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The Way Our Mind Works The Nature of Thinking and How To Manage It |
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by Vadim Kotelnikov, Founder, The first-ever BUSINESS e-COACH for Innovative Leaders, 1000ventures.com
"The brain is a wonderful organ: it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office" - Robert Frost
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Limited Attention Span The limited attention span means that only part of your memory surface can be activated at any one time. "This limited attention span is extremely important for it means that the activated area will be a single coherent area and that single coherent area will be found in the most easily activated part of the memory surface. The most easily activated area or pattern is the most familiar one, the one which has been encountered most often, the one which has left most trace on the memory surface. And because a familiar pattern tends to be used it becomes ever more familiar. In this way the mind builds up that stock of present patterns which are the basis of code communication."1 Your Brain Can Process Only Positive Information The language of brain are pictures, sounds, feelings, tastes and smells, i.e. inputs from your senses. Your brain cannot work with negative information, i.e. inputs you haven't experienced. It can work only with positive information, i.e. "information from the experiences of your five senses, which it then manipulates in the emotional blender we call the imagination."4 Left Brain / Right Brain Research on brain theory helps you understand why some people are excellent inventors but poor producers or good managers but weak leaders. The research indicates that the brain is divided into two hemispheres, the left and the right, and that each hemisphere specializes in different functions, processes different kinds of information, and deals with different kinds of problems. The left brain works more with logic and analysis, the right works more with emotions and imagination. "As we apply brain dominance theory to the three essential roles of organizations, we see that the manager's role primarily would be left brain and the leader's role right brain. The producer's role would depend upon the nature of the work. If it's verbal, logical, analytical work, that would be essentially left brain; if it's more intuitive, emotional, or creative work, it would be right brain. People who are excellent managers but poor leaders may be extremely well organized and run a tight ship with superior systems and procedures and detailed job descriptions. But unless they are internally motivated, little gets done because there is no feeling, no heart; everything is too mechanical, too formal, too tight, too protective. A looser organization may work much better even though it may appear to an outsider observer to be disorganized and confused. Truly significant accomplishments may result simply because people share a common vision, purpose, or sense of mission."5 The Brain Likes to Race Ahead Once your mind gets moving in a direction, be it a left-brain direction (logical, mathematical, judgmental, analytical activities) or a a right-brain one (creative, visual, spatial concepts), it tends to keep going. To illustrate it, "try this easy test: What do you call a funny story? - joke What are you when you have no money? - broke What's another word for Coca Cola? - Coke What's the white of an egg? -------------------- It isn't yolk, it's albumen. Were you tricked? Most people are. The brain likes to race ahead, because it already knows the answer."6 Divide Your Time Between the Left-Brain and Right-Brain Activity If you keep bouncing back and forth between creative and analytical activities, you'll get a headache and won't produce your best results. Analysis, evaluation and judgment get in the way of creativity. That's why in brainstorming sessions we suspend judgment while we generate ideas. Similarly, radical innovation project managers apply the loose-tight leadership technique to divide time between divergent and convergent thinking by their team members at different project stages.
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Bibliography:
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"Lateral Thinking", Edward de Bono, 1970
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"Differentiate or Die", Jack Trout, 2000
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"Decision Making and Problem Solving", John Adair, 1997
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"Connecting in Business in 90 Seconds or Less", Nicholas Boothman, 2003
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"Principle-Centred Leadership", Stephen R. Covey, 1990
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"101 Ways To Generate Great Ideas", Timothy R.V. Foster, 2001
