The science of thinking

The art of collaboration

Herrmann Whole Brain Thinking is a framework for maximising human potential, by acknowledging, understanding and leveraging different thinking styles.

Developed by Ned Herrmann in the 1970s

Herrmann® Whole Brain Thinking is a cognitive model. It proposes that people have different thinking preferences that can be categorised into four quadrants, each representing different thinking styles:

  1. A Quadrant (Upper Left): Analytical, logical, factual, and quantitative thinking

  2. B Quadrant (Lower Left): Sequential, organized, detailed, and procedural thinking

  3. C Quadrant (Lower Right): Interpersonal, feeling-based, emotional, and people-oriented thinking

  4. D Quadrant (Upper Right): Holistic, intuitive, integrating, and conceptual thinking

The HBDI® (Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument)

Is the assessment tool that measures these thinking preferences. It's a questionnaire that identifies which of these four quadrants a person tends to prefer or "dominate" in their thinking approach. The results are displayed as a customised spider-graph that shows the distribution of a person's thinking preferences across all four quadrants.

The key insight of Whole Brain® Thinking is that while most people have preferences for certain thinking styles, teams and organisations benefit from utilising all four quadrants.

The model is often used for:

  • Improving communication between people with different thinking styles

  • Building balanced teams with diverse cognitive approaches

  • Developing more comprehensive problem-solving strategies

  • Enhancing leadership effectiveness through cognitive flexibility

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