Both/And

Recently, we attended the DMI conference ‘Design & Innovation at a Crossroad’ in London, where we presented our Future-readiness framework. The audience included many people trained as designers, with a strong right-brain dominance: excelling in empathy, imagination, conceptual thinking, and experimentation. Traditionally, DMI has been a great advocate for the value of design in business and it was very interesting to hear one of the panels explore the role of designers in business in the past, present and future. The speakers shared numerous inspiring examples of how design has evolved from making beautiful objects to improving customer-centricity, designing for trustworthiness, and creating solutions for societal challenges. 

However, the panel also discussed how the visionary and idealistic language of designers can be a mismatch with the prevailing business language within organizations. As Nedd Hermann demonstrated in his brain dominance research, many managers have a left-brain dominance: excelling in analysis, numbers, logical thinking, and control, which makes them value different arguments. Designers can learn to speak this business language, just like managers can learn to develop their right-brain potential. However, we all have a preferred way of thinking. 

In our Future-readiness model, we emphasize the importance of both/and: companies need to exploit what is and explore what is not yet. Future-ready leaders innovate to improve their existing business and at the same time design their next business. They organize both for stability and for agility. This requires whole-brain leadership teams, that include people that are primarily risk and control focused and others that look for opportunities and always come up with new ideas. 

Do you know which brain dominance you and your team members have? Is your business designed to both exploit and explore?