Retrain your brain from 'left' to 'right' to fit into new economy
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[image: Experts say merging left-brain, analytical traits with
right-brain, creative ones might make employees much more marketable in the
job markets of the future.] [image: Enlarge image] Enlarge Illustration by
Jerry Mosemak Experts say merging left-brain, analytical traits with
right-brain, creative ones might make employees much more marketable in the
job markets of the future.
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By Marco R. della Cava, USA TODAY
As stars of the Old Economy go, Shu Kim and Khanh Pham sparkled. Working for
a storied finance firm — Kim, 40, as in-house counsel and Pham, 33, as a
real estate investment banker — the two women deployed classic analytical
left-brain skills to keep a seemingly well-oiled machine humming. A machine
called Lehman
Brothers<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Companies/Banking,+Financial,+Insurance,+Law/Lehman+Brothers>
.
Lehman is dead, but the two New
Yorkers<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/States,+Territories,+Provinces,+Islands/New+York>are
alive and optimistic, thanks to a simple yet significant shift. They
embraced their right brains, the bold, creative lobe that in the New Economy
can make the difference between reinvention and extinction.
*MORE: *Must kids prep for
'risk-taking'?<http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-07-13-right-brain_N.htm>
"Those old jobs are just not there anymore, so to survive you have to think
outside the box," says Pham, who along with her former colleague recently
launched Shustir.com <http://www.shustir.com/>, a marketing website for
small businesses. Now, instead of parsing legal and financial documents, the
two brainstorm innovative ways to bring their new brand to the masses,
relying on flights of creative fancy rather than rote skills.
"It's funny — our parents were entrepreneurs," Kim says. "So we're going
back to right-brain thinking."
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Michael
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And not a moment too soon. As companies continue to triage their way through
this economic war, a growing chorus of cultural observers argue that
recovery is contingent on the marriage of right-brain innovations with
left-brain skill sets.
Put bluntly: The economic engine needs more iPods (a talisman no one really
knew to miss until it arrived) and fewer data-crunchers (tasks that can be
shipped overseas or tackled with software such as TurboTax).
"There's an acceptance that as a century ago machines replaced muscle, today
computers are turning traditional left-brain work, jobs where a series of
steps leads to one answer, into a commodity that can be outsourced," says
Daniel Pink, whose 2005 book, *A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will
Rule the Future*, recently was turned into the
PBS<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Public+Broadcasting+Service>special
*Living on the Right Side of the Brain. *"Our children will no more be doing
routine white-collar work than we were likely to inherit the blue-collar
jobs of our grandfathers."
Pink says the shift to right-brain thinking already can be found in
companies that welcome well-rounded employees, medical schools that push art
studies and classrooms that encourage collaborative problem-solving. "We're
realizing that our economy is not about standardization," he says.
It's also no longer about job security, which makes taking the leap away
from once-stable left-brain jobs less daunting, says Pamela Skillings, a New
York-based career coach and author of *Escape From Corporate America: A
Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams.*
"Most of us are innately creative in some way," says Skillings, who herself
left a job in the financial sector to start her consulting business. "Many
big companies are still about following rules and doing what's been done in
the past. But we want to be in situations where our free-thinking sides are
being put to use."
*From lawyer to designer *
Gordon Chin never thought he'd be able to do just that. As someone who
wanted to be an attorney since he was a child, the Washington, D.C.,
resident was happily working for a large law firm when the company ran into
the economic iceberg. With his billable hours shrinking, he opted to leave
in February as layoffs loomed. Now he's juggling clients as an interior
designer.
"I always had a passion for decorating but just did it for friends," Chin
says. "This was a daunting leap of faith. But where I was a happy cog in a
large firm, now I get to use my creativity with immediate, gratifying
results."
Chin kick-started his small business in a decidedly creative way. He made an
audition tape for *Design
Star<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/HGTV+Design+Star>
*, the HGTV reality show that seeks the next great designer. He didn't get
the call from the cable channel, but those who saw his video on his
Facebook<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Culture/Computers+and+Internet/Facebook>page
got in touch.
