Christopher Loughlan

Imagine at Will: - tales of experimentation, curiosity and innovation Christopher Loughlan

This is not a book on the transformational ability of imagination or innovation design - the challenges of creating a new product or service and bringing it to the marketplace; there are plenty of great books out there already. Far less, does it even attempt a theory of the imagination. It is upstream of that process and centres around a particular triumvirate. It is about the process of cultivating an endless habit of curiosity of the human condition. A precursor or indeed twin of this must rely on having powers of good observation, to seek the new and the different and to ask 'why'/'what if'. The third pillar in this triumvirate being the subsequent mental processes of linking thoughts: higher level functions of combination, synthesis and analysis, leading to the skill in pattern recognition and applying such in a new scenario. The book also couples the practice of imagination with the process of innovation i.e. taking ideas forward into some form of action. I have re-told some and imagined other stories that may help to better understand the true nature of imagination and innovation, to dream about innovators and to stand 'in their shoes'. This book is the story of such moments, random accounts of the 'why and the how' - derived from curiosity, observation, surprise, delight and admiration. Imagination is undoubtedly a skill: practise, so that it becomes habitual.