When budgets are tight and proving value is critical, whole brain thinking provides a framework for harnessing all the brainpower at your disposal.
Why not start with our own profession? For years, I have heard leaders in our field say that they want a "seat at the table." This struggle to prove the business value of our function is often rooted in a tendency to speak from our own preferences rather than adjusting for the needs and expectations of senior business leaders.
In Herrmann International's 30 years of research, we have gathered more than 1 million data samples, and clear patterns have surfaced.
The data reveals that workplace performance professionals have their own specialized preferences, while senior and "C-level" executives tend to be more whole brained in their thinking, with a tilt toward their functional background or expertise (see Figure 1). The workplace performance professional's frustrations frequently come from a failure to use a whole brain approach when attempting to demonstrate the value and return-on-investment (or, as I like to define it, intelligence) of their core work.
A training manager once told me, "I can't seem to get them to acknowledge the improvements we've achieved." What I found was that he had overlooked a critical piece of "A quadrant" thinking that all senior leaders need to see pre- and postbenchmark data.
In another organization, a lack of "B quadrant" thinking led to a rocky rollout of a global change initiative because last-minute changes were made to correct overlooked logistics, communication, and management issues.
How many e-learning initiatives have sat on "virtual shelves" without adoption by target users? A technically perfect e-learning curriculum that doesn't culturally fit or hasn't been positioned for value is doomed to fail because it overlooks the "C quadrant" needs of customers.
Years ago, I worked with a very enthusiastic learning and development group that was launching a new training program. When asked by a visiting senior executive how this aligned with corporate strategy (important to the "D quadrant") they could not give an immediate or compelling answer.
Not only are individuals designed to be whole, our data shows that organizations are whole brain entities, too. Thus, key initiatives must be whole brained to meet the organization's needs. If we do not begin applying whole brain thinking, our profession will remain marginalized as "soft stuff"—prisoners of our own preferences, focusing uniquely on the learning aspects that we feel are most important but that we are unable to sell to decision makers.
Ascent is a learning and development organization focused on maximizing mid/senior leadership, motivation and performance in the areas of Management, Personal and Youth Development, Sales and Service, Teambuilding and Organizational Design. To find out how Ascent can help your organisation visit www.ascent-world.com, email us at
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, call us on +971 4 3344627.
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