Culture shapes business. People shape culture. Artists shape change. We exist to weave artistry and scientific discovery into a growth triple play for business: Creativity, Culture Analytics, and Purpose-rich Human Experiences.
OUR GOAL: Artists on every innovation team, in every company, everywhere.
What’s at stake when 65% of people are disengaged at work?
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Culture
We all seek meaning in our work. This includes connecting and creating with colleagues in workplaces where we can thrive. But toxic work culture is driving people to leave their jobs. *
*MIT Sloan Management Review | January 11, 2022
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Growth
An actively disengaged workforce costs America $450 billion every year in lost productivity.* That’s the equivalent of nearly $15,000 every second.
*U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021; Gallup 2021
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Wellbeing
Most of us will spend more of our waking life at work than anywhere else. And while steady paychecks and other perks matter, the systematic neglect of culture may be the single greatest barrier to workforce health and wellbeing.
*U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021. World Health Organization, 2014
Building America’s creativity infrastructure for the future of work requires deep, respectful partnerships between artists, scientists and business.
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Culture Analytics
Our data-supported approach uses scientific methods to visualize where there are hidden opportunities to improve workforce wellbeing and emerging opportunities to foster inclusive innovation.
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Creativity ID
We get it. Creativity can feel threatening to some. But, creativity is only dangerous if you don’t know how to use it. We are experts at ciphering through the noise to identify creativity that is likely to become new cultural and economic value.
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Future Casting
While nobody can predict the future, our work is evidence-based and defensible. We translate a broad range of research and creative work into customized coaching to equip diverse leaders with the skills they need to transform their lived experiences into future-focused strategies of Courageous Imagination.
Calling all entrepreneurs, artists, scholars, consumers, scientists, leaders and learners
We believe the Great Resignation is really America coming to life again as a country of Courageous Imagination. That’s what we are out to map, measure and make real.
Take 10 minutes to co-create this movement with us by taking the workforce census on creativity and belonging.
Cultures of Courageous Imagination build smart, savvy futures
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Navigation
In today’s world, movements spring up around ideas that are simultaneously social, economic, and tech-enabled. We help leaders and learners navigate these shifting cultural landscapes through actionable, evidence-based insights.
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Agility
Imaginator Academy meets people where they are. Validated through rigorous analysis, our unique data set of culture signals supports dynamic planning for responsibility, profitability, and sustainability.
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Culturally Responsive
Imaginator Academy is being co-created with cultural leadership from business, arts, media, economics, science, humanities, technology, public health, law, and even international diplomacy — an approach that’s as inclusive as the future we seek.
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Storytelling
Stories change the world. Data makes those stories investable and scalable. Our CU Denver base camp in the Rocky Mountains connects a global network of hi-tech/hi-touch professionals from human-centered design, experience economy, creative industries, media, and communications. All focused on working together to craft and spread narratives that humanize the future of work.
Don’t miss our First Annual Imaginator Summit
Coming October 13-14, 2022 experience how to Raise Up Courageous Imagination!
This future-focused summit centers on equipping leaders and learners with actionable skills for aligning culture change with innovation. Be the first to receive sponsorship and attendance details when released. This is a companion event to the inaugural Cross-Atlantic Creativity Congress in Salzburg, Austria. A book of the proceedings of both will be published together.
The imaginators behind the movement
Meet the people and networks propelling Imaginator Academy.
Founding CU Denver Imaginators
Theo Edmonds, (he/they) – Strategy & Culture Futurism
Katherine Goodman, (she/hers) – Engineering & Human-centered Design
Sarah Engel (she/hers) – Entrepreneurship & Mission-Driven Mindsets
Research Collaborators & Advisors
Cameron Lister, (he/his) – Data Science & Visualization
Rym Ayadi, Economics & Brain Capital
Hannah M. Merseal, (she/hers) – Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity
Harris Eyre, Neuroscience & Brain Capital
Kristina Newman-Scott, Media Culture & Creative Economy
Hannah L. Drake, Arts & Activism
Josh Miller, Arts & Activism
Wendy Lea, Entrepreneur Ecosystems
Raymond H. Gonzales, Economic Development
Salvador Simó Algado, Social Innovation
Julia Mahfouz, Prosocial Leadership
Imaginator Academy Lead Collaborators
University of Colorado Denver
CU Denver is redefining the model of tomorrow’s public urban research university to lead to a more equitable and innovative society.
We know that, for the last 300 years, higher education was designed to meet the needs of the privileged few.
We see it differently: We strive to make education work for all. Education has the power to transform lives, expand economies, and uplift communities, and everyone must have access to these opportunities. That is why we seek to become the nation’s first equity-serving institution—an inclusive, supportive university where all can excel.
Brain Capital Alliance
Following on from the success of the OECD Neuroscience-inspired Policy Initiative, we have launched an expanded, multi-national and multi-organisational programme. The programme focuses on neuroscience-inspired investment and public policy innovation as the two most powerful levers for change. It brings together radically diverse stakeholders spanning fields from brain science to policy, economics and finance.
Brain Capital is a new asset class which recognises brain skills and brain health as indispensable drivers of the brain economy. The Alliance brings together world-class contributors from various backgrounds to explore approaches to building Brain Capital at societal scale.
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OUR VALUES
INCLUSIVE INNOVATION
HUMAN FLOURISHING
COURAGEOUS IMAGINATION
“Courage is the sum of those small, hard choices a person or organization makes each day in striving to live the best story they can tell. A story that may even be a little scary because it liberates the greatness within. Through the wilds of untouched life, courage calls our hearts into freedom.
All human knowledge begins as Imagination. It is a precursor to creativity and the operating system of humanity. Imagination makes possible all our thinking about the past, present, and future. Imagination is critical for expanding our human experience.”
Theo Edmonds,
Definitions inspired by many artists from Raghava KK and Maya Angelou to Walt Whitman and Dolly Parton; and researchers ranging from Margaret Ann Boden to Teresa M. Amabile.