Navigating Sustainability: Key Competencies for Future Imagineers

In 2024, we hosted our inaugural Innovation Circle, uniting over 30 attendees including esteemed alumni and industry partners. This event marked a pivotal moment as we embark on a journey of redefining our program after 17 years. 

Through extensive interviews and the Innovation Circle discussions, we're delving into key themes: Community, Digitalization, Value-Systems, and Sustainability. These insights are shaping our curriculum and organizational structure for the future.

Navigating Sustainability is the first of a series of four articles, where we discussed the outcomes of the first round of the Innovation Circle.

As expected, the topic of Sustainability appeared repeatedly in interviews with industry experts in innovation. In metaphorical terms, some people feel that the waves are becoming stronger and more threatening, and organizations need to learn how to surf them, or they will drown. Is there an opportunity for Imagineers to specialize in sustainability transitions? Is this a competence for the new Imagineer? 

In this article I will share the outcomes of the World Café on this topic, that happened during the Innovation Circle event. I will connect these outcomes with knowledge and theories that have been developed, also in our own Academy through the experiences with national and international projects. By the end I’d like to share what might be the new competence for the future Imagineer and invite you to share your own thoughts on it.  

Sustainability is an idea that ties beautifully to the Imagineering way of seeing the world and approaching change. It is all about creating a positive impact and helping people and the organizations they’re in to achieve their ambitions goals aligned with their deepest values. Designing for dialogue, collaboration and co-creation is at the heart of our methods. There’s a broad consensus about the importance of sustainable development, but the how, how fast, at what cost and with which concrete outcomes are still hotly debated. 

Because we are who are - Imagineers naturally see opportunities in every challenge - the first idea that emerged in the World Café discussion was to establish an ‘Imagineering Center for Sustainability’, that could serve as a pivotal hub where the Imagineering Academy collaborates with Imagineering practitioners and organizations in transition processes, on sustainability research and development initiatives. However, quickly the World Café participants realized that the scope prompts questions: What exactly does sustainability entail for Imagineers in terms of knowledge and action? Should they position themselves as experts or remain impartial facilitators of dialogue, guiding stakeholders in any chosen direction?

For Imagineers, embracing sustainability means adopting a mindset geared towards long-term thinking, consistently considering the lasting effects of innovations and changes within organizations. This mindset presents an ongoing challenge. Rather than merely possessing knowledge, Imagineers prioritize continual learning. They are inherently motivated professionals and forward-thinkers who readily embrace change. Yet, when interfacing with organizations, they often encounter resistance and limited impact, particularly evident in endeavours such as energy transitions.

In this context, one vital competency Imagineers must hone is behavioural design, closely intertwined with their existing linguistic and narrative approaches. This involves bolstering their ability to influence and shape new social systems, employing language and narrative to reframe perspectives and provoke critical thinking, thereby fostering mindset shifts—a cornerstone of the Imagineering ethos, also known as Designing for Emergence.

Additionally, Imagineers must cultivate a business-savvy, entrepreneurial mindset concerning sustainability challenges faced by companies, aiding them in transitioning while emphasizing value co-creation, economic growth, a holistic awareness of the fairness of impact. Social entrepreneurship and sustainable business models emerge as central pillars of Imagineers' entrepreneurial endeavours, making them experts in fostering resilience with Strategic Design.

In the World Café, the debate persisted on how Imagineers should position themselves in relation to sustainability, particularly regarding climate change. While recognizing its significance, diverse perspectives and priorities among Imagineers worldwide necessitate self-awareness regarding personal biases and cultural backgrounds. Whether adopting an activist stance or a pragmatic approach in personal life, professional Imagineers rather focus on fostering collective understanding while remaining culturally sensitive and striving for neutrality in mediation.

In the Innovation Circle debrief, the reflection keeps on going. Psychology and philosophy doctor and expert in Social Innovation and Imagineering, Marco van Leeuwen, has pointed out that Imagineers must focus more on an approach that is evidence-based from start to finish. Intuition can lead to wishful thinking and does not necessarily provide a concrete and pragmatic foundation for change. Narratives need to be substantiated by actions in the present: Imagineers must direct more effort on finding proof of what people actually do, instead of what they say they want to do, their talks of their future vision, and their promises. This keeps the process grounded in reality. 

Another topic under consideration is impact measurement, when organizations require proof that the ignition leads to actual change in the long run. One of the current competencies of an Imagineer is “Describing and explaining the process in which meaning making is constructed and the implications for stability, change and transformation”. However, there’s still not enough knowledge on what leads to stability after the first motions in the new direction. Classic change theory speaks about designing for the change to stick with quick wins and rewarding new desired behaviors (Kotter, 1996), while Imagineering focuses on designing the initial conditions that will lead an organic emergence of new rules aligned with the desired vision for the system (Nijs, 2019), but there is yet insufficient evidence of what this looks like in reality, at least not when the change is intentionally designed in an Imagineering way. Other theories of designing for emergence propose to close the gap between imagining what it could be (your vision of the future) with systems of action, applying therefore a more pragmatic approach by introducing into the existing context a “coherent set of mechanisms that are real things and actions to scaffold emergence” (Pendleton-Julian & Brown, 2018), which is still quite abstract. Impact design and measurement, combining with back casting (designing a process that is likely to result in a set of desired outcomes) could be a more practical answer for this rather vague approach. 

Besides the evolution of the theories that are foundational for Imagineering, one important aspect of development in imagineers is their suite of skills and attitudes. As described before, Imagineers aim at positive change-making as a default. However, how positive is perceived is mostly related to personal views. Therefore, reflection on ethical change making must be at the heart of the practice. Marco van Leeuwen has designed The Six Commandments of Ethical Imagineering, where feasibility and pragmatics, skin in the game, and quality care are paramount. These could be tied to the competencies of the future Imagineer. 

In summary, the key competencies linked to sustainability for Imagineers include a deep understanding of human and systemic behavior, along with skills in influencing mindset shifts through linguistic, narrative, and behavioural design. Imagineers must also excel in fostering resilient entrepreneurship to navigate organizational transitions, possess forward-thinking abilities with a sharp awareness of intercultural nuances, and employ evidence-based practices.

Now I’d like to invite you to this dialog. What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with the new competencies? How have you been applying imagineering related to sustainability? What challenges do you face in your practice? We are very much looking forward to reading your comments. 

Be bold and stay curious.

Authored by: 
Stifani Herpich is an Imagineer and Experience Designer with a rich background in fashion and business innovation. As a consultant and lecturer at BUas, she empowers teams through strategic design methods, fostering creativity, collaboration and resilience

Image created by Sander Mercx