Reimagining the Future: Skills We Can Practice
Many people talk about the future as something abstract or distant. A horizon we’re heading towards, or a problem to be solved. In business, it’s often framed as a forecast, trends, risks, growth curves, disruption.
Increasingly, I’m coming to see the future differently.
Not as something to predict, but as something we can practice.
This idea is beautifully explored in Rob Hopkins’ work, particularly From What Is to What If and How to Fall in Love with the Future. His writing reminds us that imagination is not escapism. It’s a muscle. And like any muscle, it strengthens through use.
In times of uncertainty; social, ecological, economic, the ability to reimagine becomes essential. Especially when familiar ways of thinking no longer help us respond to the complexity we’re facing.
From answers to exploration
Much of our education and professional training has taught us to value answers. To analyse, decide, optimise. These skills matter, of course. Yet they rely on one assumption: that the future will broadly resemble the past.
When conditions shift, as they are now, that assumption starts to break down.
Reimagining invites a different stance. One rooted in curiosity rather than certainty.
It asks us to slow down, notice what’s no longer working, and explore alternatives without needing to resolve them immediately.
This isn’t about wishful thinking. It’s about widening the field of possibility.
Making ideas tangible
Recently, I built a small model using LEGO as a way of exploring these ideas. It wasn’t planned. I simply wanted to think with my hands rather than my head.
The model shows nature in motion. A landscape on a track, moving towards greater coherence. A sense of movement towards a future where people, enterprise, and the natural world can flourish together, within Earth’s boundaries.
It’s playful, and it’s serious.
Working with simple materials creates space for insight to emerge. There’s less pressure to be right. More permission to explore. The act of building becomes a form of thinking.
This kind of hands-on exploration is often associated with creative or design-led disciplines, although at heart it’s something deeply human. We have always learned by making, shaping, testing, and revising.
Reimagining in business and leadership
For founders, leaders, and teams, reimagining is becoming a core capability.
Many people I work with sense that the old maps no longer fit. Growth-focused models sit uneasily alongside concerns for wellbeing, community, and the living world. Decisions feel heavier. Trade-offs more visible.
In these conditions, innovation doesn’t begin with a solution. It begins with better questions.
What if we designed our work around long-term contribution rather than short-term gain?
What if success included care for people and place?
What if coherence mattered as much as efficiency?
Reimagining creates a space where these questions can be explored safely and seriously. Where ideas can be tested before they’re implemented. Where futures can be rehearsed, rather than imposed.
A skill worth learning
The ability to reimagine is not reserved for creatives or strategists. It’s learnable. Practicable. Strengthened through repetition.
It shows up in how we frame challenges.
In how we involve others.
In how willing we are to sit with uncertainty without rushing to closure.
This matters deeply for innovation in business today. Especially for those working at the edges, in small enterprises, social ventures, community-led initiatives, and place-based work, where resources are limited and the stakes are real.
Reimagining allows us to hold complexity without being overwhelmed by it. To stay connected to purpose while responding to reality as it is.
From what is, to what if
The shift from what is to what if is subtle, and profound.
It doesn’t deny the difficulties we face. It acknowledges them, and then asks if something else might also be possible.
This is where imagination meets responsibility.
Where hope becomes grounded rather than idealistic.
Where new directions start to take shape.
For me, this work sits at the heart of supporting people and organisations to navigate change with care, creativity, and integrity. Whether through coaching, facilitation, or learning design, the invitation is the same: to create space for futures worth moving towards.
The future isn’t waiting for us.
It’s being shaped, quietly, by the questions we choose to ask and the courage we have to explore them.