Coaching the Imagination

“If you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.” ―Alice Walker

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will.” - George Bernard Shaw

Another excellent group genius practice session last night, with memorable contributions from all participants. The possibility of doing a dialogue on the art of dialogue was mentioned. It would take our city to a new altitude if these dialogues could begin to blossom all over Calgary, and I hope each of you will consider starting one of your own whenever you are ready. Calgary has already made innovative contributions to the art of dialogue, for example with the stretching sessions that Brian does for us each week. Those sessions can have an invigorating effect on the art of dialogue.

After the event, I saw an email from Leila asking to send her apologies to everyone and indicating that something had come up unexpectedly and that’s why she couldn’t make it; she plans to be back with us next week.

The power of a person's imagination largely determines the possibilities of that person's life. In other words, imagination creates reality. Is that important? I think so, and I think we should have one or more dialogues about imagination sometime soon. In the meantime, I’ll just ask a good question about it as my contribution for next Wednesday: If you were an imagination coach and you wanted to do an introductory session on how to empower imagination among members of your team (your audience for this introductory session), how would you structure that introductory session? I assume you will want the audience to come away feeling much more imaginative, but the question is about the details of how you would accomplish that. Your introductory session might be about imagination in general, or about imagination in some area of endeavor that you are especially interested in.

For example, if you decide to structure the session around something you are especially interested in, you might use material from our most recent dialogue sessions. In the past two weeks you have contributed ideas about 1) what makes your day rewarding and 2) what legacy you would like to leave as a gift to the world. So you could focus your introductory imagination coaching session on how to use the imagination to actualize a rewarding day, a rewarding life, or a gift to the world. Alternatively you could focus on something like using the imagination for writing short stories or for interacting with someone you are meeting for the first time or whatever interests you. It's your introductory session as an imagination coach, so you'll do it your way.

I'm very much looking forward to hearing your preliminary thoughts on empowering the imagination when we meet next Wednesday.

Arthur