, she wouldn't be with us. And since that time, she has paid off debt, she has cash flowed her family, she's bought a new home, and she's gotten a promotion.

Talk about turnover today. And it's not about the turnover. It's just about doing the right thing for people, right? And just being there to give them that helping hand so that they can pursue their dreams both personally and professionally. And that's one of my favorite stories because I think almost everybody can relate to it.

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:08:23

Yeah, I love that story. I love it so much. It's the concept from the book, right? You have to ask your people what's going on? What's going on with you giving them that space to be open and honest with what's happening in their lives. And it's empowering them to change their life. Right. We talk about how dreaming helps us believe that the future is bigger than our past, right? And that's what you did. That's a gift. That is a gift that you give to your people. And now they're showing up at work differently. They're showing up in life differently. I mean, what a gift to be able to do that for the people on your team and to not lose great people. How many organizations are losing people simply because they don't feel like they have someone like Chris that they can talk to about what's really happening and believe that their leader has their back, that their leader is going to say something like, hey, let me help you figure this out so it can be a win win situation.

CHRIS DEVLIEGER [: 00:09:20

Exactly. There's just two situations in the last 24 hours for me where we had of an employee who had three small safety, little minor incidents, right? And so traditional thinking was like, oh, we got a discipline. But I was like, wait a second, why would this person have three incidents in one week? Is something wrong? Can you follow up? Or do you want me to follow up and ask them, hey, is something going on personally or professionally? It's just that care that we give to make sure, okay, maybe we do have to address those minor incidents, but let's make sure that everything else is okay with that person. And so that's what we're doing right now. And then another situation where a person was struggling with their attendance, and lo and behold, we found out they lost their apartment. And so they didn't have a good solid home and a place to go home at night. And so I just got a text earlier today that they found an apartment. And just a week or two ago, I helped them search on the Internet for apartment. So I'm so happy that this person now has got a home and their attendance is better. And so those are sometimes things we just don't think of or take for granted. And now with the Dream Manager program, we have the time to invest and show them that here's some resources we care.

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:10:56

Yeah. Oh, treat people like people, right? Exactly. It's so simple.

It's so simple. I love that Matthew shares that he almost didn't write the Dream Manager because he thought this is such a simple message, like how I shouldn't have to write this for people to actually be on board with this kind of a message. But it resonates with so many people. We get it because Dreams connects all of us. I just love the empowerment component of it. Right. It's not about the leader figuring things out for their team. It's about empowering them to find the answers. And it's crazy to me how many people just need some encouragement. They need someone to encourage them and let them know, hey, you're doing a good job. I'm here for you. So many people don't even have that in their lives, right.

CHRIS DEVLIEGER

A cheerleader, right? Just somebody cheering for you like, you got this, you can do it.

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:11:49

Talk a little bit. It's been five years. Talk a little bit about how the Suter company was before. Look, you have a great culture. You've always made culture a priority. It's really why you've been so successful and you're continuing to grow and scale the business. But talk a little bit about kind of pre Dream Manager and post Dream Manager. What are some of the things that you've seen, the kind of the biggest impacts of the program?

CHRIS DEVLIEGER

I think some of the big things are just the energy that people get from I call them small wins leading up to the Dream and then the dream itself. So that energy is just so positive that you can see it spread slowly through the plant. Sometimes I've walked through the plant once or twice, and one time this was an incredible month for me, but I had three dreamers. Each of them had bought their first home, and they were all happy, and we celebrated it with the team. And so I was walking through the plant, and they're like, Chris? I'm like, yeah. And they were whispering to me, and I was like, I heard you could help me get a house. Like the house whisper.

But do you see how they weren't even in the same team? So this is another team that the word had spread, like, hey, this Dream Manager, it works if you just spend time working on your dreams, and then once they have a few small wins in a dream or two, that happiness just naturally floats. So that's what I've observed just personally. And with several of the team members, it's just the energy and the positivity.

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:13:35

Oh, my gosh, that's huge. Right? That is huge. Energy and positivity and loyalty. How loyal are your team members when they know that you are there to support them truly, that they're not just some employee, they're not just a number that they really feel valued and heard and appreciated?

CHRIS DEVLIEGER

It's the greatest feeling in the world, right?

[: 00:13:57

I mean, just when people share life hiccups or hard times as well as their good times, and just to walk that moment of life with them, I can't even put into words how that feels.

KATE VOLMAN

I know. It's so good. It's so good. I get goosebumps when I get to talk about this and hear the impact that it has on people.

[: 00:14:21

A big question that we get asked from a lot of leaders is, how are you measuring the ROI?

