Going Beyond Imagination

When was the last time you were asked to go beyond imagination? Not to use your imagination, but to go beyond it. To the unknown territory of the infinite potential where all ideas come from. Go crazy, jump into it, lose yourself, fly high. Or quiet down, relax, stop searching and start finding. If you were asked, did you understand why and know how to do it?

We live in a world of unknown unknowns, as Dave Snowden, creator of the Cynifin Framework, describes. Life is complex. Instead of acknowledging this, we routinely try to recognize patterns, identify known knowns, find obvious answers, and refer to best practices. However, in our mindless pursuit, we often end up with known unknowns and complicated solutions that will not solve the problem at all.

Leaving the comfort of the known to explore the potential of the unknown is not part of most agendas. We spend our time in known territory looking for simple and safe answers to familiar questions. The conditioning is so strong that we can’t receive new ideas, and we can’t appreciate them either. Even when we have to or want to.

Here are the good news for hopeful space invaders who want to escape from a too predictable future. Instead of fleeing to the past for help or trying to force an unfitting model upon reality, you can stay present and embrace complexity. Give space to a little experimentation, and soon you will witness new possibilities and practices emerge. If you dare go beyond imagination and linger in the unknown for a while. Stop the clock and start to rock.

Wait a second, I can hear you say. Isn’t imagination the human superpower that allows us to see what is not, uncover hidden treasures, and gain new insights? Without it, we would not have moved away from the caves. We need it to explore, exploit, and expand. “If you can imagine it, you can do it and become it”.

Yes, but imagination can also be limited and limiting. Limited, because we can only imagine from what we know already. Limiting, because imagination is as efficient at anticipating barriers as it is at recognizing openings. When presented with a radical idea, most business leaders foresee catastrophes and failures before blockbusters and triumphs.

What we can imagine depends on our experience. If we had never seen a ship, it would be hard to visualize the Flying Dutchman. But experience also restricts imagination. We are prone to look for recognizable patterns. With little or no experience — like kids or novices — we can imagine much more. Imagination has limited range, intuition has not.

To go beyond imagination, you have to silence the inner critic and fearful voice, look through the clutter, and tune into intuitive frequencies. Receiving intuitively demands mental space without the disturbance from outdated knowledge and old beliefs. Spacing opens up to the unknown and allows you to play with new ideas without consequences.

In a typical meeting, the speed of data exchange, load of thinking, and shortage of time leave no space for new ideas. Your mind becomes flat, and your attention span shrinks to goldfish size (a myth, but still illustrative). The amount of thoughts combined with reduced capacity lead to cognitive clotting and mental obstipation.

In terms of brain waves, we are in a high beta state, feeling stressed, tired and overwhelmed. To receive new information from the field of infinite potential, we need to switch from beta waves to alpha and theta waves. Move from a flat mind to a spacious mind. The flatter the mind, the more you need spacing exercises to access the unknown.

To shift gear from fast thinking to slow thinking to no thinking, you can push the mental pause bottom, breathe deeply, move your awareness to the body, and find stillness in the present moment. As a silent witness, you can now observe ideas emerging from the source. Notice and embrace, before you start to sort and fix.

If you pose a curious question before going in and slowing down, the ideas may take the form of answers. Alternatively, you can give yourself a positive challenge to solve before you go to sleep in the evening. The next morning, after a night of incubation, be prepared to receive and take notes. The ideas will stand in line to get out.

Ideas are ideas, and it takes one to know one. Humans are ideas too — only older and bolder. What an idea means depends on which ideas constitute you in the moment. What resonates depends on both the source and the receiver. By resetting the mind and reconnecting the brain, you can open up to new types of information. When you transform, your ideas transcend.

Perhaps you can do some storywork. Storytelling is a natural way to deal with the unknown. When facts cannot satisfy our hunger for understanding and meaning, we use stories to fill the gap and connect the dots. Give an avatar in a story framework the same challenge and constraints as you are facing. Simulate the action and see how things evolve in surprising ways.

Visiting the unknown can be messy and scary. You may need some beyond guiding to design the context, develop the concepts and gain comfort in the process. Don’t look for traditional meeting facilitators and moderators. Most of them will not know how to go beyond and get around. Instead, you could invite meditators, philosophers and artists.

Beyond imagination, boundaries become frontiers, and constraints turn into existential breakthroughs. To discover new land, you leave the comfort of the known, including the need for predictability and perfection. You go beyond beliefs, assumptions and expectations. It is challenging, but essential, for the new information to find its way. To grow ideas, you must grow.

Experimentation beyond is included in the lifework matrix of transperience.