How Expert Problem-Solvers Tap Their Imaginations in New Ways

A conversation with Rita J. King for Inc.com

Imagination is a problem-solving technique that we can all use to benefit our businesses.

You might think of imagination as something children do to pass the time until the grind of adulthood sets in, but they’re actually practicing a problem-solving technique that we can all use to benefit our businesses.

Years ago, when I first started working with leadership teams around the world, I realized that many of them have the same problem: Industrial Era thinking. In the Industrial Era, things are tangible and heavy. Things we can touch make sense to our brains. In the Industrial Era, the work day had a clear start and end. Now we are headed into the Intelligence Era, in which things like algorithms, data and optimization are very nebulous and hard to understand. On top of that, the work day blurs into our personal lives. The best way to navigate this problem, which is only going to get more complex, is by use of what I call “applied imagination.”

Read the interview with Brian at Inc.com.