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YOGA
FOR THE MIND Left Brain or Right Brain? Until recently the world has been divided into two totally different cultural perspectives, which conditioned how organisations functioned. In the western world, the orientation has essentially been left brain. “The recent surge of popularity of Eastern practices such as Yoga, Pilates, meditation, acupuncture, and alternative health solutions has opened the door for alternative ways of thinking in the business world,” says Bob Jajko intuitive consultant and development trainer. The dominant belief in Western Culture has been that through a persons objective application of skills and techniques the forces of nature could be dominated to serve a purpose.. The tools used have been quantative and impersonal and directed to the achievement of rational decisions. Computers which have grown in power and capability, have been enlisted to serve in the cause. This approach to life uses terms such as MBO, cost benefit analysis and projections. “Competition as opposed to cooperation has been stressed as the predominant management style. The way to the top is to be impersonal, rational and competitive,” says Bob Jajko. The alternate cultural orientation in the world, the Eastern approach used in countries such as Japan, China and India hold the belief that humanity should learn to work in harmony with nature and with each other. “The right brain skills of management such as intuition are emphasised.” The focus is more on achieving methods of cooperation rather than competition. “The way to get to the top is to be personal, intuitive and cooperative.” The Sharp Manufacturing Company of America in Memphis, Tennessee is an example where product quality and overall plant productivity improved dramatically under its new Japanese management. “Each culture and management style has its strengths and limitations. Integrated together we have an unlimited management potential available. We can have organisations where cooperation is both possible and practically productive, and where competition is channelled in a manner that is not destructive.” “Our company’s success is due to our adoption of the West’s pragmatic management combined with the spiritual intuitive aspects of the East,” says Shigem Okada CEO of Mitsakoshi, Japan’s largest department store. The notion of becoming whole brain thinkers is not easy for people to grasp. Bob Jajko offers some points that may help people towards whole brain thinking.
“Some people scoff the use of intuition but research proves the right brain does process information in nonverbal ways at another level of consciousness. Intuition can not be verbally explained, because it is a thinking process that occurs in the right brain. Your right brain can solve problems without your left brain being aware of it,” says Bob Jajko “Over the next generation, societies greatest opportunities will lie in tapping human inclinations toward collaboration and compromise rather than stirring our proclivities for competition and rivalry.” |