2009 was a hard year. Many of the companies I worked with had to take headcount cuts, slow growth, focus on surviving “until times got better”. So now we see the initial signs that things are improving…but I don’t seem to see the flare of new energy and enthusiasm. Why?

One of my clients put his finger on it when he asked his management team the question “are we playing to win, or are we just playing not to lose”. I’m afraid many of us are still playing not to lose. The downturn hit us all so hard, and we felt so powerless to impact our own environment that we all went into survival mode, minimizing risks, focusing on the “tried and true”, stifling any creative ideas we had.

And now it is as if we have all petrified into that way of working. I attend management team meetings, even of companies who are doing relatively well, and I don’t see the energy and optimism and excitement I was used to. I talk to people about the huge opportunities I see for them and they are excited for a minute…and then begin to tell me why those ideas are too risky for them to pursue right now. Even the venture capitalists I work with still seem inclined to “minimize the risk”, continuing to counsel their teams to take it slow, survive on inside money, wait until we are sure things are getting better.

Maybe it’s time we remember how to dream. Companies get started because someone has a crazy idea and decides to “go for it”, and then gets other people excited enough to go along for the ride. If you talk to those people, they aren’t worried about failure, about “not losing” — they just want to know they took a shot!

Those dreams didn’t die…they just went into the freezer for awhile. It is up to courageous leaders — CEO’s, Board members, or just an employee with guts — to help people remember the dream. Tell the stories, highlight the progress, re-visit the victories…help people remember why you started this company in the first place! Perhaps the dream will be stronger for the learning, the mistakes, the frustrations, the time of doubt.

And perhaps once we have re-energized the dream, we can chart a path that takes advantage of all the hard lessons we have learned. Perhaps we can use wiser eyes to assess whether we have all the skills and have developed the ways of working that will help us chart the best path for our journey. There is something about fear that makes us reluctant to take a hard look at what it will take to be successful — perhaps with re-energized optimism (or perhaps the help of a “fresh set of eyes” from an outsider) you will be able to more accurately assess what challenges remain, and what strategies you can employ to meet them.

And then maybe with the dream restored, the faith recaptured, and a wiser path charted, maybe then we can get back to “playing to win”.