GUIDED DAYDREAMING: AN EXAMPLE OF BRAINSTORMING FOR A COMMUNITY VISION:
Guided daydreaming can be used wherever a group needs to suspend ordinary awareness and reach aa place of creativity in their mind.
This sample is based on the focus question “What do we want to see in our community in the next 5 years?”
Priming the Pump: Enabling the Vision Brainstorm to be Comprehensive
Behind the prompts in this script are the Social Process Triangles, to ensure comprehensive thinking in the brainstorm. If the focus question is very different, I adapt this considerably, using as comprehensive a screen as I can dream up. I find I adapt this very intuitively, in response to the group.
Preparation: prepare the page for a mind-map.
First I have them turn a piece of blank paper sideways and write the focus question in the middle of the page, then draw a circle around it; I demonstrate this on a flip chart. I tell them that I don’t think in outline form—my mind “sproings” from one idea to another. I ask who else is like that (usually almost everybody). I explain that mindmapping is one way of holding ideas as they come, and allowing relationships to grow. I show on the flipchart that for me the focus question is like the trunk of a tree and that ideas branch out from each other—that I draw a separate branch for each idea and hold it in a few words or a visual image. Eventually I may connect different branches with lines as well. I give them permission to use this way of writing their ideas if it is comfortable, or to use any other way they like to record their ideas.
Then I ask them to put their pencils down.
“Who in this room likes to daydream? I’m going to give you a chance to daydream this afternoon. Some people like to look out the window, others to look at the ceiling, others to close their eyes—some rest their head on their hands so the boss thinks they’re working hard… You may relax a little bit and get into a comfortable position for daydreaming—but not too comfortable so that you fall asleep!”
Here I allow my voice to become soft and relaxed, and slow the pace down. I find I look at the ceiling and also imagine answers as I talk so that the pace and the ambiance work for everyone. “Imagine for a moment that you are at home in your favourite comfortable chair. You look up at the wall and see a calendar, and you note with surprise that it says (future date five years from today) and you realize that it has been exactly 5 years since we did the visioning workshop.
You begin to remember all the changes that have happened since the planning, things that you have wanted to come into being in this community. And as you begin to remember, you decide you would like to go out and take a look around the community. You get up and put on your coat, and you notice that on the lapel of your coat is a button that says the name of your organization.
You go out and begin to go around the community, and as you go you begin to notice physical things—buildings and open spaces, and you note the changes that have happened in the last 5 years, since (this year); changes that you have wanted to come into being. You go on a little further, and you notice places where people are working, and the changes that have happened in workplaces and in how people work together in the last 5 years, since (this year); changes that you have wanted to come into being. You note these things.
You go on a bit further, and you note places where decisions are getting made in the community now in (future year) and where justice is being carried out. You note the changes that have happened in the last 5 years, since (this year); changes that you have wanted to come into being.
You go on a bit further, and you note places and ways that people are learning now in (future year), changes that you have wanted to come into being. And you note the groups are organized, and perhaps families. And you note how people are symbolizing meaning in their lives now in future year),. And you note all these things.
As you go, someone comes up to you, notices your button, and begins to tell you the changes they’ve noticed that your organization has made in the community that they’ve wanted to see. You listen to them and note what they have to say. You say goodbye to them, and a little while later you meet someone else, someone with very different ideas than yours, maybe even opposing ideas, and they begin to tell you the changes that they see that they’ve wanted to come into being. You note what they have to say as well.
You decide to go to the office, and you note what’s on the bulletin board that tells you what’s going on now in (future year), Perhaps someone in the office comes up to you and tells you their hopes and dreams and how they have come into being now in (future year).
By this time your mind is very full of all the things that are in place now in (future year), so you decide it’s time to go home. You go home, take off your coat, and sit down in your favourite chair, and remember all of the things you have seen and heard that have come into being in the community in (future year), things that you have wanted to see.
When you are ready, you can come back through time and space into this room and this time, and let your ideas flow from your mind, through your arm and pencil, onto the paper.
(After a little time) There are no wrong answers. Any other things that come to you as you are writing, you may write as well.”
