REIMAGINING THE FUTURE
Our ability to shape our future is only limited by our imagination and our ability to work together.
If you’re a leader in the midst of crisis management, don’t even read this section. It will only irritate and frustrate. But when there is less pain and distress, it may awaken possibilities and options.
At a systemic level there are changes that are proving healthier for the planet: allowing us to discover what is essential; reshaping the political and economic landscape; shifting social cohesion; sowing the seeds of significantly different ways of working. The changes are awakening imagination to what can be, because we are acting into a future that previously didn’t seem possible that is now already happening.
As space eventually emerges from the frenetic doing, there will be a call to consider what the options are for our future. Such future thinking can be limited by a poverty of imagination, a reluctance to learn or an inability to turn away from the addiction of busyness.
Without unlocking what could be, there will be a risk of the pretence of getting back to how things used to be, as if that were possible. There are processes that can help individuals, groups and organisations to make meaning of what is emerging and of what can be created together: to unlock future focussed creativity; to co-produce workable actions to make medium and long term change.
Our imagination is only limited by how safe we feel to go further than before
What we are facing is chillingly close to what has been acknowledged as a possibility for decades, just without the ability to be physically close. Meaningful action, greater connectivity and the ability for the person and the system to learn will be key to a resilient and more compassionate world.
What can help?
Allow the whole system to learn and innovate -utilise emerging methods to work with complexity through relationship.
Use collective intelligence - establish inquiry cycles to address and resolve questions that don’t have ready-made answers.
Be prepared to be wrong – and be open to new opportunities and atypical partnerships.
Collaborate for innovation – participate in innovation cohorts, locally and globally.
Make space to gather emerging trends and principles -learn whilst doing and apply co-discover methodologies, such as collaborative inquiry and facilitated futuring sessions, engaging single and multi-sectors.
Find a critical friend – a ‘possibility catalyst’, a ‘what if’ approach - explore the art of the possible.
Bring more of your whole self – your imagination, your creativity, your sense of humour, all you value and what you’ve learnt