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DID you buy The Independent this morning for information, for ideas, because you always buy it, or because you like it? According to Ned Herrmann, your answer is a reflection of what sort of brain you have, which will affect your working style, your choice of friends and your attitude to change - in fact, more or less everything about you.
Mr Herrmann, 68, is the chairman of the board of the Whole Brain Corporation and founder of Brain Dominance Technology, a theory that has gained him clients among the largest companies in the United States.
By applying recent ideas about what is going on in our brains, he classifies people according to which sector of their brains is dominant. His experience has shown that people of similar brain types communicate well with each other. By identifying brain-mismatches, the theory can also prescribe strategies to overcome problems caused by poor communication or incompatibility.
While other scientists have concentrated on supposed differences between the left (rational) and right (conceptual) sides, the Herrmann brain combines these with the upper (thinking and analytic) and lower (emotional and instinctive) modes of functioning. The lower, or limbic brain comes from an earlier stage of evolution than our upper, cerebral brain.
If you are looking for vision and creativity, you need someone with an upper-right dominant brain. For calm assessment of ideas and problem-solving, upper-left is more reliable, and after that an army of lower-left well-organised characters may be needed to get on with doing the work. Meanwhile some good cheer and support from the lower-right wing will boost general morale. But people of different types really do seem to have difficulties in talking to each other.
The conceptual (top-right) thinker is liable to be disorganised and unemotional and would not get on well with a committed organiser (lower-left), whom he will see as a boring plodder. Indeed, according to Mr Herrmann's researches, "boring" is precisely the word that 95 per cent of top-rights use to describe lower-lefts. Equally, the instinctual-conceptual (lower-right) person may be seen either as an ineffectual do-gooder or a truly good and caring human being, depending on your point of view, and the purely rational-cerebral type (top-left) is either a technical wizard or a total nerd.
Armed with impressive case-studies, he makes out a good case for taking more notice of brains: 240 research scientists working on the American Star-Wars project all turn out to be pure thinkers, balanced between upper-right and upper-left quadrants with not much elsewhere; a large sample of artists all crammed their scores into the upper-right, imagination mode; accountants really are upper-left boring people, and nurses are lower-right.
The theory has strong implications for selection procedures. Since like attracts like, managers tend to recruit in their own image. This will certainly ease communication, but may also lead to imbalance - typically, too few organisers, or a surplus of organisation and no ideas.
By identifying which parts of the brain an individual uses most, Mr Herrmann believes he can encourage them to develop their strengths, while also giving techniques to help develop the parts of their brain that other management theories do not reach.
"The key issue is the management of difference, the acceptance of difference," he says as he gently fondles a model brain between pudgy fingers. "Above all, you must understand and appreciate your own mental uniqueness and the mental individuality of those around you."
His interest stemmed from curiosity about his own creativity, asking himself how and why he managed to combine his early work as a physicist with semi-professional careers, first as a singer then as a painter and sculptor. Meanwhile he had moved from research in a large corporation via sales to human resource development. Then he rediscovered the brain, and has spent most the past decade trying to convince others that it is important.
In 1976, when he brought his theories to a corporate vice-president of his company, he was told: "The human brain is a highly personal and private matter, not to be discussed in public, and certainly not talked about on company property."
In 1989, George Bush signed a Congressional Bill proclaiming the 1990s as "the Decade of the Brain". The penalties for wilful misuse of this organ are not specified, but Mr Herrmann feels that a lot of progress has been made for his Worldwide Brain Crusade.
He has succeeded in getting more people willing to think about brains, and his methods are gaining a wide acceptance. The Herrmann Brain Dominance Institute (UK) is now open for business, adding his inventory to the batteries of questionnaires that interviewees and aspiring managers may be asked to complete.
What kind of brain do you have?
1. I like to solve problems by: a) common-sense; b) good planning; c) intuition; d) imagination.
2. My biggest weakness is that I am: a) unemotional; b) pedantic; c) over-emotional; d) impractical.
3. In a team, my most useful feature is: a) logical; b) organisational; c) interpersonal; d) conceptual.
4. If I find some money, my first reation would be to: a) count it; b) invest it; c) buy someone a present; d) speculate with it.
5. Which word best describes your orientation: a) facts; b) form; c) feeling: d) future.
The a) answers are characteristic of the upper-left, unemotional thinking brain; the b)s represent the lower-left, systematic controlled brain; c)s typify a lower-right sympathetic, spiritual type; and d)s are the upper-right experimental spatial thinker.
William Hartston The Independent
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