I read this Marketing Profs’ article yesterday – Left Brain, Right Brain: Creating a New Business Model – and then deleted it. But I have been thinking about it during this busy day with customers. It is an thought-provoking article that takes me back to my days as a psych major in college. I chalked it up to my own interests, but the thesis is quite applicable to today’s hiring model.
Here’s what piqued my interest:
Stephen J. Adler, Editor-in-Chief of Business Week, has dubbed today’s business environment “the Creativity Economy.”
Interesting catch phrase. Then came this:
After all, if business executives are expected to become creative thinkers, problem solvers, and innovators to keep their companies ahead of ever-intensifying global competition, won’t the basic premises of design serve them well? We might call this a move to integrate right-brain (creative, innovative and design) and left-brain (analytical, management) thinking in the highest circles of business.
Now the author is on to something. The final hook:
In the abstract for his presentation, Pink boldly states: “The era of ‘left-brain’ dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are now giving way to a new world in which ‘right brain’ qualities – inventiveness, empathy, meaning – predominate. Indeed, we are moving from an era when the MBA was the most treasured recruit to the (MFA) Master of Fine Arts graduate who can provide a broadened approach.”
This is truly a radical new way of thought. Perhaps the answer to meeting today’s business challenges is not to “throw the baby out with the bath water” by opting to hone one side of the brain and its unique skill sets over the other, but to take an integrative approach.
Again, maybe it is just me, but I was captivated by the article. When we are screening sales candidates, the creative minds are always the ones that stand out. Now, I’m not talking about joke-telling schmoozers, I’m referencing salespeople who have a unique, integrated approach that drives the qualifying process.