One of the topics on leadership and team building we learned a few years ago in NGLI (the UCC young clergy leadership group I’m in) involved the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI).  (For lots of information on this topic, just Google the HBDI!)  The HBDI is this system that one can use to measure and describe how people think.  Because it ends up that most people do have a default or preferred way that we process information.  There’s 4 color-coded quadrants in the HBDI and they are as follows:  

1.) Analytical (Blue): logical, technical, analyzes
2.) Practical (Green): organized, detailed, gets things done
3.) Relational (Red): emotional, sensory, likes to teach
4.) Experimental (Yellow): risk taker, intuitive, breaks rules 

What was so fascinating when I first learned the HBDI is that my cohort of colleagues ending up being overwhelmingly Red.  So the few colleagues in our cohort who fell into the other categories had the opportunity to share how it sometimes felt to be in a room full of people who have a whole lot of feelings and need to talk about them all.the.time!  We had a habit of going off on tangents in class, and that drove those who are Green a little bonkers because they wanted us to be efficient and get things done.  Those who were Blue shared that we do sometimes need to think logically and those who were Yellow shared how we could use our imaginations better to think about the future. 

In the end, it was such a great learning experience in realizing that people quite literally think differently about the same topic before us and even use different areas of our brains to do so.  Sometimes when we make decisions or talk about difficult topics, it’s helpful to know that the other people in the room may quite literally think differently than we do.  This applies in our church, in our places of work, in our families, etc.  One way of thinking is not better than the other.  All have strengths and weaknesses.  And perhaps it takes analytical, practical, relational, and experimental people working together to truly create something special.  Rather like the diversity of the Body of Christ is what can make church communities wonderful to belong to.  Where’s the fun in everyone being exactly the same anyway?  Just a thought, for this week.

Love,
Pastor Lauren 

(This Week’s Thoughts 3.11.21)

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash.