Part 3
IMAGINE: Train Your Narrator

Perhaps you recognize your own Narrator in self-limiting statements such as these:
• I could never do that.
• We don't have enough resources to start this project.
• The right candidate just doesn't exist.
• I'm not good with technology.
• We'll never win because they cheat.
• You know how they are.
• We just don't have time to tackle that problem.
• They'll never hire me.
• I don't have enough money.

Statements like these provide a measure of security because they insulate us from risk and offer a sense of certainty. Even if we are not happy with our circumstances, we can take comfort in knowing that "We don't really have a choice" or "There's nothing we can do." This thinking may quickly answer "what's next?" but it also sets a hard limit on what we believe to be pos-sible. It short-circuits any attempt to remap the connections in our stories, locking us into our existing problems. 152

ONCE YOU'VE IDENTIFIED a story that is limiting, the easiest way to replace it is to swap it out for one that is more em-powering. Here's an example. If you have a limited mindset and assume demand always outruns supply, you might find yourself saying things like "We don't have enough time" or "We'll never be able to raise the capital for that."
But if you exchange that for a possibility mindset, with a story based on renewable resources, you might instead make statements like "We can achieve more this year than we did last" or "Let's get started, and the resources will follow." 153
154

A possibility question is any query that takes you beyond an analysis of the problem to a search for new solutions. While there is no finite list of possibility questions, here are some good examples.

• What does this make possible?
• What if I've got it backward?
• What would it take to accomplish x, y, or z?
• How can we reframe this?
• What else could I think?
• How do I want to show up in this situation?
• What is likely to happen in twelve months? Three years? How could we change that? 155
• Who knows more about this than I do?
• What would have to be true for that to happen? 156 155-56

To think creatively, we must be willing to ask the questions no one else is willing to ask, propose the ideas others are too timid to voice, or take the actions that frighten others into passivity. This doesn't mean that creative thinkers must be brash or arrogant or eccentric, only that they be brave enough to think new thoughts. 156

Counterfactual thinking is a related technique for pushing back on accepted thinking. Asking questions like "What if we knew we could not fail?" or "What if we had unlimited re-sources?" or "What if we were starting this business today rather than forty years ago?" can leapfrog your thinking over existing connections and into new possibilities. 158

We teach our coaching clients to reimagine stories that hold an apparent contradiction by suspending the idea that the solution must be either/or, to look for a third way. Sometimes the best way to make sense of our experience is not to eliminate the idea or detail that doesn't seem to fit but to recast the story in a way that harmonizes or even transcends the contradiction." Time and time again, the great problem solvers of history have used this method to improve our understanding. That's what Copernicus did, and Galileo, and Hubble. They concluded that the data wasn't wrong. It was the story that explained the data that needed to be changed.
Joy Paul Guilford, a pioneer in the study of creativity, called this technique divergent thinking, which is a way of thinking about problems that have no obvious, single answer. 159

Brainstorming is fundamentally a neurological process in which the brain first exhausts familiar pathways before trying to create new connections between existing concepts. At first, your brain rebels against anything that's totally new—to some degree, totally 160 novd ideas aren't even available to your conscious mind at the start.
Thankfully, thar' just the first stage of thinking through a problem.
As the number of obvious ideas dips, people start getting desperate. Then someone— maybe you — suggests a truly nutty idea. And that's the seed for the breakthrough.
Somehow, stating an idea that is clearly impractical but highly novel frees people to suggest ideas they may have considered too offbeat to mention. It starts pushing the boundaries of what's possible. After that, real creative thoughts begin to emerge.
Wrong may not be right, but it could stand just a leap or two away from right, and it might represent the fastest path to the answer you need.
Releasing one crazy idea begins to spark new connections.
That's the moment when your brain begins to mix and match concepts, trying to fit them together like pieces of a jigsaw puz-zle. And once that process starts, it takes on a life of its own. 161 160-61

The key to identifying novel but relevant ideas is to, as Mumaw puts it, "get to stupid faster." Stating the ridiculous idea is effective, because it removes the social inhibition against posing seemingly impractical ideas.

