A few weeks ago…last December 7 to be exact…I wrote Imagination…The Cure For Stuckness. I was thinking about how many people seem to be caught in a box they can’t break out of. They see no options but those already in use.
So I offered a few ways to expand your imagination and break free of the blinders.
Since then I’ve been thinking quite a bit about imagination…and its use and value in the creative thinking that makes managers and executives into leaders. I realized that my original post stopped in the middle of the story. I led you right up into your imagination and ways to unleash it…and left you wandering around up there imagining away.
Certainly one use of imagination is where I started back then, the internal and individual process of creativity…of coming up with new ideas for solving problems. But I’ve been thinking about a much more important use of imagination, a collective use, a use that guides whole organizations to new heights of success.
For a leader should use imagination to build a picture in the minds of all around…a picture of the future that together they can achieve. A picture of the path they will travel and the story of how they will walk it. A guiding story that all can passionate believe in and act to achieve.
It requires an unending repeating and building as the continuous retelling and imagining creates reality out of the picture as all walk the path.
All too often managers and executives are stuck in the weeds and unable to visualize the heights. Your growth into leader begins as you learn to open your imagination and use it to build the story and create the image that all can believe in.
So, for just a moment, imagine that you walk in the door of your company and everyone there is crystal clear, aligned, and passionate about your story and the path before them…
