A few days ago, my friends at Allwork.Space posted a simple question…
“What if the future of work requires much more imagination?”
I love this framing so very much. 🧡
The challenge — and opportunity — with humans and our idea of “the future” is that, whatever it is, we humans naturally move towards our picture of the future.
This is one of the foundational principles of what I call the “O.G. A.I.” — Appreciative Inquiry.
A decade ago, I had the profound opportunity to get certified in Appreciative Inquiry, under the tutelage of none other than David Cooperrider himself (I believe it was one of the last certifications he personally taught).
Looking back, I can admit that I went into this training mostly because my company had inked an exciting partnership and “certification swap” with Champlain College and the Center for Appreciative Inquiry. My ego was frankly distracted more by the idea of getting THEM certified by US, rather than us getting certified by them.
I had NO idea how much this training would change my life.
Being the recovering overly-polite midwesterner I am/was, I dutifully made the long trip to the beautiful town of Burlington, Vermont, where I joined about 35 other practitioners from all over the world in this multi-day course.
It was bigger and better than I could have ever imagined.
To this day, I struggle to properly capture and express the profundity of the body of work that is “Appreciative Inquiry.” On the surface, it’s exactly what it sounds like — “positively-framed questions” — but under the waves, I promise you: it’s as deep as the ocean.
I also had no idea this would happen: over the last decade, the principles of Appreciative Inquiry have embedded themselves so deeply into my belief system that I would struggle to describe most parts of my current worldview without them.
Here’s my articulation of the 6 Principles that were in existence at the time of my training (I believe they were just adding #6 at that time):
- CONSTRUCTIONIST: Words create worlds
- SIMULTANEITY: Inquiry itself IS change; great questions ARE the work
- POETIC: We see what we look for
- ANTICIPATORY: We naturally move towards our picture of the future
- POSITIVE: Focus on strengths and the path of possibilities
- WHOLENESS: Include all stakeholders in decision making
If you follow my writing for any length of time, you will constantly see these principles sprinkled throughout, acting as deep anchor points, providing crucial foundations in my B.S. (belief system 😎).
Today our focus is on #4, the Anticipatory Principle: humans naturally move towards our picture of the future.
Sometimes this is referred to as a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”
A related quote would be from Henry Ford, who reportedly said: “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
In psychology and behavioral economics this is related to a phenomenon called “confirmation bias.”
In the world of quantum mechanics there’s a burgeoning field of study surrounding “synchronicity” which is also related.
To me, all signs point to a rich science underpinning this Principle that we simply have yet to uncover completely.
Do you see now why I love the above question about imagination so much?
If this principle is True (and I have every reason to believe it is), then imagination is either our prison or our liberation.
In that case, how much would it matter that we have positive, hopeful, realistically utopian, and inherently GOOD visions for our collective future?
Believe me, I understand this is challenging, to put it mildly, in a world that looks the way ours currently does.
Today, it feels remarkably easy to imagine many versions of dystopian futures. If we project down the road with simply more of what’s happening now, many things look rather hopeless. And in a world with the new A.I. (Artificial Intelligence, of course), it’s easy to imagine the future looking like the opening scene from Terminator 2, because, well… it’s what scientists objectively describe as effing terrifying.
But I think this is exactly why it’s ever more important — essential, really — for those of us in the “future” / “futurist” / “future of work” space to imagine and declare and spread better, optimistic, hopeful visions of the future… because as simplistic as it sounds, if enough of us start to BELIEVE it, we’ll actually move in THAT direction instead.
I’m not talking about some kind of “Pollyanna-ish” false hope, my friends. I am talking about realistic visions, practical plans, and thoughtful strategies that will create a future we actually want to work and live in.
And if I may — doing this is actually MUCH harder than envisioning killer robots.
But it is exactly the work that must be done.