FAQ's

A: Have you ever asked yourself: “How can people be so clever and so dumb at the same time?” We have all met people who are very bright and capable in a given area or skill but seem totally incapable of something much simpler. The “absent-minded genius” is a good example. Scientific theory is no problem for this person but socializing at a party is. In business you often find a strategic, “big picture” specialist who never seems to notice details. How does this happen? Research on the brain has led to an understanding that each of us has a preferred way and mode of thinking that affects the way we take in and process information. The awareness of one’s own thinking style and the thinking styles of others combined with the ability to act outside of one’s preferred thinking style is known as “Whole Brain Thinking.”

A simple model captures these thinking preferences.

The model was developed by Ned Herrmann, while head of Management Development at General Electric. Herrmann was a physicist by training, so he was intrigued by how the brain could help explain the clever/dumb issue described above. Using brain research developed by others and his own studies, Herrmann discovered that there were four patterns that emerged in terms of how the brain perceives and processes information. The Whole Brain Model™ emerged as a validated metaphor for describing the four different preference modes.

A: The metaphor divides the brain into four separate quadrants. Each quadrant is different and of equal importance.

• The Upper Left Blue A Quadrant specializes in logical, analytical, quantitative, fact-based thinking.
• The Lower Left Green B Quadrant focuses on details and specializes in planning, organizing, and sequencing information.
• The Lower Right Red C Quadrant places a priority on feelings and the interpersonal, emotional and kinesthetic aspects of a situation.
• The Upper Right Yellow D Quadrant synthesizes and integrates information and is more intuitive and holistic in its thinking.

A: Experts agree--we are all the result of a combination of both nature and nurture. The degree to which we lean one way or another is the subject of ongoing debate that spans hundreds of years. The genetic predisposition we are each born with represents the “nature” aspect of who we are. The brain does not, however, exist in a vacuum. Every interaction we have with the world literally builds our brains throughout the course of our lives. Our parents, schooling, work and hobbies all have an impact. Due to the enormous impact of our environment throughout the course of our lives, Herrmann’s theory was that we are who we are from at least 70% nurture and possibly only 30% nature. This represents a message of hope for individuals who are interested in ongoing growth and change in their lives. It is useful to reflect back on those influences and to consider the array of influences you’ve experienced. It can also be useful to explore ways in which you can build new activities and interests into your life as a personal or professional development strategy.

A: Contemporary understanding of human brain function establishes that each brain is unique and that brains in general are specialized (e.g., left brain vs. right brain). While experts argue about the degree of specialization, there is general agreement on the fact of specialization. There is also agreement on the concept of dominance: eye dominance, hand dominance, foot dominance, ear dominance, and brain dominance. While the body is symmetrical in terms of organ duality, that is, humans have two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet, and two hemispheres, experts agree that in the use of these dual organs there exists a general asymmetry. In other words, we use one to a greater degree than the other. When combined, the concepts of specialization and asymmetry of dominance produce within each human being a distribution of specialized preferences that affect general behavior.

Contained within the brain halves are two sets of major structures which are connected together. These include the two cerebral hemispheres connected by the corpus collosum, and the two halves of the limbic system connected together by the hippocampal commissure. These represent massive connections that allow for direct interaction between the two halves of the cerebral system and the two halves of the limbic system.

We know a lot more about the function of the two cerebral hemispheres than we do about the function of the limbic system. But, more and more understanding about each of these specialized areas emerges every day. While the cerebral hemispheres are thought of as the more cognitive, intellectual parts of the process, the limbic system is becoming known as the more organized and emotional aspect of our thinking selves. A key function of the limbic system is to transform information as it is input into the brain system, so as to position it for appropriate “processing.” By reason of this role, the limbic system has a major effect on memory.

A: Whole brain thinking gives you the opportunity to improve both your work performance and your communication. Have you ever finished a project or task and said, “Why didn’t we think of that?” Or have you ever thought, “This person and I just don’t communicate.” Using whole brain thinking means being able to utilize the thinking preferences of each of the four quadrants. It enables you to take a comprehensive view of any situation and look at it from a variety of perspectives. The result—you have literally “thought of everything.”

In terms of communication, each quadrant has its own language which is the product of its thinking preferences. Typically, when someone is speaking a language we don’t understand, we tune out. Whole brain thinking provides you with a framework for listening and speaking to other people. It enables you to “hear” what others are saying even when they are speaking in a different language. And it enables you to present your ideas in your listener’s preferred language. The result—the lines of communication are opened up.

A: Any situation that requires thinking that goes beyond a given quadrant’s specialized mode can benefit from whole brain thinking. To insure that each quadrant has been explored in a given process, an approach called a walk-around” is used.

