The Industry's Future: Using the Right Hemisphere of Your Brain

From Joan Eisenstodt - a confirmed "Right-Brainer"

“Today the defining skills of the previous era – the ‘left brain’ capabilities that powered the Information Age – are necessary but no longer sufficient.  And the capabilities we once disdained or thought frivolous – the ‘right brain’ qualities of inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness and meaning – increasingly will determine who flourishes and who flounders.”

Dan Pink, quoted above from his “must read” book, “A Whole New Mind”, writes that right-brainers will rule the world.  As a right-brainer who sees patterns and broad concepts, appreciates and encourages play and joyfulness, and, other than writing contracts, hates details, I concur.  And yet, in the world of meeting planning – and even in the broader hospitality field - I wonder how correct that it is and how well our industry will adapt especially when the current talk is about ‘getting a seat at the table’ and being strategic. 

When conducting training for meeting professionals and consulting with organizations about the content of their meetings and about the make up of their meetings departments, I see many who are perfectly content to be tactical. That is, doing meeting logistics is comfortable and it is a necessary component of the work we do. 

In the supplier community, especially among those who work in facilities (hotels, convention centers, and conference centers) I see little interest in exploring the creative side of meetings.  Even among convention and conferences services staff, I see little creativity beyond thinking in terms of food and beverage to expand creatively. Room sets have changed little in the 30+ years I’ve been in this industry.  Not much is done to enhance the atmosphere in which we learn and participate.

So if we are a field that is comfortable in the tactical, who will blend left and right brain skills?  How will our industry begin to change to see the need for more creativity outside the fabulous table settings, ice carvings, room décor and fabulous desserts?

Here’s what I want you to do (adapted from Dan Pink’s book):  Write a story in 50 or fewer words describing your job and its components.   Done?  If you’ve written on the computer, save it.  If by hand, turn it face down and let it rest. Now if you have a ball handy – or any small object – toss it gently from one hand to the other.  Do it for a few (at least 2) minutes.  Just sit back and do this.  Take more than 2 minutes if you prefer.  After you’ve done that, go to http://www.permadi.com/java/spaint/spaint.html and create for a few minutes.  Catch yourself smiling as you see the colors and patterns.  Enjoy the experience. Now, write about your job– tell a story that starts “once upon a time” and goes on for up to 100 words. 

What difference do you see? Were you able to allow your right brain to engage and find a way to make the words flow differently? Or did you find yourself stuck in your left hemisphere and unable to get creative?

What Pink writes is about the law and medical schools that are taking students out of the classroom to art museums and to companies like IDEO to see and experience differently, to hone their observation skills and their empathy.  When are we doing to do this? When will we even have more facilities with great art on the walls or places to play?  (Kudos to those who have done so – especially to the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, the Summit Executive Center in Chicago and others who get it.  You are too few in environments that do not stimulate us.)  When will industry associations move us to think differently about what we do?

I am convinced it’s not so much a seat at the table and rather it is a brain at the ready to see and present things differently.

Read “A Whole New Mind” and open up your brain to its right side. You’ll be amazed at the changes you’ll experience and bring to your work and life. Note: For promoting Dan Pink’s book here and elsewhere, I get nakhes – a Yiddish word for pleasure – and bubkes (nothing) in remuneration.  It’s nice to expand the brains of others.