![left-right-brain-v4](https://www.atelier-v.com/wp-content/uploads/left-right-brain-v4.jpg)
It's a balancing act
Each choice process is determined by the influence of the left and right hemispheres, the interplay of reason and emotion. Every person has a preference for ratio or emotion and is, therefore, more likely to be attracted to numbers or images. This is often jokingly referred to as the difference between men and women. For example, the way how both sexes choose a car based on acceleration speed, torque, engine capacity or colour, lovely lamps, and fashion sensitivity.
The fact remains that every human being has a left (rational) and right (feeling, intuition) hemisphere; they both influence how we see, experience and judge our environment. “Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.” (Jonas Salk).
“Every piece of information has an emotional and a mental part.
Be it conscious or unconscious, objective or subjective.”
It is neither one nor the other. It is about the balance of both the left and right hemispheres. One hemisphere can not stand alone; it must be polarized and combined with its opposite to generate balance and completion. The brain works best when it can operate as a totality. Both rational and emotional arguments play a role in Decision-Making-Units (DMU). Decision-making is a complex mix of analysis, incomplete knowledge and intuition. Canadian neurologist Donald B. Calne sums it up nicely:
“Emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions”.
A building affects people. The key question is not what the required size of the accommodation is and what the functional and technical requirements are, but what the effect of the learning/work environment is on people’s behaviour and what message it communicates to the market. By addressing both opposites, a synthesis will appear that transforms the rational and the emotional viewpoints and brings them into a more holistic harmonic whole that embraces what looks like oppositions.
However, the average building user does not exist. Therefore, a “one quality fits all” approach to the learning/work environment cannot be applied. So-called “market-compliant” buildings do not appeal enough to the user’s experience; they are suitable for many but of no interest to anyone.
Organisations with more or less the same corporate style (management style, culture, etc.) set similar requirements for their learning/work environment. It turns out that the corporate style determines the extent to which accommodation is used as a “compelling corset” or as “seductive lingerie”.
Identity is not only the appearance of the building’s exterior but also the interior and the neighbourhood’s standing. In addition, communication should focus on customers and employees. The learning/work environment can be used to make it clear to which larger whole the employees contribute. It is about creating a place that people enjoy coming to, a place that stimulates them to show more enthusiasm in their work.
How do these factors play a role in accommodation choices?
How one is accommodated says a lot about the organisation, just as clothing says something about the person wearing it.
Dress codes exist for special occasions, to associate with a certain status, to recognise a group, and to create solidarity. This is no different from accommodation. The learning/work environment constantly sends out a message, which is not only received by your customers but especially by your employees.
Accommodation (our third skin) is comparable to clothing (our second skin). What clothing is to a person is accommodation to an organisation. Clothing should fit well and be functional and durable but also beautiful. Research has shown that we demand the following five attributes from clothing and accommodation.
![20210122 Dress code person - organization](https://www.atelier-v.com/wp-content/uploads/20210122-Dress-code-person-organization.jpg)
- It is fitting, protective and functional. (meets the purpose for which it is created)
- It is well-made and durable.
- It gives a sense of belonging somewhere (evokes meaning to its users in terms of their own experiences).
- Enhance image (embellishment that brings delight).
- Expresses identity and gives a good feeling.
The first two requirements are rational and the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The other three are of an emotional nature and are the part of the iceberg that is underwater.
The dominance of emotional aspects in clothing is perceived as normal. However, for accommodation, it is the iceberg upside down. In the conservative real estate world, the rational left hemisphere dominates the right part of our brain. The right hemisphere, which really makes a difference in people’s choice behaviour, the emotional components, is heavily underexposed.
The hemispherical division of the brain conditions our experience of our learning/work environment, so we perceive reality in two entirely different, potentially conflicting qualities. Both sides are working all the time, consciously and unconsciously.
The Divided Brain
According to the psychiatrist, author, and thinker Dr Iain McGilchrist, a world dominated by the rational left hemisphere would look like the following: Does it look familiar?
- Loss of the broader picture.
- Information, tokens or representations replace knowledge rather than the actual knowledge.
- Loss of concepts of skill and judgement. They are replaced by computer algorithms.
