20 Nov 2019

Whole brain coaching for IT/ITES organizations: Laying the foundation for “Beyonder” organizations

Deep Bali

Dr. Deep Bali is a Columbia university executive coach, a ‘Whole brain leadership’ evangelist and expert in creating “Beyond ordinary” professionals, teams and organizations.

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The technology businesses (both product and service) in this neck of the woods have seen consistent transitions and growth over the last decade. The market size of the Indian IT/ITES industry has grown to US$ 181 billion in 2018-19, and is on its way to reach US$ 350 billion by 2025. The big three TCS, Infosys, and Wipro have contributed significantly to this emergence of a whole ecosystem of high tech startups, suppliers, knowledge workers, and infrastructure. To add to that, India has itself become the digital capabilities hub of the world with almost 75% of the global digital talent comes from here.

The numbers look great, right? Business for the IT industry in India largely lands in the shape of software product development/enhancement/R&D and shared services business from large MNCs based in the US and EU. IT companies in India per se are slowly transitioning from being perceived as mere body shops to more evolved and niche organizations with the added advantage of the “on-demand” supply of tech workers with both regular and niche skills. Sadly, this is only the ‘Half-truth’.

If India’s IT industry continues to rely on large multi-national accounts and start-ups in the US and EU for significant business, then the challenge is to carve out a reputation and become the country of choice for revolutionary innovation, beyond ordinary creativity, quality, speed, and accuracy. Or what we call a BEYONDER Organization.

"India has become the digital capabilities hub of the world with almost 75% of the global digital talent comes from here"

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But how do you become a BEYONDER Organization? Well, an over-supply of tech workers and engineers, frequent hackathons, innovation labs, what have you, does NOT assure revolutionary creativity and innovation beyond the ordinary, nor does it assure a significant increase in customer acquisition and beyond ordinary customer experience. Your first step should be to enter the world of WHOLE BRAIN COACHING.

For a long time now, I have been using NBI assessments (Brain preferences) and engaging with organizations in the high tech space. One finding that has been common throughout is that the majority of employees in the technology and engineering space are left dominant in their brain/thinking preferences. What that means is they have and acquire only those skills that are specific to their preferred quadrant (left dominant) i.e. Analytical/Realistic and Preservers/Organizers. But they often miss out on Vision driven and People driven skills that are right dominant.

Left brain dominant people prefer and draw energy from tasks such as – working with technology, deep research, data analysis, knowledge acquisition, information gathering, deep diving, planning, organizing, and executing. They like brief conversations, accuracy, and control. They are more focused on results and less on people. They are not comfortable with frequent changes and prefer to work within a structured and process-oriented environment with little or minimum disruption.

"Left brain dominant people prefer and draw energy from tasks such as – working with technology, deep research, data analysis, knowledge acquisition, information gathering, deep diving, planning, organizing, and executing. They like brief conversations, accuracy, and control"

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I am sure by now you must be thinking is it good to be left brained or right brained. Truth be told, there simply is no right or wrong, good or bad brain preference. The traditional and default dominant thinking preferences will not result in creativity in the “Ordinary zone”. Those who learn to leverage the “Whole brain” will make maximum impact and contribution to overall success of an organization.