Imagination: the Door to Outstanding Innovation
By Mick Mortlock

I’ve audited the US government twice to see whether they’ve taken the “failure of imagination” warning from the 9-11 Commission seriously. They haven’t, and the audit results are detailed in the Spring 2010 issue of The Public Manager (TPM).

Now I think it’s only fair to audit TPM and publish those results right on the TPM Blog. I performed a simple audit of two recent issues and found that imagination is not on the mind of TPM writers. Here are the results:
Winter 2009: zero references to imagination, two to creativity, and 22 to innovation.
Spring 2010: zero references to imagination (outside the article that I wrote), four to creativity, and six to innovation.
Unfortunately among TPM writers, imagination is not perceived as a tool, and the failure of imagination is not seen as a problem.

Definitions
The definitions and differences between innovation, creativity and imagination are fuzzy. Here is how I am using the terms:

Imagination is that unfettered, chaotic space where anything can come up. For parents and grandparents, it is the “Harold And The Purple Crayon” approach The child Harold draws the world ahead of himself and then moves into that newly created world. By adulthood when we join government or business, the metaphor becomes laying runway seconds before lift-off. The adult version loses some of its imaginative potential.

Innovation is applied imagination. It has been narrowed to a particular problem or goal. The Gov2.0 work that I have seen,  the collaboration efforts that are sweeping the government and the potential suggested by Data.gov are all very innovative. Several years ago, I wrote in TPM that with caller ID and automatic dialing systems, I shouldn’t have to wait on hold. The IRS should call me back. This is an innovative idea.  Innovative ideas are sparks that can make government more responsive and effective.

Creativity is a tool applied to a subset of a problem that can spark new, agitational ways to grasp and perhaps resolve a particular issue or opportunity. While often used interchangeably with imagination, it carries the responsibility to add value.

Creating strategic solutions to the nation’s problems whether we are working in the IRS, Fish and Wildlife or the TSA requires that imagination be folded in to our worlds. The reason is, that if we fail in the imaginative process we may not see a critical component of the solution.

Opening Up Imagination
Here are a couple of the ways to improve access to imagination.

Brainstorming. Many people use classic brainstorming as a catalyst for imagination. Two mistakes that are often made is to cut it off after a few minutes, or allowing people to criticize the ideas. My advice is to “let it breathe.”

Oblique Strategies. Oblique Strategies is an approach, created by musician Brian Eno. It consists of a deck of cards that provide many ways to break a mental or emotional impasse.

This and other stimulators that exercise imaginative circuits are on my website.

I have evaluated a number of government agencies to help them determine how to exercise more of their imaginative potential. While it was fun for me, you don’t need my help to do it. Use the power of collaboration inside and outside your organizations to help each other break through to more stimulating and effective solutions.

Mick Mortlock
Mick@ImaginationGardener.com
www.imaginationgardener.com