| Some people
think they’re a left brainer, “I’m a left brainer,”
they say, “I deal with computers, I deal with numbers. I get
things organised, I turn up on time. I’m always smart. I’ve
always got a pen. I’m a left brainer. I’m not an art-farty
right brainer, wasting everybody’s time.”
Some people think that creativity
is purely a right brain activity. Some think they’re right
brain people and say “Well I’m an artist, I don’t
have to turn up on time, I’m not interested, I like being
in a mess, I do what I like because I’m an artist and I don’t
have to wear a suit. Just don’t ask me to add anything up.”
Well they’re both wrong because
we use both hemispheres of our brain all the time. If you really
did use just your left brain you would be autistic. If you use just
your right brain you would be in a mental hospital. What is really
going on is that one hemisphere directs thinking for a particular
task (not for a particular individual). The left brain dominates
logical thinking, the concept of time, names for things and processes
in a linear way. The right brain dominates language and meaning,
opertaing in a holistic way. But the two always work together –
and must do for you to function.
It’s important that we understand
the specialisms of the hemispheres so that we know when it’s
appropriate to use left-brain or right-brain directed thinking for
a particular task. Let’s have a more detailed look:
Left Brain = Linear, Logical and
Sequential
Right Brain = Holistic, Intuitive and Random
The left-brain does things in straight
lines (linear) with no deviation. It processes in a logical fashion.
It does one thing after another (sequential), one thing at a time.
This is exactly how a computer works. The left brain is perfect
for knowledge based tasks and since we’ve just come through
the Industrial and Information ages, left-brain thinking has, quite
rightly, dominated business in the west for a century and a half.
The right-brain looks at the big
picture (holistic). This is why a large proportion of successful
entrepreurs are creative right-brain directed thinkers. You need
to be able to think holistically and see the big picture to have
a business plan. The right-brain makes unusual links between disparate
ideas (intuition). It carries out processes in a non-sequential
order. There may be a pattern, but it won’t be A to B to C.
In fact the right brain is a pattern generating and pattern recognising
machine.
The left-brain is interested in utility,
the right-brain in significance. So the left-brain is ‘function’,
the right brain is ‘form’. In business this has a wider
implication. When anyone is taught how to sell they are told something
very important: sell the benefits, not the features. Few people
are interested in how ABS brakes work on a car or even what ABS
stands for. They don’t care if they have got ABS brakes or
not. But when you tell them that ABS brakes stop your brakes from
locking and going into a skid, that ABS brakes will save their life
in an emergency stop, that’s a benefit. You sell the benefit
and leave the technical description of the features to the appendix
at the back of the brochure. A benefit is really ‘so what
does that mean?’.
This shows that it’s the right
brain that we appeal to when selling, in most people. People want
meaning and significance in their lives, in the products they buy
and in the services they use. Does your offering appeal to this
need or are you trapped in left-brain directed thinking all the
time and wonder why your service doesn't connect with people or
that you can't think of new ideas?
Many business tasks need to be directed
by right-brain thinking in the new Conceptual Age: marketing, sales,
brainstorming, product development, human resources, lean productivity
and customer service to name but a few.
You can read more about this in my
book '7 Keys to Creative Genius' published in paperback this month.
Click here to learn more.
|
