21CT: Giving a little piece of my (right) brain!
Reflection, Theory June 7th, 2008
I have been wanting to “right” this post for a while now. Well, today the time just seems “write.” Time to start the dialog, with myself anyway. Hopefully, others will dance the dance with me.
OK, I’m just going to come right out and say this. The 1st item on the agenda of any 12-step program worth its salt is to self-acknowledge and confess, to give name to something. So, here it is: I AM A RIGHT-BRAINER. OK, it’s out. I admit that I have felt powerless over a left-brain driven, promoted and protected society —that my life has reached a turning point. No longer will I hide in the shadows of left-brainers (LBers), nor wholesalelingly take their oppressive and controlling “crap.” Sorry, sometimes you just have to use the best word. Plus, I need to stimulate a bit of controversy to bring on the commenting (or so I have witnessed with other bloggers). Oh yeah, we right-brainers (RBers) love analogies and metaphors; but, they drive LBers to madness. So, I use them a lot. Somehow it helps to level the playing field a bit. You know for sure that you’ve brushed upon a heavy LBer when they respond, “but a person is not a rose, so I don’t get your point; and it doesn’t make any sense,” while scrunching up their face and squinting the eyes a bit. It’s the telltale look of dismissal and disdain for your creativity and breach of sticking to the logical “facts.” A rose IS a rose after all, isn’t it? BINGO! You’ve hooked one.
Now you must decide to either throw them back into the murky waters or reel them in. For friendships, I tend to cut the line (for extreme LBers, even if I lose an expensive lure in the process) and steer my boat full-throttle ahead. On the other hand, we need diversity of thought, style and approach for most business, organizational and community situations, so coexisting and supporting others is holistically beneficial. We really do need each other, don’t we? RBers are responsible for cultivating groupness, so I guess we have to find a way to include, nurture and honor all people, like it or not. Besides, iterating back and forth between the two sides yields practical solutions to real problems or opportunities. (EDIT: If the truth be told, I DO have a lot of friends leaning left, just not far left).
My secret fantasy shared with you today is that Dan Pink is 120% right (there I go again trying to short-circuit my left-brain readership); that Right-brainers will rule the future. Just take a look at the picture above. Would you rather be stuck isolated in a cubicle gathering facts, analyzing and writing logical reports? Or would you rather be romping with others through the flowers and flying a kite across green lushness, creating new things and exploring the unknown with no walls to confine you or your vision? According to Pink, outsourcing is making LBers less in demand, as logical and analytical features can be easily replicated by both humans (in other economically developing countries) and computers (rules, routines, instruction, typical LB strengths). And that the real need during a Conceptual Age is for creative powers that can make connections in ways that meet new needs and reach emerging markets. However, is the choice really yours or mine to make? Or are you predestined to a disposed brain pull, with occasional visits to the other side? Maybe you move freely and balanced between the two? Maybe not. Are you happy or frustrated? Perhaps, just as a transgendered feels physically trapped in the wrong body, can we be unfittingly captive on one side of the brain, while longing to be on the other?
So where am I going with this blog post? I don’t really know. I am opening and inviting dialog, meandering, searching, exploring, hovering above and looking down and up and from side to side, and creating a new understanding of all of this for myself. I don’t need all the answers right now. Abundance and the fruits of ambiguity await.
So where are you? Left, right, perfectly balanced in the middle, or decidedly leaning one way or the other? What’s better? Where are we (you) going? Why? Need to take self-inventory? Below in normal-weight font are LB attributes; and in bold/italic font are the RB ones. Be honest with yourself. Look back upon your actual past actions and NOT your self perception (they are often hugely disconnected). Better yet, let someone else do the initial placement for you. Ready to talk? Let’s go then!
