EN 
DE Why do we often rack our brains unsuccessfully for hours in the face of complex problems, only to be surprised by a flash of inspiration at a completely unexpected time?
Does this sound familiar? You rack your brains for hours, searching for that missing piece of the puzzle to solve a problem. You doubt your sanity and wonder what all those years of accumulated knowledge and experience were for. You close your eyes and see in your mind's eye: nothing but nothing.
Finally, you give up in frustration. But even on the way home, the problem clings to you like a piece of chewing gum stuck to your shoe. Oops, you almost missed the stop sign! During a meal with your family, you stare into space while the children try to include you in their lives: "Dad, what happened at school today..." The questions and requests from your loved ones only add to the burden on your shoulders.
Now go take a shower. The mental whirlwind, driven by your problem, comes to a standstill for a while. Your mind finally lets go. Suddenly, something amazing happens! The solution appears out of the blue! Just like that! All the torment of your brain cells, the frustration of your family, now seems rather childish to you. And rightly so. And what have we learned from this? Often nothing. With the next problem, we're back on the same old track: We're once again relentlessly and fanatically pursuing our Moby Dick, like Captain Ahab: the missing flash of inspiration.
If this is also the case for you, then you, aka Captain Ahab, should do something about it. The brilliant thing is that the solution lies in doing nothing. You read that right: doing nothing, NOTHING. The secret to flashes of inspiration lies in the ability to let go of the problem.
It is sufficient to engage with a task intensively and systematically, but only for as long as you can do so in a relaxed and focused manner. Then trust your subconscious. Yes, I know that's notoriously difficult for rational, engineer-minded people, but perhaps the following analogy will help: Consider the brain as a client/server system. Your conscious mind is a low-performance client, while your subconscious is a high-performance server. Tasks like pointless rumination and frustration prevent the server from doing its job.
So take a break, sort the mail, listen to your favorite music, have a beer (ONE!!) and trust your brain cells. Try it and enjoy the many flashes of inspiration just waiting to be unleashed.
Tips for flashes of inspiration: Request them now!
I look forward to your suggestions below. denkanstoss@microconsult.de.
Further information
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MicroConsult Training & Coaching on project management
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Food for thought:
Column by Peter Siwon about the human side of project work
Peter Siwon: Systemic project management
