Crisis of imagination

How do we cultivate imagination?

The endless curiosity of childhood might give us an insight. As fully-formed adults, we tend to stay close to the status quo, but our younger incarnations were on an endless quest for discovery. It’s no coincidence that the brain’s rapid growth all happened in those early years. And identity was continuously emerging, nothing was fixed.

I’d like to suggest that being alive means our identity is never fixed. Yet many people and businesses resign themselves to a life of routine and monotony. Often this sameness is even celebrated. After all, when there is no change, there is no threat. But those who seek out wonder, meaning and intellectual complexity in their lives are found to be happier, healthier, and more motivated.

When we are stuck, we are in a state of fear. And so we act to protect the comfortable identity of our businesses or ourselves, as if this is what matters. But the most important thing is to be willing to give up who you are for who you might become.

Imagination is what is required, but imagination is impossible when we struggle to let go, afraid of being swept away by undercurrents of emptiness.

Serious play, to create pathways of awe, wonder and imagination, is what Florence Guild is designed to do. Curiosity follows play. Imagination follows curiosity. And so it follows that we are constantly alive to what is new, keeping our minds buzzing and our work relevant.

Soren