Left vs. Right brained Conflict Resolution.

Essay by jah_rule24University, Bachelor'sA+, August 2003

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Thompson, Aranda, and Robbins (2000) state that conflict in teams is unavoidable. However, it does not have to result in decreased productivity. Managed effectively, conflict can be key to leveraging differences of interest to arrive at creative solutions (p.235). For the benefit of those who are not up to speed on neurological geography, the theory goes that each side of the brain does different jobs in different ways, hence causing conflict in human interaction, more specifically in the workplace. We all use both sides, but some use one side more than the other. Analytical-left brainers - according to The Partners' booklet, which is complete with arty black and white photography and a fable about a fox, a badger, some bees and a hosepipe - are logical, rational, analytic, linear beings. As for the visual-right brained, they are able to boast creative, intuitive, holistic, speculative and inventive as their traits.

The conflict is as follows "creatives versus suits, realists versus romantics." If you can remove the lucid tension between the two and get them working together, you will have a team, capable of bringing outstanding ideas and concepts into fruition.

It is a harrowing experience for a left-brained individual to present a project budget generated from a spreadsheet program to a group of right-brained interior designers. This exemplifies the conflict which ensues when different types of thinkers unite as a team using only one mode of visual representation, which might leave one group of thinkers at a disadvantage. Creative individuals, who live in a world based on concept, seem to have a hard time equating creativity to a checkbook register, whereas the "suits" (or left-brainers) are exactly the opposite.

In the workplace homogeneous thinking is not mandatory. The idea is to resolve any dispute that may arise in the...