learning-styles

6.3
The Herrmann ‘whole brain’ model and the
Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI)
Introduction
Ned Herrmann developed his ‘whole brain’ concept while
he was in charge of management education for General
Electric. Throughout his education and professional
career, he was actively involved with the creative arts as
well as with science and technology. Having developed
a format of self-assessment by questionnaire, followed
by group learning activities, he left General Electric
in 1982 to set up the Ned Herrmann Group. The group
is now established in more than a dozen countries,
offering services in personal, interpersonal, staff
and organisational development. These services
are derived from the profiling procedure built into the
Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI). At the
time of writing, over 1m mental preference profiles
have been analysed by occupational category and
in other ways, including international comparisons
of management style. The ‘whole brain’ model has been
applied in many contexts, including personal growth,
counselling, group processes, teaching and learning,
decision making and management.
Origins and description of the model
The HBDI provides, on the basis of 120 items,
a four-category classification of mental preferences
or thinking styles (sometimes also referred to
as ‘learning styles’). The first version was developed
in 1982, after Herrmann had achieved only limited
success in identifying electroencephalographic (EEG)
correlates of specialised left- and right-brain functions.
He was inspired by the widely publicised split-brain
research carried out by Roger Sperry, winner of the
Nobel Prize (Sperry 1964). However, following MacLean
(1952), Herrmann (1989) also took into account
hypothesised functions of the brain’s limbic system,
which is located beneath the surface layers (or cerebral
cortex). The four categories in Herrmann’s model can
be summarised as follows.
A Theorists (cerebral, left: the rational self)
Theorists are said to find it difficult to accommodate
the feeling self and the humanitarian style.
B Organisers (limbic, left: the safe-keeping self)
Organisers are said to find it difficult to accommodate
the experimental self and the innovatory style.
D Innovators (cerebral, right: the experimental self)
Innovators are said to find it difficult to accommodate
the safe-keeping self and the organising style.
C Humanitarians (limbic, right: the feeling self)
Humanitarians are said to find it difficult to
accommodate the rational self and the theoretical style.
Although Herrmann began with a brain-based theory
of hemisphere dominance, he later accepted that this
was an oversimplification with inadequate empirical
support and recommended (1989, 63) that A, B, C, D
quadrant terminology be used instead: ‘The whole-brain
model, although originally thought of as a physiological
map, is today entirely a metaphor.’ The metaphor
is expressed in many different ways, using a range
of descriptors based on the 120 items in the HBDI, and
in Appendix E of The creative brain (1989), Herrmann
devotes 14 pages to graphic representations of his
model, each differing in the labels used. Two of these
representations locate the ‘whole brain’ model within
the surrounding culture (ethnic, family, social and
organisational) and environment (physical, geographic,
economic, temporal and motivational). Table 25 is
a representation which illustrates how people who
strongly prefer one of the four categories (or quadrants)
are said to differ in their approach to learning. Virtually
the same representation appears in Herrmann (1996),
where it is described as a model of learning styles.
The quadrant model and the concept of ‘dominance’
is not meant to imply that most people have a strong
preference for one quadrant only. In fact, Herrmann
states that this is true of only 7% of the population
studied. The most common pattern (for 60%) is to
have strong preferences in two quadrants, followed
by strong preferences in three quadrants (30%).
Only about 3% of those assessed have what is
termed a ‘quadruple dominant’ or ‘whole brain’ profile.
Herrmann states (1989, 89–90) that these people
‘are capable of developing an extraordinarily balanced
view of any given situation. They can also communicate
easily with people who favor one of the other quadrants,
and act as translators among people of different
mental preferences.’
Another feature of Herrmann’s model is the idea
that certain combinations of preference are more
harmonious than others, especially the ‘left-brain’
combination of A and B quadrants and the ‘right-brain’
combination of D and C quadrants. Conflict is more
likely to arise between ‘diagonal’ quadrants – that is,
experimental as opposed to safe-keeping tendencies
and rational as opposed to feeling appraisals
(D/B and A/C).
The ‘whole brain’ model is not based on biological
determinism. Indeed, Herrmann (1989, 20–21) is
persuaded that ‘the way a person uses the specialised
brain results from socialisation – parenting, teaching,
life experiences, and cultural influences – far more
than from genetic inheritance’. He believes that
it is in the interest of individuals and organisations
to develop sufficient flexibility to respond, against
their natural preferences, to meet particular situational
demands; and, where necessary, to make longer-lasting
value-based adjustments, especially if this can release
latent creativity in an individual or in an organisation.