No, reality is not real. Well, at least not universally real. Reality of the same facts changes based on individual perception, and that perception is filtered by our personal biases – our beliefs and values.

Reality changes with the attention it is given – it can be taken out of context, changing the perception of reality. Context is everything in understanding. Neglect of context is the greatest enemy of understanding and thinking. As a leader we cannot get too involved in every problem – we lose our perception of its value or impact of the big picture. However, we must ensure that we have sufficient understanding of the context.

We only understand things by comparison. When we lack context our brain creates it based on experience and our own values – it then becomes subjective knowledge. We need to engage our whole brain in our analyses and our judgement. We need our right hemisphere to maintain the broader picture of the world, and our left to analyse the information we take from this picture.

Over the decades we have been shifting from a balanced hemisphere to a biased left hemisphere – one driven by data. However, even the perception of data changes with context – the framework or lens through which we view and interrogate it.  Data provides outsight. Outsight does not replace insight – nor insight replace outsight.

We live in a world of paradoxes. We pursue happiness, but live in a world of stress and unhappiness. We pursue freedom, but are getting more and more constrained by control of laws and rules. We have more information – but understand it less.

So in a world of such diversity, how do we define and find fulfillment. Rational models do not explain everything – even most rational models are based on right brain perceptions. Paradoxes in logic. So reality is curvilinear – it is warped by paradoxes.

Everything that is implicit is becoming explicit – the so-called rational left hemisphere is very convincing because it is manipulative. It shaves off everything that doesn’t fit its existing models. We get blinded by the brilliance of our own logic – the mathematical models that we build to view data, to view reality, may in fact obscure reality.

It is not about one or the others – we need to return the balance, of right AND left brain. As Einstein said:

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift

The rational mind is a faithful servant

We have created a society that honours the servant but has forgotten the gift.