Practice 11: Swap Bodies. Lose yourself in a role.

Practice 11: Swap Bodies.

Practice 11 from Imagination First (Liu and Noppe-Brandon) is really about using perspective to see the world differently, to open up new imaginative possibilities, and to act differently as a result.

The ability to take the perspective of an "other" is a basic developmental milestone for young infants/toddlers. While it is a natural development for most people, over time some of us get better at it than others. Taking an other's perspective or seeing the world from "someone else's eyes" forces us to recognize that our conceptualization and understanding of reality is not the only possibility. Without getting into discussions of parallel universes or associated alternate realities, it is not difficult for most of us to recognize that how we view what we experience makes a big difference on how we experience it and our understanding of the experience. For example, two people attend the Super Bowl. One is a fan of the team that ultimately wins. The other, a fan of the team that ultimately loses. Even if seated in the same section, their experiences of the Super Bowl are likely very different. Or, take another example: an aid worker in Haiti and a citizen of Haiti. Both are experiencing the after-math of the earthquakes and floods and health epidemics, but their experiences of the same exchange to obtain clean drinking water is entirely different. Or, you take your 5 year old and your 11 year old sons to see a speech by your local Alderman because you want to expose them to politics. Odds are good that the three of you had very different experiences and perspectives of the same event.

Enough examples, you get the point. Now, imagine if you intentionally practiced taking the perspective of another. What new ideas might emerge? Can you envision the potential benefits of freeing yourself from your own world view, perspective and constraints? Your imagination is unleashed. You are "freed" to be someone else, to solve a new problem that maybe you never thought of, or to consider solutions that had never occurred to you in your usual perspective. If you practice this enough, you will get good at it. You will free yourself from the rut of your "usual" thinking whenever you like...by "swapping bodies" (or perspectives) with someone else. 

And while increasing imagination is a wonderful thing in its own right, it is made even more wonderful by acting upon it, creating something new, or engaging in social innovation. On some level it seems that our ability to take the perspective of another and to benefit from that new view also requires us to use our enlightened perspective for good.

Imagination first, yes. Using our strengthened imaginations to solve or address all sorts of problems to make the world a better place, even better.