It’s more than a numbers game

“We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computer-like capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age.”

So says Dan Pink in his new book A Whole New Mind. Among other things, he’s arguing that traditional ‘left-brain’ skills – analysis and logic – are no longer all that’s required in business, and that ‘right-brain’ skills like inventiveness and empathy are the key to success.

The book’s full of original thought. But the topic isn’t a new one: people have been talking for years about the importance of being imaginative at work. A Whole New Mind joins the growing number of recent publications advocating the importance of ‘right-brain’ skills in today’s business world – books like Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, Trust your Gut by Lynn Robinson and Social Intelligence by Dan Goleman.

So are they right?

Obviously the amount of creativity and imagination each member of your workforce needs on a day-to-day basis depends on the nature of the business. But yes, I think the argument that left-brain analytical skills now need to be balanced with more intuitive, creative ‘right-brain’ skills in the modern business world is right.

Why? Well one reason is our crowded market place. Companies as a whole need to become more imaginative as customers become increasingly picky. More than ever, products need to go beyond the functional. Creativity is no longer something done at the end by the ad agency. Cars are sold as a lifestyle, walking down shopping aisles needs to be an experience, even the humble kettle needs to fit with the design of the kitchen. To survive in this environment, companies need to be in tune with how their customers feel, and be imaginative enough to create products that appeal to these emotions. That can’t be done through relying on factual data, figures and analysis. That needs right-brain inventiveness.

What should HR do about it?

Is your business still stuck in Pink’s ‘Information Age’? Is it struggling to see beyond the numbers? Does senior management see inventiveness and creativity as a “nice to have”, but not really very productive? Is your business struggling to really understand your customers, how they feel not what they think about your products? If so, then something probably needs to be done. But by whom? Should we, in HR, be influencing the right-brain/left-brain balance of a business?

Personally, I think we should. In fact, there are several reasons why HR is better placed than anyone to drive businesses to become more ‘whole brain’:

New leaders can’t just be a chip off the old block. If your senior management got to where they are because of their excellent analytical, calculating, hard-nosed business skills, they might not see the benefits of a more intuitive approach to business decisions. If that’s the case, it’s partly HR’s job to persuade them of this, and to change the business’s leadership criteria as a result.

Changing company work ethics can cause friction, particularly when it comes to promotion. HR can help avoid this by making sure everyone understands the new leadership criteria that promotion is judged against.

Inventiveness, creativity and intuition are trainable, and that’s our job. Increasingly, there are courses out there to help, and it’s something we’ve discussed before in HR with Guts. Training to develop these skills is essential to make sure people understand how to harness their creativity and intuition in the most effective way.

Creativity and inventiveness can involve risk. So we need to make sure the businesses we support have a culture where these risks are acceptable, and people have the confidence to take them.

Recruitment is a quick way to affect the balance of a company and obviously it’s up to HR to bring in the right people, not just by spotting the right talent themselves, but by training business managers to be able to do the same.

Of course, if we’re going to do all this driving of change effectively, we’re going to need to lead by example. HR won’t be able to influence whole-minded thinking proactively if we’re not whole-minded ourselves. So is this the way we in HR are heading at the moment? I’m not sure it is. Perhaps it’s just a reaction, in an effort to be taken more seriously within their business, but it seems many HR departments are focussing more and more on typically left-brain activities. For example, shunning anecdotal feedback in favour of quantitative analysis, or measuring their achievements exclusively in figures and numeric results. Some HR departments are even changing their names to ‘Human Capital Management’ – a more left-brained description would be pretty hard to find.*

So we need to convince our own departments to think the right way first. But once this is done, we need to be ready to make it happen across the board. It’s never too early to speak to the businesses we support about it. Is it time to drop a copy of A Whole New Mind onto your CEO’s desk?

*Interested in the great name debate? Then check out our article about it here.