Internationally recognized keynote speaker, leadership expert, and gifted thinker
Piero Morosini, was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about his thought provoking and revolutionary book
Seven Keys to Imagination: Creating the future by imagining the unthinkable and delivering it.
Piero Morosini guides the reader on a journey through time, space, and the mind toward a deeper understanding of the power of the human imagination to create different futures that lead to personal and business success.
Thanks to
Piero Morosini for his time and for his thoughtful and comprehensive responses to the questions. They are greatly appreciated.
What was the background to writing this book Seven Keys to Imagination: Creating the future by imagining the unthinkable and delivering it?Piero Morosini: I was brought up in Peru, in an environment that encouraged the use of imagination and the power of dreams, an upbringing very much in tune with the country’s ancient traditions. For example, “Hamawtha” the native-language term for a wise person in ancient Peru, stems from the aymara word “Hamutha”, which means “to understand through imagination”. However, later on as a student and an executive living in the US and Europe, I found that “very imaginative” was a bit of a put-down. I was surprised to realize that, in the corporate world, “creative thinking” was something left to the creatives – the people who did the advertising for a company.
I felt – in a very instinctive way – that this was deeply wrong. And I observed that those few leaders and organizations out there that thought differently and put imagination at the very center of how they lived and worked, were a lot more successful than their peers in finding their way into that great unknown: the future. So I decided to write Seven Keys to Imagination to put that greatest of human gifts – our imagination – back to where it properly belongs: at the very center of our professional, personal, and family lives.
You describe imagination as a kind of real magic. What do you mean by that?Piero Morosini: In a very colloquial way, even as small children we were quite naturally adept at regarding imagination as a kind of magic. Because the way in which images just burst out of our minds is, well, quite magical. Modern neuroscience has not quite yet unveiled the mysterious mechanisms by which imagination operates in our minds, so it gives it that touch of mystery, that patina of wizardry.
From a cognitive standpoint, imagination is magic because it is the most powerful way of gaining understanding known to both men and women. Whereas knowledge – especially the more rational and logical brand of it - gives you the understanding of what you can comprehend, imagination embraces the whole universe in one effortless mental rush.
Even from a strictly etymological sense, imagination invariably leads to magic, because the stem of the word comes from a suggestive Avestan term – the ancient language spoken in old Persia (current Iran).
That key term is magh, meaning “power,” which (mostly via the Latin) is the root of many English words such as “might,” “image,”“magister” or “master,” and, of course, “imagination,” “magic,” and “magician.” So, in a sort of convoluted and amusing way, these etymological roots make a sort of “magician” out of everyone out there who uses imagination or who’s got a Master’s degree – like myself. Therefore, as you can see, it is from many different perspectives that we find “imagination” and “magic” to be inextricably bound, both throughout history and in our day-to-day experiences.
Piero Morosini (photo left)
Many people not only scoff at the idea of magic and internal power but actively try to suppress it. How much power does a person possess within themselves. Has this power of imagination been understood for centuries and by many of the great creative minds of history?Piero Morosini: “Creative imagination” and “fanciful imagination” are two very different things that stem from the same place: the human mind. And, by its very nature, “creative imagination” - the ancient art of using imagination to learn about the world and operate physical transformations in it at will - has been, from the beginnings of history, the key source of individual power in every human community. Even in the more civilized parts of the ancient world – like old Egypt, Sumer, China, India and Peru – the earliest kings were master magicians. That was their key source of power.
And we now know that this ancient paradigm of imagination-driven magic, survived throughout the ages under different names and practiced by various powerful characters. This included many of Europe’s first scientists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Robert Boyle and especially Isaac Newton, all of whom devoted a significant part of their careers to magical and alchemical experimentation. These great minds used imagination and magic as a way to unleash the full power of the human mind, both individually and within social groups.
Even a 20th century psychologist like Carl Jung very clearly dwells into those ancient sources to explore the boundless powers of the human mind to powerfully transform itself and its surroundings. So, yes, imagination has most certainly been understood for a very long time and by many of history’s greatest minds as the key to attaining individual power and to unleash the greatest performance potential out of human organizations. “Seven Keys to Imagination” stems from very ancient and well-traveled paths of wisdom.
You list seven keys to imagination. What are those keys and why are they important to recognize and understand?Piero Morosini: The seven keys to imagination are:
1) trade on mindset – the ability to embrace an open and positive mindset that unleashes our imagination.
