Iain McGilchrist in his The Master and His Emissary links together neuroscience and brain functioning with the qualities of ‘attention’. I am not going to try and do justice to his arguments, here, but it seems to me clear that he is describing – from a very different point of view – aspects of what we are exploring. He describes the different types of attention of which the brain is capable; and through which we have the capacity to apprehend both parts and wholes. In Kindle location 776, he explains:
‘In general terms then, he left hemisphere yields narrow, focussed attention, mainly for the purpose of getting and feeding. The right hemisphere yields a broad, vigilant attention, the purpose of which appears to be awareness of signals from surroundings, especially of other creatures, who are potential predators or potential mates, foes or friends; and it involved in bonding in social animals.
‘It might then be that the division of the human brain is also a result of the need to bring to bear two incompatible types of attention on the world at the same time, one narrow, focused, and directed by our needs, and the other broad, open, directed towards whatever else is going on in the world apart from ourselves….the right hemisphere underwrites breadth and flexibility of attention, where the left hemisphere brings to bear focussed attention.’
I think that there is a kernel of an idea here – a way of describing the combination of types of attention, and their relationship with one another – which contributes to the capacity to innovate and lead effectively; and part of this capacity is to see the balance between sameness and difference. All our secrets are the same; yet all of them take different form.
Posted in leadership, shaping influence of attention, technology, vision
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