Use Your Blain (ala Phua Chu Kang)

Two Singaporean “Ah Lian’s” ( a term used to describe a lady who is very local and  where “singlish” is used by this individual in her speech) entered an elevator and went to the top floor of the building.  When they had finished their appointment, they re-entered the lift and were trying to go to the bottom floor. 

They looked at the elevator for the bottom floor but the buttons ran from 20 to 2, followed by a “G” and a red button. One of them said, “ Maybe it is the red button because it is the lowest button !” Puzzled, they stared at it for quite a while before one of them confidently pressed the “G” button.  The other lady asked why she pressed that button as she was looking for a “B” button which stood for Bottom in her mind.  The lady that pressed the “G” then confidently explained – “Aiyah, why you so stupid, use your blain lah.  G, stand for Gero!” (Meaning zero,  “o”  and was therefore the bottom floor).

All of us have different coloured brain which is what Directive Communication teaches us; it has developed a system of recognition on the  basis of how our brain processes information.  This is called BCI or Coloured Brain Communication Inventory.  These are the primary 4 colours that our brain processing is classified as;  Red, Green, Blue & Purple.  Each of these colours represents the way in which a person with a certain colour  brain processes information and therefore responds accordingly.

Red Brain – is a person that receives information, structures the information, analyzes the information and  then makes a decision accordingly.  These are the people who when they see information they put them into a structure, they organize it and then decide on a response accordingly. My wife worked for Intel for 12 years, her job was a process analysis. She typically is a very structured person, when she receives information, her brain will organize this into a structure and only then will she analyze this and make a decision thereafter.

Green Brain – is a very different from red. They need very little information to make a decision and act on it. The green brain individual sees the “big picture” , they do not need a lot of information, and can make decisions quickly. They are also typically  creative, as they can see the big picture and do leaps from one point to another. I have done the analysis and found myself to be a “ Green “ ,  I do not function in a structured manner, and think in clusters,  or chunks and do not necessarily need to organize or gather all the information before making a decision.

Blue Brain – is a person whom processes information in such a way, where they connect everything. They typically think  with feelings and emotions. My brother Stanley is a blue brain individual. He will connect all the information,  connect all the dots, sees all things as connected and then make a decision accordingly. They think with feelings and emotions.

Purple Brain – is a person very focused on gathering as much information as possible. They will not make decisions quickly. They will want to gather as much information as possible before they analyze and then finally decide. My friend Jack, and IT engineer is a such an individual. People see him as a slow decision maker or as even not moving but what he is really doing is gathering information, structuring, gathering some more information and only after he has all the information needed the moving forward with a decision or course of action.

How does knowing our brain colour help us ?  How does knowing another person’s brain colour help us ?  Well we understand what colour our brain is and that of individuals around us it helps us better understand  why we think and act a certain way and also how people around as think and act. In short it will helps us understand ourselves and people around us better. The CBI ( Coloured Brain Inventory )  is a tool which will enable better communication, better relationships, and even better efficiency. It helps us to know how we see things differently, how our brain thinks and acts and therefore understand why some people act fast ( Green) why another ( Purple)  acts very slowly. It will enable office teams to understand each other better and work better together.

As my title suggests, it will help us understand How we use our Brain and how those around us use their brain, how we all process information. When we learn this, it will definitely allow for more effective communication and better relationships.

Whether we are “Ah Lian’s” or “ Ah Beng’s” , an engineer,  a lawyer,  or whatever our jobs are once we know this information and are able to better appreciate how a person thinks and processes information we can better appreciate what is needed by a person, why a person is acting in such a manner and also therefore how we can and should respond with them.