Innovate - Immersing in new subjects
Sometimes you need to exercise your brain; it is an incredible efficient machine and it will not fire at optimal capacity unless you train it to. It’s no different than the first time you go running after a week, a month or even a year off; it may hurt, but like physical exercise, it also has many long-term benefits. By immersing in a new subject, you are exposing your brain to new information that it has never had to process before, and it has to get working. The beauty of this is that often this new stimulus can generate a flood of innovation inside your chosen profession. It can lead to “ah ha!” moments! Writing this book has given me several insights, mainly about myself and what I want to do when I grow up. Now, I may have stumbled over these inside of my IT leadership capacities, but they just seemed so suddenly obvious as I was writing my first book.
The new subject can be anything at all - learning to fish, playing an instrument, even reading a book from a different genre, traveling, (and this may stretch the point) but even changing what you watch on TV. Take the plunge; try something new; be a novice again, and try it with you normal commitment and gusto. Now, after you are comfortable trying new subjects, ask your boss to attend a conference seminar or lecture series completely unrelated to your day job. No, I am not crazy, but yes, they will look at you like you are. Explain that you are trying to stay fresh and relevant, and simply want to take a little time outside of your area of expertise to develop new skills that you believe will make you better at what you do long-term. Oh, and they are likely to refuse you the first time, so do not be afraid to be persistent about this.
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