Imagination First: Unlocking the Power of Possibility

January 7, 2010
Eric Liu | Guiding Lights Network

The best companies know that innovative thinking is the only competitive advantage that can’t be outsourced. The best schools are those with deep cultures of creative problem solving. But both innovation and creativity depend on imagination first: the ability and willingness to conceive of what is not. And it is something we can all cultivate—with practice. We can outline some practices that are designed to enable everyone-from executive to teacher-to get unstuck, to reframe challenges and to help others do the same.

Speaker Details

Eric Liu is an author and educator who has served in senior leadership roles in national politics, media, and business. From 2000 to 2002, he was a vice president at RealNetworks, the pioneering Internet media firm. Prior to that, he served as a foreign policy speechwriter and as deputy domestic policy adviser in the Clinton administration. Mr. Liu’s most recent book, Guiding Lights: The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life, examines life-changing teachers and mentors from all walks, and was named the Official Book of National Mentoring Month. He also authored The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, a New York Times Notable Book of 1998, and was editor of the anthology, Next: Young American Writers on the New Generation.Eric has served as a contributor to MSNBC and Slate magazine, and currently teaches at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy. He is a Fellow of the New America Foundation. Mr. Liu is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School.