My heart goes out to all those suffering in the NSW floods. Especially those whose homes have been inundated multiple times.

We’ve seen it all before, too often.

How do we solve problems that just won’t go away?

What comes first; imagination, creativity or innovation? And how critical is imagination to advance humankind?

How often do businesses include teams that rarely, if ever, meet? They work in silos that focus on particular tasks and require a defined skill set. That can be very effective for goal-driven activities but what if you want your teams to collaborate, share ideas, imagine other possibilities?

Why awaken your imagination?

Because 97 per cent of companies identified imagination as critically important for businesses in a recent BCG Henderson Institute report.

A colleague at work, in business or in your personal life, shares an idea born from their imagination. How will you respond? I suggest you choose ‘imaginative listening’ to allow space for their idea to grow.

Imagination changed my world; it gave me an idea that crossed over from a thought, a rough gem, into reality to become a business. Today, Imagination Session® runs team-building workshops with a focus on collective imagination to promote creativity and innovation.

How can you create a culture that encourages imagination?

Why nurture a ‘collective’ imagination’?

Because you might gain a competitive advantage.

‘Why would you reinvent the wheel’? Because you can. And you never know where your imagination might lead. Like the folks at MIT’s Media Lab who examined the wheel and came up with something entirely different.

Why nurture imagination?

Because it promotes creativity and leads to innovation.

Is imagination good for you? Can it enhance your wellbeing?

I’ve searched for the answer by seeking out the wisdom of philosophers, both ancient and modern. And learning from people who might be just like you and me.

Did it ever occur to you that imagining could make you smarter? And that idea, however fantastic, might be supported by scientific research?

What a daring thought; imagine to become smarter. I love it.

Before conservationist Jane Goodall struck up a friendship with the chimpanzees of the Gombe Stream National Park, she imagined a life living among the animals of Africa.

That’s the way of life; first, we imagine and then, we act.

Here’s why your business should take imagination seriously.

In Stephen Hawking’s book ‘Brief Answers to the Big Questions’, he paid homage to Albert Einstein who looked to his imagination to seek answers about the universe.

“He [Einstein] was undaunted by common sense,” Hawking wrote, “the idea that things must be the way they seemed.”

Isn’t it wonderful to be out and about on a long weekend. So different from lockdowns when I turned to imagination to set myself free.

Has anyone ever told you to ‘get on with your work, stop your daydreams’. Have they ever suggested your head was ‘in the clouds’ when all you were doing was looking out the window, imagining.

Through our lifetimes, in all sorts of settings like work and in education, we receive a lot of negative messaging around imagination.

And yet, imagination has made all the difference to our lives.

How might you rewrite the lyrics to the song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon? Where would your imagination lead if you stopped for a moment to spend time with a pen, a paper and a tune to describe the world you seek in words that we could all sing along.