I’ve had the privilege of recently working with some right-brained thinking experts — expert inventors like Scott Hilton-Clarke at Confida.
My first exposure to right-brained techniques came by accident. I read what I think was Tony Buzan’s first book on Mind-Mapping as a teenager, and have used that technique over the years to study for high school exams (CXC and A’levels), write papers, give speeches, brainstorm business opportunities, etc. The technique is useful for depicting the space around a problem or issue or question, and in seeing the space as a whole, and what I’m calling its “vibe.”
As an engineer deeply trained in the use of linear logic to solve problems, this whole approach is difficult to describe, but powerful in its effects. Peter Senge was one of the first to apply the idea of systems thinking to the business arena, and he spoke about the separation of cause and effect in time and space… although systems thinking could be used to fill the gap with essentially linear cause and effect chains of actions.
He pointed to the fact that there is more to organizations than meets the eye… hidden dimensions. And if you could see these dimensions, you could take an action in once place that would produce a result at some other place in space in time, and that others would not be able to see how the result could possibly be produced by taking that action.
Some sales trainers know that having a trainee clean up their desk, their car and their closets can help jump-start sales.
Forgiving an old boyfriend can lead to meeting someone.
Recently, I’ve been using more right-brained techniques to understand wholes, and to read spaces, and “see” and “hear” what they are saying. Of course, it’s not possible to “see’ and “hear” a space literally, but these are the best ways I know to describe what I’m doing when some internal antennae of mine is picking up information from…. a void.
For example, when one is entering a room filled with people, there is a “space.”
When one is in a Carnival band, say Poison, versus another band, say Harts, the “space” is very different.
While I have a relatively “new” antennae, I have found it becoming increasingly reliable, and I’ve been able to say and do things that make no linear sense, but do produce results I want to produce, much in the same way that balancing your checkbook allows an unexpected check to arrive in the mail.
There will be more on this later, to be sure.