If you could invite any three people to dinner, who would you pick?
Just a simple ice breaker?
We’ve all been thrown an ice breaker question. Something like, “If you could invite any three people to a dinner party, who would you pick?” It’s meant to be light and fun.
Today I feel like my answer is: Madeleine Albright, Michelle Obama, and Jacinda Ardern.
I can imagine us sitting around a table with wine and cheese, talking about life as a woman on the international stage, or the challenges of global issues in a world of independent nations, or just what it’s like to write a book!
Or a way to tap into visioning?!
Now that little daydream is an example of visioning.
And while it’s hard to imagine how I would actually pull that dinner party off, if I pause and think about it a little bit more, I can see ways that I could prototype elements of that dinner party. I could have virtual coffee chats with friends in other countries. Or I could pull a group together to talk about global affairs. Perhaps, I pull some friends together for a book club and we could drink wine and talk about the books those three women wrote.
My answer reveals something I may want to move toward
Rather than just dismiss the vision as part of a fun game, I could honor the fact that part of my answer today is founded in something I’m really curious about.
And while the full vision may be far-fetched, there’s still value in taking initial steps toward it to see what might be possible.
Exercise for your visioning muscle
So here is an exercise to help strengthen your visioning muscle:
- Today, answer the question for yourself, “If you could invite any three people for dinner, who would you pick?”
- Write down as many trios as come to mind.
- Then every day this week, pick a trio and write a list of the ways that you could prototype some element of that dinner party.
- At the end of the week, notice what was easy and what was hard about defining first steps toward a vision, and notice how you feel about visioning now.
