Analysis of business problems seems to be my best course so far in the MBA program. The last class was definitely a game changer for me. We considered the brain and its role in our lives. As humans we have two parts in our brains – the reactive and the responsive. The reactive tends to react to matters based on past experiences while the responsive is rather calculative in its responses to matters
In our career and businesses, we are faced with a variety of challenges. We need to make effective decisions which would form the bearing of our lives in either sphere. Thus, having considered the crucial nature of our brain and its major role in our lives, we should engage in making it better.
The duo work hand in hand to make us better decision makers and should not be analyzed excusive of one another. While the former used past events to forecast current events, the latter takes a step back to analyze recent activities associated with the event in order to make a decision.
For example, based on past experience, when your boss gets angry, he slaps you. Today, during a review meeting, you made an error and your boss in his nature gets angry. You immediately recoil in an attempt to prevent a slap without noticing that he has a cast on his arm due to a broken arm. This response is pioneered by the reactive side of the brain. However, when a person does not shift because he notices the cast on the boss’s arm, he is said to be using the responsive part of his brain.
Which side is better? Which should I develop? These and many more I am sure are questions on your mind. However, such is similar to asking which is more important, the arm or the legs. The two parts of the brain are equally important. The reactive part seeks to shorten decision time to enable safety while the responsive time seeks to ensure the quality of decisions.
The breadth of a matter is question will be rapidly considered by the reactive side while the depth of the matter is seen by the responsive part. If we develop ourselves in breadth and depth of reasoning, we are able to make quality decisions rapidly. As both parts of the brain are of crucial importance, we need to strive to develop them.
How do we develop the reactive side? We can do so by playing time-based puzzles or games in which decision timing is crucial to winning. Doing so will open up neutral paths in the brain that is comfortable with making rapid decision under time pressure. The responsive side is developed by playing games which focuses on quality decisions without time. Playing these two types of games will rapidly improve our minds and put us in vantage points in business.
In conclusion, seeing that we have only one brain which is responsible for the outcomes of our lives, we need to put in conscious effort to develop it. With this we would make unprecedented strides in life.
Life, Love, and Life
#ABP #MMBA4
