Assign someone to imagine

Introducing a "Meatless Sunday" in the office cafeteria or a "Feedback Thursday" on the office intranet does not require a super-thinker. A recently graduated management trainee can think of such simple innovations.

So, who would think about far more revolutionary and implementable ideas that go beyond anyone's expectations?

A chief imagination officer? Or a team of imagination officers? Maybe, if we could agree with Einstein's quote: "Imagination is more important than knowledge", we could certainly think of introducing such a role in businesses.

It is not that companies did not have such functions; we have seen innovation officers, creative officers, and visionary officers. Apart from creative agencies, who have roles of creative directors, very few companies think of assigning someone only to imagine and implement.

Doesn't our risk management function that assess risks on go? There may be some anticipation, but mostly, all risks are evaluated as we experience them. For a marketing campaign, we mainly depend on outsourced agencies.

Customer experience is another example. The phrase "customer experience" has become an overused cliché and not working as we hoped for. Have we thought of re-coining the jargon? Maybe, our chief imagination officer can help.

I know of a company that gave up close-collar outfits and introduced branded panjabis for men and sarees-kurtas for women coworkers. I am sure the thinker who thought about implementing this piece of idea was surely the undesignated chief imagination officer for them. The idea was a grand success.

This position is rare across the world; and not many have employed such resources. Many HR gurus across high-efficiency companies are talking about introducing this role.

Visualise how the public sector could benefit from the work of a team of imagination officers. Our bureaucrats are known for their orthodoxy and are quite innovation-shy. They are conventional in whatever they do and achieve.

However, the national challenges are far graver than they consider them to be.

The imagination officers can help in everything; they could be the best in policy-making, service delivery, creating new industries, promoting forward-thinking in education, addressing environmental and social issues, enhancing governance and diplomacy, and promoting culture and diversity.

Most importantly, they can streamline government processes and improve citizen engagement.

Now, what capabilities should such a resource have for this role? Certainly, they must be able to lead and inspire the entire population of a company to think creatively and embrace new ideas. Problem-solving abilities in a creative way are a must-have. This role may be engaged in fostering a culture that values creativity and open-mindedness. They must be able to forge strategic partnerships and networking. This professional must be a great communicator who can become an envoy of invention inside and outside the company.

Finally, they must have excellent skills in project management and implementation. It won't be a good idea to send a set job description (JD) to this resource. A JD-based resource may soon crumble down to within-the-box thinking. They must remain outside the box. The imagination officer's JD, if at all, should focus on staying in a perpetual box-less domain, thinking of ideas everyone would throw away as garbage.

But this individual or team must imagine without any box; if they try to enter the box, we should simply fire them.

The writer is a communications professional.