Double Up on Brainpower

How Split-Brain Research Can Reshape Business Thinking

In the mid-20th century, Roger Sperry, did a ton of research to understand the nuances of our brain's hemispheres. His scalpel wasn't just making surgical rounds, it was making world-shaking discoveries.

Sperry’s findings defined a lot of how we think of brains today. He found that the two hemispheres of the brain, when divorced from each other by severing the corpus callosum, acted independently. They would each go about their business unaware of one another. The left hemisphere had more linguistic prowess while the right was the visual and spatial expert.

Sperry is why we think of analytical people as "left-brained" and creatives as "right-brained". Yet it's not nearly that simple. We all have plenty of each skill set riding around in our gray matter.

Think of the business applications for a minute. The left brain crunching numbers and crafting strategies, while the right brain conjures up creative solutions and visualizes the big picture. Imagine firing up both hemispheres of everyone on your team. Wow!

The essence of split-brain research isn’t merely an academic exercise. I believe that it can be an opportunity for businesses to break down the silos, not just between departments but between hemispheres. Engaging both the logical and the creative, the analytical and the intuitive, can foster a culture of holistic thinking and innovative problem-solving.

Consider a practice where business leaders consciously shuttle between analytical rigor and creative exploration. It’s about making decisions with a full deck, not just half. Fostering a culture that encourages this dual-hemisphere thinking isn't a no-brainer, it's a total brainer.

It's about the spreadsheet and the storyboard combining and creating a narrative that’s as engaging as it is effective.

Of course, integrating this "split-brain" approach in your business isn’t without its challenges. It requires a shift in mindset, a willingness to venture beyond the familiar turf of left-brain logic.

Start small - try experiments! Challenging your technical team to draw pictures or diagrams of a solution rather than writing a document about it may yield insights. Working with your creative team to do a hands-on deep dive into the data of the results of a campaign (rather than being handed the results) will open their eyes.

Embracing the insights from split-brain research isn’t just about thinking outside the box, it’s about realizing the brain has more than one box to begin with. And it means realizing that we all have more tools in our toolboxes than we realize.

That can make a huge impact on you and your business.