CHRIS DEVLIEGER

Sure. So what we created, I created was a Dream dashboard. So every month, I report the dreams achieved as well as the Dream category. So we're using Matthew Kelly's physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual.

[: 00:14:44

I added the fifth financial. When people come to Dream, where I talk about dream categories, then we measure the small wins like that. I measure the retention rate of dreamers versus non dreamers. And so the retention rate currently of employees in the Dream Manager program is 95%. So that's 15% higher than non dreamers.

[: 00:15:08

And so that's kind of a cool return on the best.

[: 00:15:14

And then we also call it. There's also another quadrant I do. Is the dreamer engagement scorecard? And so we measure how engaged they are and are they ready? Did they come to their sessions on time?

[: 00:15:31

Have they read or done homework? Not that there's a lot of homework in the Dream Manager program, but just how engaged they are at work. So we rate that, too. We have a little dreamer engagement. Scorecard, we call it.

[: 00:15:43

So those are the five things that we measure on a monthly basis.

KATE VOLMAN

I love it. And it's so fun when you send that over to me because there's just so many more dreams that are being achieved every month. And I love that you shared that. It's about energy. Think about if everybody came to work with just a little more energy, like about their life, about the work that they get to do. Even that right there, that is such a return. Because when people are coming to work happier, more engaged, obviously they're doing better work.

CHRIS DEVLIEGER [: 00:16:18

So sometimes from the Dream Manager program, we've had other now employee benefits. Like, we offer Financial Peace University to employees here at the Suter Company. We offer citizenship classes at the Suter Company because we'll hear about people's dreams and they're like, gosh, if only I knew about this. Well, now we have a first time home buyer's class. There's some wellness benefits that we've done because of the Dream Manager program. So from that, there's this cascading effect of other caring benefits that just trickle out of it.

KATE VOLMAN

Yeah, you learn a lot.

[: 00:16:56

You learn a lot about it when you're talking to them about their dreams. I love it. Okay. What advice would you share with a leader that is looking to incorporate Dream Manager and really just making culture more of a priority over the next year?

CHRIS DEVLIEGER

Well, first I would hand out that Dream Manager book like candy to them, right?

[: 00:17:21

That's right. And then I think it's so simple as just starting with your team, right, and just sharing the book and the story and gathering dreams. It doesn't have to be this huge kick off right off the bat. It could start small and grow. So, yeah, it's pretty simple.

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:17:39

I love that you said simple. It is. We keep it simple. In a world where everything is so complex, we really tried to keep it simple, especially Matthew. It's very much a value of his simplicity.

CHRIS DEVLIEGER [: 00:17:53

Simply simplicity.

Well, and going through the certification and the program, that program is just really easy and simple. And every month is a different topic. So it's really fun and engaging to meet with Dreamers and talk about something different while working on their dreams so they have that energy and enthusiasm to dream.

KATE VOLMAN

Yeah, there's even a whole session on time and energy.

[: 00:18:18

Correct. We get physical, emotional, intellectual, spirit. We get all the different areas of life covered while they're working on achieving their dreams. Chris you're the best. It's so much fun to watch what you're doing over there at the Suter Company.

[: 00:18:35

I'm so excited to continue to just see the progress that you're making, all of the incredible things that you're doing for your people. You're continuing to grow and obviously both personally and professionally. And it's such a pleasure to see. And so I'm so glad that we get to be friends.

CHRIS DEVLIEGER

It's going to be fun to dream for the next five years, right, and continue growing the dream team here at the Suter Company, as well as what's next?

[: 00:19:03

How can we best care for our employees?

KATE VOLMAN

That's right. And what is next for the Suter Company? What is your dream for Suter over the next three to five years?

CHRIS DEVLIEGER

It would really be to hire more dream managers and really have an employee ministry care team to serve our employees.

KATE VOLMAN [: 00:19:24

Love it. Well, you're awesome. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me today. I so appreciate it. Thanks, Kate.

[: 00:19:32

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Chris. It is so inspiring to hear from leaders who care so much about their team, and they understand the importance of creating great cultures, so people love coming to work. Like Chris said, we spend so much time with the people that we work with. It's important for us as leaders to create that environment where we feel like we're growing, we feel like we're thriving, we feel like we're building something together. If you're interested in learning more about the Dream Manager, I definitely recommend picking up a copy of the book the Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly.

[: 00:20:05

And to learn more about becoming a certified Dream Manager, you can go to the dreammanager.com. Go ask your team members to share at least one of their dreams with you. Thank you again for listening. And until next time, Lead with Culture.