Whole Brain Thinking involves the understanding of how the brain takes in, processes and communicates information. Implementing the whole brain thinking process can be an incredibly effective way to increase your sales' team cohesiveness and can result in:
- Better internal team communication
- Shorter and more effective meetings
- Improved customer service
...just to name a few of the benefits.
The Four Quadrants of Whole Brain Thinking
The brain is vertically divided into two hemispheres that are uniquely dominant for specific behaviors. The right side of the brain is dominant for spatial abilities, such as facial recognition, visual imagery, and music. The left side of the brain is more dominant for activities like calculations, math, and logical reasoning. When these vertical halves are each split horizontally, it creates four quadrants of the brain. Whole Brain Thinking architect Ned Herrmann identified unique characteristics of each of the four quadrants that directly influence the way each person thinks:
- Quadrant A: Blue
Quadrant A is the upper left quadrant. Individuals with this thinking preference are typically logical, analytical, fact-based, and quantitative. - Quadrant B: Green
Quadrant B is the lower left quadrant and is most utilized by individuals with a preference for practical, organized, detailed, and sequential information. - Quadrant C: Red
Quadrant C is the lower quadrant on the right side and is the preferred mode for individuals who are interpersonal, feelings-based, emotional, and kinesthetic thinkers. - Quadrant D: Yellow
Quadrant D is the upper right quadrant and is the experimental section of the brain. Thinkers with this preference are typically interested in the big picture and are integrating and intuitive.
Although everyone uses each of the four quadrants to some degree, each person has a specific preference, or a dominant quadrant. Knowing which quadrants each of your sales personnel prefer to operate within can help you create a deeper understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and then leverage that understanding to develop a stronger cohesiveness within your team.
3 Ways Whole Brain Thinking Can Improve Team Cohesiveness
- Your sales team members can understand each other's "quirks" better.
What some view as an "annoying personality quirk" may simply be a different way of thinking. For example. a more analytical sales person (Blue) may have difficulties working with a relational sales person (Red) without really knowing why.
The Blue team member may often feel aggravated with the number of questions regarding personnel that the Red team member asks during meetings, while Red may feel bored with the volume of numbers and data that Blue insists on discussing.
Based on their thinking preferences, Blue prefers to deal directly with facts and figures and feels that data is key to solving problems; Red, in contrast, bases solutions largely on intuitive responses and the people involved. These polar opposite ways of considering problems and solutions can eventually create extreme friction. However, by having an awareness of what type of thinker each team member is, they'll have a better chance of understanding each other's thought processes, thereby reducing the frustration. - You can match sales personnel together more effectively.
By knowing what thinking preferences your employees or potential employee candidates have, you can form your sales teams more effectively. For example, Blues and Yellows (analytical and experimental thinkers) generally work well together, as they form an intellectual subgroup able to offer creative solutions backed by sound research and figures. Greens and Reds (practical and relational thinkers) often work well together because they form an instinctive subgroup able to offer well-organized plans of action that instinctively utilize people to their fullest potential. - You can create a more diverse sales team.
Diversity in thinking processes is essential to an effective sales team.
You don't want a sales team that is comprised of only Blues, because they may end up becoming so focused on their data gathering that they fail to connect relationally with a customer or lead.
You don't want a sales team comprised only of Reds, because they may miss key facts and figures when trying to create a solution that will result in high customer satisfaction.
You don't want a sales team of all Yellows, either; while they may be great at dreaming big dreams, when it comes to implementing the minutiae of their solutions they may miss a step or two (or three or four).
And finally, you don't want a sales team of all Greens, since they may "miss the forest for all the trees" in all their planning of the details and processes for solution implementation.
Knowing what types of thinkers you have on your team and where you are strong and where you are lacking can make you better able to create and implement a variety of different solutions that require different ways of thinking.
When it comes down to it, understanding the whole brain thinking process and equipping your sales employees with a familiarity with the differences that naturally exist within the team will improve their understanding of one another – something that will certainly positively impact their overall ability to work together more efficiently and effectively.
