Someone in the workshop says it with a grin: "I'm the numbers guy, very left-brain. She's our creative, right-brain type." Everyone nods. It is a charming way to describe differences, and it sounds like science. Brain scans show something more encouraging: all of us use both halves.
It does start with real science. In the 1960s, studies of patients whose brain halves had been separated showed that each side has specialties: language, for instance, sits mostly on the left. Management books later turned these findings into personality types.
In 2013, a University of Utah team led by Jared Nielsen scanned more than 1,000 brains. They saw the familiar specialties in certain regions. And they found that people use both halves about equally.¹ Logic and creativity draw on networks across the whole brain. So the numbers guy has plenty of creative potential, and our creative colleague can build a tight argument.
Talent Takeaway
It reminds us to describe strengths by what people actually do: she frames problems sharply, he reads a room fast, they build a clear argument. Descriptions like these open doors, and they help us hand out the creative assignments to everyone.
¹ Nielsen, J. A., Zielinski, B. A., Ferguson, M. A., Lainhart, J. E., & Anderson, J. S. (2013). An evaluation of the left-brain vs. right-brain hypothesis with resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging. PLoS ONE, 8(8), e71275. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0071275