{"id":36022,"date":"2026-09-02T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=36022"},"modified":"2026-09-02T09:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T08:21:39","slug":"training-for-the-known-learning-for-the-unknown-why-imagination-matters-in-high-performance","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/training-for-the-known-learning-for-the-unknown-why-imagination-matters-in-high-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Training for the Known, Learning for the Unknown: Why Imagination Matters in High Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 2 Sep 2026 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Training for the Known, Learning for the Unknown: Why Imagination Matters in High Performance<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/training-for-the-known-learning-for-the-unknown-why-imagination-matters-in-high-performance\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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Dr Wendy Walsh and Andrea Tullos identify four threats that can cause leaders to lose sight of their people’s developmental needs.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By John Portch<\/h6>\n
\u201cOne of my favorite lines is: imagine a future you want.\u201d<\/h6>\n

Dr Wendy Walsh, the Chief Learning Officer at the US Air Force, believes that people all too often get trapped in existing narratives and assumptions, which can come at the expense of their imagination.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagination is an incredibly powerful tool that is totally underdeveloped once you get past the sixth grade,\u201d she continues. \u201cThen you\u2019re told \u2018this is how you do things\u2019. And so we start to learn in different ways and some of our imagination can atrophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

She cites the 9\/11 Commission Report as a grave example of missed possibilities. In making its conclusion, the Report stated that \u2018the most important failure was one of imagination;\u2019 that US policymakers, intelligence agencies and other institutions did not sufficiently imagine that al-Qaeda would use commercial airliners as weapons in a coordinated attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really stuck with me,\u201d says Walsh, who entered federal service not long after the attacks. \u201cHow do we continue to develop and strengthen our imagination?\u201d<\/p>\n

The practical answer is to build people capable of responding when those possibilities arrive, as suggested by Andrea Tullos, who is the Founder and CEO of strategic advisory firm Outperform IQ and a former lieutenant general in the US Air Force. She also served as the Commander and President of the Air University.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe train people for the circumstances we know they\u2019re going to face and we educate them for the things that are the unknowns,\u201d says Tullos, who has worked with Walsh for six years and joins her in conversation with the Leaders Performance Institute. \u201cWhen an unknown happens, they\u2019re going to default to that well of knowledge, experience and wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The duo stepped onto the stage at June\u2019s Leaders Sport Performance Summit in New York to discuss how organizations can become better at learning.<\/p>\n

One route is through a renewed focus on individual learning and development but, as Walsh and Tullos explain in the first of two articles, there is a series of threats that can cause leaders to lose sight of their people\u2019s development needs.<\/p>\n

Below, we outline four threats in particular that may stifle an individual\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n

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  1. Technology <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In sports, there is a firm focus on athlete management systems, wearables and, more recently, AI as the route to a competitive advantage. This trend is also visible in other industries and, as Tullos says, \u201cit\u2019s consuming an extraordinary amount of both time and resources compared to the human focus.\u201d She likens a leader\u2019s time to a pie chart; and \u201cthe time sports leaders would normally spend in direct contact with humans is being consumed by the technology, figuring out how to use it, apply it, figuring out what works and what doesn\u2019t.\u201d The result is that the \u201cart is being drowned out by the science right now.\u201d That balance needs to be restored. \u201cI\u2019m a big believer in leveraging technology, but I think that slice of the pie still needs to be relatively small compared to the amount of time I\u2019m spending on the humans.\u201d She sums it up with a striking metaphor: \u201cWe don\u2019t want leaders so connected to the technology that the human is just withering over here. They still need sunlight and water.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    1. Data and analysis<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Data analytics can only ever be part of a holistic understanding of an athlete. \u201cDon\u2019t get stuck in a data story that is not taking you to a possibility that you want to imagine,\u201d says Walsh, who cautions against seeking new datasets without good reason. \u201cRather than thinking \u2018okay, what is missing from this?\u2019 Actually do some critical thinking,\u201d she continues. When seeking to make decisions on an athlete, a leader should be ready to ask questions such as: \u201cWhy are these numbers so much different than they were before? Are there any variables that I might be able to find?\u201d<\/p>\n

      Clearly, some menial tasks can be automated by what Tullos calls a \u201cdigital wingman\u201d or a \u201ccoach in your pocket\u201d but critical thinking cannot be lost. When this is your mindset, a new tool such as generative AI does not lead to a much-feared cognitive offload, as Walsh puts it, but to the posing of better questions. The key for Walsh is to learn \u201chow to be a good human in the loop with new technology\u201d; and neither she nor anyone else has cracked it. She says it is \u201cgoing to take patience, grace, an open mind and forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

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      1. Excessive planning<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        If leaders exert too much control over an athlete\u2019s performance, it can undermine their development. \u201cIf you\u2019re so rigorously planned, you don\u2019t have the ability to adapt on the spot,\u201d says Walsh. She points to a discussion she heard among announcers covering San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, who they felt often performed at his best when he would \u201cget out of his head and just go.\u201d Whether or not that was the explanation, preparation should build an athlete\u2019s confidence to adapt.<\/p>\n

        \u201cA leader should understand that while they can\u2019t control complexity, they can manage it,\u201d says Tullos, who returns to her idea of training people for the knowns and, in doing so, educating them for the unknowns.<\/p>\n

        It is critical to build an athlete\u2019s familiarity with uncertainty. \u201cMaybe you haven\u2019t hit that specific situation, but you\u2019ve done enough to know how to successfully adapt,\u201d adds Walsh. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean your strategy will be successful, but I\u2019m a believer that the more routinized you become, the more adaptable you become to the craziness that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

        It is also a question of teammates establishing a shared understanding of risk, which is not always the case. \u201cIt\u2019s even more powerful if you have a shared rubric across teammates so other people can anticipate how you might respond as well, rather than adding in another variable of surprise with your adaptation.\u201d<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Blind spots created by expertise<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Experience and expertise are ideal traits for filtering out noise and executing the task at hand, but, as Tullos says, it can be a \u201cdouble-edged sword\u201d. She explains that the brain develops expectations based on previous experience and, most of the time, this is a helpful trait, but \u201cafter a while, it\u2019s not that it\u2019s lying to you, but it\u2019s going to tell you what it has seen the last 300 times.\u201d An athlete in the heat of competition, for example, needs to be prepared for when the pattern changes. \u201cThat\u2019s the value of the iPad on the sideline or even an experienced quarterback,\u201d she continues. It ties into the threat posed by excessive planning. \u201cThey\u2019re going to have to get their brain to rethink that and calibrate what it is that they\u2019re selectively looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n

          None of these threats undermine the value of technology, data, planning or expertise in performance, but there is a case for keeping them all in proportion. The next question, discussed in part two, is how leaders can create learning environments that support athlete and coach development.<\/p>\n

          Andrea Tullos is a retired Air Force lieutenant general and founder and CEO of Outperform IQ. Her views are her own and do not represent those of the Department of War or the Department of the Air Force.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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