Book review by Ruth Catney

“The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers.  These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers – will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys”

Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind, p.1

It’s not often I come across a business book that resonates and reassures me that I’m heading in the right direction but that is EXACTLY what Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future has done for me. 

An enjoyable and enlightening read, Pink notes how society has evolved from the Agricultural Age (Farmers) to the Industrial Age (Factories) to our current Information Age (Knowledge Workers).  He takes a look at Western businesses that have a dependency on information technologies and cleverly identifies three major phenomenon in our economy that have forced adaptive changes:  Abundance (affluence), Asia (technology), and Automation (globalization).

Abundance

Pink makes the observation that our left brains have made us rich.  Never before have we had the assortment of gadgets to choose from that are both high quality AND priced affordably.  Pink cites some staggering stats about the self-storage industry (did you know that it’s a $17 billion a year industry in the U.S.?!?!) and how “the United States spends more on trash bags than ninety other countries spend on EVERYTHING” (p. 33).  He explains that it is exactly because we have too much stuff that businesses and retailers must begin to differentiate their products, “converting mundane, utilitarian products into objects of desire.”  (p.34).   The object of desire Pink could not live without:  a toilet brush designed by Michael Graves and sold at Target for $5.99.  (You must visit http://www.michaelgraves.com/ to see how insanely brilliant Mr. Michael Graves is!)

Pink’s solution:  Success in this noisy marketplace means creating products that are not only functional but also aesthetically pleasing. 

Asia

India, Philippines and China are accepting outsourced services (computer programming, technical engineering, financial services) paying laborers a fraction of the cost that Western or European employers pay.  Once again, Pink cites some jaw-dropping statistics regarding the implications for job losses in North America and Europe that could be economically catastrophic.

Pink’s solution:  Pink suggests that to succeed, the use of Right-brain-directed abilities will have to prevail:  “forging relationships rather than executing transactions, tackling novel challenges instead of solving routine problems, and synthesizing the big picture rather than analyzing a single component.” (p. 40).

Automation

Software programs have been created to assist with medical diagnosis by following a series of decision trees and basic legal forms can now be downloaded online. 

Pink’s solution:  These professions will need to change “away from routine, analytical, and information-based work and toward empathy, narrative medicine, and holistic care,” to more “counseling and mediation, court-room storytelling” that depend on Right-Brain directed thinking. (p. 46).

Pink believes that because of Abundance, Asia & Automation we’re moving from the Knowledge Age into what he calls the Conceptual Age (creators, empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers).  He offers that we can prepare ourselves for this Conceptual Age by enhancing our abilities around six aptitudes:  Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning.

APTITUDE 1:  Design

Pink demonstrates the mainstreaming of design and how it’s no longer reserved for the elite.  He reminds us that even our familiarity with computer fonts is an indication of how our awareness of design is commonplace.  Pink asks readers to guess the names of three common computer fonts:  Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New. (Take the test yourself on p. 75.).  I managed to guess all three correctly which drives home the point Pink is making – even computer fonts are no longer the specialized domain of typesetters and graphic designers.  We choose our fonts to give our written words a certain look and feel.  Not only should our writing have substance and resonate, but it should have a look and feel that sets it apart and draws readers in.

Pink also states that it is absolutely essential that business leaders become designers if they hope to succeed in today’s economy.  For instance, with pricing structures and lower costs of the Far East, design has become a differentiating competitive factor in the car industry.  Pink cites BMW’s chief of design, Chris Bangle as stating, “We don’t make ‘automobiles’.”  Instead, “we make moving works of art that express the driver’s love of quality.” (p.79).  Magnificent!

And finally, you must read Pink’s compelling account of how the Florida ballot design for the 2000 U.S. presidential elections may have been responsible for Al Gore’s loss to George W. Bush. (p. 83-86). 

APTITUDE 2:  Story

Pink shares the “story” of Steve Denning to help us understand why this aptitude is gaining momentum.  Denning was a lawyer in Sydney who then became a midlevel executive at the World Bank in a left-brain role.  Then one day, in a company reorganization, Steve got transferred to the “Knowledge Management” department– the channel that organizes the company’s vast reserves of intellectual capital - as the department chief.  Steve had a revelation: he found he was learning more about the company’s knowledge from trading stories in the cafeteria than he did from reading the bank’s official documents and reports.  Stories have such personal meaning for people making the message more memorable.  Steve is now telling this story to organizations worldwide and they are listening.  For example, Pink tells us how Xerox found its repair personnel were learning to fix machines by trading stories rather than by reading manuals.  They have collected their stories in a database called Eureka and Pink tells us that Fortune estimates its worth at approximately $100 million!

