Imagination & Meaning
Strategy is just imagination in a suit. Every plan starts as a picture in someone’s head — a hunch about what could exist if we were bold enough to try. The future doesn’t arrive on its own; it’s imagined into being. That’s why the best leaders aren’t just logical — they’re imaginative realists. They can see beyond the obvious without losing their footing in reality.
Patterns I See
Over-optimization: Leaders so obsessed with efficiency they forget why they’re building in the first place.
Fear of ambiguity: Teams freeze unless the next five steps are mapped out. Innovation dies quietly under the weight of certainty.
Stuck stories: Companies keep retelling an old success narrative long after it’s stopped being true.
What Leaders Miss
Imagination isn’t escapism — it’s navigation.
It’s the muscle that holds paradox long enough to find the third way.
It’s how we process uncertainty without pretending we’re in control.
Imagination doesn’t just build strategy; it builds resilience.
When the old maps stop working, imagination draws new ones.
And meaning? That’s what imagination produces when it’s directed toward what matters.
The most magnetic leaders carry both: vision for what could be and language that connects it to why it matters.
Working With It
Rehearse the future. Scenario-play different outcomes. Imagination is cheap risk management.
Create paradox space. Let conflicting truths sit at the same table until they teach you something new.
Prototype stories. Don’t just test products — test narratives. How does your imagined future sound when you say it out loud?
Feed your imagination. Art, theology, travel, silence — whatever stretches your sense of the possible.
Questions Worth Asking
What story about the future are you currently telling yourself — and who taught it to you?
Where are you pretending things are clear that aren’t?
When’s the last time you created before you calculated?
How do you keep hope alive when the facts say quit?
Field Truth
The future belongs to the ones who can imagine it and stay grounded enough to build it.
