Know your brain

In the previous Industry Insight in this series, I introduced the notion of whole brain thinking, with particular reference to how it can help those in the IT sector overcome negativity and prosper, even in a down economy.

Now I will delve deeper into the four quadrants of the brain and how they impact people's roles in the IT market. The understanding that our brains are not one integrated whole is not new: as far back as 400BC Hippocrates determined during autopsies that "the brain of man is double", and that the loss of speech was connected with damage to the left side of the brain. This was confirmed by French surgeon Paul Broca in 1864.

Then in the 1960s, Philip Vogel and Joseph Bogen re-confirmed this with their breakthrough split-brain surgery on three epileptic patients. The subsequent work, which won a Nobel Prize in 1981, showed that the two hemispheres of the brain control vastly different aspects of thought and action. They found that the left (controlling the right side of the body) is dominant for language and speech and for analytic and logical thought, while the right (controlling the left side of the body) excels at visualising, holistic and unstructured tasks.

To summarise the four quadrants of the brain:

* Top left, or L1: This quadrant of the brain deals with focus, essence, precision, accuracy, factual reasoning, logic, objectivity, diagnosis, analysis, the ability to critique, clinical analysis, facts, concrete issues, mathematics, performance against targets, rationality, realism, quantitative measures and the vital importance of getting things done right first time, every time.

* Bottom left, or L2: This quadrant of the brain is organised and orderly, planned, structured and has a step-by-step approach to issues; it is punctual, conscious of time, steadfast and sequential in its approach to issues; it ensures the person is thorough, reliable and result-driven; it concerns itself with security and safekeeping, detail, tradition, neatness, and a task-driven orientation.

* Top right, or R1: This is characterised by flexibility, an ability to see the big picture, or to be holistic; to experiment, be artistic and take risks; to synthesise ideas, visualise and integrate ideas, along with idea intuition; to be unstructured, prefer chance, investigate all, seek alternatives, apply and develop imagination, and use fantasy as a constructive tool.

* Bottom right, or R2: This quadrant deals with accessibility, approachability, empathy, expressiveness and teamwork; it enables one to be involved, playful and respectful; it is people-focused, responsive, receptive, sensitive, supportive, and aware and perceptive of other people; it deals with intuitiveness, touch, co-operation, social interaction and participation in group and one-on-one activities.

It follows, logically, that certain IT practitioners will have or need a bias in one of the four quadrants. By way of example, a business analyst needs to be pretty much an all-rounder: technically skilled and attentive to detail (L2), clinical and quantitative (L1), able to see the big picture (R1) and empathetic, sociable and able to communicate easily (R2).

Knowing what the brain looks like is vital to whole brain thinking, and to creativity.

Dr Kobus Neethling is founder and president of the SA Creativity Foundation.

A software programmer, on the other hand, needs to be organised, structured, orderly, with attention to detail, reliable and thorough, all of which points to an L2 bias.

Salespeople, in turn, need an R2 bias: they must be able to internalise and interpret customers' needs; to communicate well, to empathise, to understand and interpret a customer's needs.

An IT executive needs a right-brain bias: through R1 the ability to take risks that is a critical attribute of any entrepreneur; the ability to see the big picture; to visualise and do many things at once.

Knowing what the brain looks like is vital to whole brain thinking, and to creativity. If a company wants to hire a programmer but they don't know that the programmer is deficient in the quadrant where he or she should have an inherent bias, the company will certainly not enjoy the outcome it seeks.

Equally, if the company hires a risk-averse CEO, and the executive search team had missed this minor detail due to a lack of brain profiling, the company is sure to be disappointed with the new man at the helm. And, above all, whole brain thinking is key to creativity, which is the key to success in the IT sector.

* In the next Industry Insight, I'll look at how the four quadrants of the brain can be further broken down into eight sections, apply labels to those sections, and indicate how these pertain to the IT sector.