Book review - From What Is to What If by Rob Hopkins
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve recommended this book! That’s the sign of a good read.
So many of the stories we hear and read are negative, dystopian even. Whether that’s to do with the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, conflict, mental health and wellbeing, the cost of living, community cohesion. Those stories don’t help us imagine a better future. But, to motivate action and engage with change, we have to be inspired to move towards something. Something that looks and feels so much better than today. We’re missing that vision. And what vision there is isn’t being presented in a way that captures our hearts and our imaginations.
Imagining and asking ‘what if…’
The book starts with an imagined future. It reads like fiction – a land filled with abundant fresh food, the sounds and smells of nature, a strong sense of community, a feeling of harmony and wellbeing. It is fiction, but not entirely – it’s based on initiatives that are happening right now. In communities where they’re challenging the status quo, imagining a different way of doing things and trying out new ideas to see what happens.
In innovation, we like to ask “what if…?” It’s a great way of sparking creativity and generating ideas. Rather than focusing on problems or what happens now, it encourages us to reimagine the world; to make the impossible possible. As you can tell from its title, the book is based around a series of ‘what if’ questions. For example:
What if things turned out OK?
What if we took play seriously?
What if we considered imagination vital to our health?
What if school nurtured young imaginations?
The importance of creativity and imagination
We’ve become so entrenched in the status quo and a mechanistic approach to everything. We aim to squeeze out waste, look for efficiencies everywhere, seek certainty. In the early years of school, we see imagination being squashed out of children. Play isn’t seen as a vital part of the curriculum. Creativity is praised – but only in certain circumstances and within strict boundaries.
And yet, to change society so that humans and nature can thrive, we must imagine a different future. We should question the way things are, explore different ways of doing things however crazy those might seem, and be unafraid to try out those ideas.
Our culture tends to be cynical when ideas are raised, especially ones that stray too far from the accepted norm. Play is seen as something to be avoided in the workplace – frivolous, an indulgence, a waste of time. And yet we seek and need innovation and a sense of wellbeing and belonging, both of which are enabled by play.
Even children’s play has become heavily controlled and constrained, guided by toys which have one specific use or by a string of timetabled activities. What happened to being given a cardboard box and letting that guide the games for a day without adult intervention?
And yet, now is the time we need to be our most imaginative and most creative. We need the imagination to see a completely different future. To reimagine the systems we have created and the way they interact.
Examples of an alternative approach
As well as discussing the importance of play, imagination and creativity, Rob Hopkins shares many examples of communities and organisations that are doing things differently and seeing positive results.
Take mental health. What if we didn’t treat people as ‘patients’ but instead as ‘artists’? Art Angel is an alternative to mainstream psychiatric care and it’s doing just this. Helping these artists express themselves through art and be empowered to make choices (e.g. in the paint colour or the brush they choose). This provides meaning and a means of expression. They also feel connected to the community of other artists. And they have identity – as an ‘artist’, not as bipolar or depressed (for example).
Take offender rehabilitation. What if we helped offenders or those at risk of offending to imagine a non-criminal identity? What if we immersed them in nature and taught them new, valuable skills? This is what LandWorks is doing and the results are impressive. Over 40% of prisoners reoffend within a year of release – for LandWorks trainees, this number is 5%. Over 90% of LandWorks trainees find employment. LandWorks is non-hierarchical. Staff and clients are dressed alike, cook together and eat together. This builds trust and connection.
What if we learnt from the success of these initiatives and used these to imagine different solutions and a different society?
Something I’m grappling with
I loved the book and found it incredibly inspiring. But there’s something I’m struggling with.
The book highlights so many areas that are currently broken (e.g. democracy, education, offender rehabilitation, health) that I’ve found myself seeing the world in a new light and wanting to shift all the systems I engage with. I know I can’t and that I need to take it one step at a time. But I’m struggling to just accept things how they are.
Making it real
As well as making the future exciting and appealing, we need to make it tangible and real. To help people feel it with all their senses. And make it seem more achievable, less like a dream.
My favourite example of this was the Tooting Twirl. Transition Town Tooting turned the boring, busy, polluted bus turning circle in the middle of Tooting into a village green for a day. It came alive, it brought the community together and created a sense of cohesion. And in just that one day it created a sense of fun and spontaneity. The idea of a village green in the middle of Tooting would have seemed nice but a distant possibility. Actually creating it helped everyone feel it and love it and ask how to recreate it.
Where to now?
We’re too good at cutting ideas down before they have a chance to bloom. At stifling creativity and seeing it as frivolous.
But now is the time to reimagine the future, challenge our assumptions and make the impossible possible.
We need to do that in the classroom, in business and in society as a whole.
So next time you find yourself knocking down an idea, hold your tongue and give that little shoot time to grow. It might surprise you and give you the hint of a future that’s better than what we have now.
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