Search the Nework website    site map

No 78                                                                             November 2005

The New, Frontier-Free Business World Requires a Two-Sided Brain, Argues Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Vice President

From the Internet - http://www.bcg.com/publications

Boston (June 13, 2005) –Leaders need to wake up their right brains—the creative side— and learn to perceive the world in different ways, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) vice president Luc de Brabandere.

To keep up with the world and the economy, innovation isn’t enough; creativity is also required. "Innovation is survival in the perceived world—making something new in the existing system. To be creative is to think about a new system," said de Brabandere, author of The Forgotten Half of Change: Achieving Greater Creativity—Through Changes in Perception (Dearborn Trade Publishing, May 2005). Antilock brakes stemmed from innovation. The computer mouse and Starbuck’s and Coca-Cola’s use of their brands to get into music sales came from creativity.

"Changing reality— innovation, that is—is a continuous process, whereas changing perception—creativity—is essentially sporadic. Leaders must realize that much of the future isn’t subject to continuity, and should thus take steps to make changes in perception less sporadic and more frequent. They need to know that if they want to take big steps that really count, they need to change twice—systems and process, and then how they think about and see the world," said de Brabandere. "The left, here-and-now side of the business brain is alive and well; the right side needs to be awakened and given room to roam."

In The Forgotten Half of Change, de Brabandere invokes philosophers and artists— Heraclites, Francis Bacon, Victor Hugo, and Michelangelo, and others—to make the case for creativity through changes in perception. And he uses these exemplars, as well as cartoons and drawings, to illuminate barriers in the business mind to creativity and perception change and to suggest recipes for working around those barriers. The book itself is something of an exercise for the right brain.

The business world needs both halves of the brain. Creativity at Xerox many years ago led to the computer mouse, but a lack of systems for innovation let it lie there. A lack of creativity—an inability look beyond a personal conception of information technology—prompted the CEO of Digital Equipment to say in 1977, "There is no reason that people should one day have a computer at home," according to de Brabandere.

"A lot of bad decisions are due not to a lack of information, but rather to the way our minds work," he said. "To remedy that, we need more divergent thinking."

Creativity can pay off in big and small ways. For instance, thinking of and calling an office table or desk a "computer hardware support" might allow one to move from the furniture budget line to the IT line, therefore enabling one to get a new desk, he points out.

The book drives home that white space is a difficult focal point. "Life in most companies doesn’t leave much time to step back and reflect. This is because a specific case or a precise example is easier to deal with than a more general problem or generic one," de Brabandere said.

He added, "But we must remember that the brain is a two-stroke engine. The second stroke is the familiar one. It’s the moment when the brain selects, compares, sorts, plans—the moment of decision. But the first stroke of the engine is the one that deserves attention—where the brain imagines, dreams, suggests, opens horizons. It’s the time of exploration that presages real change."

But Getting the Right Brain in Shape Is Worth the Journey

"Just as becoming bilingual is an effort that may require years of work, becoming ‘bicerebral’ is a long adventure, during which you discover the art of creating innovative teams, developing methods to spark imaginations, and even creating an ideas bank."

In The Forgotten Half of Change, de Brabandere discusses approaches to changing perception and unleashing business creativity in the new economy. For instance:

• Focus on questions, not just answers. If your car is stuck behind a herd of sheep, don’t just ask how do I get around these sheep; also ask how I get the sheep behind the car.
• Remember that vast knowledge is good—as is a clean slate. When it comes to being inventive, vast multidisciplinary knowledge is a plus. So is the total absence of knowledge.
• Remember that creativity comes from individuals or small groups—not groupthink. There is more in two heads than in one, and more in three heads than in two. But, at some point, the effect is reversed. A crowd doesn’t invent anything.
• Pay attention to weak signals in the marketplace, not just strong ones. Paradoxes, serendipity, dissonance, boredom, and minor defects shouldn’t be ignored; embrace them and run with them.
• Don’t try to correct ambiguity and oxymorons. Analyze them and use them. (As Victor Hugo said, "Melancholy is happiness at being sad.")

While de Brabandere advocates and prescribes thinking that’s more free-ranging and less shackled, he makes the point that it still needs to be disciplined and managed, especially in the business context.

"Creativity and ideas need to be managed. An absence of creativity may lead a company to catastrophe; an excess may bring it to disaster. The future is at the intersection between rigorous creativity and creative rigor."

Accordingly, de Brabandere makes the points that:

• Leaders need to take advantage of the constant feedback—data, ability to listen—that the digital economy offers.
• Even as uncertainty increases, one still needs to anticipate and prepare by organizing feedback.
• When there are no data to analyze, create criteria. For instance, if you have no instruments with which to measure whether a pond’s water quality is improving, check for more fish.
• New ideas don’t need new resources, and hardship is the fertile soil of creativity. As Michelangelo said, "Art is born of constraint—and dies from freedom."
• It’s important to use the right words. "Philosophy makes numerous contributions to management. One of these could be the need to use the right words in the day-to-day language of the company, as the philosopher is concerned with well-defined concepts," said de Brabandere.

Luc de Brabandere is a vice president in the Paris office of The Boston Consulting Group. A self-described corporate philosopher, he specialises in applying creativity to business. Through strategic seminars with boards, executive committees, and management teams, de Brabandere helps BCG clients develop and deploy creativity. He also contributes to creativity development at BCG.

"Among our goals at BCG is to ensure that business leaders are continually asking what the world will inevitably need, and, importantly, to help our clients see beyond what everyone else can see and perceive what could be different and new," he said. "It’s our hope that The Forgotten Half of Change can help business people prepare themselves to expand, change, and explore their perceptions."

The author or coauthor of nine books and a number of regular columns, de Brabandere is one of Europe’s best-selling authors on business innovation.

© 2003 The Nework Centre   |   email neworknz@yahoo.co.nz

Top of the page