Balancing Creativity With Logical Analysis In Your Business Development

In this article we’ll provide our insights into the problem of balancing creativity with logical analysis in your business development.

Left Brain v Right Brain

Some people are creatives. We say these people are more right-brained, that is to say they’re more artistic. People who think with the right brain tend to be the ones who come up with ideas, have visions of where we need to go. They’re more intuitive. They’re less limited in their thinking by limitations imposed by law, finance and economic realities. In some ways, their thinking is more free and inhibited.

Some people are more left-brained, in the sense that they’re more methodical and analytical. They see the reasoned and logical implications of taking a certain path of action. They see cause and effect. They see risk. They understand limitations and attempt to implement optimal solutions to circumvent them.

Most people aren’t entirely left brained or right brained, but many people identify themselves with being more one than the other. We also look at others and using our observation and judgement get a pretty good idea of someone who’s more creative than logical. Stereotype alert: someone in a suit is more logical, someone in a tie dye shirt is more creative.

How Does This Apply To Your Business?

The implementation of an idea usually relies on both left brain and right brain functions. Sure, many ideas can be implemented with purely right brain functions, such as painting a piece of art. Others with purely left brain functions such as analysing a financial spreadsheet. However, the more broad reaching and encompassing the ideas is, the greater the requirement to have a mix of both left and right brain thinking.

This is why teams are often structured, whether intentionally or accidentally, to include a mix of different personality types. The outspoken analyst, the introverted planner, the reconciling mediator, the organiser. Working together, they combine their own unique perspectives to develop a solution that considers all angles, not just the creative or logical aspects. A good business or product will be subjected such a broad range if perspectives and insights.

However, what if you’re just starting out? You’re a individual trying to do it all. Many of us can relate to this. Unless we go into business with a partner straight away, it’s rare that we have someone else or a team of employees to subject our business or product to a wide range if perspectives. Sure, we can bounce ideas of relationship partners or friends, but unless they’re fully involved in the business you’ll rarely get the depth of insight needed.

So you find yourself trying to balance the creative. You’re working on the logo and business brand development while trying to keep track of your monthly expenses and sales. You’re trying to solve a technical issue with your website will figuring out the details of your new product.

Depending on how you look at this, there are positives and negatives. On the negative side, you time is split between different aspects so you can’t fully focus on one thing. Many tasks can be undertaken in parallel but you’re forced to undertake them in sequence. Therefore the entire process takes more time. In the context of this article, it’s a big negative because, as we identified earlier, more people are either skewed to being either more left brained or more right brained. Therefore, as a creative, you might not be as good at keeping the accounts. As an analyst, your spreadsheets are pristine but your brand artwork is flat and lacks the edge your business needs.

Let’s look at the positive aspects. You’re forced to get involved with everything, so you develop skills in areas that aren’t necessarily your strong points. You also have an insight into all aspects of your business. You see how one thing links to another. You understand how the technical aspects of your product connect and flow into the branding. When you’re imagining new features you can also way up the costs and risks involved with implementing them. Also, your costs are reduced because you aren’t paying a team.

There’s a balance to be struck between the positive and negative aspects identified above. If you have the resources to take on a team then the argument is definitely there. However, when building your team be sure to hire complimentary personalities rather than a duplicate of yourself. Your second and third and fourth employees and partners should add another dimension to your business.

If you’re smaller and just starting out, then it’s beneficial to you to get involved in all aspects of your business, both the creative and the logical. At some point you’ll become aware of your limitations, and this is where you can employ others or outsource some work to others. You have now have the advantage that you at least understand the basics of the aspects your delegating to others. This enables you to raise the right questions, understand the general principles and see the bigger picture.

Summary

Hopefully this has been a useful insight into balancing creativity with logical analysis in your business development. You might already have an established business, and might now be thinking about how to add to your team to create a more holistic collection of individual perspectives. You might just be starting out and wondering how to cope with elements of a business that don’t play to your strengths. Our advice is to give it a go, and keep going until you reach your limits. At that point you can look to bring others in.

If you want to discuss the particulars of your business with us, then leave a comment below saying ‘Let’s Talk’ and sign up to our email list. We’ll get in touch and hopefully we can provide some guidance.