A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

66 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
Analysis, Conclusions, and Decision
During the analysis, the manager essentially compares the relative importance
of each alternative’s advantages and disadvantages. Some alternatives
have few disadvantages, but no great advantage, either. In any case, the
manager needs to think it through and document his thinking. This helps
the left-brain method to be really explaining the decision to others after
the decision is made.
In the cases discussed here, the conclusions are from the analysis
and the eventual decision should be obvious. I’m sure Henry Kaiser
went through this process in detail in explaining what he wanted to do
to his managers, workers, and his board of directors. He would have left
nothing out, concluding that despite the risks, the best way to achieve
the desired results was to implement the building of the British design
in the way he outlined it. Similarly, Welch would have explained the situation
to his board, and eventually to GE stockholders, as to why certain
businesses, even if profitable, had to be sold in order to secure the future
growth and higher profitability of the overall corporation.
The Right-Brain Solution
The right-brained approach to problem solving still works by starting out
<strong>with</strong> an assumption of ignorance. However, unlike the very structured
procedure that is part of the left-brain approach, the right-brain method
uses no fixed sequence of logical steps to arrive at a solution.
One of the best examples of its use in American business was by the
famous inventor Thomas Edison. While Edison had no formal education
past high school, he was the inventor of numerous “high tech” devices, from
the light bulb to practical motion pictures. His right-brained approach,
according to his assistants, was to go into a dark room and sit there—sometimes
for hours—until a solution to his problem presented itself.
Another example of the use of this right-brain method was Einstein’s
description as to how he formulated the Theory of Relativity. One would
think that anything as quantitatively complex or as mathematical as the
development of this theory would require thousands of white-coated scientists
working for months at blackboards covered <strong>with</strong> hundreds of
chalk-smeared formulas and equations, plus advanced work in laboratories.
Even were today’s technology available to Einstein, these scientists
would have used up an awful lot of computer time. Yet Einstein stated that
he thought the whole thing up by himself by simply closing his eyes and