Global Thinkers
Are you a global thinker? To find out, go to this page and take the short quiz before you read this post. Then come back here and tell me your results. I’m eager to know you better.
I worked for a textbook publishing company in Austin once. A one-eyed millionaire owned the place and a senator’s son ran it. The senator’s son told me he hired me because I was the nicest person he interviewed.
My other qualifications were pretty sketchy. A major in English, typesetting and copy writing experience, a novel. The owner seemed more interested in my novel than my background. So I was nice and I’d written a novel. Apparently, that’s all you need to work in the publishing business.
The senator’s son would hand me a manuscript and it was my job to turn it into a book. Each manuscript had to be copy edited, designed, typeset, proofread, indexed, printed, bound and shipped. My job was to find the right people to do each of those jobs, assign and check their work, and make sure deadlines were met.
It took nine months to make a book back then. In four years there I made 84 books.
I was perfect for that job because I am a global thinker, which means I process information backwards. I don’t look at a manuscript and see 500 pages. I look at it and see a bound book. Global thinkers process information holistically, from the whole to the parts. Their thinking can appear quite illogical and meandering because most people process information sequentially, from the bits and pieces to the whole.
Most people are not global thinkers. Most people are linear thinkers.
None of us are wholly one thing or the other. We use both linear and global thinking skills just like we use both hands. However, there does seem to be general agreement about hemispheric dominance. Global thinking is associated with right-brain dominance, and linear thinking is associated with the more logical left-brain functions.
Seventy percent of the population is thought to be left-brain dominant, or linear thinkers.
which explains why I’m such an outlier
Right-brain thinkers tend to be more creative and spontaneous. Actors, artists, musicians, and athletes are right-brain thinkers, which accounts for their small percentage in the overall population. These people have difficulty following a simple sequence of directions without changing or rearranging something. Instead of planning every aspect of a road trip, they will just get in the car and drive. Instead of following a recipe exactly, they will change it. They will pick up a magazine and open it somewhere in the middle or towards the back.
Thinking backwards is not a brain disorder but it can appear that way to linear thinkers. Because emotions are processed on the right side of the brain, global thinkers may seem overly emotional or too sensitive. They can’t help it. They make decisions based on feelings and intuition rather than on logic and reason. To the logically minded this can be seen as a fault.
which explains why I’m “so sensitive“
I left the publishing job to have my children, and after that I taught high school English. In the classroom linear/sequential thinkers (most students) are lost without a road map. They need specific steps and procedures on how to go about getting there. Outlining is a linear/sequential processing technique, which explains why I always wrote my outline after I finished the paper. Students who excel in math are linear thinkers because math problems can be broken into small, incremental steps.
which explains why I’m no good at math
Schools do a good job of assessing learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic), especially at the primary levels, but I’ve never known them to address thought processing styles (global or linear). There is a test for left- or right-brain dominance at this site if you’re interested in learning more about yourself or your children. It will require more of your time than the test at the top.
Below are other traits of the global/gestalt/nonlinear/strategic/holistic/right-brain thinker.
- Prefers working in an informal, less structured, more flexible environment
- Tends to be spontaneous and likes spontaneity
- Enjoys doing several things at once
- Learns best when information is presented with humor or emotion or a short anecdote.
- Speaks with many gestures
- Tends to learn the general idea first, then looks at the details
- Can work well with distractions
- Tends to take frequent breaks
- Tends to need lessons which are interesting to them on a personal level
- Tends to work well in small groups
- Needs written and tactile involvement
- Responds well to pictures
(photo by Travis Wright)
So tell me. Are you a global or a linear thinker?
March 4th, 2010 at 6:10 am
This is a fantastic article, Brenda. A lot of folk go through life not knowing how they experience or process it. I’ve done a few tests over the years and they all return the same results; I have developed pathways between left and right brain. An analytical linguist who also writes creatively. A translator who analyses down to the nuance and syllable but who keeps the writer’s essence in the translation. I analyse problems but can come up with blue sky out of the box solutions. I design rooms that combine excessive detail to functionality andaesthetics. I used to think my discomfort with compromise and my perfectionism were just sun sign traits, but it seems like neither side of the brain lets me rest! The one area where I think a knowledge of different processing was useful was when I taught. Like you, it enabled me to prepare and teach in such a way that no-one was left behind. I approached things in as many ways as there were folk in the class.
March 4th, 2010 at 10:24 am
The balanced brain you describe may seem ideal but to me it’s just the midpoint on the spectrum. Can you imagine how weird it would be if everyone processed thought the same way? What I like about the quiz is that it can point to one’s place on the spectrum, thereby suggesting areas in need of improvement or leading to self-awareness and acceptance of one’s ‘limitations’. I totally accept that math and science skills will never be part of my repertoire, although brain science interests me hugely. I’m not sure I ever reached every student. What I showed them was another way of thinking, which may have challenged them to use their right brains.
I think the next few decades will reveal a lot more about the human brain. Wouldn’t you just love to know how consciousness is processed!
