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A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

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Ever since Peter Drucker pointed out that the future performance of organizations in the developed world would be in the hands of knowledge workers, we've been blessed with an understanding that the dominant economic focus can shift rapidly into new directions. Prior to that, the industrial age had lasted for over two centuries. The agricultural age that preceded it lasted several thousand years, and the hunter-gatherer age had lasted even longer.

What is the conceptual age? It's a time when due to applying all of our brain's many functions and the many advances of technology that we enjoy, a person can imagine totally different ways to serve and entertain others. Imagination is the limit.

A number of people have preceded Mr. Pink's message in partial ways such as those who have written about the entertainment economy, works about serious play, cataloguers of storytelling best practices and those who consider emotional intelligence.

But I think Mr. Pink's concept is both bigger and more accurate than that which has preceded this book. Most methods of making improvements only harness parts of our capabilities and serve only parts of our needs. Anyone who has sat in a traffic jam recently realizes that. What good is s beautiful sports car if traffic is bumping along at 10 mph? Put that same driver into a Grand Prix simulator, and the person comes alive in a way that's almost beyond belief.

Mr. Pink points out six key opportunities to supplement traditional, linear thinking. These are design, story, symphony (integration of disparate elements), empathy, play and meaning.

I think, however, that Mr. Pink is wrong about these being the primarily undeveloped senses. Given what I've read about brain research, I wouldn't be surprised if aroma, physical touch, musical stimulation, simulation and directed meditation didn't end up being as, if not more, important.

Some will be disappointed that Mr. Pink doesn't give them a manual to operate in the new age. Given how little we know about how to engage one another in these other ways, time will have to pass before we have what amounts to instructions. In the meantime, Mr. Pink does a good job of pointing towards experiences and books that can help with whole brain development.

If you think the problem with the economy is that we have too few engineers, you should read this book. It'll take you ahead into a future you need to start preparing for now.

To give you a sense of how important I think Mr. Pink's concept is, I made this book the focus of a recent briefing for The Billionaire Entrepreneurs' Master Mind.

As someone who was in an engineering and IT field, but not of it, I began to feel that there was hope for creatures like me. I understand technology, but my viewpoint tends to be a big picture viewpoint. Writing lines of code left half of me wanting something more and my fellow employees and managers irritated.

Pink provides a clue as to the types of jobs that will no longer exist in the United States in the coming decades by asking three questions: Can someone overseas do it cheaper? Can a computer do it faster? Is what I'm offering in demand in an age of abundance?

As I watched Information Technology (IT) jobs move overseas and become automated, I fully understood what Pink meant with the first question, but the last one had me stumped until I read further. Then, I grasped that I was already a member of a "fleet of empathic, meaning-seeking boomers" which had "already started wading ashore." I had self-identified as a Cultural Creative a number of years ago.

So if American jobs are significantly going to change, how do we prepare for what Pink calls the Conceptual Age? Even if you are planning to retire from your current job in the near future, the likelihood is that you will continue your work life in some form or another.
The world is changing and the economy is changing. As boomers enter the last phases of their official working life, what will they bring to the picture? Will corporations understand the value that people with experience bring to the job, or will they pursue the "cheaper and faster" model of exporting to Asia and hiring young college grads (often immigrants) to replace an aging work force?

Thank for you for also recommending the perfect companion book,
THE BLACK BOOK OF OUTSOURCING by Brown & Wilson (Wiley Press, 2005) which showed me where the new opportunities are, how to get up to speed on what outsourcing is truly all about from very clear instructions, and an incredible resource directory for me to pursue my job search.

The subtitle of A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink is "Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future". Pink believes we are moving from an economy and society built on the logical, linear, computer-like capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what's rising in its place, the Conceptual Age. In his book, he describes six essential aptitudes - what he calls the six senses - on which professional and personal satisfaction increasingly will depend. The six senses are Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. He believes these are fundamentally human abilities that everyone can master - and helping the reader do so is his goal.

