54 THE INVESTOR
psychological treatment called Eye Movement Desensitization
Reprocessing (EMDR) is based on the interplay between the two
hemispheres. It has proven very effective in treatment of trauma
victims. Asking patients to move their eyes from left to right, which
alternately stimulates the opposite brain lobes, has been very suc-
cessful in releasing trauma experiences from the psyche. (Much of
the early research was done with Vietnam veterans who had post-
traumatic stress syndrome. The success rate was nearly 80 percent,
versus less than 50 percent for all other forms of therapy.) The
point? Our quest for flexible and effective thinking must include
use of the whole brain, much like EMDR does in healing the psyche.
Lions must overcome their comfortable position as the darlings of
American culture if they want to be at the top of their game.
Another consequence of the lion’s leadership is often a limited
view of creativity. I distinguish two types of creativity, capital C
and small c. Creativity with a capital C is the kind that leads
to breakthrough thinking and new models. Right-brainers tend to
thrive on busting old models and creating new ones. They want
to move from trains to planes, from bricks-and-mortar to clicks-
and-mortar. Left-brainers prefer the subtler form and expressions
of creativity—little-c creativity—like improving an existing pro-
cess or tweaking a design... perhaps moving from a conventional
train to a bullet train. Both forms of creativity are important and
valid; to eliminate either is to lose an important tool from the
decision kit.
Unfortunately, though, in lion kingdoms that loss is precisely
what happens. The following quote is from a lion’s description of
his team’s collaborative process:We follow Robert’s Rules of Order. Each of us present has one
vote, and the majority carries.... Our client portfolios are nearly
identical, which is a natural extension of this focus on one in-
vestment philosophy and shared decision making [President and
Managing Director, Major Investment Organization].07 ware 54 1/19/01, 1:09 PM