March 4th, 2010 at 10:33 am
Thanks for the great article, and including my image. I am using that image for everything now… it’s my business card, my wallpaper on my PC, my phone’s wallpaper. lol. And I am working with a company, Mingleverse, that is gonna use this image as their advertising. So, it’s an interesting bugger. lol
Great article. BTW, I’m writing a book, and it sounds like it may be wise to pick your brain, if you are willing.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Hey Travis. More than willing to have you pick my brain. You are one of my favorite interesting people. Few images have captured my attention the way your little ‘bugger’ has. It’s so funny and colorful and brilliant. Small wonder that others are responding to it so well. The people you picked for the picture were global thinkers in a totally different way.
You know how to reach me.
March 4th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Hi Brenda, this was fascinating. I was a 12 on the Global thinker style. This makes sense to me, although I do also have some very linear tendencies. But I think overall, i tend to analyze and compare things at the ‘gestalt’ level. This sentence from the ‘global thinker’ tendency list resonated for me: “Like to set up the categories so everything can be included (but the actual sorting is too boring/time consuming.”
March 4th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Holy smokes, Lisa! I had you figured all wrong. Because you’re so good with logic and analysis. But now that I think about it, you certainly do have the ‘big picture’ in mind when it comes to women’s spirituality. I learn so much from you that it makes learning more about you really fun.
You beat me, Lisa — I scored a Global 10.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Ha Brenda, you know, I think alot of people that know me online would be surprised by this. Somehow on Mommy Mystic, or when I write, or something, I come off as much more analytical than I actually live. Really, I am quite odd in person! But online somehow I come off as very straightlaced. I have only recently come to realize this! Not sure if I will do something about it or not (or should:-)
March 6th, 2010 at 10:51 am
You should only ‘do something about it’ if you feel you are being inauthentic in any way, and I don’t sense any fakery in you at all. I tried to get a friend of mine to take this test and he wasn’t interested. I don’t get why someone wouldn’t want to know themselves better. I love learning more about myself and others. Maybe it’s just a general distrust of ‘instruments’ like this one and/or the public nature of disclosure.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:01 am
Hello again, m’dear. I just popped back to read the comments; I knew you’d get interesting ones! I just read your last response to Lisa and wanted to explain why I didn’t take the test. Lots of reasons really. I enjoy magazine quizzes for fun, so maybe it’s the word ‘test’. I also remember having several coaching clients who suffered because their employers forced them to take ‘tests’ via human resources departments after they’d been hired, and the narrowness of those tests led to them not doing the work they’d taken the jobs for.
But mainly it’s because I find most personality tests really frustrating, on the whole. When I do quizzes in magazines, or if I know the results are numerically counted, I can tick two boxes, giving each a half point, knowing that it’ll all tally at the end. I can’t do that with online tests and I hate settling for one answer if I feel like two are equally valid.
What you said above was interesting:
“The balanced brain you describe may seem ideal but to me it’s just the midpoint on the spectrum.”
I’d personally never describe it as ideal because I’ve experienced the unpleasant effects of too much rapid swing between hemispheres, one preference cancelling out the other, and not being able to access one side when I need it most.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:34 am
I just made myself some tea and did the test - coz it’s you ;). I got -1. One of the questions that frustrated me most was the one about working well with words and numbers. I’d never have grouped those together, and if they’d been separated, my results would have been slightly different. I have a mild form of dyscalculia and show the following symptoms: (when i was doing university entrance exams, I used to spend hours a night struggling with maths and cramming all my Russian, English, French, latin and Art homework
March 8th, 2010 at 8:38 am
…into one hour. I don’t know what’s happening with your comment box, but there’s one key I must be accidentally pressing that posts it when I’m correcting my spelling! Sorry. here are the dyscalculia symptoms i mentioned:
Normal or accelerated language acquisition: verbal, reading, writing. Poetic ability. Good visual memory for the printed word. Good in the areas of science (until a level requiring higher math skills is reached), geometry (figures with logic not formulas), and creative arts.
Inconsistent results in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Poor mental math ability. Poor with money and credit. Cannot do financial planning or budgeting. Checkbooks not balanced. Short term, not long term financial thinking. Fails to see big financial picture. May have fear of money and cash transactions. May be unable to mentally figure change due back, the amounts to pay for tips, taxes, etc.
When writing, reading and recalling numbers, these common mistakes are made: number additions, substitutions, transpositions, omissions, and reversals.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
Good for you for coming back. Your score reveals exactly what you thought it would, a perfectly balanced brain. I had no hesitation about sharing this test because it has ’sometimes’ as an option. I don’t trust tests that make you rate your choices on some numeric scale. This one is simpler and better.
Learned another new word from you, ‘dyscalculia’. It makes me think of ‘dracula’!
All this emphasis on thought may be a bit out of fashion with so many writers focusing on the benefits of not thinking, which is difficult for folks like me and you to do. We love our cogitations, don’t we? I saw a great quote on Twitter yesterday:
“The ability to think clearly is remarkable but the ability to not think is more extraordinary.”