
One mistake I often see safety professionals do, is that once they have created a new company safety procedure, they get all excited about it and go and tell the next...
In the book, A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, he compares both the left and right hemispheres of the brain and discussed that you need to include both hemispheres when creating anything new.
The left hemisphere is rational, linear, logical and analytical. It likes to analyses details. Those who are more L-directed thinkers are accountants, lawyers and engineers.
While the right hemisphere is instinctive, empathetic, understands context (the left brain handles what is said, while the right focuses on how it's said), non verbal and emotional cues. It sees the big picture. Those who are more R-directed in their thinking are entertainers, artists, designers and counsellors.
Both sides work together - but they have different specialties.
The left hemisphere knows how to handle logic and the right hemisphere knows about the world. Put them together and you have a powerful thinking machine. Get them to work separately and life becomes, well one-sided and a little strange.
Our education system has tended to focus and reward more L-directed thinking such as using exams as the only way for students to access University and teaching students by talking a lot at them. But we're now moving away from the era of left-brain dominance in our society.
Now, more R-directed techniques are being such in education. These include using role plays, story-telling and getting students to build their own things rather than just being told how to make things.
So with training you need to appeal to both sides of the brain to maximise training outcomes. After all, Daniel Pink tells us that to obtain professional success and personal fulfillment, we need to start activating our right brain more.
Let's take a look at producing an effective workplace training program that activates both sides of the brain (most of these you will already know about it, but you might not know why they work so well):
What other left brain/right brain activities do you like to include?
One mistake I often see safety professionals do, is that once they have created a new company safety procedure, they get all excited about it and go and tell the next...
Thousands of years ago, when humans roamed the African savannah, it was in our best interests to live in tribes. Being part of a tribe allowed us to sleep soundly...