This is the Book Rapper version of Daniel Pink’s best selling book, A Whole New Mind. We’ve rewritten the book so you can grasp that big ideas in under 30 minutes. We called our issue: How to Think Right.
If you want our beautifully designed pdf copy click here. It includes audio and video files. Learn your preferred way!
Daniel H Pink, A Whole New Mind, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, 2006
Logical, rational left-brain thinking is necessary yet no longer enough. The right brain skills of design, story telling, emotional empathy, the big picture, playfulness and creating meaning are the keys to success.
Pink uses a great ‘right brain’ metaphor that is pulled together into several simple themes. The content is a good ‘symphony’ of what is going on and includes some entertaining ‘stories’. Daniel Pink walks the talk! A quick and easy read and, if you’re in the wrong profession, it may just scare the living daylights out of you!
Design, Story, Symphony, Play, Empathy and Meaning – Pink’s 6 Senses, give you a bucketful of ideas you can learn and apply to your life and business.
Think right by incorporating one of the six senses or aptitudes into your business and your life every month.
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For the past few hundred years thinking associated with the left brain has dominated. Now the future favours right brain thinkers. Here we review the reinforcing themes and the right trend.
“High Concept involves the capacity to detect patterns and opportunities, to create artistic and emotional beauty, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new.” (P2)
“High touch involves the ability to empathize with others, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one’s self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond the quotidian in pursuit of purpose and meaning.” (P3)
If the future now favours right brain thinkers, what are the driving forces provoking this shift? We consider three drivers and the six impacts.
We can buy almost anything at affordable prices. Kitchen utensils with personalities; designer kids clothes. We even have self-storage for all the things which don’t fit into our house. Having more will not make us happier!
Is what I’m offering in demand in an age of abundance?
Outsourcing has progressed to left brained knowledge workers. Millions of IT and finance jobs are forecast to go to Asia in the next few years. China, India, Russia and Brazil continue to take jobs from their Australian, US and European counterparts.
Can someone overseas do what I do cheaper?
Machines have progressively replaced factory workers and are now replacing routine left-brain thinking. Computers are programming themselves, doctors are diagnosing via computers and lawyers and courts are preparing for online delivery.
Can a computer do what I do faster?
Are your career stocks going up or down? Pink suggests if you’re a knowledge worker who relies on your left-brain, logical, linear thinking you’re stocks are going down. Alternatively, if you’re an inventive, emphatic, big-picture designer then your career stock is rising.
Do you prefer left-brain thinking or right brain thinking? Take this test to find out. Circle the statement that most accurately describes you.
Note : This test is not from Pink’s book, it’s been adapted from several other sources.
“It’s no longer sufficient to create a product, a service, an experience, or a lifestyle that’s merely functional. Today it’s economically crucial and personally rewarding to create something that is also beautiful, whimsical, or emotionally engaging.” P65
Good Design goes beyond mere ornament; it’s not about prettying things up. Design is everyday people creating solutions to every day problems. It requires the whole mind.
Good design is more accessible than ever. Think Ikea and TV makeover shows. Now that we all have access to the same technology and can create items withe similar features, performance and price, design has become the key differentiator. Add value and stand out through good design.
Design can create things we didn’t know we needed and, in effect, create new markets. Have you got a designer toaster? Cell phones started out as a luxury, became necessary for everyone, and now that we’ve all got one, have become accessorized to show our personalities.
Design can help patients get better faster, build a healthy planet and lose elections. Investigations into the 2000 US Presidential elections showed it was the design of the ballots in Florida that invalidated so many votes and swung the election from Gore to Bush. If good design can change the world, so can bad.
“When our lives are brimming with information and data, it’s insufficient to marshal an effective argument. Someone somewhere will inevitably track down a counterpoint to rebut your point. The essence of persuasion, communication and self-understanding has become the ability to fashion a compelling narrative.” P65-6.
If you think stories are just for kids, then consider that 25% of the economy is based upon storytelling. Isn’t that what advertising, counselling, promotion and consulting is all about? Storytelling doesn’t replace left brain thinking, it adds to and complements it.
“Much of the Industrial and Information Ages required focus and specialization. But as white-collar work gets routed to Asia and reduced to software, there’s a new premium on the opposite aptitude: putting the pieces together, or what I call Symphony. What’s in greatest demand today isn’t analysis but synthesis – seeing the big picture and, crossing boundaries, being able to combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole.” P66
“The capacity for logical thought is one of the things that makes us human. But in a world of ubiquitous information and advanced analytic tools, logic alone won’t do. What will distinguish those who thrive will be their ability to understand what makes their fellow woman or man tick, to forge relationships, and to care for others.” P66
“Empathy is the ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s position and to intuit what that person is feeling.” (P153) If you find yourself mirroring someone else’s yawning then you are being empathetic. Whilst studies show that women’s brains are hardwired for empathy, not all women have ‘female brains’. Some have ‘male brains’ that show a tendency for understanding which is not a feeling, it’s more a knowing. Daniel Goleman has presented the case that our emotional intelligence is now more important than our intellect in determining our success in life. He suggests, “People’s emotions are rarely put into words; far more often they are expressed through other cues. Just as the mode of the rational mind is words, the mode of the emotions is nonverbal.” (P156)
“Ample evidence points to the enormous health and professional benefits of laughter, lightheartedness, games and humour. There is a time to be serious, of course. But too much sobriety can be bad for your career and worse for your general well-being. In the Conceptual Age, in work and in life, we all need to play.” P66
“The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.” Brian Sutton-Smith P179.
“We live in a world of breathtaking material plenty that has freed hundreds of millions of people from day-to-day struggles and liberated us to pursue more significant desires: purpose, transcendence and spiritual fulfilment.” P66-7.
According to Ian Mitroff, Spirituality is “the basic desire to find purpose and meaning in one’s life” and it is gaining value in business. (P214) Spirituality in business takes on many forms ranging from the provision of ‘spirit’ services such as yoga or meditation, through ‘environmental’ retail such as The Body Shop and Corporate Social Responsibility.
If you didn’t need the money, would you continue doing your current work? Thought not. Imagine living in harmony, being calm and relaxed at work; loving the work you do. A Calling is work that satisfies. We do it for its own sake and not for the dollars or other benefits. Martin Seligman proposes happiness comes from knowing that you are working in your strengths and preferences in the service of the greater good. (P217)
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