Do you tune in your favorite radio station when you’re in your car by twirling the dial or by programming your favorite stations so you can get them by simply pushing a button? 

In some ways the way we use our brain is a little like the car radio.  We can twirl the dial to get any station we like.  But we also have favorite stations that we program in–the ones we prefer to listen to more often.

Some people, like my husband, have only rock stations programmed.  Other people, like my Mom, are more eclectic and have a combination of easy listening music and radio talk shows.  Other people don’t have a strong preference and are always fiddling with the dial or reprogramming the stations!

Ned Herrmann’s four-quadrant model of how the brain works helps us get a read on what “stations” we may have a strong preference for in our ways of thinking.  Some of us have a strong preference in on quadrant while others of us have a preference in two, three or even four quadrants.  It’s not right, it’s not wrong, it’s just different.

Each of us can and does tune into any station we like.  If we don’t listen to a given station very often we may get some static and it may take some work to tune it in, but it’s there for us to access.

Written by Janice Beer, Chevron Canada