Weaving Visions into Realities

All of Imagine Chicago’s initiatives use a common approach that moves from idea to action in a generative cycle:

· Understand what is

(focusing on the best of what is)

· Imagine what could be

(working in partnerships with others)

· Create what will be

(translating what we value into what we do)

All three processes feed into and out of each other; the interdependent relationship makes them powerful in transforming individual and community visions into realities.

All of Imagine Chicago’s work begins with and is grounded in asking open-ended, asset and value-oriented questions about what is life-giving, what is working, what is generative, what is important. Asking positive questions encourages the sharing of best practices and the articulation of fundamental values. For example, in working with parents, we have explored questions like: What is something your child has accomplished that you are especially proud of? What about your family is especially effective in encouraging children to learn? What interests you most right now? Generating a shared understanding of constructive and creative values and practices helps to reveal the positive foundation on which even greater possibilities can be built.

New possibilities are inspired by interesting questions or stories which stretch our understanding beyond what we already know. When we articulate and hear from others what works and matters, we readily imagine how even greater transformation and innovation can happen. In a learning community, collective imagination continually expands. Young parents sharing stories of how they are each caring for their children leads others to good parenting practices. A youth and elderly worker sharing their stories of making a difference can lead to a new intergenerational project. As Oliver Wendell Holmes suggested long ago, "A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions." The stretching of our imaginations, through dialogue, experience and reflection, enables us to transcend so-called impenetrable ‘barriers’ and to discover new paths.

For imagination to lead to community change, it needs to be embodied in something concrete and practical — a visible outcome that inspires more people to invest themselves in making a difference. The stories and images we are sharing throughout this publication are examples of such outcomes — from the place-based innovations of Citizen Leaders, to the renewed dedication of Chicago Public School teachers, to the expanded public commitments of young people and parents.

What the Understand-Imagine-Create cycle builds upon is the link among positive questions, positive images and positive possibilities. The best of what is, shared in a generative dialogue, generates creative opportunities to think about what can be.

David Cooperrider’s research on the relationship between positive image and positive action enumerates the many ways in which we create the world we believe in (for example, the familiar Pygmalion effect in education and placebo effect in healing). If we see ourselves, and others see us, as inept and impotent, then we feel marginalized and hopeless about our role in the world. On the other hand, if we claim our hope and power, and take inventory of our capacities and potential, we begin to nurture real-world actions that demonstrate our power and help to expand and enrich our communities.

In an Understand-Imagine-Create cycle, the gaps between ‘thinkers’ and ‘doers’ collapse, as people think and do, and think and do, again and again. Elitism and expertism, which tend to shut many people out of the conceptual conversation, cannot survive in this process; nor can the privileging of one set of experiences and skills over another. Instead, in understanding, imagining and creating, it is assumed that everyone has the capacity to think and act, and each person’s experiences, ideas and actions are valuable for the whole.

If there is any moral imperative I live by, it is this: To create is a blessing, and a responsibility. To suppress creativity in ourselves or in others and to quell or ban imagination is a desecration of the human spirit... I believe that when we engage in the creative and imaginative process, we can venture into the holy, for we bring whoever we are into that flow.