Fuelling Innovation at Work
Are you a business leader wondering how to get your team or your organisation to think outside the box for an innovative edge? You’ve tried sharing market reports, attending industry meet ups and experts events, but something just doesn't seem to work.
It’s time you shift from only focusing on external methods of instilling innovative thinking to internal psychological aspects of your team that drive creativity and exploration. It’s time you focused on the one form of thinking that is our internal epicentre of invention - IMAGINATION.
Follow this newsletter as we enter a new blog series Reclaim the Power of Imagination that could redefine your leadership and innovation at work as I take you through a series of articles that aim at reintroducing and unleashing the power of imagination to drive business and personal success. Let’s go!
Do we really need to Reclaim our Imagination at work?
It is a no-brainer that thinking outside the box and driving innovation is a prerequisite for the organisations of today. Being able to uncover a landscape of potential uncharted business territory or opportunities to explore, are no longer reserved to the board rooms. It needs to exist in every cubicle, every watercooler conversation and possibly every nook of the workplace..
Each team member is expected to come into the workplace with some variety of a magic seed that when sown would reap an innovative edge for their organisations. But while these seeds are expected to be innovative starter-kits, one is more often than not expected to leave their imagination driven “magic” element at the doorstep. There is something about the term (which we will also delve into later) that makes it seem frivolous and dreamy. It is not something that looks like an armour of pride. While it feels like it has lost its standing in a professional setting, let me ask you this - what is innovation without it first being a part of someone’s imagination?
Imagination as a psychological construct has long tarnished its standing as being useful only to either the creative elites, or at the playpen for kids. As we grow in our professional journeys to become the business leaders of tomorrow, we proudly adorn the coat of innovation and shrug away our cloaks of imagination. Ironically, we live in a world where the problems that businesses and consumers face seem like something out of a figment of our past imagination. Who even imagined that we would want our groceries delivered in less than 5 mins? Or that we would have a robot to clean our houses, or an AI that would tell us what our music tastes say about us? So don't we need to light up our imaginations to find innovative and creative business solutions to these newly developed consumer needs in addition to being able to forecast the future possibilities of technological innovation?
If you are someone who believes that imagination is only useful for the creation of a poetry or a painting, let me get one thing straight - Psychological theory and research has many a times proven that all kinds of innovation comes from one’s ability to imagine future events before they even come into being. Be it artistic, scientific or business innovation. So why shy away from embracing and exercising your imaginative thinking skills? Why not attempt to Reclaim the Power of Imagination at your workplace?
Experiment with the Future through Data and Imagination
Let's back up a little to understand what imagination means and how it aids our thinking. Human activity is either the result of reproduction of actions that are guided by past experiences or the combinatorial activity of creation of new images or actions that didn't exist before. Many versions of this explanation can be found in Psychology and behavioural sciences, like Gestalt theory, Piaget’s psychosocial development etc. LS Vygotsky, a Russian literary critic and teacher who turned to Psychology in his later life and resulted in becoming one of the most influential Psychologist of his time, was one of the first theorists to suggest that the combinatorial and creative ways of thinking was guided by one’s Creative Imagination. He suggested that “imagination was the basis of all creative activity” that equips humans to orient “toward(s) thinking about the future, creating the future and thus altering (one ‘s) own present” (Vygotsky, 2004). In other words, in the absence of imaginative thinking all kinds of creativity and innovation lacks its secret sauce, the catalytic element that makes future oriented connections and combinations possible (McMullen and Kier, 2017). Simply put, it is not just a construct that is present in our daydreams but also the starting point of any idea about future events or in other words, innovation.
So how does it contribute to your business?
While there are many tools to predict the future for you, there is no tool that could give you the rich future insights of your own imagination. While data can predict and analyse some parts of the future, the ability to play around with a picture that the data has thrown out to you, is left to your future-oriented thinking. Visualising the future which is beyond data analysis and making up a business growth story that sets your organisation apart, lies in the future oriented hypotheses made by you and your team. What helps you with that? That's right. Your imagination.
Creative problem solving techniques combined with the analytical information from datasets is something that could set your team apart from their peers. Engaging with various hypotheses that are driven by the collective imagination of your team would help them think beyond some roadblocks or boundaries that you may otherwise not be able to overcome. Collectively engaging in imaginative activities that result in a shared economy of creative ideas and business solutions, may just be what your team needs to be able to think outside the box!
So what type of a leader do you want to be? Imagine for a minute. One that looks only at the one sided picture drawn by data or the one who looks at data as the jumping point of setting a stage for your team to collaborate and engage with each other’s version of imagination to build creative and innovative business solutions. The answer to our future with AI driven data sets is not about seeing who is better at what, it is about how we can combine and collaborate the data driven solutions and the human imagination inorder to drive innovation.
Think about it. When everybody is busy thinking outside of the same box, why don't you imagine above and beyond the existence of the box?
I’ll leave you to ponder about this, until I see you in the next article of my Reclaim the Power of Imagination series.
Follow me as I take you through this series that will compel and urge you to engage with your imagination for business innovation as well as on a personal and professional journey of successful leadership.
Are you feeling disconnected from your inner self? Do you miss the curious and imaginative younger version of yourself who was always ready to take on new challenges? It's time to reconnect with that part of yourself and unlock your infinite potential!
Join my Mindful Visualisation with Art session, where you can reflect and map your path towards growth through the transformative power of art and imagination. This one-on-one session is designed to assist you in slowing down your mind and connecting with your inner self. All it takes is a little time, commitment, and a willingness to not judge yourself for the outcome.Don't let your inner calling go unheard any longer. Share your details in this form to get in touch with me for a 15-minute introductory call for details.https://lnkd.in/gHSW3SiW
