Left Brain—Right Brain?

Just skimmed the brochure from one of the most prestigious conferences I know of: “Leaders in London”, which bills itself as “The International Leadership Summit”. The conference will take place in London, November 29-30, 2006. For more information, www.leadersinlondon.com.

What caught my eye as the principal of a design consultancy was the presentation being given by noted speaker, author and former White House speech writer Daniel Pink. Title: “Identifying & Leading the New Breed of Workers: How & Why the Right-Brained Will Be Critical to Future Business Success”. Wow—that’s a mouthful. But a meaningful mouthful.

This caps a notable trend in new business thought and one well worth exploring. Business has sought out left brainers, ie, MBA’s schooled in analytics, metrics and use of logic for so long, that’s it elating for those of us who are right brainers, ie, innovators and creative problem solvers, to witness this evolution in thinking that finally seems to endorse and appreciate our skill sets.

BusinessWeek’s editor-in-chief, Steven J. Adler, has referred to this new corporate trend as the “rise of the Creativity Economy”. The gist: current design and business leaders need to embrace this new “creativity economy” as it unfolds. My take: the corporate and design sectors should work to integrate their analytical and creative problem-solving with true design solutions as never before. The integration of right brain (creative, innovative and design) and left brain (analytical, business metrics) is powerful stuff.

Several of the nation’s leading B-schools, Harvard, Georgetown and Northwestern among them, have offered single elective courses in product design, product innovation or the management of the design process in their curricula to MBA candidates. New programs are also being pioneered in some MBA programs. Stanford is establishing a new Institute of Design to teach design strategy to both business and design students. The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management is taking a leadership role in developing a new B-school program in innovation and design strategy.

This is just the beginning of a new trend to imbue future design and business leaders in design thinking and strategy. The premise: if our business leaders are expected to become creative thinkers, problem solvers and innovators to keep their companies ahead of ever-intensifying global competition, won’t an understanding of design (problem solving) processes serve them well?

In his abstract for “Leaders in London”, Pink goes even further: “The era of ‘left-brain’ dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are now giving way to a new world in which ‘right brain’ qualities—inventiveness, empathy, meaning—predominate. Indeed, we are moving from an era when the MBA was the most treasured recruit to the (MFA) Master of Fine Arts graduate who can provide a broadened approach.”

Whether or not Pink’s prophecy comes true, we can all agree that collaboration will yield dividends in the way of achieving better and better customer experiences in what must become a more consumer-centric focus on the part of business. That is where we will realize the full potential of brand loyalty and brand equity.