We have moved past the Information Age and are now living in the Imagination Age. Intuitive and creative thinking skills are as valuable as “hard skills” and are unique to each one of you. You have these innate skills—all you have to do is unleash them. Join up. What does imagination have to do with leadership? Ever since he was in college, Brian Paradis has been intrigued by the question, “What does imagination have to do with leadership?” For thirty years, he studied this puzzle as he honed his business and leadership skills, and one thing became crystal clear: imagination has a powerful influence on leadership. The compelling combination of leader + imagination = an opportunity to unleash all kinds of potential. The world is increasingly complex, knowledge is advancing at an unfathomable rate, and the problems in our world seem unsolvable. Organizations are in near constant and disruptive transition, and the cultures that define them are disconnected, disaffected, and divisive. Too many leaders show up to work wondering if any of it matters. We are “smarter” than any generation in history, but that isn’t the problem. The problem is imagination is not advancing at the same pace. But where there’s a closed door, there’s an open window of opportunity for those willing to walk through, to take a risk, and see what others don’t. Lead with Imagination promises three returns on your investment of time from reading it: You will be inspired by the possibilities and strengthened against the challenges. You will gain power and confidence to imagine, create, and innovate. We are all born with innate imagination and curiosity—learn how to use it. You will release your fullest potential and help release the potential of those you lead. We all learned as kindergarteners to assimilate quickly by giving the teacher (society) the desired answer, and to “fit in.” That colored our thinking from that moment forward and restricted our thinking and use of imagination. But now, it’s time to color outside the lines.

Today's leadership challenges are not technical but transformational. Leaders fail, not from a lack of knowledge or resources, but from a failure of the imagination.

Creative Leadership (working title) is a guidebook that reveals ways that leaders and team members can reach their greatest creative potential. The text demonstrates how leading with imagination promotes an environment of innovation. Readers will discover helpful mindsets about creativity, strategies of visual thinking, and methods for achieving their vision. A discussion about how to develop creativity is followed by an outline of design processes and implementation strategies. The work provides an overarching view of a dynamic approach to leadership. Key concepts are defined, and information is categorized into digestible subsections, providing a foundational understanding of how to develop creativity and interweave it into a teaching or management style.

A story or picture is worth a thousand words. A story, picture or metaphor can help us crystallise what we need to do next. A phrase such as ‘the seed has to die’ or ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’ or ‘the risk of not seeing the wood for the trees’ can sum up in a poignant way truths that we as leaders need to recognise. As we explore a metaphor, the next steps can become clearer. A metaphor can stimulate our imagination and allow us to think afresh about an issue. Reflecting on a problem using a metaphor can help us unblock our thinking and open up the possibility of new solutions. It can enable us to ‘cut to the heart of an issue’, clarify situations, provide insights or show us where we are stuck. They enable us to face the reality that we need to abandon a project, make a fresh start or change direction. Metaphors can be used in coaching conversations and lead to creative and stimulating dialogue. The metaphors featured are drawn from myriad sources. Often in the midst of a coaching conversation, a phrase comes to mind that encapsulates an idea or way forward. The memorable metaphor allows an idea to stick in the memory and be a constant reminder that there is a way forward which may be different to what we had previously anticipated. The content in this book is organised into 8 thematic sections for ease of use.

This comprehensive book provides a theoretical understanding of how imagination contributes to effective leadership, as well as practical tools all educational leaders can employ to cultivate their imaginations and the imaginations of others in their communities. To support these goals, book chapters offer multiple perspectives on what imagination is, why it is essential for educational leaders, and how it can be developed. Contributions by leadership scholars and school-based leaders are organized around three themes: exploring possibilities, poetics of memory, and imagination’s role in social justice and equity. Each section opens with a leadership story that shows how a school leader developed and used imagination to create solutions to real problems. Contributors to this volume were invited to read each otherÕs work and share their questions and thoughts. This work can now be used by individuals or within formal or informal learning communities to expand, deepen and, apply concepts. Expanding on Kieran EganÕs theory of Imaginative Education, this book will help current and future leaders employ imagination to make sense of and address the day-to-day challenges they encounter. Book Features: Brings together empirical and conceptual research on imagination’s varied roles in educational leadership.Provides practical strategies and implementable techniques for cultivating leadership imagination. Demonstrates what cognitive tools all leaders can use to deepen their understanding of issues, to emotionally and imaginatively engage their school communities, and to support equity, diversity, and inclusion.Offers easy-to-use activities and guidelines for applying imagination to key leadership processes and practices. Includes “Cultivating Curiosity, Conversation, and Imagination” sections at the end of chapters to stimulate individual reflection and collaborative discussion. Contributors: Laurie Anderson, Sean Blenkinsop, Lori Driussi, Lynn Fels, Mark Fettes, James W. Koschoreck, Dan Laitsch, Craig Mah, Jessica Masterson, Moraimo Machado, Sarah Pazur, Rose Pillay, Tara Preston, Courtney Robertson, Jonathan Sclater, Karen Steffensen, Katie Strom, Zachary D. Thomas, and Kara Mitchell Viesca.

"As an accomplished musician and composer, Michael Jones brings a unique sensibility to the subject of leadership. While other writers address style, process ands leadership issues, Michael illuminates the deep parallels between leadership and the creative process." Peter M Senge author of The 5th Discipline Founding Chair, SoL (The Society for Organizational Learning) Senior Lecturer, and MIT Sloan School of Management. In the future we need to envision a new leadership story - one that involves a transformation in awareness from performance to presence, from uniformity to uniqueness, from abstraction to beauty, from efficiency to improvisation and from instrumentality to the expressive power of story and voice. Together they awaken a commons of the imagination - a collective field of possibility that transforms our mechanistic view of the world to a more sustainable and transcendent vision that is creative, organic and whole. The primary purpose of Artful Leadership is to explore these fundamental shifts in awareness in the context of cultivating a mind that is more subtle, refined, undefinable, and free flowing - a mind that can perceive underlying patterns of meaning and therefore offer a portal for creating new understandings in an interconnected world. Michael Jones explores this journey of awakening in the form of a series of conversations with John, a successful senior leader who is searching for greater meaning and purpose in his work. As the conversation unfolds it becomes clear that this journey cannot be achieved alone. Instead leaders will need to come together to reclaim the commons - a space of wholeness and possibility in the personal and public imagination - in order to explore the less tangible dimensions of leadership as preparation for engaging a more complex and changeable world. In this original and thought - provoking book, Michael Jones foresees a renaissance in leadership practice, one based upon mindful attention, authentic inquiry, an aliveness to the artistic creation and an abundant curiosity for exploring whatever is fresh and new.

The field of leadership studies needs theory and research techniques that balance conventional science with the arts and humanities in order to capture leadership’s moral dimension. Borrowing from Aristotle’s account of the three types of knowledge, the author argues that leadership is an in-between form that combines craft-based skill with theoretical knowledge adapted for a specific situation’s unique characteristics. The book discusses three sociology traditions and a distinctive variety of the history of religions while synthesizing their core premises. The resulting hybrid enables leadership analysis that emphasizes power dynamics cloaked in quasi-mythic discourse. The author labels this perspective the “leadership imagination”, and its mode of analysis “taxonomic leadership analysis”. The book includes methodological tips on how to construct such analysis and two case study chapters that exemplify it. While the example analyses concern leadership issues at the national and international levels, the approach works equally well with individual organizations. LaMagdeleine’s non-conventional approach to leadership and management makes this an enlightening study for graduate students in leadership and business programs, and provides new analytic tools for students and faculty conducting research in business ethics and policy studies.