(Preparing For) A Failure of Imagination

With organizational failures, the imagination is often at fault. We can’t imagine things going wrong, so we don’t plan for them. Organizations can’t imagine that their employees would do something unethical, so they don’t have policies in place to prevent it. Owners can’t imagine that a natural disaster could destroy their business, so they don’t have a plan to recover from it.

It’s what some would call a failure of imagination.

It is not always negative. When things go right unexpectedly, we have a failure of imagination. We can’t imagine that our new product will be an enormous hit, so we don’t make enough to meet the demand. We can’t imagine that our company will be acquired, so we don’t plan for what comes next.

The key is to have a balance of imagination. We need to imagine both the best and worst-case scenarios. We need to imagine the future and plan for it. Otherwise, we’re just setting ourselves up for failure.

History of the term — Failure of Imagination

The term “failure of imagination” was first coined by author William Golding in his 1954 novel Lord of the Flies. In the book, Golding argues that the biggest problem with society is that people cannot imagine alternatives to the way things are currently. He says that this lack of…