Ads by TechWords

See your link here
Receive the latest technology news and information.
IT Management
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
Cloud Computing
View all newsletters




Privacy Policy
 

Inspiration Is Where You Find It

June 25, 2001 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - When Phil Swift comes to the office with paint on his knuckles, his employees brace themselves.

In addition to serving as CIO at Esurance Inc., an online insurer in San Francisco, Swift is a painter (scenes depicting galleons and British naval ships are a specialty). He gets his best ideas when he takes his mind off work and focuses on his art.










Where Lightning Strikes

Inspiration is fickle, but you can take steps to be ready for it. Author and consultant John Putzier says that when he gives seminars, the audience tells him they get most of their great ideas in these settings:






















In bed
In the shower
While running or exercising
While gardening

In the car

When the inspiration stick whacks you on the head, you need to optimize it. Here are tips from the experts:

Be ready for it. Know and accept your own circadian rhythms; some people find inspiration only at 3 a.m., whether they like it or not.

Capture it. If you fail to capture a great idea when it occurs, you stand to lose it for good. Use any means necessary to nail down your thoughts. "I worked with an engineer at Boeing who traveled extensively," says author Jordan Ayan. "He kept a bunch of preaddressed postcards in his pocket, wrote ideas down on them and sent them home to himself."

— Steve Ulfelder

One recent weekend, Swift was sketching at home, torn between conflicting requests. "My wife wants me to paint a portrait of our dogs; my son wants me to paint race cars on the walls of his [room]," he says.


Suddenly, Swift realized his personal dilemma paralleled one at work: In an effort to keep him happy, managers in his department were scattering resources among too many projects. They were trying to do cars and dogs at the same time. They needed to pick a priority.


Swift put down his charcoal and made some notes. The following Monday, he announced major changes. Most notably, he decided to reconfigure Esurance's architecture, "dropping the database away from the rest of the system," he says.


So, what inspires you? Where are you and what are you doing when you get your best ideas?


We asked IT leaders where they turn for inspiration. Not surprisingly, their answers were diverse. Some CIOs seek intense, risky challenges such as auto racing or mountain climbing; others prefer gardening, painting or distance running.


A common theme emerges, though, and is supported by experts on creativity and motivation: Inspiration is most likely to strike when the conscious mind is a thousand miles away. Moreover, IT's central role in the organization makes it critically important to achieve and harness inspiration. IT leaders, be they CIOs, programmers or help desk staff, are no longer viewed as back-room service providers; their creativity is both valued and demanded by the business.



Jump to comments

IT Management

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER
Approximately 60 percent of data migration projects overrun time or budget, while some fail completely. Download this white paper, "Enhancing Your Chance for Successful Data Migration," to learn the critical steps you need to take to execute a data migration project with minimum cost and risk to your business.
WHITE PAPER
Read the Gartner research note to learn why the TCO of a server-based computing deployment used to deliver all applications to users is around 50% lower than that of an unmanaged desktop deployment.
WHITE PAPER
Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends. This IDC White Paper presents the results of an IDC survey of 330 companies in Western Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Americas that measures the receptiveness to Linux and takes into consideration changing views driven by the disruptive economic environment that businesses face today.