On the global level, we are being presented with a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cooperate in changing our world and creating a better world for all. It may not quite feel that way right now, but that’s what’s happening. We are creative beings and capable of reimagining our world and making that a new reality.
The same is true in our organisations which are, of course, a key part of our daily reality and perhaps even more so than governments, capable of effecting change on a huge scale. That has to start though with a commitment to reimagining the current realities and eliminating anything that is no longer serving this higher goal of a better world for all.
Imagining a new future, developing a clear and meaningful vision that truly inspires people is more than just an exercise that leaders need to embark on. It’s an energetic and co-creative exchange that involves and affects all stakeholders.
By putting our energies into the present and imagining how we want that present reality to be better, we start to move our thinking and therefore our energies in that direction.
How? By daring to confront the bureaucracies, the relentless focus on cost reduction, the power and control mechanisms, the over-emphasis on efficiency and ‘production’ and limited focus on true creativity and innovative solutions that serve both our clients and the planet. And that’s just for starters.
If we become overly consumed with trying to protect whatever we considered the old normal we will only access a very limited range of our potential capabilities. If we try to hold back the floodgates of change such as the need to truly balance ALL stakeholder needs not just shareholders, or the need to revisit our core purpose and align it with the needs of the planet and its inhabitants, then we will become subsumed in a vicious cycle founded on fear and protectionism. We have to get ahead of the curve, and this can only be done by imagining and committing ourselves to a better future.
So as Oasis sang back in 1996…
Slip inside the eye of your mind,
Don’t you know you might find
A better place to play
There is a better place where we can play and work and create a world that we are all deeply proud of and excited to live in. As leaders, we need to take on that challenge and instead of ‘looking back in anger’ or with despair or frustration or futility at the challenges of our time, we have to fulfil our responsibility to inspire and energise a new future. To take our courage and our beliefs about what’s possible and make them the new reality.
Let’s reimagine the future of work, of organisational life, and of the contribution made by business to our planet.
