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The Imagination Machine: How to Spark New Ideas and Create Your Company’s Future

The book focuses mainly on building a strong company environment based on the collective imagination of its workforce which will ensure the company's growth, sustainability and stability in a cut-throat competitive world at a time when almost all the tasks are getting automated and the only task of imagination is left for humans which machines can not do. Along with that, one more question to be discussed here that can we use Vocal Media as a daily imaginative tool? Let's Explore.

By Moshiur RahmanPublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 8 min read
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Imagination is needed now more than ever—to find new opportunities, rethink our businesses, and discover paths to growth

The Imagination Machine is an awesome book written by Martin Reeves and Jack Fuller, published in June 2021. Martin Reeves is a managing director and senior partner in BCG’s San Francisco office, and the Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute. Jack Fuller is the founder and CEO of Casati Health. Jack has a degree in Neuroscience from Melbourne University and an M.Phil and D.Phil in Theology (Ethics) from Oxford University. To find more on Amazon.com: Click Here.

Why Do We Need Imagination?

People have more money to buy more of your product, or an increasing population means there are more people who buy. But if you are in Europe, for instance, which grew at 5.5 percent in the 1970s and is growing at 2 percent today, you need good ideas. Source: The Imagination Machine

The pictures are taken from the book

We need imagination more than ever but only a few companies have the capacity to foster imagination in their company atmosphere. Most are reluctant to change their age-old conventional setup. On the other hand, With the advent of new technology, things are getting automated very fast. Human intervention in doing things has been declining constantly. Adaption of technology is becoming cheaper and easier for small and medium companies along with the giant ones. Cut-throat competition is also on the rise. To survive in the marketplace, companies are pushing for new solutions all the time. New solutions mean being imaginative. It is the competition of being imaginative to survive.

What is Imagination?

We define imagination as “the ability to create a mental model of something that doesn’t exist yet.” This is also known as “counterfactual thinking”: the ability to create mental objects that are not merely representations of the outside world. Source: The Imagination Machine

Imagination is an ability that machines can not do

To utilize imagination properly, it is of utmost importance to understand what is imagination, its power, and the way it works. Think of a non-living object. It does not have life. It can not move or imagine. But what about an animal? it has life but can it imagine? No, it can not. On the other hand, human is the most powerful and dignified creature of all because it can think and imagine. If anyone closes one's eye and thinks silently, s/he will be able to discover in seconds what this great creature has done on this planet. Everywhere there is a touch of human imagination and all the things, those humans created, were first created in their imagination, then in reality.

Imagination Versus Dreaming and Perception

Imagination is in between dreaming and perception. Pic: The Imagination Machine

When our brain operates consciously and is self-aware of useful things, we call these thoughts our perceptions. When our thoughts are fully unconstrained and our brain operation is not controlled by the outside world, it is called dreaming. Imagination is in between. In the case of Imagination, we are self-aware but our thoughts are constrained by the outside world.

What Inspires Imagination and How to Foster Inspiration?

The photo has been taken from the Imagination Machine

Our emotions can be categorized into three sections; attachment emotions also known as aspirations, survival emotions also known as aggravations and the potentiator. The emotion, surprise, is called the potentiator which changes attachment emotions into survival ones or vice versa. Every single imagination that surprises us triggers a spark into our brain. when we become more curious, our sensory system collects information consciously or subconsciously. This stage is also called "Seeing". The next is the comprehending stage. In this stage, we like to look into the ideas more carefully and want to be more clear about why these are different from normals. The last stage of a successful imagination process is the Interpreting stage. In this stage, we like to link our imaging pattern with other things and try to discover something new.

Fostering Imagination in a Company?

Previously, we have just learned how imagination takes place in a human. A company is no exception. In a company, the collective imagination process depends on the imaginations of all the employees. The most important thing is that whether the company fosters such type of environment or not. The holistic imagining process in a company can be inbuilt by carefully determining its seeing process. More specifically, significant attention should be put on the surprising points of the company whether these are accidents, anomalies or great opportunities. In the Comprehending stage, the difference between an individual and a company is that a person automatically and subconsciously starts to play with what s/he has imagined. But in the case of a company, if there is no conscious process, department or dedicated persons to notice these, these most valuable intangible assets may be lost in vain. In the interpreting stage, a company needs to analyze more carefully the accidents to find out the anomalies. The company will try to find out the cutting edge ideas to cope up with such types of errors, anomalies or irregularities.

