To infinity and beyond – let’s #Build Back Better

Imagination (noun): power to create in one’s mind.

Creativity, enterprise, inspiration, vision and even flight of fancy: words that encompass ‘imagination’. Many of these words are used when we talk about business strategy but rarely do we hear the word imagination. Is that because we don’t have the capacity to dream anymore, the space to think or the appetite for risk?

We put forward an idea to a client recently while helping them to articulate their vision for the future. The idea wasn’t particularly radical or ground-breaking. It was a way of combining various existing components in a new way to deliver much better outcomes, while enabling us to try new models concurrently to refine our thinking for the future-proof scenario. Try while doing. Our client liked the proposal and simply said: “we wouldn’t have the imagination to think of that.”

It got us thinking…what’s happened to imagination in a work environment?

Is it lack of space to think? Is it lack of energy and enthusiasm, are we simply exhausted with day to day run of the mill delivery? Is it not worth putting our heads above the parapet in case we are laughed at or worse? Do we believe we’ll really gain anything by taking a risk and thinking creatively? Who’s going to support our idea when it’s not been done before?

To be honest, without imagination our predecessors would have not thought up the wheel. And then where would we be?

At Evermore, we know how hard it is to remember how we thought when we were seven or eight years old. We could be astronauts back then – to infinity and beyond – no inhibitions! That’s why we love working alongside people to help rediscover their inner astronaut.  We often challenge thinking, encourage them to try stuff out, and work alongside teams to bring new models from across the world to life.

Never has this been more important than now.  We need to bring the thinkers, mavericks, entrepreneurs, operators and practitioners together to really build back better post COVID-19. This is an opportunity to ditch outdated models of care, invest in people and embrace the momentum we’ve had to build to combat this terrible pandemic.

Imagination leading to design thinking and delivery of real solutions. That’s what the health and care world needs desperately.  And that’s why we will continue to support organisations that want to think beyond today to design sustainable, and yes, ground-breaking solutions for the future.