Dreaming in Dubai
I just returned from my first trip to the Middle East. I trained a dozen leaders in an executive development program for a telecommunications company on behalf of The Ken Blanchard Companies.
Many Westerners know of Dubai because of the country's ambitious constuction programs. Three new islands, a seven-star hotel built on another new island, and more new high-rise construction than can be found in most American cities combined.
What fascinated me more than the construction per se is the imagination and audacity that fuels it. The hard-core pragmatist would say it's not imagination and audacity that made the buildings possible, it's money, and the United Arab Emirates has a lot of that because of oil prices. It's true; there is a lot of money pouring into the country's coffers. But, money doesn't conceive of anything, the human mind does. Money is a means to an end. Whether the end is inspired or mundane is up to our decisions.
I've watched San Diego build up in the past decade and with the exception of the new baseball park and perhaps two other buildings, most of the 15 new towers I counted are bland, shapeless boxes. Most of the buildings are not finished at the top with anything that enhances the skyline and helps it become sculpture. And, not fewer than 7 complexes are pairs of identical towers. One uninspired rectangle is enough. Two are insults to imagination.
Dubai's imagination captivates me. Their buildings are metaphor. And so are ours. To talk mainly about the money available for building anything is to put finances ahead of our conceptions. It is to put a constraint ahead of the one tool that can help liberate us from them, imagination. Too many small ideas are buttressed by fears about money.
Don't get me wrong, We're beset by meaninful constraints every day. But, too often I hear people thinking small because they spend most of the time describing the problem and not enough being creative about how they might eliminate it, sidestep it, or change their point of view on it. Day in and out I hear people, me included, talk about the constraints we face as if we are unable to imagine executable ways out of or around them. Are we really that powerless, or do we just think so?
A dear friend wants to move to a new city after many years of hating where he lives. His fear of the unknown and of not finding a job quickly make him sit still, a little too inactive mentally and physically. He does not conceive creative ways to make it all work. Because of his fears and assumed constraints, what is possible is slipping deeper into the future. He does not ask for enough help from people who care about his success. The problems he sees have obscured his excitement to finally live where he wants to live. Meanwhile the clock of his dream ticks.
A former client hems and haws about her job. It's not what she wants to do. It leaves her feeling bored and uninspired. She wants to work for a non-profit, always has. But now she is "in a successful career" and feels constrained by her "golden handcuffs." She doesn't realize that she cuffs herself every morning before leaving for work. Her dream sits and waits for her somewhere down the road. I think her future could come a lot sooner if she were to spend less time describing her feelings and the problem and more time conceiving and executing a strategy to get the job she really wants.
An executive coach has a growing interest to spend more time with family and friends who live far away. He thinks about moving across country but can't imagine how to do it because of work and school. So, he just talks about the thought of moving, when there are many more ways to spend more time with family and friends than moving. And even moving would be possible were he to build solutions and instead of more descriptions of his real and assumed constraints.
I wonder what we could build for ourselves, how much faster we could reach our futures were we to spend more time imagining and then executing creative ways around our problems and assumed constraints and less time merely describing them. Next time you see a picture or TV program about Dubai's man-made island chain and seven-star hotel, I hope you will think about what kind of solution you need to build the big, delayed accomplishments you want for yourself. Can you imagine a new way to make it happen? Use Dubai's inspired creations to think about how inspired (and productive)you can be...if you would just get more creative with your thinking. Nothing says the real world solutions to your problems--mangerial, personal or interpersonal--and the real world experiences of what you most want have to be so deep in your future.
Many Westerners know of Dubai because of the country's ambitious constuction programs. Three new islands, a seven-star hotel built on another new island, and more new high-rise construction than can be found in most American cities combined.
What fascinated me more than the construction per se is the imagination and audacity that fuels it. The hard-core pragmatist would say it's not imagination and audacity that made the buildings possible, it's money, and the United Arab Emirates has a lot of that because of oil prices. It's true; there is a lot of money pouring into the country's coffers. But, money doesn't conceive of anything, the human mind does. Money is a means to an end. Whether the end is inspired or mundane is up to our decisions.
I've watched San Diego build up in the past decade and with the exception of the new baseball park and perhaps two other buildings, most of the 15 new towers I counted are bland, shapeless boxes. Most of the buildings are not finished at the top with anything that enhances the skyline and helps it become sculpture. And, not fewer than 7 complexes are pairs of identical towers. One uninspired rectangle is enough. Two are insults to imagination.
Dubai's imagination captivates me. Their buildings are metaphor. And so are ours. To talk mainly about the money available for building anything is to put finances ahead of our conceptions. It is to put a constraint ahead of the one tool that can help liberate us from them, imagination. Too many small ideas are buttressed by fears about money.
Don't get me wrong, We're beset by meaninful constraints every day. But, too often I hear people thinking small because they spend most of the time describing the problem and not enough being creative about how they might eliminate it, sidestep it, or change their point of view on it. Day in and out I hear people, me included, talk about the constraints we face as if we are unable to imagine executable ways out of or around them. Are we really that powerless, or do we just think so?
A dear friend wants to move to a new city after many years of hating where he lives. His fear of the unknown and of not finding a job quickly make him sit still, a little too inactive mentally and physically. He does not conceive creative ways to make it all work. Because of his fears and assumed constraints, what is possible is slipping deeper into the future. He does not ask for enough help from people who care about his success. The problems he sees have obscured his excitement to finally live where he wants to live. Meanwhile the clock of his dream ticks.
A former client hems and haws about her job. It's not what she wants to do. It leaves her feeling bored and uninspired. She wants to work for a non-profit, always has. But now she is "in a successful career" and feels constrained by her "golden handcuffs." She doesn't realize that she cuffs herself every morning before leaving for work. Her dream sits and waits for her somewhere down the road. I think her future could come a lot sooner if she were to spend less time describing her feelings and the problem and more time conceiving and executing a strategy to get the job she really wants.
An executive coach has a growing interest to spend more time with family and friends who live far away. He thinks about moving across country but can't imagine how to do it because of work and school. So, he just talks about the thought of moving, when there are many more ways to spend more time with family and friends than moving. And even moving would be possible were he to build solutions and instead of more descriptions of his real and assumed constraints.
I wonder what we could build for ourselves, how much faster we could reach our futures were we to spend more time imagining and then executing creative ways around our problems and assumed constraints and less time merely describing them. Next time you see a picture or TV program about Dubai's man-made island chain and seven-star hotel, I hope you will think about what kind of solution you need to build the big, delayed accomplishments you want for yourself. Can you imagine a new way to make it happen? Use Dubai's inspired creations to think about how inspired (and productive)you can be...if you would just get more creative with your thinking. Nothing says the real world solutions to your problems--mangerial, personal or interpersonal--and the real world experiences of what you most want have to be so deep in your future.
posted by Activate Potential at 12:58 AM 
