Right Brain, Left Brain, and Whole Brain Talent
May 26, 2009 0 Comments
Last week we reviewed Daniel Pink’s book – A Whole New Mind: why right-brainers will rule the future. Mr. Pink makes the assertion that, since we have outsourced most of our left brain jobs to India and China (e.g. IT, manufacturing, etc.), “right brainers” will rule the world of work in the 21st century.
According to Mr. Pink, the success of US organizations in the future will depend on attracting and retaining people with the ability to perform “right brain” activities such as:
- Creating outstanding designs
- Achieving excellence in communication
- Discovering new synergies between previously unrelated concepts
- Demonstrating incredible empathy with others
- and finding new meaning(s) in our lives
To be fair to Mr. Pink, he does not claim that left brain thinking (the logical, sequential, and analytical kind) will be obsolete – only that it will not be enough to ensure a competitive advantage in 21st century markets. The point he really seems to be making is that what organizations need to do is to hire “whole brain thinkers” – able to think both analytically and creatively.
If all this has some basis is truth there are implications for organizational talent management practices. It would seem that hiring mainly for experience and technical ability will need to be increasingly supplemented with assessments to identify “whole brain thinkers”. Given the coming demographic time bomb involved with replacing retiring baby boomers with a short supply of Gen Xers and Yers, hiring “whole brain thinkers” seems to be opening up another front in the ongoing war for talent.
Tags: daniel pink > left brain thinkers > right brain thinkers > talent management > whole brain thinkers
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