On the other hand, there are certain factors that impede imagination to flow. These are: too busy to pay attention to surprises; blocking the curiosities; overengineering the process to perpetuate the conventional thinking; only answer-based-environment and no question is encouraged. There are a number of games that help to provoke imagination such as bad customer games, bad meetings games or good questions games. Enquiring bad customers more can give significant information. Bad meetings also tell a lot of untold stories.

Turning Your Imagination into a Great Idea

Pictures are taken from the book: The Imagination Machine

Imagination does not necessarily mean the reality overnight. Only a few imaginations turn into ideas that get shaped and materialized. After one thought comes into our mind, it gets tested through the sensory systems. Our mind and brain collect more information through these for making an effective decision. Every single thought goes through this mental model. The most important thing is that our general mental model gets disrupted when new imaginations come across our minds. Sometimes, we can not tolerate the disturbance of this situation and give up our unique ideas. Moreover, multiple assumptions may appear acceptable but after getting testified, many are rejected. So, continuous assumptions and the ability to draw perfect analogies are important to keep the raw ideas alive.

Colliding an Idea With the Reality

The third picture shows a nonfunctional Apple laptop shell from the 1980s but now it is a reality

Now it is time to collide the idea with reality. Until an idea comes into the real world, it remains the isolated and untaped one that is not able to create any value. That is why we need to work on the idea at the quickest time possible. Previously we have discussed the mental model. Now we have to see our idea through that mental model and refocus meticulously to probe that where it gets obstructed. A helpful and essential thing is to point out and note down all the important findings while we test and probe the idea through our mental model, which we call our learning experience. There are certain rules to follow while we conduct the probe. Firstly, we have to choose a relevant environment that can provide the most prudent and realistic view. Secondly, each and every investigation needs to be completed well before the implementation stage so that we do not surprise again or incur a loss. Thirdly, we can choose to test our idea in a selective environment, maybe creating a prototype containing all possible obstacles and adversaries to probe its resilience against all the odds.

Is the Idea a Pandemic?

Collective imagination, using unique vocabularies and story-telling are helpful to get an idea viral

After an idea is proven prudent and fitting with reality, it is now time to bring it to the public. There are always hundreds of ideas generated but only a few get viral. It is the question of acceptability to the public. There are many good ideas that die because people do not like those. The purpose of every single idea is to create convenience in people's lives but if those do not get popular with general people, those lose utility. This is also called the problem of intersubjectivity. The term collective imagination is helpful here because it helps the idea to be accepted by many members of a group, overcoming the problem of intersubjectivity. Collective imagination is the imagination of a group of people who like to generate their ideas, talk about those, accept, refocus, testify and plan to implement. Another important aspect is to give unique names and create a set of vocabulary for communicating the idea. Likewise, story-telling is a good way to make imaginations more popular among the general masses. The Story encompasses emotions, feelings and at the same time, communicates to a wide range of audiences, avoiding the hard and strict hypothesis of an imagination.

Using Vocal Media as Your Daily Imagination Appliance

Start writing on Vocal Media and practice imagination daily. Get lost in the midst of your exciting thoughts

There are many ways, we can try, for being imaginative in our daily lives but writing is an easy and acceptable solution for many. Now there are many platforms available as well to practice writing as a hobby. Vocal Media is one of them. All times, hundreds of ideas come across our minds and get lost but if we can consciously take notes and write about those, those will not get lost instantly. Moreover, the platform provides other tools like adding visuals, links to make our writing more meaningful to readers. It has lots of exciting incentives like bonuses, earning form reads, great prizes for winning challenges, top story bonuses and so on. Writing helps us in many ways to be imaginative. The writers are said to be the most imaginative and creative persons in history. So, we can open an account on Vocal Media and start writing for free. It also offers a paid membership that is called Vocal Plus membership.

Thanks a lot for reading. If you like, please leave me a heart. Tips are not necessary but great encouragement for more creations.

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About the Creator

Moshiur Rahman

My mother tongue is not English. But I like to imagine, think and write in English just because it is my passion and I love to do that.

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