A Whole New Mind

I just finished reading A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink. Overall it was a pretty good book. The setup wasn't anything unexpected since I read the wired article all those months ago.

The basic premise is that three factors will change which skills are considered valuable in the coming years: Abundance, Asia, and Automation.

• Abundance - we don't "need" anything, purchases are now based primarily on "wants".
• Asia - there will always be someone, somewhere who can do your job just as well, but cheaper, somewhere else in the world.
• Automation - most of the rote, analytical, work that can be performed by computers, will be... and computers are only going to get smarter.

What this leads us towards is a world where people who have more Right-Brain skills - creators, empathizers, pattern-recognizers and meaning makers, these people, the artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers - will reap the societal rewards.

Mr. Pink suggests that there are six senses/skills that you need to thrive in the coming conceptual age: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning.

He devotes a chapter to each of these six senses and closes the chapter with a portfolio of tools, ideas, and tips for you to improve that sense.

Here are just a couple of the tips/tools/ideas that I flagged:

• Design - read design magazines. Some of the suggestions include Dwell, HOW, etc.
• Story - get One Story, 18 times a year they send you a little book with exactly one story in it.
• Symphony - (the ability to put all the pieces together) - Learn to draw. I'm going to do this and I'll share the results as I progress.
• Empathy - voluteer, it is a great way to sharpen your empathic skills.
• Play - join a laughter club
• Meaning - visit a labyrinth

There are tons of other ideas he gives to improve these six senses. Overall I think the book was really good.

Comments

[Julian]

Jon,

Dan Pink's "A Whole New Mind" sounds like a refreshing idea that is much needed when discussing the current job market. What role does he state the empathy sense plays in creativity? It also sounds as though some of the examples given are a great ways to jump start the sense listed.

Though there are other questions and conerns that arise with pushing creativity in the job market.

Questions such as how do you overcome an education system and a job market that does not nurture creativity. Most of a childs education is focused on development of mathematical and language skills. In the K-12 grades there is very little offered in the way of creative classes. Also these classes and programs are seeing cuts in their budgets.

When business is concerned with profit, how do you convey your creativity outweighs the dollar risk they may have to take on you?

In other words, how does one overcome environments that limit or do not allow creativity?

[Jon Strande]

Julian,

Thank you for the great comment - empathy is really the ability to stop thinking about your self long enough to put yourself in the shoes of someone else... if you're able to do that, then you can probably imagine what other people are going through. Once you can do that, you can create things that help people.

Yeah, as we have discussed plenty of times, the education system plays a big role in this. The education system is part of the larger "system" that we all need to fit in, which makes it tough if you stray from the norm a bit.

Again, great comment - thank you!

Jon

[fouro]

Julian, I have a found a very simple ding-dong works when discussing educational narrow-focus with businesspeople:

"To much emphasis on testing leads to narrow-focus, high maintenance students who ask only one question: Is this going to be on the test?

We have trained them well. Those students then become your employees who ask only one question: Is this going to be on the test."

Standards testing and the gutting of all but 3-Rs curricula is a Business Roundtable-driven invention borne of their mania for "results" and "efficency." They went to the only ruler they knew how to swing. And now, education is in as deep a hole as business is.

Some cool historical stats from Ian Jukes and a bit of a tongue in cheek comparative if business had the same raw material mandates as Education, here