Pink also explains how story is becoming a pivotal way for business people to differentiate their product or service in a crowded marketplace.  His example of using narrative to sell homes instead of facts about price, features & square footage demonstrate some clever Conceptual Age marketing.

The section of Story that impressed me most was “The Story of Healing” (p.111).  Pink shares the brilliant revisions that have been made to Columbia’s second-year medical student’s curriculum – the addition of “narrative medicine” to compliment the scientific curriculum for a whole-minded approach.  Listening to stories incites empathy in interns and medical staff and the practice of having our doctors think rigorously AND empathetically makes for a much more well-rounded practice of healing.

APTITUDE 3:  Symphony

As Pink explains, symphony is “the ability to put together the pieces; synthesize rather than analyze; see relationships between seemingly unrelated fields; detect broad patterns rather than deliver specific answers; invent something new by combining elements  nobody else thought to pair.” (p.130).  The integration and imagination involved in figuring out how all the pieces fit together is what Pink believes will set successful entrepreneurs apart.  A brilliant component of Symphony is the use of metaphor.  Pink illustrates this point with Georges de Mestral’s aptitude for metaphor when he reasoned metaphorically that burrs stuck to his dog’s fur and came up with Velcro!  Brilliant!

APTITUDE 4:  Empathy

Pink defines empathy as “the ability to stand in another’s shoes, to see with their eyes, and to feel with their hearts.”  (p.159).  This was the aptitude I was happiest to see on Pink’s list because I think it comes very easily to me.  In fact, I think I am “empathy-sick”.  I have difficulty reading fiction, viewing films or newsreels, or even hearing stories where horrible things happen because I identify so profoundly with the people in question.  If you are “empathy deficient” be warned.  Pink clearly demonstrates in Chapter 2 how ‘Automation’ and ‘Asia’ are making attributes measured by IQ easy to replace which makes empathy that much more valuable.

Gender differences in detecting emotion in others is also something Pink addresses and I liked his conclusion that the Conceptual Age requires androgynous minds.  Pink states, “Sometimes we need detachment; many other times we need attunement.  And the people who will thrive will be those who can toggle between the two.” (p. 174).  So, start to bring YOUR androgynous mind to work – it will serve you and your organization well!

APTITUDE 5:  Play

The aptitude of Play is a fun chapter to read.  Pink introduces us to Madan Kataria, a physician in Mumbai, India whose personal mission is to trigger an international laughter epidemic which he believes will improve our health, increase our profits, and maybe even bring world peace!  He has set up what he calls “laughter clubs” – small groups of people who come together at the start of their day to spend 30 minutes laughing.  Pink shares the health benefits of laughter – decreased stress hormones, boost in the immune system, its’ analgesic properties as well as its aerobic benefits of activating the cardiovascular system, increasing heart rate and pumping more blood to internal organs. (p. 203). 

Southwest Airlines, one of the few airlines that continues to turn out profits in an extremely competitive industry has the following mission statement: People rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it.”  Executives that practice the aptitude of Play will likely create a culture of more content employees who turn out greater productivity levels that translate to greater profits.  Happy workers, healthy profits. 

APTITUDE 6:  Meaning

This was a section I also really enjoyed.  Pink refers to research by Martin Seligman that finds that people who perform paid work that has personal meaning to them and is centered around their signature strengths experience greater authentic happiness.  I have experienced this and it doesn’t matter what you are being paid – you would do it for free – it just feels so rewarding.

In her recent Stanford speech Oprah Winfrey stated, “What you want is money and meaning.  You want your work to be meaningful because meaning is what brings real richness to your life.”  Oprah gave the gifts of literature to Stanford’s graduating class of ’08 – Tolle’s A New Earth and Pink’s A Whole New Mind.  Making an Oprah list these days has GOT to have meaning…I  love what Oprah does with her money and her endorsement of what Pink has to say about right-brain aptitudes is the BEST endorsement an author could ever receive in our time. 

Congratulations to you Daniel Pink.  Well done.

Ruth Catney