Here are four examples of frequently used applications of whole brain thinking:

• Decision making. Most decisions benefit from a thought process that includes the review of multiple options and perspectives. A typical example is the purchase of a car. Quadrant A thinkers look at information on the actual performance of the vehicle. Quadrant B thinkers read a consumer report to gather research on the reliability and practical features (e.g., trunk size, safety records, etc.) of the vehicle. Quadrant C thinkers test drive the car to see if it “feels” right. And Quadrant D focuses on the aesthetics, color, styling, and innovations of each model offers. Using whole brain thinking--the thinking of all quadrants--contributes to a better choice and avoids unpleasant surprises. Overlooking even one quadrant can result in a less than ideal outcome. Imagine an individual that falls in love with a car because of the look, drive and feel, but neglects to check the trunk size only to discover after the purchase that his golf clubs don’t fit in the trunk!
• Problem Solving. Every problem situation can benefit from a Quadrant A review of the data and facts, as well as an analysis of the real problem at hand; the Quadrant D “big-picture” context and possible creative ideas; Quadrant C viewpoint of the “customer” of the problem and how the problem affects others; and Quadrant B step-by-step process to solve the problem and implement the solution.
• Improving team interactions and performance. Most teams are formed to make the most of the differences among team members. But very often those differences stand in the way of the team living up to its potential. Whole brain thinking can help a team to acknowledge the differences among team members and then use those differences to make the most of the ideas of each team member. In addition, once a team knows its preferences it can use that knowledge to enhance its communication with other teams and work groups which may have thinking preferences that are quite different.
• Communication. The objective of most communication is to convey an idea, transfer information, or persuade someone. How many times have you experienced the frustration of delivering a message only to realize that the other person “just didn’t get it.” In order to communicate effectively, it’s important to understand the “language” and mindset of the person(s) you are communicating with. A whole brain diagnosis of the audience can provide the critical planning information you need to tailor your language and presentation to the audience. When the audience’s preferences are in doubt, taking a whole brain approach to communication ensures that you’ve covered all the “languages.” This reduces the possibility of miscommunication and improves the chance that your message will be successfully received by the audience.

A: A preference for a given activity and the competency required to perform that activity are not the same thing. A good way to separate the two is to think back to a time when you were in school, and a subject that you really, really loved. Your boundless interest would be more like a preference. Having that interest did not necessarily mean that you developed skills and competencies--just that you were interested and that your mind engaged easily and tended to be energized when you were involved in that type of activity. Now think of a subject that you really hated or disliked. Imagine that you found yourself in a job that required competency in that subject area. You may have developed a competency in that area but a considerable amount of energy and motivation were probably required. We often develop competencies in areas of lesser preference that may require more effort or energy than skills in an area of greater preference.

A: Tips

1. Paying attention to your own mental process is the first step. Think about your thinking. Look for patterns of when you become “mentally stuck.”
2. Note what types of mental activities energize you. Which activities drain you? Plan around the energy boost and drain.
3. Begin to recognize the primary quadrants that represent your preferences by noting when you find your thinking most satisfying and interesting.
4. Analyze how your preferences may get in the way of your effectiveness. Are there certain activities that you avoid, put off, or don’t perform as well as you’d like?
5. Seek out help for those areas, either by tapping into your own thinking or getting help for a colleague or friend. Take a class. Build some skills.
6. Practice stretching into different quadrants within the context of a hobby or work activity you really enjoy. For example, if you enjoy home improvement, you can develop your A quadrant by understanding how an appliance really works; your B by paying attention to the timing and details of the project you are working on; your C by getting others involved and teaching them how to do a task; or your D by trying something new and different using color or design.

Traps

1. Don’t pigeon hole yourself or other people into one or two quadrants. Keep in mind that we all have access to all of the quadrants and prefer some over others.
2. Don’t assume that you know how others think. Check for understanding. Ask questions to gain insight.
3. Don’t equate preference with competency or assume that just because a person has a preference that they cannot have any competencies in that area. We all have some degree of competency in each quadrant, and we often have to develop a skill in an area of lesser preference as a part of getting through our day-today lives.
4. Don’t use your preference(s) as an excuse for not doing things you’d rather not do. It is counter productive to behave as if you cannot tap into the brain power necessary toget done what needs to be done.
5. Don’t oversimplify the complexity of how our brains work. Remember that we all have access to each of these modes.
6. Don’t assume that just because a person has a preference for a quadrant that they equally enjoy all the aspects of that quadrant. Remember that within each quadrant there are different types of thinking and we often do not have a preference for ALL of those areas. For example, a person who enjoys big picture thinking, use of metaphor and global perspectives in the D quadrant may not consider themselves creative or artistic.