2) Customer obsession - we must be totally focused on how our cherished dreams will benefit the customer.
3) Purposeful mission - our dreams and aspirations must have a strong and ethical purpose that all stakeholders can passionately embrace.
4) Wiraqocha leaders - the term is based on the ancient Andean leader whose actions were guided by five qualities: wholeness, tolerance, walk-the-talk, generosity and patience.
5) Tikunacuy - again this is based on an ancient Andean custom of trying out, of experimenting before making total commitments.
6) Gentleman's promise - here the concept is making a total commitment to realizing our dreams.
7) Common glue - there must be strong bonds to hold the stakeholders interest together toward the realization of a shared dream.
These keys are important to recognize and understand because all of the great visionaries I studied – from ancient leaders like Wiraqocha to modern ones like Amacio Ortega, founder of fashion retailing giant Zara, or Vincenzo Muccioli, who created the world’s best drug rehabilitation community in Italy – have masterfully used each of these seven keys to imagine alternative and positive futures, and build them. No matter which country they came from, or which historic era they lived in, or which human activity they devoted their talents to – industry, arts, education, politics or what have you – every great visionary I have looked at has used these seven keys to create alternative, positive and ethical futures that, in most cases, were radically different from the status quo.
Is it possible for the average person to develop these seven keys within themselves?Piero Morosini: Yes, and this was one of the central findings in my book: that every person is born with an untapped potential to become a visionary leader. No matter where or how we are born, the power of imagination is naturally wired in the neural circuits of the average human mind. And it is up to each of us to transcend our context and our environment, and make the courageous decision to develop our potential. Sometimes this makes you the captain of your ship, allowing us to realize the bright visions you conceived for our own individual career. Other times, the seven keys to imagination will set you in the path of leading others toward the creation of exciting alternative futures. But, in every case, discovering the power of our imagination is a trek of mutual realization worth devoting our lifetimes.
How can the keys be applied effectively to imagine and create a more successful future?Piero Morosini: There are three key notions one must keep in mind to imagine and create a more successful future: mindset, empathy and emotions. Mastering all three of them will get you a long way into using the full power of your imagination. Mindset means operating in the way we see the world in order to become more open minded and better observers of our surroundings. Empathy means the ability to imagine-other, to distance ourselves from our own egos and put ourselves in the shoes of another person and feel and see the world through their eyes. Emotions means to learn to express our feelings at the appropriate times in order to build shared commitments with other people that will help us build our dreams together.
What is the first step a person should take to uncovering the seven keys within themselves?Piero Morosini: Usually that first step involves learning how to use our mindset effectively. To do this, I challenge people to adopt what I call a “trade-on” mindset, in other words to see the world with the mental eyes of being, acting and achieving much more with a lot less. This is the positive mindset we all had as small children, which quite naturally favors the flow of our imagination. Instead, as we grow up as adults most people learn to be what I call: “trade-off” thinkers, a state of mind best encapsulated in aphorisms such as: “there is no free lunch” or “no pain no gain”. This kind of mindset reduces our powers of observation and constrains our imagination.
To see how this happens, try to observe your close surroundings to identify actual examples of “trade-ons,” Just do it for a few seconds before you read the next line. Did you found the exercise difficult? This means you have most to gain from tuning your mindset in a “trade-on” direction. A portable phone, the laptop I use to write these lines, even the palm trees I can see from my window at home, are all clear examples of technological and natural trade-ons: they all achieve much more with a lot less. The world around us is full of examples -- it’s just our mindset that sometimes isn’t quite tuned to perceive them.
What is next for Piero Morosini?Piero Morosini: I am using my imagination to write an inspirational book called “The Path of Wiraqocha.” It takes you through a legendary trek that, according to legend, the Hamawtha Wiraqocha carried out many thousand years ago throughout the spectacular geography of what is now Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, all the way to the Polynesian islands of the Pacific Ocean.
It is a book of mystical and physical adventures that, in a subliminal and metaphorical way, parallels the fabulous trip we can all take to untap our internal spiritual and mental wealth. I will finish writing the book so that later on this year – or early 2012 – every reader will be able to gain inspiration from the ancient Andean wisdom.
Thanks a lot!
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My book review of
Seven Keys to Imagination: Creating the future by imagining the unthinkable and delivering it by Piero Morosini.
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