Half Brained Teams Deliver Half Brained Results
Do you have a team of ‘clones’ who all think in the same way about most things or do you have a team that views the world from diverse perspectives?

In the 1960’s and early 1970’s two scientists, Roger Sperry and Robert Ornstein, discovered that the left and right sides of the brain have responsibility for different thought processes. The left brain is logical, rational, analytical, and theoretical. Language and numeracy are specializations of the left brain. When we think with the left brain we will think in an ordered, sequential, detailed fashion. The right brain, on the other hand, thinks creatively – so we will get an idea, feel emotion, intuitively know something, imagine an innovative new way and see pictures in our mind’s eye.

But here comes the challenge – each one of us is born with a physiological preference for either left brain thinking or right brain thinking. There is a small percentage of the population who can use both sides of the brain equally. This means that most of us are either left-brain dominant or right brain dominant and we will tend to favor the thinking style of that side. When we respond to our world using mainly our preferred brain, this results in ‘half-brained’ thinking. (Take a 3-minute test and discover which side of the brain you prefer.)

It is certainly possible for every one of us to use the non-preferred side of our brain but thinking with the less preferred brain is not comfortable and so we will tend to do this as little as possible. It is, therefore, vital that a team has both left and right brain thinkers, who bring different viewpoints to the table, so that they uncover all aspects of the topic under discussion, construct a whole brain perspective and arrive at a whole brain decision.

When the team consists of both ‘left and right brainers’, they will integrate logic and intuition, theory and imagination, which enables them to discover innovative solutions and make profitable decisions that will keep them a step ahead of the competitors. I highly recommend that your team consider completing a Brain Dominance Profile. Being aware of the thinking style of the team will alert you to what your team will think about and what they will leave out in planning and decision-making.