A: An important application of whole brain thinking is the ability to “stretch” into lesser preferred quadrants for improved results. A useful metaphor is to think of your preferences as having natural elasticity, like a rubber band, that can easily expand into an area of lesser preference as required. Stretching into different modes will expand your thinking and allow for a more whole brained approach to your problem, decision or situation. To start your “whole brain stretch,” look at the Whole Brain Model™ and identify those activities you find the most challenging. Which activities do you tend to skip or run out of time and energy to do? Which quadrants do they fall into? Next, think about the times of the day when you have the greatest and lowest mental energy. If you are a “morning person,” schedule challenging tasks in the morning when you are the freshest. If you are a “night” person, give yourself a boost by working on your least preferred tasks later in the day or at night when you have the most mental energy. You’ll find that the mental effort required to do even the most challenging tasks will be significantly reduced if you work on them when you have more mental energy.

Another way to stretch yourself or to go deeper into a quadrant is to actively seek out the input of people who naturally think in that way. Spend time with them to learn how they think through a situation. Additionally, if you are struggling to determine how a given quadrant would approach an issue, think of a person you know who thinks that way and ask yourself: “How would ____ handle that situation?” Find resources that can provide specialized input (e.g., books, websites, journals, training) that you may not have known about or have disregarded in the past.

Another way to “stretch” is to adopt whole-brain thinking as a mental model that guides your approach to tasks and projects in day-to-day situations. Start your task by asking: “What do I need to do to make sure I touch each quadrant?” End a task by asking yourself, “Have I considered all quadrants?” Be aware of the quadrants you usually don’t get to, and start with those first. You can easily create a four quadrant “form” to do action planning by dividing a piece of paper into four boxes and filling in each box as needed. Practice improves this process and allows you to become more comfortable with the “stretch.”

Even if you are naturally whole brained, it’s possible to become more whole brained in your thinking. While natural whole brain thinkers usually consider all quadrants in their thinking, they may encounter some challenges when a situation requires them to “go deep” into any one quadrant. Consider some of the following ways to “go deep”: for the A Blue Quadrant, conduct an in-depth analysis of the numbers; for the Green B Quadrant, develop a highly detailed project plan and timeline; for the C Red Quadrant, facilitate a highly emotional conflict resolution discussion; for the D Yellow Quadrant, develop a long-range forecast that goes out 10 years.

A: Upon superficial examination, the brain consists of two half brains and therefore the simplistic left brain/right brain dichotomy seems to adequately describe the differences between these two brain halves. Closer scrutiny of the brain reveals four structures rather than just two. These four paired structures consist of the two cerebral hemispheres and the two halves of the limbic system. These are paired structures connected together by what are called commissures. The two cerebral hemispheres are connected together by the Corpus Callosum and the two halves of the limbic system are connected together by the Hippocampal Commissure.

It is well established that the human brain is highly specialised. The whole brain theory allocates the brain's specialised modes into one or more of these four physiological structures. This allocation of specialised modes is the basis of the four quadrant model. Since dominance can only occur between paired structures, we now have the basis of a much more sophisticated and useful model comprising not only the left and right modes, but also the cerebral and limbic modes. The cerebral modes are made up of the two interconnected cerebral hemispheres and the limbic mode is comprised of the two interconnected halves of the limbic system. Extensive data speaks loudly that there are an equal number of people whose mental preferences are primarily cerebral or limbic as those that are primarily left or right. Therefore, the four quadrant Whole Brain Model™ allows us to differentiate between not only the more popular notions of left brain/right brain, but also the more sophisticated notions of cognitive/intellectual which describes the cerebral preference, and visceral, structured, and emotional which describes the limbic preferences.

The organizing principle of the brain and the physiology of the brain both proclaim a condition for wholeness. The brain is physically constructed so that specialised areas of processing can collaborate with other areas of specialization. We are not single individuals, but rather a coalition. The organizing principle explains how the naturally occurring iteration among different modes (or styles) of thinking is affected by dominance and preference.

A: Yes. Over the past 15 years applications have been carried out in elementary schools, secondary schools, colleges, and universities. The most significant application currently underway is at the University of Toledo School of Engineering. Not only is the whole brain concept being applied to the teaching of creative problem solving, but also all incoming freshmen and outgoing seniors will be profiled for the next four years as the basis of diagnosing the impact of engineering education on their HBDI® profiles over the course of their four years ar the University.

A: Known applications of the HBDI® and The Whole Brain Concept.