- Abstraction and reification (seeing an abstract as a material thing/objectification). Lost of touch with the real world.
- Bureaucracy (Berger distinguishes the following policies: known procedures, anonymity, organisability, predictability, justice reduced to mere equality, and explicit abstraction.)
- Loss of the sense of uniqueness.
- Quantity is the only criterion. Not quality.
- A black-and-white view. It is either this or that.
- Reasonableness is replaced by rationality.
- Failure of common sense.
- Systems are designed to maximise utility rather than anything else.
- Loss of social cohesion.
- Depersonalisation.
- Paranoia and lack of trust. The left hemisphere is in overdrive condition.
- Need for total control—Maximise observation.
- Anger and aggression are the keynotes of our relationships.
- The passive victim. Others are the wrongdoers.
- Art becomes conceptual rather than embodied. (Visual art lacks a sense of depth and distorted or bizarre perspectives; music would be reduced to little more than rhythm; language is diffuse, excessive, and lacking in concrete reference.)
- Deliberate undercutting of the sense of awe or wonder.
- Flow becomes just the sum of an infinite series of ‘pieces’.
- Discarding of tacit forms of knowing. (Network of small complicated rules.)
- Spectators rather than actors.
- Dangerously unwarranted optimism.
Dr Iain McGilchrist explained the Divided Brain in an RSA cartoon video.
![Yin Yang + Vitruvian man](https://www.atelier-v.com/wp-content/uploads/Yin-and-Yang-Vitruvian-man.jpg)
Mental and emotional dimension
So, it is not about the left side, using the environment, or the right side, understanding the meaning of the environment. For imagination and reason, we always combine both sides in different ways. The successful organisation knows how to harmonise and address both hemispheres of the brain—the narrow and broad picture of the learning/work environment at the same time.
Every piece of information has a mental and emotional dimension, like the Yin-Yang symbol. The yin and the yang are opposing forces acting in unity, which is essential to maintaining balance. The yin and the yang are two-dimensional representations of the expanding and contracting forces of a sphere or a torus.
Even strategic decisions in the board room are essentially made by emotional aspects such as,’ Does it feel good?’ and ‘Does it click?’ The fact that rational aspects are sought to substantiate the emotional components does not detract from the emotional core. See also Building: A Matter of Mind and Heart.
The decision-making should be geared towards a more strategic and context-specific approach instead of mainly operational and financial. A so-called right-brain mode of perception that sometimes is referred to as the ‘intelligence of the heart”. With a focus on the needs and well-being of the accommodation users. Creating buildings with a soul.
Managing organisational strategy
Entrepreneurship is one of the most essential energies in humanity for walking new paths. Entrepreneurship in which the relationship between masculine and feminine forces is in a good balance is crucial to society’s next release. Polarity allows movement to take place, attraction and repulsion that sparks evolution. Being entrepreneurial is, above all, making an innovative contribution.
Nowadays, more than ever, adaptation and renewal are essential for any organisation to survive in the midst of rapid change. Innovation is, by definition, created by people’s collaboration. This cooperation (external and internal), in addition to the management style and the available knowledge, has an important positive influence on the capacity for innovation and thus contributes to a better competitive position. Accommodation facilitates this collaboration and thus has a strategic impact.
When the values and standards that an organisation stands for and the “look & feel” of the products/services that one produces are palpable in the accommodation, this contributes to the unity and involvement of employees. So, know who you are and what you (unconsciously) radiate. This is (un)knowingly encoded in the built environment. Retail organisations especially know how to use this in their buildings to enhance their branding and sales.
It happens that the accommodation evokes a different perception of the organisation than the desired one, reinforcing the wrong image.
Therefore, the learning/work environment should be managed from the perspective of the organisational strategy instead of the day-to-day operational level.
The corporate style and organisational model and an organisation’s marketing and competitive position are essential inputs for making a brief. It is mainly about the desired identity and the message sent with the learning/work environment. Do you want to come across as a price fighter, social employer or creative professional? An organisation can calibrate itself in relation to other organisations and reach an internal agreement on a number of soft accommodation factors. Determine to which group they want to belong and then use accommodation to propagate this (“dress to impress”).