This is a continuation of my article published on 30th November about brain fitness link to which is as below…Is your #Brain as fit as your # Body? Build # Mental #Alertness | LinkedIn and on my website Is your Brain as Fit as your Body? Build Mental Alertness – Rejo Francis
As we already know the brain is made up of two hemispheres that are interconnected but are used for very different functions. The left hemisphere is made up of neurons which are usually used for taking care of all the routine tasks that we do. The right hemisphere deals with newer things and experiences and whose data are less structured and less linear both mathematically and otherwise. The right hemisphere is image based and imaginative …It is also widely believed that the right hemisphere deteriorates faster than the left hemisphere.
For many years the right hemisphere was considered as the inferior part compared to the left hemisphere as all the key and day to day tasks were controlled by the left hemisphere. But now we know that it is right hemisphere that is crucial, and which plays the biggest role in learning new things. So, when we learn something for the first time maybe a language or driving a car it is the right hemisphere which is in action to understand and learn the new skill …Once the language or the new skill is learned it is then stored in the left hemisphere from where it can be recovered as and when needed for day-to-day usage…
So, what would be some of the daily things that we could do to ensure that our right hemisphere stays alive and kicking as long as we are alive…
1. Try new technologies
As they age most people feel reluctant to learn new technologies like a new smart phone or a new device. When we experiment and learn on these new devices it is the right hemisphere which is getting exercised and hence will continue to stay at the best of its health.
Am sure we have noticed how sometimes our parents and uncles respond very differently to a new smart phone or a new app that they are introduced to. So, the next time you see people responding differently to newer devices and applications and situations you know the reason for the same.
2. Learn a new language
Learning a new language whether it is to speak or write is something which really works in developing and retaining the right hemisphere of the brain.
Learning a new language happens very differently when we learn for academic purpose and as a life skill for communicating with people. It very often happens that while we struggle to learn languages from a academic perspective we could easily learn multiple languages with ease to communicate with people.
I remember I used to struggle with languages at school and despite trying my luck with different languages like Hindi and French. Once I started working and as I got posted at different locations getting to learn the local language was important to communicate with your customer and partners and I could easily pick up different languages, but these were from a conversing point only. Never really tried to learn the grammar of any of these languages so am not really sure how that would work out.
3. Take notes and go back and read them
We see and notice a lot of things …But we tend to forget them very soon and those experiences don’t get embedded into our brains. When we take notes and then refresh it gets processed by the right hemisphere and gets stores safely in the left hemisphere for usage as and when its required.
I remember an interesting sequence I had developed in the initial stages of my career. During that stage for any product launch there were few of us from the sales and service team who would be trained on the product both technically and from a features perspective and we had to in turn train all the required people in our assigned geographies. Since the company was in a very growth and expansion phase, we would at least cover one new product training almost every month. The products would then get launched in a phased manner across geographies.
So, we would have to keep doing these trainings at different sequences depending on the geography that was being handled. One difficulty I found in this was sometimes some products would get launched in the geography that I was handling after a very long time and by the time it launched, I would have forgotten a lot of things that got discussed during the training.
To overcome this, I started writing down almost the entire sequence of things that happened during the programme …Since this was before mobile phones etc. there was no other means to record this kind of information. What I found later was when I went through these detailed notes after any period of time however long they were still I could immediately recollect the full sequence of events that happened during the programme…
4. Explore the towns during your trips
I remember two earlier superiors that I had. Two very senior gentleman with very wide range of experience. The first of them would for the first 10 minutes of any review or discussion ask about everything else about the area you are handling except those related to your products. So, if I was handling consumer durables he would ask me about cement prices in the market, land rates and everything and anything.
Years later I realized because we had to find out about all these things in any market or town that we visited your knowledge about the overall market and potential of each of these locations would be at a different level.
The second person another very senior gentleman would never allow us to take a cab but would insist that we drive using our own vehicle…He was fine even if the trip took a day or two longer because of the same.
The very relevant logic that he used to tell us was that while in the taxi you will keep sleeping while driving you will notice every town that passes …the various intersections and to which towns those roads go to, the traffic at various stages of the route and the reasons and so on. The list was endless. It is also important to mention here that I was in the petroleum retail industry at that time and operating your retail outlets in the right catchment area was crucial for building market share and profitability and having a good idea of traffic patterns was essential for deriving an idea about a good catchment area.
Coming back to left hemisphere of the brain, the biggest strength of the left hemisphere is its capability of pattern recognition. Pattern recognition is the brain’s ability to scan the environment and create meaning from the huge amount of data that is captured, access a situation so that appropriate action can be taken right away with maximum accuracy. It utilizes the capabilities of abstraction and reflection that are based on the deepest repositories of stored experienced. For executives pattern recognition is one of the most important skills that is needed while trying to overcome rapidly changing business situations.
Just like we listed out in the case of the right hemisphere what are some of the daily activities and exercises that we could do to further build the efficiency of the left hemisphere
1. Challenge your existing mind set, enlarge it, and make it more complex
2. Listen to different kinds of viewpoints, and read different kinds of books and articles
3. Make consistent efforts to involve and understand newer and different systems, processes and ways of thinking or approaching different issue or a business case
4. Avoid filling up your team with people whom you have worked earlier with and are comfortable working – While it is much easier for you to work since your earlier team members understand your ways of working and working patterns this will also limit the challenges that your face from a team perspective…
The fourth step is I think is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks to follow because we find several successful people who always move about in groups. So, when the most senior person moves to a new organization, he also carries his trusted team along with him within a short span of time.
Keeping the left and right hemispheres equally fit and developing is one of the key essentials for being successful in today’s fast changing and dynamic life and work life. Depending on the industry or the role that you are in at times one of the hemispheres are more critical in the earlier stages of your carrier and as we climb up the ladder both the two hemispheres are equally important for long term success.
Also, in today’s fast changing scenarios where market and technology dynamics change so fast it very often requires the combined skills of both the left and right hemispheres to arrive at the right decisions.
So, while it’s easy to find excuses to achieve all your career dreams its critical to find ways to get the suggested routines incorporated into our busy lifestyles to improve your brain fitness and chances of career growth and success.
Keep watching this space for more…
