Imagination is a mighty tool for change. It is a vision that starts from a seed of thought and grows into a tree of action.
John Paul Lederach, a brilliant conflict transformation scholar described the “moral imagination” as the capacity to recognize possibilities by imagining what does not yet exist. One cannot make peace happen without first imagining it. A citizen of a country that is at war with another country must first imagine peace. If not between herself and her enemy then between her great grandchild and her enemy’s great grandchild.
So in other words nothing can be successfully accomplished without vision.
And vision comes from imagination.
Imagination requires the capacity to imagine ourselves on the other side of change.
Imagination demands a willingness to embrace complexity.
Imagination wants a commitment to creative acts
And imagination involves an acceptance of risk.
But, I asked myself:
How do I inspire an imaginative process that does not overwhelm people?
How do we access our imagination in manageable bites so we actually get from zero to action?
And then I saw The Tree.
It was right outside my window. It used to be a very small shrub, it’s grown into something beautiful and useful, a home for birds, a source of oxygen, a shade for hot sun, a shelter for squirrels.
We begin change with a small seed of an imagined outcome. We plant the seed and it sprouts roots of creative visioning. As it grows it becomes stronger and clearer- we begin to see what kind of a tree this will become.
The roots mature and extend into a trunk of brainstorming, allowing the idea to increase and swell. With care and attention, the branches of planning reach up from the truck and leaves of action bud and flourish until the winning birds who are nesting in the tree take and victorious flight. I began to use this tree as a metaphor for change that I was able to translate to my students and coaches. Here are some examples of imagination at work in the coaching process.
I encouraged people to IMAGINE first and ACT second. Find the seed, plant it and then do the work of tending to its growth.
Ranelle was having a terrible time with her boss who she felt treated her badly: interrupting her constantly, speaking over her, disregarding her opinions and requests. Ranelle first imagined the communicator she wanted to be. She planted the seed. She cast one of her favorite actresses in the role of a character she called the Confident Communicator, she imagined the details of her voice and costume. She imagined stepping into that role in her next conversation with her boss and was able to stand firm while being respectful.
Issa wanted to bring free radio to his tribal villages in Cameroon. He wanted the residents to hear radio in their native dialects not just in the government controlled French broadcasts. He didn’t have the funding or the infrastructure or the political support, but he had the seed of an idea and he had imagination. He dreamed up the details of a radio station in the middle of a jungle in the remote Tikar Country. He named it Radio Taboo. He planted the seed and continued to imagine it, he painted it and wrote about it and talked about it until a $20,000 kickstarter campaign led to a crew building a radio tower.
Dave was stuck with a home improvement project that he couldn’t finish. He planted the seed: the imagined the outcome of a clear garage floor (where now all of the detritus of his half-finished project was strewn). He imagined how relieved he would be at project’s end. He brainstormed solutions to the parts of the project that were confounding him. Then he grew his tree and followed his imagination to the conclusion.
Lauren was terrified to leave her job as a bookkeeper and launch her arts- based business. She planted the seed: the overcoming of fear. She then imagined her fearful self and drew a picture of that self and began to have some compassion for that part. Then she imagined a brave artist and a vibrant CEO- she found photographs of an artist she admired as well as a female superhero. Slowly, with the help of these images and a vision board she imagined herself moving through the steps of her career transition. Her tree grew slowly as she imagined herself into action and then made the brave transition to her new life.
Janice was grieving the loss of her marriage and wanted to find love again, but she had been burned so many times she was stuck in a spiral of doubt and resentment. She imagined one perfect day in the future in a relationship that made her feel strong and loving and joyful. She planted the seed with that imagined feeling and slowly grew her tree of desire until she was ready to date.
The important thing to remember is that everything starts with a seed. Nothing more. One small thing: A tiny beginning of a thought, an idea, a desire for change. Then we plant it and let it grow just the way it wants to. With watering and pruning and sunlight we can encourage growth, but we cannot fully determine the final outcome. Whatever the tree becomes it will be an expression of the tiny seed we started with, it could never have become a graceful willow, a mighty oak, or a ruddy coastal pine without the seed of imagination that started it.
I am a theatre artist. I have been one all my life. Actor. Playwright. Director. When I was disillusioned with the ego driven nature of the theatre industry I became a teacher and a drama therapist. Then I joined Theatre Without Borders and a movement of international theatre practitioners using theatre in prisons, shelters, refugee camps, universities, and in conflict zones as a tool for personal and social change. Working the crossroads of art and healing I formed The H.E.A.T. Collective (HEAT is an acronym for Healing Education Activism and Theatre) This work requires courage, generosity, flexibility and creativity. Creativity is a word I use frequently, but it can be a trap –first of all it is used so much that its meaning has been stretched thin. Secondly it tends to stump people who don’t identify as artists. So I asked myself: “What is something everyone in the world has access to that does not necessitate a specific skill or a body of artistic knowledge?” The answer came in one word: Imagination.
Meditation: Imagine a seed. The very beginning of an idea. That’s all. Write it down or draw it. Then save it to be planted.
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one…
John Lennon