Wednesday June 24

“Imagination creates reality.” – Richard Wagner

“Live out of your imagination, not your history.” – Stephen R. Covey

Imagination creates reality. What you are today has been both enabled by the power of your imagination and limited by the limits of your imagination. Can you enhance the power of your imagination by working at it? That is the question.

If you have an idea for your own introductory session as an imagination coach, I hope you’ll contribute that to the dialogue tomorrow. Here is a TEDx presentation on the power of imagination

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wuBEBnCg3c

I understand that Robert will facilitate our dialogue tomorrow. Here is the link:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84032079340?pwd=ZXA0ZFhEaFRPVzc1U3dkcmd5WUZMQT09

Meeting ID: 840 3207 9340 Password: 025504

A structured list of topics is appended below, provided by Greg; as well as a song “Pure Imagination” (Gene Wilder) contributed by Leila.

Arthur

From Leila:

Pure Imagination

Gene Wilder

Ladies and gentlemen Boys and girls The chocolate room

Hold your breath Make a wish Count to three

Come with me and you'll be In a world of pure imagination Take a look and you'll see Into your imagination We'll begin with a spin Travelling in the world of my creation What we'll see will defy explanation

If you want to view paradise Simply look around and view it Anything you want to, do it Want to change the world? There's nothing to it

There is no life I know To compare with pure imagination Living there you'll be free If you truly wish to be

If you want to view paradise Simply look around and view it Anything you want to, do it Want to change the world? There's nothing to it

There is no life I know To compare with pure imagination Living there you'll be free If you truly wish to be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oMXqViemvg

From Greg:

Please no “Reply to All” emails - please feel free to forward this invitation to anyone not on the list. New end time is 8:30

Why Are We Here: To build connection. To value our diversity. To learn something new.

How Will We Connect: We believe that wisdom emerges from learning new ideas through dialogue. Our dialogue dances will be a balance of focused/structured and emergent/unstructured dialogue. In our dialogue dances we will be: (a) kind to one another; (b) open to new ideas; (c) actively listen; and (d) contribute judiciously in light of the limited time we have to connect being mindful to sharing what we think or feel will be of benefit others in our dance.

What Will We Connect On: Our weekly dance card will consist of the following dances:

Early arrivals if desired call opens at 6:15

1. Welcome & Quick Review of Our Why, How & What (6:30-6:40)

2. Breakout Check-Ins (6:40-6:55) In breakout conversations, share with each other whatever you’d like to share.

3. Open Forum (6:55-7:05) What ideas or themes or intuitions emerged during your breakouts that might be nice for all of us to dance with?

4. Darren’s Corner (7:05-7:15) Art and/or guided meditation.

5. Brian’s Corner (7:15-7:25) Let’s stretch while reflecting on joy, abundance, challenge and empathy.

6. Greg’s Corner Greg will draw something from our Dialogue Wisdom Well (where we collect great ideas)

(a) Introduction to Empathy (7:25-7:35)

Previous Weeks:

We have discussed definitions of empathy as (a) the art of stepping imaginatively into the shoes of another person, understanding their feelings and perspectives, and then using that understanding to guide our actions; (b) seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the heart of another; (c) a pathway of harnessing both the heart and the mind to heal trauma both in ourselves and others; (d) a way to shift ourselves and others; and (e) a way to explore what others feel matters most when connecting with another person. We also explored some empathy skills: (a) asking good questions helps to build empathy (e.g., Ask the person you are holding space for “Whys is that important to you?” three times or ask yourself “What would love do?” in connecting with this person); (b) we must always be aware of both external and internal triggers and filter those through an aware heart and mind to prevent reactions that we might regret. We explored Roman Krznaric’s Six Habits of Highly Empathic People: (1) Switch On Your Empathic Brain: Shift your mental framework to recognize that empathy is at the core of human nature and that it can be expanded as a skill that we can continually improve throughout our lives. (2) Make the Imaginative Leap: Make a conscious effort to step into other people’s shoes including those of our enemies with a view to acknowledging their humanity, their individuality, their perspectives, their life journey and what from their past may have shaped them into what you see today. (3) Seek Experiential Adventures: With curiosity, explore the lives and cultures that contrast with your own through direct immersion, empathic journeying and social interaction and cooperation. (4) Practice the Craft of Conversation: Take off your own mask and with great authenticity and genuine creativity, ask questions of others – even complete strangers and radically listening to what they share. (5) Travel in Your Armchair: Transporting yourself into other people’s minds and lives with the help of literature, film, online social networks and art.(6) Inspire a Revolution: Generate empathy on a mass scale to create social change and extending our empathy skills to embrace the natural world.

We later explored Roman’s invitation to “make an imaginative leap” past four barriers to empathy: (1) prejudice (the negative assumptions we often make about people we’ve never met and the stereotypes we have about groups that we’re not part of); (2) authority (we tend to obey authority whether we are Germans obeying the 19030s Nazi government or Americans in going to war); (3) distance (we don’t connect to devastation that takes place far away); and (4) denial (it’s not our problem even if what we’ve done or failed to do may have prevented or mitigated others’ suffering).

This week we will explore:

Roman describes three steps to overcome barriers to empathy: (1) Humanize the other person; (2) Discover what you share and what you don’t (value one another’s’ diversity); and (3) empathize with the enemy as illustrated by the actions of Mahatma Gandhi.

(b) Learning Exercise (Breakout Conversation or Plenary Dialogue)? (7:35-7:55) Let’s try our build some new muscles or try out a new dance move.

Each participant shares a story of how they took one of Roman’s three steps to overcome a barrier to empathy and how they felt when they did so..

(c) Learning Exercise Debrief: (7:55-8:05)

Any big ah-has from your breakout conversation exercise that you feel would benefit of our entire group dialogue?

6. Lelia’s Corner (8:05-8:15) Let’s sing while we reflect on joy, abundance, challenge and empathy.

Lelia to provide song and lyrics.

7. Arthur’s Corner (8:15-8:25) Let’s together, through dialogue, answer a BIG question posed by Dr. Arthur Clark.

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

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 very much look forward to hearing your response to that question: 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 or what would you include in that introductory session?

8. BIG Insights & Adjourn (8:25-8:30) Did we have any other big ah-ha moments tonight?

Distance as a barrier to empathy can be physical, mental, an addiction (disease), narcissism, and time (e.g., climate change) Smiles are free to give.

Participants are welcome to visit online after the dance ends for as long as they like.

Other Inspiration from Arthur

The possibility of exploring what a dialogue is and/or 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.