Imagine a Different Future

To solve hard problems or respond to marketing challenges, you need imagination. But that’s rarely how anyone goes about it. Here’s why and a technique to help creatively turn problems into practical solutions.

Forget what you think you know

When I was a graduate student, one of my favorite classes was statistics. I expected the class to be focused on number crunching and data tracking. But to my surprise, it turned out to be more like a philosophy class that explored human nature and our tendencies to make predictions based on past experiences. This common, yet inaccurate, form of prediction is based on incorrect assumptions. Just because something was one way in the past does not mean it will be (or needs to be) the same way in the future. Recognizing that the future will be different is where true innovation occurs.

Apply it to your brand

In marketing and branding, there’s a lot of value in being able to imagine a world where constraints don’t exist. It allows us to break out of old patterns and see new possibilities for the future. This is helpful for problem-solving and for pushing brands, products, and creative thinking into fresh new spaces.

So, how do you apply this fantasy world to your problem or project? Use this technique adapted from advice given by Michael Michalko in his inspiring book, “Cracking Creativity.”

A team exercise

Start by defining your problem so everyone is working toward the same goal. Then, break your team into three groups. Provide each group with a piece of paper with one of the following questions listed at the top.

1. What is impossible today, but if it were possible, would change the nature of our problem forever?
2. What would we do if we had all the resources (time, money, people, etc.) we needed to solve this problem?
3. If we were a genie with powers and could accomplish anything we wished, what would we do to fix this problem?

Each team reviews its question and writes an answer on the paper. Then, passes the papers to another team to write an immediate and specific action that could be taken to work toward the answer that was written. Then adds another answer to the question at the top of the page and passes again.

Continue this process of each team reviewing the answers from another team, adding an action in response, and then contributing another answer to the original question on the page until each team has had a chance to provide both an answer and an action in response to each of the three original questions. When you’re finished, discuss and evaluate all the ideas that have been proposed. You should have several fresh, unexpected, and inspiring ways to accomplish your goal and solve your problem that are not based on what has been, but instead, are based on what can be.

By challenging ourselves to assume that the future can and will be different, we are free to discover what others may never see—a world of possibilities that can be made into reality.