Gaming the Future:

A New Year’s Resolution Requiring Only Your Imagination

First, let me be clear: I am not a gamer. I would rather curl up with a well-written and engrossing paper-bound book, than sit in front of a screen any more than is required in this modern life. Given I have a teenage son, however, I try my best to understand how and why it might (possibly) be productive to spends hours and hours and hours of one's waking time gaming. 

Here's where I take a cue from futurist and gamer, Jane McGonigal. In her new book (2022), Imaginable, she argues that "future thinking strengthens key pathways in the brain to build realistic hope, creativity and a more resilient response to stress," and offers plenty of scientific evidence to back this up.

She ran a 10-year future simulation game study for the World Bank known as EVOKE, which ended in 2019. The twenty-thousand people enrolled had to respond to a series of future scenarios involving climate-change related events, a respiratory pandemic and a deluge of social-media driven misinformation and conspiracy theories. It turned out to be eerily prescient of what actually happened when the pandemic took over our lives in 2020. In fact, a senior World Bank executive called McGonigal in 2020 to ask her, "How did you get so much right?!" 

Strikingly, participants in the study reported that when the actual events of the 2020 occurred, they experienced far less anxiety and far more capacity to respond creatively, effectively and flexibly than others in their families, work places and communities. They said this was in large part because they had already "experienced" these events via EVOKE. They had already gone through the emotional states that incapacitated many people when the real pandemic hit, meaning they had the bandwidth to take immediate steps to prevent things from getting worse. 

What is the difference between this kind of study and other "imagine the future" exercises many of us have tried? When we're simply asked to imagine the future, we often put on rose-colored glasses and envision a utopia in which everyone and everything is cherished, nourished and content, or we think of a kind of Armageddon in which human society plummets into the chaos of climate change, wars, pandemics, etc. The former usually has a vague, dream-like quality and the latter is so overwhelming, our brains and hearts simply shut down.  In both cases, we rarely imagine in minute detail what we might do, think and feel in response to a wide range of specific scenarios.

McGonigal, by contrast, calls on us to envision every possible detail about what it would be like 10 years from now (10 years being a timeline considered optimal for this process) -- details such as what we're wearing, whom we're with, what our environment is like (inside? outside?), what emotions are coming up, what reactions we're having, etc. This kind of active imagination forces us to embody future scenarios as much as possible so that if/when these situations happen in reality we can respond with greater ingenuity and adaptability because we've already experienced them internally. 

The value of undertaking this process on any scale -- from the individual to the global -- is that when an unusual or extreme event suddenly happens (and these will keep happening), we'll be less likely to get mired in emotional and cognitive paralysis and more able to move directly into actions that increase the possibility of positive outcomes. 

So how might this work apply to coaching? There are in fact many ways to utilize the principles and practices outlined in Imaginable in a coaching framework. For example this process could be undertaken organization-wide. You and your staff could devote time over a number of weeks to a 10-year future simulation in which you imagine in depth multiple scenarios that could impact your organization and detail various responses and actions you might take individually and collectively.

Or on a more individual, personal level, you want to improve your relationship with certain colleagues or board members. It’s not helpful to simply agree that the next time you interact with them, you’ll “try to do better.” Instead, imagine exactly how this might occur in detail -- exactly what you'll say, what you'll do, what environment you're in, what you're wearing, what your mood is and so forth. If you're adverse to even thinking about this situation because you're worried the worst will happen, then imagine your specific fears and anxieties without judgment, opening to them rather than shutting them out.

In short, whatever scale you choose, thinking through every detail and "pre-experiencing" possible scenarios in your mind, including the emotions that might surface, will significantly increase your capacity to stay embodied and respond with more confidence and clarity when the event actually happens.  

Please go ahead and resolve to get more exercise and eat healthier foods this New Year. All worthy goals. But what might be even more impactful in the long run is developing your imagination and giving your future self more tools to handle whatever may come your way. That's what I'm going to do, and I would be delighted to support you in growing this "superpower" within yourself. And no, you don't have to become a gamer, but if you are, game on!

May you and yours stay strong, healthy, resilient and imaginative in 2023 ~ Blessings!

— written and edited by Elise Miller, January 1, 2023