#davesdailychallenge (45): What If? The ultimate question…what if the world isn’t flat? What if the impossible is just very difficult? What if the way things are, are not? Too often, leaders in organizations stifle this kind of creative thinking. They’ll use phrases like “this isn’t helpful” or “let’s come back to reality” or “let’s work within our limits”. While some situations really do call for highly realistic, immediately tangible results I challenge the team leaders out there of all types to create a time within your team’s schedule that allows for unfettered, unlimited, and judgement free creative thinking. Even better, try building it into your organizational culture. After all, some of the things we take for granted today were just “what ifs” at one point. What if we could fly through the air instead of ride on rails or float on the water? What if we could build a device that would allow us to communicate instantaneously with anyone in the world that would fit in our pocket? What if we aren’t alone in this universe? What if we could find a universal cure to cancer? While a leader should naturally harness the creative talent of their team to be most effective at any given time, they should seek to unleash the power of the “what ifs?”. One day it might just change the world.