Right-Brain Thinking Needed for Business

For the past century, left-brain thinking has pretty much ruled the business world, said Daniel Pink, author of “A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age.”

But now, automation and outsourcing are taking over many left-brain functions. So, for success in business, both brain hemispheres must work together.

The left hemisphere deals with sequence, analysis and literalness. The right hemisphere takes care of context, synthesis and emotional expression.

“Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere,” Pink wrote in an article last year for Wired magazine. “They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPAs.

“Today, those capabilities are still necessary. But they’re no longer sufficient. In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere — artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent.”

Technology can outperform the human left brain, much like the way machines replaced muscle decades ago, Pink said.

Any job that can be reduced to a set of rules is at risk, he said.

“If a $500-a-month accountant in India doesn’t swipe your accounting job,” he wrote, “TurboTax will. Now that computers can emulate left-hemisphere skills, we’ll have to rely ever more on our right hemispheres.”

That explains why many accountants now also do financial planning.

Pink told the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal that he had noticed a trend after interviewing successful business people who had backgrounds in art.

Wal-Mart Moves Right

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has always incorporated right-brain thinking in the way it moves executives from one department to another to give them experience across the board. But, Pink said, the company seems to be shifting farther in that direction in an effort to lure more upscale customers.

“Lately, they’ve been moving more in a right-brain direction with organic foods and that store they opened down in Plano, Texas, with more high-end items,” he said. “Wal-Mart is diversifying in some ways.”

Pink noted that there are higher margins on organic foods and designer clothing. Wal-Mart already has the built-in traffic for lower-priced items, so it makes sense to stock a broader range of merchandise.

“Maybe they can have it both ways,” he said. “Wal-Mart has done a good job with the utilitarian stuff. But there might be a limited amount of juice left in that particular orange.”

Diversified Education

Jon Johnson, associate professor of management in the University of Arkansas’ Walton College of Business, said he encourages his students to minor in art.

“The value is in bringing together different perspectives — radically different perspectives,” he said. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve been encouraging my students to take art … I think they make better decisions [with a background in art].

“I’m strongly sympathetic to right-brained approaches, but I’m cautious in advising my students to blow off learning their P’s and Q’s. I have been in this game long enough to have seen multiple rounds of predictions of the growing importance of big picture, innovative, conceptual, and/or strategic thinking, only to find that employers are still hiring analysts, accountants and other reductionist thinkers first.”

While revising the MBA program, professors in the Walton College found that Wal-Mart vendors in Northwest Arkansas are still looking for MBA graduates with strong analytical and numerical skills, more so now than in the past.

“Most likely, big-picture thinking will become even more important as you move up the management ranks than it has been in the past, and it has always been important for senior managers,” Johnson said. “In reality, I suspect that the people who will get ahead in the future are the ones who have both big picture conceptual abilities along with a very big bag of anal-retentive micro tricks.”

Johnson, who draws and does photography, teaches strategy, organizational theory and ethics at the UA. He specializes in social network research.