Your left brain manages the quantitative, anything that can be reduced to a spreadsheet will be a left brain activity. It can be quantified, optimised, but always lacks the spark of originality, and creativity.
Creativity, instinct, understanding, are all functions of the right brain.
We homo sapiens respond instinctively to the cues around us in our environment, a function of our evolutionary drive to survive in a hostile environment. However, we do it using our ‘fast’ brain, which is not a specific location or hemisphere of the brain, but an instinctive response built into us by evolution, residing deep in our amygdala. It enables instant response, which may not always be right, but is a safer bet. For example, when our ancestors were walking across the savannah, they responded to that rustle in the grass as if it was a threat. If it turns out to be just the wind, nothing is lost, but if it turns out to have been a tiger, it would have been a grave mistake to ignore it.
We interpret everything around us through this ‘fast lens’, then are able to sit back and think about it adding a layer of more thoughtful response.
The creative stuff in our brain, residing largely in the right hemisphere is the slower part, from where we draw on our experience, learning, and context of information and environment, to come to a conclusion. It takes time and cognitive energy to assemble the factors that apply, and consider them, rather than just jumping to a conclusion.
It is this ability that distinguishes us from other mammals, and indeed, all animals.
However, the right brain needs input from the left, it requires the raw material with which to work, and when the magic happens, it needs a way for the left brain to figure out if the outcome made logical sense, then refeed the data back to the right brain for reprocessing.
I would speculate that the advent of the digital tools of instant gratification have compromised our propensity to apply the cognitive energy required to leverage the creative capability of our right brain. Our creative output appears to me to have suffered in direct proportion to the evolution of the fast twitch tools of the internet, which demand an instant response, not a considered one. This does not enable the right brain to do what it does best, seek out interesting and non obvious solutions to a problem or situation.
For anyone more than superficially interested in this stuff, the must read book is ‘Thinking Fast & Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman.
When you want to understand how it all applies to the generation of revenue, give me a call.