"If it hadn't been for the slowdown in the economy, I wouldn't have done
this," he says. "But now that I have, I'd absolutely love to pursue this
full time. It really blends my organizational strengths with my creative
side."
In fact, fusing left-brain skills with right-brain insights is considered
the killer app in a new economy that will put a premium on creative
breakthroughs, says Laszlo Bock, vice president of people operations at
Google<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Organizations/Companies/Technology/Google+Inc>.
"We're convinced true innovation comes at the intersection of different
fields," he says.
When Bock and his team look to hire new talent, they assess a candidate's
"Googliness" — the ability to solve problems in unique ways, lead co-workers
and thrive in a loose organizational structure. "If you have those skills,
you can learn any job we give you," he says.
In Cambridge, Mass., Joel Katz has spent the past six years proving that
doctors will be better at their left-brain craft if they're well-versed in
art. First- and second-year Harvard Med students now vie to get into Katz's
10-week course that uses Boston's Museum of Fine Arts to teach future
physicians how to critically analyze famous paintings.
Those who take the art course typically show "a 50% improvement" in
assessing a patient's symptoms, says Katz, himself an internist. "Usually
doctors are not trained in humanism. Students usually say this has expanded
their way of thinking, which benefits the patient."
But that doesn't mean those steeped in quantitative skills need an
arts-major makeover.
Unique solutions often come from pairing people with complementary skills,
says Darrell Rigby, Boston-based head of global innovation practices for
management consulting firm Bain & Company, citing fashion as a prime example
of how right-brain types can thrive within a financially driven matrix.
"Brain transplants are not as successful as simple teamwork," he jokes.
Seeking out creative solutions is now the prime directive for many
companies, says Ross DeVol, director of regional economics at the
Milken<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Michael+Milken>Institute,
a Los Angeles-based non-profit think tank. "If the U.S. is going
to remain an economic powerhouse, it will be due to value-added ideas. That
means employees have to think more broadly about their job than ever
before."
*A new way of thinking *
Many such folks are meeting with career advisers such as Rebecca Zucker of
Next Step Partners, an executive coaching firm with offices in New
York<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/States,+Territories,+Provinces,+Islands/New+York>and
San Francisco. Zucker says many of her left-brain clients in finance
and
law "can't believe that simply thinking harder won't give them the answers
they want."
Instead, she urges them to treat the transition to a new way of thinking as
if they're at a buffet. "They need to try different things, whether it's
reading a book about something that intrigues them or taking a class. People
are asking, 'What else can I do, or learn to do?' "
A health-food-focused vacation to
Brazil<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/Countries/Brazil>is
what planted a right-brain seed in Allison Jagtiani's head. The
longtime
equity research analyst had been watching her pay decrease and workload
increase over the past year, and in March decided to make her move. The Des
Moines native quit her Wall
Street<http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Places,+Geography/Other/Wall+Street>job
and started baking cookies laced with antioxidant-rich goji berries.
"This is the most exciting, challenging thing I've ever done," she says of
her nascent venture, Goji Gourmet. "It'd be hard to go back to a cube and
crunch numbers."
That sentiment resonates with Chris Halloran of Phoenix. In his heyday as an
investment baker, he pulled a seven-figure salary. But since giving that up
last year to start his photo studio, Halloran says the first $85 he made for
being creative — shooting a friend's website photo — thrilled him more than
any money he made poring through spreadsheets.
"My old job was about valuing a company's worth, which is all about
quantitative skills and very little about personal contact. Now I get to do
something that deals in beauty and makes people happy," Halloran says.
For ex-Lehman employees Kim and Pham, their ability to tack away from their
left-brain comfort zone into uncharted right-brain waters has resulted in
not just employment, but innovative work that could prove the backbone of a
resurgent economy.
"I liked putting people together ever since I was a little girl, but just
went ahead and became a lawyer," says Kim, whose website connects local
entrepreneurs with a national marketplace. "Who knew that what I loved doing
as a kid could be a job?"
**