TO SPARK YOUR CREATIVITY, ask questions like these:
• What's the dumbest (or craziest) idea that might actually work?
• What would I do if I were someone else in this situation?
• What would have to be true for us to succeed?
• What would we do if anything were possible?
• What factors limit my choices? What if they didn't exist?
• What would I try if I weren't afraid of failing?
Another way of forcing our brains to go beyond our experience is approaching the problem with a beginner's mindset, asking questions that might seem obvious. Here are a few examples:
• How would I handle this problem if it had never occurred before?
• What would a fifth grader say about this?
• Why do we do it this way?
• Do we still believe that idea? 162
• What makes others think or behave that way?
• Do I really need to do this? Does anyone?
• IfI were starting this business today, would I organize it the way it is now?
• What does that word or phrase really mean?
• How else could you explain this idea? 163 162-63

To develop an experimental mindset, you must shift from thinking, My ideas about the situation are complete and perfect, to This is my best understanding so far. Let's give it a go and see what happens. This is how all advances are made. 164

The more things you try, the faster you will find out what doesn't work. When you use that information to self-correct, you'll eventually arrive at the right answer—-that is, the one that works in solving the problem. 166

What always works is the creative method itself-decon-structing and recombining ingredients, blending and adapting techniques, pairing and marrying ideas that others would reject or might never imagine to begin with. As a result, TIME magazine declared Redzepi a "God of Food," he's been awarded three Michelin stars, and his Copenhagen restaurant, Noma, has been named World's Best Restaurant four times.
What accounts for this relentless innovation? Redzepi sums it up in an entry from his personal journal: "Creativity is the ability to store the special moments, big or small, that occur throughout your life, then being able to see how they connect to the moment you're in. When past and present merge, something new happens." 167

It's difficult to critique your own thinking. You have only your experience and viewpoint to rely on. Meanwhile, other people know things you don't. Their unique experience and knowledge enable them to see things you can't see—things that might be the difference between hitting a wall or achieving your goals. 172

Though they didn't invent it, the engineers at Bell Labs were making use of what's called lateral thinking. This refers to the practice of thinking in areas that are adjacent or parallel to the problem you're working on. Often, that takes place in unstructured contexts-such as hallway conversations-where people with different skill sets, knowledge, or experience can share their input on a problem not directly related to their own work. 175

The invisible obvious is a term coined by psychological researcher Jan Smedslund to describe the cultural blindness that prevents people in a given context from seeing what is obvious to outsid-ers. What we call "common sense" is common only because we 176 have a shared understanding of the world, a common culture. Somebody els's common sense may not be the same as yours. 177 176-77

There are two networks (or modes) of neurons within your brain. The executive network (or mode) is guided by you, your conscious self. It thinks about what you tell it to. This is the top-down, left hemisphere-dominated network that loves analysis, order, familiar patterns, and predictability. 186 The default network (or mode) is self-directed. This is the bot-tom-up, right hemisphere-dominant network that loves novelty and creativity and operates largely in your subconscious." Of course you don't really have two separate brains. These are two neural networks within your brain that operate in different ways.
To find creative solutions to your problems you need to get this second part of the brain into action. This vast network of slower-firing neurons is highly adaptable. It can be endlessly reconfigured to provide new thoughts and connections.' Sure, this takes longer than using conscious thought, but it's highly effective. 187 186-87

WHEN WORKING on The Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci was known to quit working unexpectedly. He would sometimes spend half a day doing nothing, lost in his own thoughts. His patron wasn't thrilled by that. He wanted him to keep his tools in hand, just like the gardener working outside. But da Vinci convinced him otherwise. His argument, according to Renaissance historian Giorgio Vasari, was this:
The greatest geniuses sometimes accomplish more when they work less, since they are searching for inventions in their minds, and forming those perfect ideas which their hands then express and reproduce from what they previously conceived with their intellect. 187

