COLLECTIVE IMAGINATION AS A PRACTICE OF SYSTEMIC CHANGE
- Daniela Elster
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
During Global Intrapreneur Week 2025, the League of Intrapreneurs hosted a session that did not offer frameworks, roadmaps, or five-step solutions. Instead, it offered something far more radical and necessary: a space to imagine together. The Collective Imagination Lab, moderated by Fadzi Whande, Chief of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UNHCR, brought together perspectives from different epistemologies and lived experiences. Michael Dandrieux, PhD in Sociology of the Imaginary and Co-founder of Eranos, a French consulting firm helping companies improve their strategy, culture, and leadership, joined me in dialogue. Beyond delivering answers, we were inviting a deeper inquiry into how imagination shapes reality, and why it is indispensable for systemic change.
What emerged was a shared recognition that imagination is a core infrastructure for transformation, especially in times of crisis.
“Imagination is precisely how we make sense of reality. It is the faculty through which meaning is produced.”
MICHAEL DANDRIEUX
PhD in Sociology of the Imaginary and co-founder of Eranos
IMAGINATION AS A COMPASS FOR TRANSFORMATION
We often treat imagination as an escape from reality, a realm of fantasy disconnected from the “real work” of systems change.
Yet, as Michael articulated so clearly, imagination is precisely how we make sense of reality. It is the faculty through which meaning is produced. From a sociological perspective, a crucial distinction exists between imagination and the imaginary.
Imagination is the active process of creating images: stories, metaphors, narratives, futures. The imaginary, on the other hand, is the vast, often invisible reservoir where these images accumulate over time. It is from this collective imaginary that societies draw what feels “normal,” “possible,” or “unthinkable.”
Systems do not change only because of new policies or technologies. They change when the imaginary that sustains them shifts. And most of the time, we are not aware of the images we are already living inside.
This is why systemic change work so often feels exhausting. We attempt to innovate while unconsciously reproducing the same imaginaries that created the problems in the first place.
Systems do not change only because of new policies or technologies. They change when the imaginary that sustains them shifts.
THE CRISIS BENEATH THE CRISES
Michael shared a reflection on what he called a “fatigue of hope”. Research shows that between 50–67% of young people globally believe the world is doomed.
This crisis of hope is showing up everywhere: in unprecedented levels of disengagement at work, in burnout across the social impact sector, and in a quiet resignation that says, “At best, my efforts will make things slightly less bad.”
As intrapreneurs, this context matters deeply because we are not only navigating bureaucratic inertia and risk-averse cultures, we are operating within a collective imaginary that has lost its sense of future.
Hope is the civilizational engine that fuels our energy to build something new, inspiring us to invent, care, and commit.
When leaders rely solely on imagination, they often project preferences or ideals onto systems. When they cultivate imaging, they learn to listen—deeply—to what the system itself is asking to become.
FROM IMAGINATION TO IMAGING
From a regenerative development perspective, I introduced a related but distinct capacity: imaging.
While imagination can remain abstract or mental, imaging is embodied, relational, and alive.
Imaging is the ability to sense potential that is already present but not yet expressed. It is not about inventing something from scratch, but about perceiving what wants to emerge from a specific place, system, or organization.
Imagination is conceptual; imaging reorganizes your breath, muscles, and awareness. It engages the whole human—body, intuition, emotion, and intellect.
Why does this matter for systemic change?
Because living systems do not respond to control in the way machines do. They respond to relationship, coherence, and conditions that allow life to express more of itself. When leaders rely solely on imagination, they often project preferences or ideals onto systems. When they cultivate imaging, they learn to listen—deeply—to what the system itself is asking to become.
ORGANIZATIONS AS LIVING SYSTEMS
One of the most powerful ideas explored in the Collective Imagination Lab was to see organizations not as machines to optimize, but as living systems with an essence, a vocation, and a role within a larger ecosystem. When organizations are treated as machines, strategy becomes an exercise in prediction and control. When they are approached as living systems, strategy becomes an act of orientation and participation.
A participant shared how their organization shifted from a rigid strategic plan to what they called a strategic dreaming compass. The term itself signals a shift from fixing the future to sensing direction. A compass does not define exact outcomes. It provides guidance and helps maintain orientation as conditions evolve.
In regenerative work, this orientation is essential. Systems change over time. The role is not to force outcomes, but to steward emergence thoughtfully.
REWRITING THE PROMISE OF OUR TIME
Every generation grows up with specific expectations, responsibilities, and possibilities shaped by history and society. Previous generations were promised progress, stability, and growth. This generation, however, was not promised any of that, and faces unprecedented uncertainty and complexity. A particularly profound contribution comes from Michael’s reframing of the “promise” of our era. He offers a different narrative: “this is the first generation with no promised future, yet one that has the opportunity to forge a promise for those who follow”. This perspective shifts success from accumulation to contribution, from individual achievement to intergenerational responsibility, making hope something we practice actively rather than wait for.
AN ECONOMY AND AN ORGANIZATION OF HOPE
An emerging economy of hope envisions a world where enthusiasm replaces extraction, prosperity replaces endless growth, and solidarity across generations replaces hyper-individualism. It begins in the imaginary but comes to life through choices, practices, and the ways we design organizations, incentives, and cultures. As the Collective Imagination Lab session drew to a close, participants named the promises they hope this era will hold: dignity, belonging, healing, wholeness, and the freedom to shine without burning out. These promises point to what life is inviting us to create today. The future is not something that simply happens to us. It is something that happens through us, when we dare to imagine, sense, and act together. Perhaps the most important work of intrapreneurs today is not only to change systems but to restore meaning, vitality, and hope to the act of working itself.
“This is the first generation with no promised future, yet one that has the opportunity to forge a promise for those who follow.”
MICHAEL DANDRIEUX
PhD in Sociology of the Imaginary and co-founder of Eranos
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR INTRAPRENEURS
For those working inside organizations to catalyze systemic change, collective imagination means:
Shifting questions from “How do we fix this?” to “What wants to grow here?”
Developing the capacity to sense with more than the rational mind.
Creating spaces where people can reconnect to purpose, not just performance.
Allowing strategy to be informed by context, relationships, and emergence.
Grounding hope in tangible potential, rather than distant ideals.
Watch the full episode
to explore how imagination can be practiced to enable systemic change.
Daniela Elster is Head of Community and Strategic Partnership at the League of Intrapreneurs and a consultant in regenerative development, sustainability, and experience design, with global experience and a background in strategic communication and social innovation.
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