Yesterday we were fortunate enough to visit the global headquarters of Eaton. Eaton is a power management company that has reacted to each change in technological developments for the last 111 years in order to stay ahead of the curve. Eaton is dedicated to innovation which Ramanath Ramakrishnan, the Chief Technological Officer, explains is a process of learning as much as you can and keeping the end user and their needs in mind.

I am an avid learner and since I was a kid I was always taught to read as much as possible. This is something Ramanath had touched on in his Q and A session with our group. He listed off recommendations and explained how the thing he values most is learning and he credits his success to his eagerness to learn. Ramanath made me reconsider what more I could be doing to learn more and find new perspectives.

Ramanath also expressed his love for whiteboards and brainstorming in a non sequential way. I would like to try this and see where it takes me as I currently don’t practice this at all. Beyond typing new ideas into my notes on my phone, I don’t challenge my way of thinking. This is a big takeaway that I will begin to practice because of our time at Eaton.

Ramanath also talked about sharing ideas in order to better them. This is something I do not practice as much as I should. I always consider my work better after editing but sometimes it’s difficult to make the time. Ramanath’s talk has made me think that your work should always be an iterative process and I will be sure to incorporate more revision in my work.