4 Tactics to Cultivate Your Imagination

“Jensen, just once I’d like to come into your office and see you doing… NOTHING! You can’t grow in your job if you don’t spend time thinking.”

That was my boss – a world-renowned scientist at UCLA – admonishing me to cultivate my imagination. I was so busy doing the daily work that I did not invest the time reflecting on the big picture. My team therefore, knew WHAT to do but they didn’t understand WHY. There was little inspiration behind all their perspiration.

Sound famliar? How often do you become so caught up in the difficulties of the day that you fail to nurture the fertile soil of your mind? What’s the impact of not seeing or communicating your big picture?

The importance of reflection, which includes taking time to reflect, was demonstrated by Dr. Timothy Hoff of the University of Albany. He studied the ability to learn from medical errors in three different hospital units (surgical suites, emergency rooms, and intensive care units). (1) He found that ICUs had the better environment for correcting errors because the physicians and nurses used what little downtime they had to step back, listen to a variety of opinions, and then decide how to improve. Leaders in the surgical suites and emergency rooms did not make the time to make improvements. Their unwillingness to take or make time to think about the lessons learned or the long-term consequences trapped them in a more error-prone workplace.

Executives who fail to take the helicopter view do not see the forest because they often over-focus on the trees. They also have limited time horizons (deal only with today) and constrained interests (focus only on this issue). Ironically, this narrow-minded thinking is evident in the expansion of the specialists. Lawyers, physicians, professors, and many other professions celebrate the sub-specialist — the expert who focuses on the bark on the trees. I experienced the problem of over-focusing on the part at the expense of the whole when my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. My siblings and I had a terrible time getting all the sub-specialists to agree on which follow-up tests and treatments were best. When I complained to one physician about not seeing the big picture, he lamented that he was just doing his part. My brain screamed, That’s the point. If everybody’s only playing their part, who’s taking care of the whole?

Organizations need executives who can zoom in and zoom out, stretching when they feel pulled too much by one or the other. A broad imagination opens the mind to reflect on old experiences and be receptive to new information. GE discovered the importance of executive imagination when it undertook an in-depth study of how companies grow organically. (2) The company reported that imagination was one of the key characteristics of executives in the most successful companies. GE now evaluates its leaders on imagination during performance reviews.

A broad imagination is critical because executives need to draw upon practical and powerful ideas from a reservoir of knowledge that must be refreshed with a stream of diverse experiences and perspectives. Steve Jobs was a Zen Buddhist who studied calligraphy and believed in making time for retreats. Jobs’ broad imagination reinvented not one, but four entire industries: smart phones, music, digital movies, and PCs. (3)

A breadth of information feeds the depth of the imagination, which leads to a high absorptive capacity — the ability to value, assimilate, and apply external information to an organization’s internal goals. (4) Companies with high absorptive capacity are more innovative. (5) Their leaders have learned to take in and use new information to conquer their challenges and achieve their goals. Here are four practical tactics to broaden your imagination, so you can grow your organization’s absorptive capacity.

1. Travel to the unfamiliar: A few years ago, my wife and I embarked on our first cruise. This was a big stretch for me because I didn’t think being on a boat surrounded by a sea of food for a week would help me maintain my weight. (Surrounded by food, I have the discipline of a polar bear in a fish farm!) Of course, we had a great time. We experienced the majesty of the great state of Alaska, hiking glaciers and taking a plane to the interior. (And I only gained two pounds.)

2. Read international publications with global perspectives: Financial Times and The Economist are easy to find and digest, and the range of other international options is as diverse as the United Nations. Watch the BBC World News on a regular basis.

3. Study a new topic: What have you always been interested in, but not made the time for? How could your interest in the arts, a new sport, a particular reading genre, or a new hobby expand your horizons?

4. Research the giant sequoias of the imagination: Read about great inventors, thinkers, and leaders such as Darwin, Einstein, Edison, Churchill, Gandhi, Curie, or any of the scores of influential people who have made an impact by using their imaginations.

Leaders who have strong rational leadership styles sometimes find focusing on the visionary competencies a bit uncomfortable. Some of these ideas may seem fuzzy, especially when you are overwhelmed by deadlines, customer expectations, or shareholder demands. That’s understandable. But remember this: It is managing the tension between the visionary and rational styles under pressure that helps lopsided leaders stretch when they feel pulled. Perhaps doing NOTHING occasionally will help you cultivate the big picture.

1. Timothy Hoff, How work context shapes physician approach to safety and error, Quality Management in Health Care 17, no. 2, 140-153.
2. Wesley Cohen and Daniel Levinthal, Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation, Administrative Science Quarterly, March 1990, 128-152.
3. Ray Williams, Why Steve Jobs is not a leader to emulate, Financial Post, April 12, 2012, http://business.financialpost.com/2012/04/12/steve-jobs-is-not-a-leader-to-emulate/.
4. Grace Chua Beng Hui and Khairuddin Idris, What Makes Growth-Oriented Small-Scale Companies Innovative? A Look at Absorptive Capacity, Journal of Global Business Issues, Spring 2009, 15-22.
5. Bloomberg BusinessWeek Innovation & Design, http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/ .

Dave Jensen helps leaders manage ambiguity, gain buy-in to any change, improve decision-making, and achieve difficult goals in today’s complex, competitive, and conflicting environment. For a FREE Chapter of his forthcoming book, The Executive’s Paradox – How to Stretch When You’re Pulled by Opposing Demands, visit http://davejensenonleadership.com/