The imagination tax

A pattern from our consulting work: AI adoption doesn't stall because of fear. It stalls because leaders can't visualize what's possible.

This is what I call the imagination tax. If people can't imagine the future state, they default to:

• The status quo
• Incremental change
• Low-risk decisions
• Small pilots that never scale

I heard a line in a Daniel Priestley conversation that explains why this hits firms like ours so hard: real estate agents sell what exists. Creatives sell what doesn't exist yet.

In government contracting, many firms behave like real estate agents. They offer fixed inventory: services, past performance, contract vehicles. That's easier to sell, because the thing already exists.

Firms like ours are often building something new, blending design, engineering, AI, cloud, and human-centered thinking. That puts us in the creative category. And creative work is harder to buy, because the value isn't visible yet.

So how do we make invisible value tangible?

• Demonstrate possibilities, not just capabilities
• Prototype early
• Show outcomes instead of explaining them