Thinking Preferences. Paint the Psychologist.

Sometimes you can’t beat nature. If we believe science, that’s the case with your thinking preferences. The cards have been dealt. Live with the consequences!

Here’s 4 things you can do in a business context when it comes to pitching your idea as I have described in my post “Pitching and Watering Hole. Months become Days.”

Paint the Psychologist

Life has dealt me some good cards. I have been lucky to be working together with Nick. He’s been my sparring partner in many of my adventures at work.

As a psychologist he has the necessary background to understand some of my tweaks, next to most of the other stuff my blog is about. Great to have such an amazing wing man!

In addition to being a Kung Fu fighter (You’ll understand why I mention this when I post about “Timeboxing”.), he’s got an amazing sense of humor.

So, when we were shooting our instructional videos (a couple of years ago) no-one was really surprised when he let us paint his head to explain HBDI and what to do with. And, he is ok with me posting this here.

HBDI?

HBDI stands for Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. It’s a successful consulting business.

Their Whole Brain Model (Here’s their site with the details) bases on research that says: everyone of us has biologically given thinking preferences. It could be one strong one, or a combination of up to 4 (see picture above). Every combination again having its specialties.

Simply put, there are people like controllers that are primarily blue, project managers that are green, nurses that are read, visionaries that are yellow.

And, that doesn’t mean that you can’t be an engineer (green/blue), if you are primarily red/yellow. (I am talking about myself, here.) But it helps to know.

To my knowledge it is one of many such models or ways to learn more about yourself. I did – and often use it in self-reflection.

This is how you can use it in the context of a Pitch and Watering Hole.

> When setting up your Project Team

1. Make yourself aware who and what combination you have on the team.

> When preparing your Pitch

2. Consider whether your idea and the way you are going to pitch addresses all for quadrants.

> When preparing your Watering Hole

3. Consciously choose people that represent the four quadrants (a controller, a project manager, a nurse and a visionary).

> When receiving Feedback

4. Take note who said it and from what color the feedback came from.

Nothing more needs to be said about the shortest instructional video in the series (1:23 Min.).
(Still only in Swiss German and with French subtitles.)

Good luck with your next pitch!

If you want to dwell a bit deeper on who you are, go take that HBDI assessment (I am not affiliated with them. It’s just the only one I really know.)

Or, you can visit my post on “15 Meanings. Who are You?” and lay your own cards with my self-made application (It’s 2 pages to download, print and cut for yourself).