The Case For ‘Guided Imagination’
Last week I had the pleasure of being invited to a virtual Futurist Writers’ Room with The Guild Of Future Architects to collaborate, explore and reimagine the world both 90 years in the past, and 90 years in the future.
The aim was to test the collaborative tools of play and ‘rapidly prototype a multitude of ideas about what we can become post-pandemic, as a global society’. They achieved this goal with finesse and wonder, however my biggest takeaway was not the output; our speculative new world order. No, it was the process; the expansive and exponential power of guided imagination.
If you’ve heard the term guided meditation before, you’ll know that this practise involves a trusted teacher or authority guiding you through how to best explore and exercise the intricacies of your mind in order to achieve calm and clarity. I’d like to propose a reflection here… that similar structured guidance can be profoundly beneficial for exercising our imagination.
“In such times of constraint and isolation, inspiration is in short supply. In contrast the demand for inspiration is at an all time high (for both our general well-being and our productivity).” — The Edge Atlas Issue 1
Whilst, at the moment, the majority of our inspiration can’t come to us via the surprising and serendipitous interruptions to our day that result from our exposure to people and planet — perhaps we can look to a new way of keeping creatively fit? One that sees us seek support and guidance from those individuals and groups that encourage us to explore the edges of our own minds. With no goal in mind other than to inspire and motivate.
But there’s a flaw in this plan…
On an individual level, this all sounds grand. Putting time aside to bathe in all that inspirational energy seems a no brainer, no matter your craft.
In professional settings however, this proves a problem. Businesses love goals and outputs. They love efficient and effective systems. By default, my experience with the Guild would likely have been written off as a waste of time by many organisations as it produced no outputs that could directly and effectively impact the world around us now.
I’d like to argue we’re looking at this all wrong.
Take a moment to consider recreation. Recreation or ‘play-time’ is a key part of children’s school experience. It allows a break from learning and space to exercise (both mentally, physically and socially) and is an important part of our formative years. One definition in Merriam-Webster defines it as “a refreshment or diversion”, normally associated with a time outside work.
However in professional environments ‘play’ is seen as a luxury, damaging even. It quite literally diverts an employee’s attention from the task at hand.
So what about refreshment?
I believe us adults have forgotten what it is to enjoy the refreshing benefits of recreation. We can’t unlock the true power of our imaginations if we’ve forgotten what it’s like to use them in spaces outside our ‘jobs-to-be-done’. And it’s often outside these jobs, at the edges, where our inspiration is most profound.
Creativity vs Imagination — The Issue Of Investment
Creativity: the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness.
So often businesses focus on hiring and developing for creativity; for inventiveness and innovation. Of course, this makes sense for their immediate needs — to produce what they sell. However, what is often over looked is that without imagination this process falls flat.
Yes they may have invested in the highest tech tools to create… but have they invested in developing their employees ability to imagine all the possibilities that these tools provide?
If businesses want their employees to be effective in their roles and contribute to the sustainable future of the organisation, I believe a ‘guided imagination’ approach should be developed - that recreational time and space should be allocated to develop the collective imagination of an organisation.
Knowing one size does not fit all (and that this allocated time needs to provide tangible value for the business itself) I believe there is space for a new breed of expert or teacher to be coined; one that designs experiences that allow individuals to explore the edges of their imaginations for themselves as well as for benefit the businesses that hire them. They are not mutually exclusive.
More importantly, I believe that time needs to be reframed as merely something we can waste, but something we can learn from.
Editor’s note:
I’m really so curious to talk to anyone that this concept resonates with. I’ve witnessed first hand the benefits this approach brings and I am very interested to talk to those that might be experiencing challenges in team motivation / productivity / creativity at the moment. Please do get in touch here if you’d be interested in exploring with me.
