Head vs. Heart

Written by: Ralph Twombly

Published: July 2013

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
- by Albert Einstein

Reading might be the greatest gift I was ever given and there isn’t a day that goes by without my eternal gratitude to all of those patient teachers and siblings who encouraged and put up with the endless hours of me talking about something I read or about something I wanted to read.

What I have been reading lately? After a long voyage into some interesting novels, I have been reading a fascinating book about Thomas Jefferson, called: Thomas Jefferson - The Art of Power, by Jon Meacham. While I can't find any place that can truly tell me how many books have been written about Jefferson, it has to be hundreds. This one caught my eye because it won a Pulitzer and I was ready for a little non-fiction. Thomas Jefferson, in addition to being one of our founding fathers, was governor or Virginia, our envoy to France to broker the peace after the revolution, Secretary of State in George Washington's first presidency and President himself following John Adams. He secured the Louisiana purchase, owned slaves, fought for abolishment of slavery and fathered many children with two wives and one of his slaves (Sally Hemmings). Really, I didn't want to write you a history, only to share one of his insights.

In reading the book there is a section in which Thomas Jefferson writes an essay on the battle between his heart and his head. He has just lost a good friend and, as a bit of self-described therapy, he decides to write.  As he does so, he describes the battle between head and heart in the American Revolution. Ahhh, see, now you know why it caught my interest.

As soon as I read the passage I thought about all the discussions I have had over the years with business people about why business exists and what really matters inside its walls.  Some folks are ready to die on the precept that business is all about numbers/dollars. They make their case in tones of, "If we don't make any money, we can't do good things." This compelling argument is not without its validity. Others feel that the only reason for business to exist is so we can make the world better, contribute to our community, give meaningful work to people and "make a difference." One says the other doesn't get it and the controversy in our very enlightened time creeps along like a herd of turtles. I have always suspected that the "head people" have to rationalize it to make sense of it. If it is logical, then it is ok. If it is not logical, then it doesn't fit and cannot possibly be real. In many ways it is the classic battle between science and religion. The "heart people" somehow need to feel like what they are doing has greater value than just the dollars in their pockets and products they produce.

Back to Jefferson for a moment. While the 1770s and 1780s were times of real enlightenment not only here but abroad, it was long before the advent of Myers-Briggs and psychological testing. So as practitioners of such things, we are always curious regarding what "type" Thomas might have been. According to Google, TJ, as I have come to know him, was a pretty strong "T" which implies that he was a "thinker" and not a feeler. For those of you who may be less familiar with Myers-Briggs’ version of thinkers, they are described as logical, reasonable, critical and tough while their opposite "feelers" are seen as empathetic, compassionate, accommodating, accepting and tender.

Now, some of you are out there may be saying, "Get to the point, Ralph!"...well, here goes. The concept of absolute science dismisses love as some chemical imbalance issue and the concept of "can't we all get along" dismisses the idea that there are bad people in this world who want to see our children die slowly and painfully. We all live in the real world and it's because of people like Thomas Jefferson that we are still here to be in it. Small thinking (absolute head or heart) can only live in one place - small people. Individuals, businesses, families, communities and nations cannot afford to be small thinkers. We all know deep in our brain that the truth of head vs. heart lies somewhere in the gray middle ground of the real world.

The best example lies in the question – Why do people work?  The answer may be obvious to you… we work because we as a species have a predisposition to be productive. However, we “go to work” specifically because they pay us to do so and, if we get joy in our work, then all the better.  If they stopped paying us, would we continue to go to work for our employers?  We educate ourselves so we can do the work we are trained to do but we educate ourselves hoping to have the choice of doing work that has value to us as well as an employer.  The proof lies in the second question, Would you continue to go to work if you won Power Ball?  Most would say they would not return to their work if they won millions, but my guess is that they would never stop working.  So, work is not the question and pay is not the issue.

Here are some better questions:

• Why can't you have a business that makes lots of money for its people and is a great place to work because people care and also care for each other? Naive? I can point you to the places that have made it happen. Is it a lot of effort? Wow, is it ever a lot of effort and increasingly the efforts pay off.
• Why can't we get jobs that pay well and are fun? You can, if you know what to do to get people involved and to own the outcomes of work. In fact, the answer to productivity issues, process issues, and human resource planning are there if you ask the right questions and have the appropriate strategy and patience to persevere.
• What do you get if you combine the head and heart in business? You can probably imagine better than I can what you might get. Think of a place where you not only feel like you are doing the good work but are also doing the right thing. More and more we hear that people love participation and want to be appreciated. Head and heart stuff.
• Why don't businesses think of combining the head and heart more often? Well, they are and they do, more and more. We see it every day in our work and hear the cries from corporate America that they need to get people to feel like owners, want their ideas, need their creativity and are ready to reward those things.

Final thoughts: I think, after all we have seen of the sale and decimation of businesses by people only interested in financial gain, downsizing, redundant rightsizing, and the insecurity, that is a part of that process, people feel it is hard to commit to giving all so they only give what they can. My experience is that people would love to have their hearts in their work. Conversely, business cannot guarantee lifetime employment and so they don't ask for the heart knowing that it may feel like a false promise of an implied contract.

Let me leave you with this thought. If people put the effort into their work that they put into their homes or their children or their communities, the world would be a very different place. If business put their best minds to work on making workplaces that had heart without fear that they would look weak or "not in charge", the world would be a very different place.

Maybe we can think big like Jefferson and those founding fathers did and remember that this nation was built on the heart of liberty, the courage to act in the face of overwhelming odds and just a few fundamental beliefs. They believed that people could, if given time and the resources, make great decisions for the greater good. They believed that leaders serve and leadership is an art form. They believed that the fundamental of all human nature is need for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Head and Heart stuff, huh?

Thank you for reading and please enjoy the beautiful Maine summer.

Ralph Twombly

In the 20 years since starting Priority Learning, Ralph has facilitated countless learning experiences and has conducted training for thousands of managers and leaders. With over 30 years of leadership development and organizational development background and work, Ralph continues to build relationships with client companies all over the U.S.