What the Christmas Story Can Teach Us About Innovation

We love watching Christmas movies. Christmas is such a busy season that we don’t get to watch very many, so we take turns picking the movie. Often, the pick is a Christmas classic - Elf, Home Alone, The Grinch (no, not Die Hard or The Christmas Story!).

But one of our new favorites is Journey to Bethlehem. New in 2023, the sometimes-cheesy film is a musical retelling of the story of the first Christmas (think of it as Wicked but for Christmas 😉). The soundtrack is standout, including songs such as Can We Make this Work, Mother to a Savior and King, and We Become We.

As we watched the film this week, I was struck by the foresight that the magi must have had as they traveled from the east to find this king to be born in Bethlehem.

I think there are several lessons we can learn from both the wise men and shepherds in the Christmas story on innovation and seeing coming waves of change.

Above: The magi were able to see an event that would change the course of human history, giving us modern insight that can help leaders innovate (created by ChatGPT’s DALL-E)

How do people see waves like this that are coming? Especially ones that have been predicted for hundreds of years and have not come to pass?

And further, how do they discern which signs are worth paying attention to once they see the wave? How do they understand and interpret those waves? And once they understand, how do they know what to do with that knowledge?

Today, let’s take a lesson from shepherds and magi. Specifically, I want to unpack a concept that is important to innovation that I call The Imago Loop:

See. Perceive. Understand. Do. Repeat.

I call this the Imago Loop. “Imago” in Latin is a word that represents a vision of something that will be but does not yet exist. This loop is crucial to innovation. 

Let’s unpack.

See

The first step is to keep your eyes open and be open to noticing trends in the first place. The dictionary definition of “notice” is “the fact of observing or paying attention to something.”

 If the Magi weren’t studying the stars, they weren’t already looking, they would not have noticed the signs.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Matthew 2:1-2

Perceive

It’s one thing to take in information. To notice trends. The next step is to perceive when a trend might matter to you. To discern that a particular piece of information might be relevant to your situation. 

I scan hundreds of headlines a week. Maybe 5% of them I perceive might be relevant to my clients or you, my readers. Of those, maybe 20% of those end up being of interest. Of those, I only write about a handful any given week. So, in the end, I include less than 1% of everything I notice in a given week in this newsletter. 

Perceiving when something may be relevant to your situation is an essential part of the process of innovation.

The shepherds may have had an easier time seeing – after all if a host of angels appeared to me, I feel like I would notice that! 

But the shepherds had to go one step further to perceive what it meant:

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” Luke 2:8-15

Understand

After perceiving that a trend or coming wave may be relevant to their situation, the next step is to seek to understand it. 

Seeking understanding is a bigger commitment than just noticing trends or perceiving whether to dive deeper. For the shepherds, this meant traveling to investigate this thing that the angels told them about:

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. Luke 2:16

Seeking understanding took an investment of time, leaving their current work for the shepherds to pursue understanding more deeply.

For the shepherds and the magi, once they perceived the signs as important, the next step was to invest time to understand what the news meant. But it didn’t stop with understanding. The question becomes, what would they do with that knowledge?

Do

The final step of the loop is to apply what you’ve learned. For the shepherds, that was taking action, spreading the word, and telling everyone they knew about what they had seen:

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Matthew 2:17-20

For the magi, action looked like traveling to find this new king and honoring him with gifts.

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Matthew 2:9-11

As you reflect this holiday season, consider The Imago Loop.

How might you be more intentional this next year to notice what is happening in your world?

💡 Takeaway: The wise men and shepherds demonstrate a principle key to innovation – the ability first to see what is happening, then to perceive when it matters, followed by seeking understanding and then acting. As a leader, your job is to do this process consistently. 

Until next week… Surfs Up! 🌊

  - Dave

About the Author | Dave Raley

Consultant, speaker, and writer Dave Raley is the founder of Imago Consulting, a firm that helps non-profits and businesses create profitable growth through sustainable innovation. He’s the author of a weekly trendspotting report called The Wave Report, and the co-founder of the Purpose & Profit Podcast — a show about the ideas at the intersection of nonprofit causes and for-profit brands. Connect with Dave on LinkedIn.

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