What was your response?

Isn’t it strange how quickly we can label and judge once we know the way? I spent a large portion of my adult life learning how to learn. I chose a career, Information Technology, that requires constant learning just to keep up, never mind staying ahead of the pack.

My discovery of Mind Maps and Mind Mapping helped make this journey easier and more fun. In the process I started priding myself smugly as a ‘whole brain’ thinker.

Mind Maps combined my left brain and my right brain in problem solving and thinking. I’ve written quite a bit of it on MindMapTutor.com. One of my articles, The Mind’s unknown potential, highlights this, as well as the great power of the brain.

The best feature of a Mind Map is that it combines both the left brain and the right brain in both its creation and use. It naturally uses the left brain because it is structured and has words. It naturally uses the right brain, as it is a picture and multidimensional.

After I discovered the wonders of Mind Mapping and started to use Mind Maps, I began to judge those that didn’t and silently labelled people right brained or left brained, based on the way they appeared to think.

I was so smugly ‘whole brained’ that I started to see the ‘others’ as inferior, no matter how good or successful they were.

What I failed to see at the time, was the fact that ‘whole brained’ also had its deficiencies in most cases.

In fact, if you are on the fringes of left or right brain thinking, you could develop more whole brain thinking skills much easier than someone at the extreme end of either left or right brain thinking. You don’t have to be good at anything and still be ‘whole brained’.

It may be interesting to note that most geniuses lean heavily to one side.

• The top scientists, mathematicians and programmers are very left brained.
• The top musicians, artists and designers are very right brained.

Can we therefore say that being very left-brained or very right-brained such a bad thing?

Right brain prejudice

Even though whole brained thinking is believed to be better, the western school curriculum traditionally favoured the left-brained individual. Western society therefore generally rewards left-brained people more than right-brained people.

Many of the menial jobs don’t require any innovation or creativity from the person executing the task. I call this the the ‘factory mentality’. You are working on a production line and need to do as you are told, repetititively and consistently.

It is unfortunate that so many people not working on production lines have the same mentality. They are in a rut at work, simply doing the same thing over and over. Energy and innovation is nowhere to be found.

In many cases, this suits the business owners and bosses, as they need people to ‘do as they are told’. Many managers are threatened by energetic and innovative subordinates. They suppress energy and innovation instead of ecouraging and nurturing it.

Innovation and creativity are often punished instead of rewarded.

The innovative and creative people therefore end up as artists, musicians, etc. Or they enter naturally right brained ‘accepted’ professions such as graphic design.

Overcoming the prejudice

Last week, I wrote about the six thinking hats of Edward de Bono. In his framework of thinking, there is definitely a place for creativity. Do you remember which hat symbolises this?

When wearing this hat, you are encouraged to be as creative as possible. If you are a left brained manager, you must ensure the the more right brained individuals get a chance to express themselves in the best possible way.

Right brained thinkers are key elements in a brainstorming session. Without them, you will get dull, flat, unimaginative solutions. In fact, you may not get solutions as all. You may just dig a hole and get deeper and deeper into the problem.

By using Mind Maps and Mind Mapping to capture and structure the right brain ideas, you naturally build a more whole brained view of the situation.

So can one still say that whole brained is better?

We can, if we could develop both right brained and left brained qualities to the same level of extreme excellence.
While there are some geniuses that have achieved this, it remains a rare exception.

Many leaders tend to be more whole brained, as they can tap into both left brain and right brain when thinking and solving problems. They also have the confidence and wisdom to pull in the extreme left brain or the extreme right brain individual when necessary.

They realise that in order to be successful, they have to tap into experts in both halves. By doing this, they will get the best whole brain solution.

So what should we do?

• If you are left brained, do more right brain activities and use Mind Maps
• If you are right brained, do more left brain activities and use Mind Maps
• If you are whole brained, start stretching the limits of both halves…and use Mind Maps

As you can see, Mind Maps can assist you no matter where you are on the left brain, right brain spectrum. Left brainers should encourage creativity and innovation in both themselves and others. Right brainers should welcome the structure and order of left brainers to enable them to maximise the effects of their creativity.

A thinking framework like the six thinking hats allows individuals and groups to ‘wear both hats’ without prejudice.

Comments are most welcome…