I have succumbed to the temptation to become a participant in the latest on-line addiction, Pinterest. My justification is that I joined through a link related to non-profits, not through an entertainment site. My particular area of interest is that of posters and phrases.
The other day, I was entranced by the statement, "Imagination is more important than knowledge". I would love to know your thoughts on this, but I went back and forth as to whether I agreed or disagreed with the statement, and why. The depths of thinking to resolve this went well beyond my usual musings, so I wanted to capture it for you.
Strategy is all about moving from where you are, to where you want to be, and the methods to get there. What makes knowledge so important is that unless you know where you are, you don't have a starting point. If you don't have a good picture of the existing location, skills, performance level, offering and value, you cannot know when you have changed, and you cannot set a direction to the goals you have.
To put this in simple terms, how long does it take to drive to Greenville? Well, first you have to know how far away you are. Are you in Spartanburg, Asheville, Columbia, or somewhere else? What is your mode of transport? Are you walking or driving or flying? What time of day is it? Rush hour? What is the weather like? Each of these will impact the answer to the question of how long it will take to drive to Greenville. Therefore, knowledge is extremely important.
Google says it is 32 minutes to get to downtown Greenville, but it very seldom takes me exactly that amount of time. So, all the knowledge we can have will not necessarily deliver the results I want. The reason for this is that I don't actually have the knowledge of the future state. I have to imagine it, even though I have been to Greenville before.
What exactly does that mean - imagine my trip to Greenville?
Well, think about it this way. I know where Greenville is, and I can actually look at the map on Google if I am not sure. However, I can only imagine what the trip is going to be like based on my past experiences. I cannot know exactly what is going to happen. The more often I have made the trip, the closer my imagining to how it will likely turn out.
What can happen along the way? Well, let's imagine some scenarios.
There could be a major wreck on the interstate.
Your car could break down.
You get pulled over for an infraction or just for a check.
You might decide to stop and help a stranded motorist.
You might not find a parking place.
The list goes on and on.
Imagination. How important to strategy! The more we can paint of picture of what we want our business to look like in the future, and the more information we have about it, the better the chance of reaching the new state. The more we can imagine what can happen to help or hurt our progress along the way, the more robust the plan can be. We can prepare for contingencies that make sense, and imagine an alternative route to success.
To conclude this long example, I am going to cheat and say that Knowledge and Imagination are equally important.
What do you think?
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