The Herrmann Brain Dominance Model

We all have one dominant eye, hand, foot or ear. Just as we are either right or left-handed, we have all developed one or more dominant ways in which we think and reflect, known as brain preferences. These preferences have a direct effect on the way we behave. 

All humans see and perceive the same reality, objects, people or situations in different ways. We have different memories; we reflect differently and have different feelings. This results in a wide range of reactions and interactions on all levels: in the way we communicate, our motivations, the way we make decisions, the way we learn things and our type of leadership and so on.

Ned Herrmann, a physicist and director of management training at General Electric in the seventies, closely examined the relationship between the human brain and human behaviour. 

Based partly on research work carried out by Paul MacLean on  ‘the triune brain’ (the reptilian, limbic and neocortex brain) and partly on research work by Roger Sperry on the functional specialization of the left and right brain hemispheres, Ned Herrmann developed the HBDI (metaphoric) model made up of 4 quadrants of different colours that help to understand the four ways of thinking we each have and which we use to understand reality and to communicate.