Pink reminds us that our brains are divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere is sequential, logical and analytical. The right hemisphere is nonlinear, intuitive, and holistic. Pink says the well established differences between the two hemispheres of the brain yield a powerful metaphor for interpreting our present and guiding our future. "Today, the defining skills of the previous era - the "left brain" capabilities that powered the Information Age - are necessary but no longer sufficient. And the capabilities we once disdained or thought frivolous - the "right-brain" qualities of inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness, and meaning - increasingly will determine who flourishes and who flounders. For individuals, families, and organizations, professional success and personal fulfillment now require a whole new mind."

He discusses the left and right hemispheres of the brain and offers four key differences between them.

1. The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body; the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body.
2. The left hemisphere is sequential; the right hemisphere is simultaneous.
3. The left hemisphere specializes in text; the right hemisphere specializes in context.
4. The left hemisphere analyzes the details; the right hemisphere synthesizes the big picture.

He says the contrast in how our cerebral hemispheres operate yields a powerful metaphor for how individuals and organizations navigate their lives. Some people seem more comfortable with logical, sequential, computer-like reasoning. They tend to become lawyers, accountants, and engineers. Other people are more comfortable with holistic, intuitive, and non-linear reasoning. They tend to become inventors, entertainers, and counselors. He says these individual inclinations go on to shape families, institutions, and societies.

He refers to the first approach as L-Directed Thinking. He says: "It is a form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the left hemisphere of the brain - sequential, literal, functional, textual, and analytic. Ascendant in the Information Age, exemplified by computer programmers, prized by hardheaded organizations, and emphasized in schools, this approach is directed by left-brain attributes, toward left-brain results". He calls the other approach R-Directed Thinking. And says: "It is a form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the right hemisphere of the brain - simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, contextual, and synthetic. Underemphasized in the Information Age, exemplified by creators and caregivers, shortchanged by organizations, and neglected in schools, this approach is directed by right-brain attributes, toward right-brain results."

Pink believes: "In the "Conceptual Age", we will need to complement our L-Directed reasoning by mastering six essential R-Directed aptitudes. Together these six high-concept, high-touch senses can help develop the whole new mind this new era demands." In his description of them he compares them to the L-Directed equivalent.

1. Not just function but also DESIGN.
2. Not just argument but also STORY.
3. Not just focus but also SYMPHONY.
4. Not just logic but also EMPATHY.
5. Not just seriousness but also PLAY.
6. Not just accumulations but also MEANING.

He believes these six senses will guide our lives and shape our world. He says these high-concept, high-touch abilities that now matter most are fundamentally human attributes and have always comprised part of what it means to be human. However, after a few generations in the Information Age, these muscles have atrophied. In his mind, the challenge is to work them back into shape. In his book, he has a chapter devoted to each of the six senses and at the end of each chapter he offers a collection of tools, exercises, and further reading materials which will send us on our way to developing a whole new mind.

I encourage you to read this book and try out some of the tools, exercises and further reading materials; I found his approach brought me new energy, inspiration and motivation!! I cannot recommend it highly enough!!

very interesting, a different look to our daily life in the near past, present and future. Some sections are a bit boring but overall recommended. good reading.

The book was great and very little was lost in the CD form. Thought provoking and inspiring to drive to.

"Any mentorship book which is recommended by visionary business marketing genius Tom Peters, gets my very rapt attention! It's a spot-on enjoyable read with sobering proof of where the future of employment is headed...Where the greatest rewards will be reaped by those who voraciously innovate the most brilliantly and move fastest! "A Whole New Mind" is a valuably classic forward-thinking ideas book which tactfully promotes multifaceted right & left brain neuro synthesis"

For years I have worked in a left brained atmosphere, yet my right brain has been screaming to lead. Looks like it may yet.

Pink genially prods us into a future of retooling ourselves for survival, managing to make it seem more interesting than horrifying. He gets playful advising games to develop creativity and empathy, moving us towards the kind of skills that can't be outsourced. The challenges he covers are real and inescapable, except that it's happening so fast that Pink's correct predictions seem outdated for being made slightly before they happened.