The default network employs those little "daemons" we mentioned in chapter 2. Like the Narrator, they scour experiences,
memories, stories, concepts, and con-
nections, all while you eat, sleep, or take a shower. During these seemingly mindless activities, your subconscious is clicking through the vast collection of thoughts buried deep in your mind.
It tries one connection, then another, and another, and another, looking for one that will make better sense of your reality. When it finds one, "Eureka!" It elevates the thought to your conscious mind.
These serendipitous insights are not the product of focused thought
or of some mysterious creative gift. And they don't depend on luck. Imaginative insights are produced by your subconscious mind when given the right opportunity to think. 188

When you have an aha moment, it's usually the result of synergistic interaction between the two networks. So to boost your creativity, it's important to alternate between the two. You need periods of focus on a problem, and periods of letting your conscious mind rest." 189

Can you shortcut the process? Sometimes. To be effective in problem-solving, your default network does best when primed with a period of deliberate thought. " The reason is simple: it finds more solutions when it knows what it's looking for. Con-scious, executive thought narrows the focus so the default network has a good starting point. 191

As it turns out, exercise stimulates the production of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and endorphins.
Muscle action also produces proteins that travel through the bloodstream and into the brain, where they "play pivotal roles in the mechanisms of our highest thought processes," according to professor of psychiatry John Ratey,' In other words, exercise is good for your brain. It helps you think. 193

To activate your mind, activate your body. As demonstrated by countless studies, consistent exercise can have a dramatic effect on your ability to learn new concepts, recall information, and solve problems. 193

That's generally how problem-solving works, especially when the default mode is engaged. Nearby connections become the stepping-stones of great discoveries.
This is what Steven Johnson has referred to as the "adjacent possible, borrowing a phrase from scientist Stuart Kauffman.
Making a crazy leap from one idea into another usually doesn't happen; instead, we nudge ourselves there by degrees, entertaining possibilities close to what we already regard as true. "The strange and beautiful truth about the adjacent possible is that its boundaries grow as you explore those boundaries," says John-son. "Each new combination ushers new combinations into the adjacent possible." That's why even "wrong" answers are sometimes right, because they can edge you closer to something that will prove effective. 196

Your default network excels at this purposeful meandering.
Wandering thoughts do not signal a disengaged mind. A certain amount of mind-wandering may be required to take the small steps that produce wildly creative solutions. 196

You are not stuck with the stories you have about yourself. You can train your Narrator to create a newer, truer storyline for your life. 206

As E. L. Doctorow said, writing a novel is like "driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."! Life is like that too. You just tackle one mildly scary step at a time, and you keep repeating until you get there. Each step gives your Narrator one more hopeful line to include in your next story. 208

IN A WORLD WHERE everything is dynamic, anything is pos-sible. To have the confidence to engage that world and reshape our stories as needed is a far more valuable and reassuring asset than is certainty. Once we accept the inevitability of change, we have no need to remain tied to ineffectual strategies and actions. Instead, we can respond effectively to whatever comes our way. The choice is up to you.
To make that choice will require a change of perspective. We must come to see uncertainty as a lever, not an impediment.
Those who can learn to tolerate the temporary discomfort of uncertainty will produce better results in business, in relation-ships, and in life than will those who insist on applying yesterday's shopworn solutions.
The converse is also true. Those who refuse to engage in the dynamic process of rethinking their approach to life and imagining new solutions will remain stuck. This approach will produce fewer and fewer satisfactory results, greater and greater frustration, and, in the end, the feeling that life has somehow passed them by. 211

By choosing to rethink your stories, you are choosing action over passivity. It is always easier to accept the status quo, even when it's not to your liking, because that removes the burden of responsibility. If the world can't be changed, then it's certainly not up to you to change it. When you admit that the
way things are is not the way they must be, and that we can change reality by changing the way we think about our problems, the responsibility for change falls—to one degree or another—on us. We must choose to act on the things we care about, to pursue our goals and see them through. 212

Ultimately, this is a choice to imagine and create a better future for ourselves. That will mean doing the hard work of 212 interrogating our own stories to get a clear, truer picture of the problems at hand. Then we must do the hard, sometimes slow and tedious work of imagining a new path. 213 212-13