Communicating With Your Right-Brain
The brain is divided into two halves: the right and the left brain. Both brain halves are responsible for specific functions. What if I told you we haven’t properly been taught on how to use both brain halves?
You’ve probably been in a situation like the one above. Although the brain only takes up 2% of our body weight, it consumes 25% of our daily energy. The brain’s biggest job is to keep our heart beating but some of that energy is used to work, make art, and communicate.
Split-brain research
In the 1960s, neuropsychologist Roger W. Sperry found something quite remarkable. Our brain halves differ in the way they process information. The left brain, also known as the 'analytical brain', is responsible for logic and facts. While the right brain, also known as the 'creative brain', is responsible for intuition and rhythm. In the visual below you find the activities that each brain half is responsible for.
Sperry won a Nobel Prize for his split-brain research and thus has made its impact on society. However, over time, research has proven that some parts of his research are more fiction than fact.
Brain dominance: fact or fiction?
In his research, Sperry stated that people differ in their brain dominance; he suggested some people are left-brained and thus stronger analytically, while others are right-brained and thus more creative. But recent research has debunked this. We’re not lefties or righties. The human brain does not favour one side over the other; it’s way more complex than that.
This actually makes sense. Math might sound more analytical, but math also requires making estimations and rough guesses during calculations. During those moments our right brain jumps in. Thus, our brain works as a whole.
Think twice
Whether our left brain is responsible for one kind of thinking and our right brain is responsible for another doesn’t really matter, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that thinking and feeling are the opposite ends of a scale. And the same could be said for logic or intuition or analysing and imagination.
So instead of thinking about left- or right-brain dominance, I would propose we see it as two different approaches or strategies we can use to achieve goals.
And this is where it becomes interesting. Because whether we use strategy A or strategy B to reach a goal is taught to us via our parents, in school, and in society. So if you look at the two ends of the scale in the image above, do you think we are taught more to use the left side or the right side?
Are we taught to use order and logic, or are we taught to use our intuition or imagination?
The cocktail of communication
If you ask me, I’d say we favour using logic, facts, and analysing over feeling, intuition, and creativity. Just like we are taught to use words to express ourselves and to communicate rather than we are to use visuals to express ourselves and communicate.
But remember that the brain works as a whole. Yes, the left part of that scale is important to express yourself, but so is the right part. Maybe we could (and should!) improve our communication by designing messages that have a bit of logic and intuition, a bit of facts and imagination.
Just like a cocktail, we would add parts to our message, making it delicious for our consumer, aka audience.
Using the right brain
If we assume we’re more prone to use the left brain in our communication, then we can also assume that there’s a right-brain deficit in our society. People crave to express their imagination, feelings, and use visuals. And this means there’s a chance for the visual thinkers among us.
Seeing you got pretty far in this blog, I’m assuming you are a visual thinker. And maybe you’d like to use that more in your job or daily life. If so, the Visual Communicators Course might be something for you. It’s a course where I teach designers, coaches, teachers, managers, etc., how to increase the clarity and engagement of their messaging.
Although it includes drawing, no drawing experience is needed. Visual communication is visual, so it can also be done with pictures, graphs, or anything else.
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