Right Brain Content, Right Brain Methods

Posted by Allen Baird, Partner on Dec 9, 2009 in news and events, training | 0 comments

Last Satuday (5 Dec)  I delivered a course called Right-Brain Rising: How to Harness All Your Mind at Queen’s University, Belfast.  This was the blurb.

One-half of our brain deals with logic, facts and argument. Traditional education encourages that, and traditional jobs use it. Now the rules have changed. The age of ‘left-brain’ dominance has gone. New abilities are required for professional success and personal fulfilment. Following bestselling author Daniel Pink, this workshop will focus on discovering and developing these ‘right-brain’ abilities – design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning.

I’ve never based a whole 1-day workshop around a book before, but visitors to this blog will know how much I obsess about the excellence of Pink’s book.  I did begin by placing Pink’s ‘why right brainers will rule the future‘ thesis into psychological context.  I mentioned the ground-breaking work of Rodger Sperry on the lateralization of brain functions, as well as the innovative attempts of Ned Herrmann to carry this insight into the realms of personality profiling, creative thinking and team dynamics.

Most of my courses are fairly ‘left brain’ in the sense of sequential, info-rich and analytical.  But I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s a rather contradictory to try to teach right-brain thinking by left-brain methods.  So, instead, on this course, I mostly allowed each technique to be exercise-driven in the way I taught it.

So, for example, when it came to teaching empathy, I left behind definitions and models, and instead got the class to observe body language on video clips and watch out for micro-expressions, as well as participate in role-playing and acting assignments.

For story, we wrote mini-sagas, created opening novel lines, and wove stories around interesting photos.  Other right-brain ‘senses’ had us re-designing annoying household items, listening to great symphonies, and dissecting the world’s funniest jokes!  There was also some heated discussion as to the merit of the ‘life is a game‘ metaphor.

I’d love to know if anyone else in Northern Ireland has read Pink’s book.  What did you make of it?

Image credit: spierzchala.