A: No. There is essentially no relationship between whole brain technology and these three approaches.
I think of astrology as a very complicated construct based on ancient myth and anecdotal data. Even after its existence for well over 100 years it remains highly speculative and scientifically invalidated. One of the reasons that the birthdate question is included in the research questions portion of the survey form is to attempt to discover the degree to which there are brain dominance correlations with astrological signs.
Psychology is a highly developed science founded on a conceptual base entirely different than the physiological base upon which whole brain technology is based.
Contemporary understanding of the brain renders phrenology as totally without meaning. Even though phrenology flourished for over 50 years in the 1880's there is absolutely no scientific validation of this pseudo-science. A positive contribution to present day understanding that comes out of this now discarded approach is the notion of brain specialization in many different categories. Even though these prove to be erroneous they did represent an early understanding of the specialization concept. Whole brain technology is of course entirely based on the specialised brain with the specialised modes being allocated to the four quadrants of the whole brain model.

A: It is both, however, we hold the opinion that for most of us nurture represents by far the greatest impact. While there will always be exceptions, we feel that on the average nurture represents 70% of who we are compared to 30% for nature. It is the profound influence of parenting, schooling, friendships, work, and life experiences in general that shape our mental preferences that in turn lead us to do what we do and the way we do it. We consider this a message of hope because if we can change what is happening to us we can also change ourselves. Observation and feedback from many hundreds of participants in whole brain workshops clearly demonstrates the capability of people to change.

A: The brain dominance concept has been strongly validated in a number of different ways. Firstly, through the research and experimentation of leaders in the field including Roger Sperry, Robert Ornstein, Henry Mintzberg, and Michael Gazzanniga. Secondly, it has been validated by the hundreds of EEG experiments carried out personally by Ned Herrmann. Third, it has been further validated by the public demonstrations conducted by Ned Herrmann over the past 15 years. Fourth, it has been validated by specific validation studies carried out by C. Victor Bunderson and James Olsen of Wicat and later by C. Victor Bunderson and Kevin Ho, and in parallel with those studies by validation experiments carried out by Schadty and Potvin at the University of Texas. Additional validation comes from the more than 60 doctoral dissertations based on both the HBDI® and the whole brain concept.
In addition to these more formal studies and activities, there have been thousands of anecdotal validations coming from people who have acknowledged verbally or in writing their strong personal acceptance of the HBDI® profile as descriptive of themselves and their extremely positive feedback about the understanding both the profile and the concept have provided in terms of understanding others in their personal and work lives. When asked the question, "Does this concept help me understand myself, people I know, and experiences I have had and am having?"-the answers have been enthusiastically positive.

A: As a professional artist for many years, Ned became curious about the nature and source of creativity. Upon exploration, it became suddenly clear to him that the source of creativity was the brain. Pursuing that "AHA" led to the whole brain concept and the development of the HBDI®. At the time this occurred in 1976, Ned was head of Management Education at General Electric's Management Development Institute. His understanding of the brain as a source of creativity was quickly followed by his second insight that the brain was also the central organ in learning. His dual profession as an artist and educator gave him the opportunity to apply his new understanding to whole brain creative learning. GE supported Ned's experiments and applications during the late 70's, and it was these activities that led to the development of the whole brain concept and the HBDI®.

A: In early Egypt, valued organs of the deceased were preserved in canopic jars; the brain was discarded. In 1989 the US Congress and President Bush declared the 1990's as the Decade of the Brain. It's taken 6,000 years to get to this point in our understanding and respect for the brain as the central organ of the body. This idea like many other things of great value has taken a long time to achieve general acceptance. Considering the rapid increase in worldwide attention being given to the whole brain concept, we expect this technology to be a major plateau for understanding the nature of humans.

A: In early Egypt, valued organs of the deceased were preserved in canopic jars; the brain was discarded. In 1989 the US Congress and President Bush declared the 1990's as the Decade of the Brain. It's taken 6,000 years to get to this point in our understanding and respect for the brain as the central organ of the body. This idea like many other things of great value has taken a long time to achieve general acceptance. Considering the rapid increase in worldwide attention being given to the whole brain concept, we expect this technology to be a major plateau for understanding the nature of humans.

A: Over 50 doctoral dissertations and Master theses based on whole brain technology and the HBDI® document this work in a variety of theoretical and practical applications. Over 100 articles published in the International Brain Dominance Review further document whole brain technology and the HBDI® in a wide variety of applications. Many hundreds of letters, study reports, and memos are on file. Over 130,000 individual profiles and many hundreds of group analyses and interpretations are on file. We have reason to believe that these materials represent only a fraction of the number that exist in private archives or in the files of our 7 international institutes. In addition to this material, there is on display in the Ned Herrmann Group Learning Center in Lake Lure, 50 books and magazines referring to the Ned Herrmann Group's work, and to the whole brain technology in a wide variety of application areas.