IMAGINATION: A KEY TO SOCIAL CHANGE

We rarely take the time to pause and tap into our imagination. In an uncertain and changing world, it may feel safer to focus on the constraints instead of what we can create together. Especially now in an “in-between time,” when we are carrying forward what we learned from 2020-2022 and figuring out how we navigate the future. We are tired and recovering from the uncertainty we faced, the changes we made, and the change we hoped for but haven’t seen. Remaining committed to social change can feel like fighting against an insurmountable tide. 

The Balance Between Acknowledgement and Imagination

Over the past few months, we have worked with teams who, like all of us, have endured historical social trauma while still prioritizing DEI and Liberation. Through an organizational development approach, we’ve helped them to mindfully take on the next layer of changes while acknowledging the context we are in. 

Organizational development (OD) establishes, revises, or implements updated processes or culture. An essential aspect of OD is aligning teams around a shared reality of individual and collective context AND a vision for what is possible. It can be hard to consider our dreams for the future, given constraints set by COVID or other real or perceived limitations. 

At Colibrí, we establish safe ways for teams to dream by acknowledging our limitations, the discomfort of doing something new or different, the exhaustion we feel from our personal or societal contexts, etc. To address these tensions, we share the concept of fractals from adrienne maree brown’s writing. Fractal change occurs through seemingly small shifts in mindset and actions reverberating throughout an organization. We see fractals everywhere in nature, the patterns repeated that reflect the whole, such as those found on a leaf or snowflake. In teams, this type of change often looks like refining ideas or initiatives. These fractals are sometimes the hopes that have always been there but that hadn’t been shared explicitly. 

““in emergence, the whole is a mirror of the parts. fractal – the health of the cell is the health of the species and the planet.”

— adrienne maree brown

Practices that Spark Imagination

By engaging in regular conversations that spark the imagination, we can bring a more full expression of ourselves to our workplace. Maddie has introduced practices that tap into our imagination by naming and committing to our dreams. We end our weekly meetings by answering: What does your dream week look like? What do you need to do to get there? These questions are almost always hard to answer because what weighs on us is usually our to-do list. This pause we take allows us to get closer to our dreams while getting support from our colleagues: 

“In my dream week, I can focus on this report and dig into the data to get some good writing in. I need uninterrupted blocks of time. ”

“Your calendar looks pretty packed with back-to-back work time and meetings. What do you need to get there?”

“Maybe I can move this meeting with the team to be 30 minutes later…or postpone prepping for this meeting to the next day so that I can have 3 hours to dig in.”

By giving voice to our hopes and naming actions we will take, we identify strategies for success and gain allies in our efforts. We take a similar approach in our annual retreat, where we may share our “ideal year,” setting individual and professional intentions that are likely to have implications for the organization or that are shaped by the needs of the organization. The echo of our yearly dreams is reflected in our weekly meetings and planning--imagination in fractals.

Imagination plays an essential role in individual and social change. It clarifies where we want to go and broadens the world of possibilities. These are the things that fuel us.

Image Description(s):

Above the blog text, there is an image of a tender green fern unfurling its leaves and stem.

In between the text, there’s an Instagram screenshot of a post by Prentis Hill that reads "Trauma and the ongoing trauma of oppression can keep us hypervigilant, limiting our ability to dream and vision. Believing we can conjure new worlds is part of how we heal our relationship to imagination and creation. "