Imagination & Storytelling: Partners in Crime

This week, I spent a couple of days in Inverness and, in order to get my walks in (as part of Challenge 52, where I am walking 52 miles per week for 52 weeks of the year that I am 52 years old), I have walked the banks of the River Ness from Eden Court Theatre. I have never really walked this area, so a quick look on Google maps showed me a 3 mile loop that crosses some small footbridges and across somewhere called 'Ness Islands.'

Ness Islands sit about a mile upstream of the centre of Inverness and are a great hiding place... for the Loch Ness Monster and the entrance to Narnia!

Part of the joys of letting your imagination run riot is being able to see different things and make connections. The above picture is just some eyes, mouth and nose on a dead tree trunk - unless you know it is in Inverness and you know about the Loch Ness Monster.

This picture is just an old lamp post, unless you know the story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis, and then it has hidden meaning as the place where Lucy meets Mr Tumnus.

So, if you know about Nessie and you know about the lamp post, all of a sudden you can imagine a world where Nessie takes her holidays in Narnia.

Connecting stories requires imagination, just as connecting the future visions of your organisation.

As you walk around outside, day in, day out, take time to let your imagination wander and connect the stories of your life: books, films, songs, pictures and plays.

Give yourself time and space to make the connections between crazy things that should never exist together in the world.

Let this practice seep into your leadership and your business. Start to make those connections that no-one else is seeing or hearing.

Some of them will simply be batshit crazy, and that's OK. Some will be gold dust and create a new future.

Get outside, get imagining and make those connections.

#slowcoaching #outdoorcoaching #scottishhighlands

www.slowcoaching.uk