Keeping Your Brain Healthy: Brain-FX

Right- Left Brain Preferences at Work

Dr. Ellen Weber from the Brain-Based Business Blog writes a couple of great posts about the differences in our work styles, based on the areas of the brain we use the most.

Those that favor the right side of the brain:

1). Solve more problems by combining facts…images…and ideas others offer… to lead the group with better solutions….

2). Process new ideas and throw in spontaneous answers to complex problems… the kind that lift eyebrows in a discussion….

3). Design your office so that it inspires better work and reflects the art you most enjoy….

4). Use facial gestures and body language that win you deals that others dream of….

5). Build friendships and lead others in ways they find a willingness to follow….

6). Recognize faces of clients and former associates and remember music that moved your day to new heights….

7). Gather the parts and bits all around you into a vision that other can see and that can take your business to the peaks….

On the other hand, those that prefer acting in more rational ways may use the left side of their brain more frequently:

1). Deal with project details… by breaking them down to one at a time
2). Process information such as an action plan into linear and sequential steps
3). Plan and organize a week for with time in mind
4). Articulate well through speaking … reading … and writing
5). Remember and apply key facts as well as solve arithmetic operations
6). Recognize words and numbers to complete business projects
7). Think logically and in ways that analyze… sort… and use other people’s ideas

The left brain too often get a bum wrap when companies take it for granted in their efforts to use more right brain creativity. Yet, as your storeroom for reason … this side holds power tools for writers… engineers … information technologies and others who need its logical … problem solving … no-nonsense approaches…. It’s also useful to those who plan and structure facts or who compare differences….

Can you identify with this, recognize your work preferences?

The Creating Brain

An interesting book examines the relationship of the brain to creativity: The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius, by Nancy C. Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D.

Psychologists and neuroscientists have been exploring highly intelligent individuals and those who create outstanding works of art, science or other products requiring significant original thought.

What they've found from a variety of IQ and other tests and studies is that most creative people are smart, but they aren't necessarily extremely smart. An IQ around 120 is generally good enough.

The most creative people aren't those with IQs in the 140, 150 and above ranges. Why is that? Stay tuned, I'll keep reading the book.

But I'd like to offer a wild guess here. Maybe I'm way out to lunch, but here's my proposed theory:

People with extremely high IQs never really fit in or relate well with others. Because of their extreme intelligence, they (possibly) spend some of their time trying to figure out how to  blend their ideas in so they can connect and be a part of the world. But they often feel like square pegs trying to fit into round holes. Let's face it, there aren't many others of their high IQ around to relate to.

People with moderately high IQs - say in the 120 ranges - know they are smart, and they don't have trouble fitting in. They also know they aren't that smart either. They don't worry about fitting in, so they have energy left over. They, in fact, look for unusual or creative ways to exist in the world. They have more energy available to them to use in creative ways.

Anyway, I could be way off base. But here's what else they've found about highly creative people:

They are open to new experiences, adventurous, rebellious, individualists, sensitive, playful, persistent, curious, and simple.

Creative people approach the world in a fresh and original way that is not shaped by preconceptions. The obvious order and rules that guide people with average intelligence just aren't that important to them. They do not wear the blinders of conventionality that others strive to pay attention to.

What do you think? Why aren't there more Nobel Peace Prize winners, inventors, artists, writers and other creative geniuses in the high IQ ranges? Why are so many of the higher IQ people - like some of the Mensa members - NOT successful at creating?

I would love to hear from you, just click the comment link below and tell me what you think.