TAKE INVENTORY
Left brain, Right brain
Information Age (Drucker), Conceptual Age (Pink/Friedman)
control, explore
linear, holistic
scarcity models, abundance models
safe, risk-taking
practical, impetuous
forms strategies, presents possibilities
reality based, fantasy based
self-oriented, community oriented
uses logic, uses feeling
detail oriented, big picture oriented
facts rule, imagination rules
words and language, symbols & images
present and past, present & future
math and science, philosophy and religion
can comprehend, can “get it” meaning
knowing, believes
acknowledges, appreciates
order-pattern perception, spatial perception
knows objects name, knows objects function
better at closing sale, better at opening sale
logical, analytical, quantitative, rational, verbal / innovative conceptual, holistic, intuitive, non-verbal, imaginative, creative
pursuer, preserver
knows peoples names, remembers peoples faces
competitor, organizer, fine print expert, writing, lists, analyzer, doer, phonics, language, talk-talk-talk, splitter: distinction important / emotional expression, context, welcoming of change, synthesizing, creator, flexibility, consistent, versatile, kinesthetic, curiosity, visionary, searcher, synergy, playfulness, metaphoric thinking, group-oriented, music, artistry, problem solving, sensing, color sensitivity, believer, people-focused, visualization capability
learn phonetic analytical method, learn sight method
right-brainers like: role play, metaphors, analogies, visuals, movement, background music
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Hi Frank,
I am definitely left brain but when working with kids in my room, I try to include activities and assignments that include right brain thinking. Many of my friends though, say I do have some right brain tendencies in dance, problem solving and visualization but personally LEFT brain rules.
Hey Sue,
Thanks for the comment, it gave me an opportunity to read your fantastic blog .. very nice. Do you think that life has been easier for you being a little more left-brain dominant? What kind of dance do you enjoy? Is it highly structured and rule-centered like ballet, or more open and free like contemporary dance?
Wow, Frank. You went all out on this post, and I loved it.
Of course the “Fish or Cut Bait” analogy was very appropriate. I find that I am much better NOW at not spending time trying to help LBrs understand who I am.
I just gave a presentation (It’s del.icio.us). I could really see the variety of learning styles in that group.
I love analogies and linguistic play on words. I also love run-on sentences (streams of thought);D
I have to agree with you. Some people just don’t get it. BTW, out of curiosity, are you left-handed?
I am so left brained, it is scary! Thank goodness my husband is so right brained that it balances me out. Growing up my parents used to complain that I had no common sense even though I was smart. Most of my students are right brained so I always enjoyed their perspectives on what I was teaching but many teachers I know had trouble resolving this difference.
Sheryl, I am right-handed. But, the funny thing is that I have been thinking a lot lately about how left-handed children used to be forced to use their right hands … and how right-brained children still today are forced to exercise and strengthen their left brains. Sort of the same thing, really. But somehow to me, the brain seems like a really important part of the body; and we need to pay more attention to its development.
Are times really changing? Are left-brained heavy talents better left in the 20th century? I see very minor right-brain activity going on in classrooms where I am here in Mexico. We prepare children with English language skills, but are these skills irrelevant without right-brain or full-brain learning in reference to the 21st century and changing business and cultural expectations?
Pat, I love LBers just as much as RBers. Studies do show that it is more difficult for LBers to jump to the other side when needed … and easier for RBers to go both ways. So, I am thinking that we need a lot more focus on this in education. Balance, as you mentioned, seems to be key. Nice to hear that you have balance at home, hehe! I see more teachers (I am a teacher trainer and do lots of classroom observations) instructing from and to the left brain more than the right.
My mother used to say that I had no common sense, too. I hated it. I was never sure if it was just a form of punishment or harassment or something that she really believed. She is dead now, so that answer has gone to the grave I’m afraid. But, not having any common sense, would that be more an accusation tossed at RBers and not LBers? If one goes by the norms, rules, instructions of society, aren’t they deemed to have common sense?
This is the first time I have every blogged! I have read your comments – all of them, and am sitting smiling in front of my computer. When I first started teaching I did a “Learning to Learn” unit complete with quizzes and I was extremely Right Brain, however as I revisit this area most years, with different students believe it or not my dominance is changing! Last year I was bang on equal! I am, of course very fearful that I will end up a left brainer – you are all very nice people I am sure! It’s the inside the box, fear of structure etc. thing that sends shivers, and develops an urge to throw all doors open and run out to open spaces. I love the image by the way….