Right, Left or Both?
By: Joshua Dukart
The process of decision making can feel like a double-edged sword. Indecisiveness can lead to missed
opportunity, but impulsive decision making can create unintended consequences, especially long term.
Decision making in any business can be a complex and stressful process. But it is those complex and
stressful decisions that make or break that business.
Ultimately, decision making comes down to people. More specifically it comes down to their
psychological approach to situations. In other words, decision making will be reflective of whether they
tend to use more of their right brain or left brain. Most of us will use a combination of the two, but still
tend to lead with one or the other. It is one aspect of what makes us…well us.
People who are primarily left brain dominant tend to be logical, sequential, rational, analytical, and
objective in their thoughts. They tend to think in parts. They will focus more on details, tend to be rule
followers, and are generally conservative in nature. Their main source of decision making support is
thinking. Think engineer.
People who are primarily right brain dominant tend to be random, intuitive, creative, synthesizing, and
subjective in their thoughts. They tend to think in wholes. They will focus more on the big picture, tend
to question the status quo, and are generally more liberal and abstract in nature. Their main source of
decision making support is feeling. Think artist.
So what does this mean to a business?
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Play to your strengths: In any business the ability to recognize and play to your
strengths becomes a big advantage. In addition, the ability to identify and compensate
for your weaknesses can also be considered a business advantage.
Place team members in appropriate roles: Utilizing your team members in the most
effective way possible can only happen if you try to understand your team members’
mindsets. If you are expecting logic and rational from a right-brain dominant person, or
a creative and synthesizing approach from a left-brain dominant person, you will
probably not find success.
Participate in brainstorming activities: To have the best of both worlds, which is
possible in this case, schedule time for meetings that focus on brainstorming. Keep in
mind that good, effective brainstorming requires stepping out of your comfort zone and
going crazy with ideas. Also, no judgment of any contributed ideas is allowed, at least
not initially. Outrageous ideas can be weeded out later, but shooting them down
immediately will limit your team’s ability to think creatively and generate ideas.
So what does this mean to a ranching business specifically?
Many times a specific family or business takes on a certain right or left brain dominant approach. Now
neither of the approaches is necessarily wrong, but being too dominant in one or the other can be
ineffective or even dangerous, if it means loss of profits or a failing business.
Take, for instance, a multi-generational family ranch that consists of five active decision makers:
Four of those, including the entire older generation, are very left-brain dominant. They tend to think
through details with logic and rational. They analyze indefinitely and take a very calculated approach to
everything they do. Their advantage is an even-keeled and well-planned approach. Their disadvantage is
a lack of new ideas and the inability to sometimes see the big picture. They bring the science to the
ranch’s grazing management.
The fifth decision maker within this family is definitely right-brain dominant. He tends to look at
business, family and finances as one whole operating unit. He asks a lot of ‘why’ questions. He is more
random in his thoughts, but with this comes creativity and the ability to think outside of the box. His
advantage is being able to focus on the forest as a whole, rather than the individual trees, bring new
ideas to the table, and the ability to trust his gut feeling. His disadvantage is random and sometimes
abstract thinking without direct application. He brings the art to the ranch’s grazing management.
Unfortunately, the right-brained individual is outnumbered by the left-brained group every time. His
new ideas and approach to problem solving are considered insignificant and in general, the others fault
him for not “being on board.” In return, he finds the other four decision-makers to be stagnant and
inflexible.
The truth of the matter is this operation desperately needs both its right and left brained team
members. They actually have a distinct advantage in that they have both types on their team. They just
need to utilize all talents and abilities whenever possible. Many teams require outside assistance to
provide the perspective they don’t carry in house.
It takes a welcoming village of diversely talented people to run a successful business. Are you open to
accepting and considering others’ ideas? Is there room for improvement among your team of decision
makers?