• Challenging article, Steve. For me, it hits closer to home, rather than work. Probably like everyone whose a member of SQL Server Central, I'm a convergent thinker. It comes naturally, as I'm sure it does for all of us. At home, when certain issues come up that leads to a crisis of one sort or another, I now realize I don't spend any real time thinking creatively. I'm so driven to think of "get something done", that I won't explore other possible alternatives that I haven't done in years past. Often, for me, that results in  despair and feeling trapped, because my solutions don't resolve the problem. I'm challenged, by this post, to force myself to be more creative, or divergent. I appreciate the fact the article you linked to gave different suggestions as to how to practice being more creative. I think it would probably be a great idea for me to do some creative exercises on my own, at home, where I think I really need this the most.

    Here at work, it's a different matter. I'm now a part of a large IT organization. In such organizations I have come to the conclusion that the tendency is to compartmentalize everyone. "Your a developer/DBA, therefore you cannot be creative.", "Your a business analyst, therefore you socialize and can be the creative element.", etc. I've mentioned before, that I'm on a team working to redo an old warehousing type of application, updating the technology to something more sustainable. However, I and the other developers/DBAs are all sidelined, while the BA's are spending the time redesigning the database. They're doing the "creative" work, because that's how they're perceived to be. And we're not, because that's not the prevailing view here of DBAs and developers.

    Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.