VISIONING: PART I-Seeing the end from the start
“The worst thing you can experience in this life is to have sight without vision.” Helen Keller
About half a decade ago or so I was flown out of New Delhi where I was based at the time to Dar-es-salaam in Tanzania for an annual Directors’ Conference. It was not the first time as I had been to two others before this one. However, there was something different about this particular conference other than just the venue and the menu of course. The organisation was re-branding and most importantly working on its Global Strategic Framework for the five years to follow.
One significant thing that is still etched in my memory is an exercise that the Chief Executive asked us to do in one of the first few sessions. We were asked to find space on the floor and lie down straight on the floor with our facing to the roof. We were to close our eyes and take time to envision what the organization would look like and become in the next five years.
When our time was up we were asked to write down on a piece of paper what exactly we envisioned and to share it with the rest of the team. I will never forget the wealth of ideas that were revealed during that session. What is even more amazing is that much of what was shared in that session and later adopted into the Strategic Framework is what the organization has grown to become today.
Visioning is the process of creating the mental picture of what your idea or dream will look like when it is fully realised. It is the process of seeing the end from the beginning and mentally completing your idea before you actually begin any work actual work on it. Dr. Myles Munroe called this ‘thinking on the thought.’
Visioning is the process of defying the odds and taking a quantum leap into the distant future using the only time-travel machine at our disposal called the Brain. The fun part about this is that it does not require any physical activity of any sort, neither does it require a budget or any strenuous external input. All you need is a free mind, one that can actually think-I’m sure you have one of those right? This is not a time to worry about the ‘whos’, the ‘hows’ and the ‘whens’; this is about the what and the where. What and where do you see yourself when your idea is fully realised?
Can you see your ultimate destination?
They say you can never take people where you have not been, true indeed. So if you cannot go there physically at least go there mental y. Between your idea and its fulfillment is a huge chasm covered with hazy fog and deep darkness, only the x-ray vision of your imagination can permeate through it to see what lies on the other side. MOVE
VISIONING: PART 2-(Imagination) The Nation of images
I once read of a reporter that desperately desired to do a story on one of the famous sculptors of old. After months of what seemed like an endless struggle she finally got her appointment. Walking past the gate and headed towards the man’s door she replayed her questions in her head. The man was cordial and very welcoming, he seemed to have appreciated the visit quite a lot. What stood out in the interview was how this great sculptor fondly spoke of his beautiful garden of flowers in his yard that he liked to straw through to refresh his mind every so often.
When the interview was over, the reporter asked if she could have a brief look at the sculptor’s garden to which he gladly obliged with a smile on his face. When she came out through the back door she could only see grass and a hedged fence and no garden anywhere within her sight. She looked at the sculptor as he pointed to his head and ‘with an imagination one can see anything.’
I may have paraphrased that story a whole lot but I can vividly remember the kind of impact it had on me when I first read it. The sculptor’s secret to his great art was to see things were others saw nothing.
When I travel out of town or outside the country and I have to stay in a hotel or lodge somewhere I always look forward to getting a room with a view. There’s just something about having a nice view that makes you appreciate your room even more. It’s not all the time that you will get the best view and sometimes you will have no view at all. Every time I get no view I see it as an opportunity to create a view of my own. I can have an ocean view, a range of high mountains with their summits covered by the clouds or I could have a plain of green vegetation stretching across the landscape. With an imagination, one can see anything.
Visioning is the process of walking into imagination, the image nation or ‘the nation of images.’ With it you can cross borders with no passport or VISA. You can fly with no wings and achieve the impossible. In the nation of images all things are possible.
It is in that territory where ideas and dreams gain their momentum and become so tangible causing a rise in the pulse rate. These images stem from the seed sown as an idea to cultivate and incubate it thereby creating an enabling environment for its eventual germination and fruition.
I saw an inscription on the back of a truck the other day that read, ‘What is REAL now, was once IMAGINED.’ At that point while sitting in the car I started looking around, I saw so many things; cars of all sorts, buildings, roads, billboards and it dawned on me that all that was a bunch of ideas. At some point in history they were nothing but imaginations locked away in someone’s mind. What made the thought even heavier was the fact that I was benefit from and looking at other people’s ideas and not my own. There’s plenty of room for everyone on this planet to contribute to the many ideas being realized. If at all we ran out of room we can always utilize other planets or outer space. A lack of space is not an issue at all, will you make your contribution and add to the many realized ideas on the planet or will you continue to hitch hike on other people’s ideas?
Legendary and phenomenal Italian sculptor Michelangelo known for his great works of art demonstrated the power of imagination in amazing fashion.
Among the many of his works of art was the sculpture of the angel of marble. When asked how he did it he is quoted as having said “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” He also said “In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”
Such can only be true for one who has realized, tapped into and maximized the power of imagination. Using imagination is like having an extra pair of eyes that gives you the ability to see what other people around you are not able to see. MOVE