Google Chairman, Eric Schmidt, recently spoke out about the division between the Arts and Science in British education and the demise of the polymath.
Meanwhile Iain McGilchrist has written a well researched book describing the same thing. The Master and His Emissary, The Divided Brain and the Making of the Modern World roams across Philosophy, Psychology, History, Neurology, Art and more to make his point that Left Brain thinking has come to dominate individuals and Society......
Having dropped the names of some clever people, to get your attention and maybe add some weight ...........
The right side of the brain provides the big picture, the inspiration, the vision and to some people the Everything. See Jill Bolte Taylor's amazing stroke of insight on TED on this.
The left side of the brain specialises in the detail.
Einstein is said to have seen the concept of relativity in an instant and spent the rest of his life explaining it............
Linking the two hemispheres is the corpus callosum, sometimes seen as the bridge, though McGilchrist suggests it acts more like a gatekeeper.
Now, in a well balanced individual (back to Schmidt's polymath) the vision is passed to check the detail, the enriched vision is passed back for further envisioning and so on.
As with the individual, so with Society. And with the development of Society and the division of labour, has grown the separation of the visionaries and the mechanics.
I make no value judgement here, by the way. Just as I don't expect a plumber to sing opera (though it does happen sometimes) I would not want a bridge built by a philosopher. Horses for courses.
The point is: who leads?
Now, if we understand that the Right Brain tends to huge self belief, whilst the Left sees the (Health and Safety) dangers, then the answer is tricky and the balance of power is critical.
My point (backed up by the clever folks mentioned above and lots of others) is that the balance has swung too far to the risk averse.
Getting to some practical examples in our world of social enterprise; this is characterised mostly as a relationship between the public sector and the 3rd (4th?) sector. The current policy direction towards social enterprise diminishes the vision and passion of the sector, when the commissioning process gets to work. Where the best social enterprises spring from a need identified and a vision of delivery, the commissioning process starts with a spurious Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (more of which later), followed by a service specification generally constructed by committee and a huge wadge of paperwork with which to waste the time of anyone foolish or desperate enough to enter the game.
Power, in this process, is held by the risk averse, so we should not be surprised that it does not work very well.
If we take a look at some brilliant social enterprises, the process is different. Kids Company, for example, attracts almost no local authority funding, yet does the most amazing work on the streets of London. The Big Issue, similarly found its own way and seems to make a real difference.
The challenge for our sector, is to find the revenue streams that are not controlled by fear of what might go wrong, but drawn to schemes that may just go great!
Social Impact Bonds perhaps?
Anyway, there's my starter for discussion..........
Steve Day
Meanwhile Iain McGilchrist has written a well researched book describing the same thing. The Master and His Emissary, The Divided Brain and the Making of the Modern World roams across Philosophy, Psychology, History, Neurology, Art and more to make his point that Left Brain thinking has come to dominate individuals and Society......
Having dropped the names of some clever people, to get your attention and maybe add some weight ...........
The right side of the brain provides the big picture, the inspiration, the vision and to some people the Everything. See Jill Bolte Taylor's amazing stroke of insight on TED on this.
The left side of the brain specialises in the detail.
Einstein is said to have seen the concept of relativity in an instant and spent the rest of his life explaining it............
Linking the two hemispheres is the corpus callosum, sometimes seen as the bridge, though McGilchrist suggests it acts more like a gatekeeper.
Now, in a well balanced individual (back to Schmidt's polymath) the vision is passed to check the detail, the enriched vision is passed back for further envisioning and so on.
As with the individual, so with Society. And with the development of Society and the division of labour, has grown the separation of the visionaries and the mechanics.
I make no value judgement here, by the way. Just as I don't expect a plumber to sing opera (though it does happen sometimes) I would not want a bridge built by a philosopher. Horses for courses.
The point is: who leads?
Now, if we understand that the Right Brain tends to huge self belief, whilst the Left sees the (Health and Safety) dangers, then the answer is tricky and the balance of power is critical.
My point (backed up by the clever folks mentioned above and lots of others) is that the balance has swung too far to the risk averse.
Getting to some practical examples in our world of social enterprise; this is characterised mostly as a relationship between the public sector and the 3rd (4th?) sector. The current policy direction towards social enterprise diminishes the vision and passion of the sector, when the commissioning process gets to work. Where the best social enterprises spring from a need identified and a vision of delivery, the commissioning process starts with a spurious Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (more of which later), followed by a service specification generally constructed by committee and a huge wadge of paperwork with which to waste the time of anyone foolish or desperate enough to enter the game.
Power, in this process, is held by the risk averse, so we should not be surprised that it does not work very well.
If we take a look at some brilliant social enterprises, the process is different. Kids Company, for example, attracts almost no local authority funding, yet does the most amazing work on the streets of London. The Big Issue, similarly found its own way and seems to make a real difference.
The challenge for our sector, is to find the revenue streams that are not controlled by fear of what might go wrong, but drawn to schemes that may just go great!
Social Impact Bonds perhaps?
Anyway, there's my starter for discussion..........
Steve Day
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