UNDERSTANDING BALANCE

With all the emphasis on life balance these days, there are some profound insights to be gained from an understanding of the qualities that the HBDI measures. These letters stand for Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, an assessment tool explained and frequently referred to in my book, See What You Think! How to Work Better and Faster with VisiMap. You can also find out more about it here

One of the things we discover in dealing with the four aspects of thinking that the instrument measures – facts and figures, sequence and organization, humanity and expressiveness, future orientation and integration – is that those in a diagonal position are often viewed as polar opposites. Those who stress facts and figures think the humanistic types are too touchy feely; the humanists regard the facts and figures contingent as cold and unemotional. Similarly those who are focused on action find little use for those who seem contemplative and dreamy – and vice versa.

Nearly all of us will prefer one or two ways to think. That doesn’t mean we have no potential whatsoever in the other areas. Balance comes from recognizing that both facts and feelings matter – and that we are made for both action and contemplation. Such wisdom comes to us from both the ancient philosphers and religions world wide and their validation in the findings of modern psychology. And since the HBDI is based on research into brain physiology, all these disciplines are congruent and make sense.

So value facts and feelings,action and contemplation – that’s what balance is really about.
 

DEATH BY POWERPOINT

I was reminded of my dislike of standard PowerPoint presentations while reading a recent article published in the Wall Street Journal by Jared Sandberg. I have always wanted to participate in the question periods at the end of presentations by asking “How many of you actually could read what was on the screen and did you even bother?

Years ago when I was a teacher, PointPoint was not an option. Not a single university professor would have dreamed of using it. The best teachers never even distributed course outlines. They actually expected us to take notes. Most of us did – albeit putting too much down in linear fashion rather than trying to distill the essence of what was said.

If you are speaking and your whole text is on the PowerPoint screen, your audience may rightly assume that you think they are illiterate. The dual presentation has well earned the phrase, “Death By PowerPoint”. Jared Sandberg estimates there are 30 million such presentations a day.

At the beginning of an introduction to visual mapping and before I get to the maps themselves, I limit myself to the eqivalent of one bullet point and make sure that there is also a graphic – and if it makes the point in a funny way, so much the better. The danger in teaching and learning is to assume that our essence is mind. We are also people with feelings and passions. Both have to be engaged before real learning takes place.

Edward Tufte, arguably one of the most important thinkers on visual presentation, is also against PowerPoint. He notes that the tendency to reduce everything to convenience trivializes the meaning. The speaker has lost content with the audience and is usually peering into the laptop instead of making eye contact with those who have come to hear and learn.

I have to admit that I have enjoyed making slides and transparencies in PowerPoint – always from a blank screen. But when I travelled to speak in South Africa I didn’t want to carry a computer so I simply used transparecies and an projector. The presentation were on the site of the International Hotle and Restaurant for years – I haven’t checked lately. The first conference speaker’s computer failed in the middle of his opening PowerPoint presentation on the benefits of technology – not an ideal situation.

The best example of how not to use PowerPoint is this presentation of the Gettysburg Address. So if you use it, do so with great care. There are some healthier ways to use it – and to study - referred to in See What You Think!