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Pink is the author of Free Agent Nation and a
writer for Wired, Harvard Business Review and other
magazines. He says, “We are moving
from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computer-like
capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the
inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of ... the Conceptual
Age.” This age is “high concept” and
“high touch.” Success and satisfaction
will increasingly depend on six essential aptitudes: design, story, symphony,
empathy, plan, and meaning – primarily “right brain” functions. These aptitudes can be strengthened.
(Introduction)
Three huge social and economic forces are pushing this
shift: Abundance, Asia, and Automation. (Introduction)
The book is a quick read. Two omissions interest me. 1) There is no recognition of meaning or
purpose beyond this life. 2) What
happens as the technical work underlying our abundance gets automated and
outsourced? How much have we given up
and what are the unforeseen consequences? [dlm]
The left hemisphere of the brain handles analysis,
sequence, logic, detail, and words.
The right hemisphere is best at synthesis, context, emotion,
relationships, pictures, and the big picture.
The latter has been underemphasized in the Information Age. In the future artistry, empathy, the long
view, the transcendent will help determine who gets ahead and who falls
behind. (17-27)
Knowledge workers – lawyers, doctors, accountants,
engineers, and executives, those acquiring and applying theoretical and
analytical thinking – were the key players in the Information Age. (29)
“Our left brains have made us rich.”
“The defining feature of social, economic, and cultural life in much
of the world is abundance.” (32)
Abundance means that products must be not only
functional but beautiful and meaningful.
(33) More people are searching
for meaning, questing for self-realization – and they are looking for it in
the stuff they buy.
Outsourcing knowledge work to Asia
is much cheaper and productive. (36
ff. See The World is Flat by
Thomas Friedman.) Automation is
affecting today’s white-collar workers like it did yesterday’s blue-collar
workers. (47)
Progression of four ages: Agriculture (farmers) to Industrial
(factory workers) to Information (knowledge workers) to Conceptual (creators
and empathizers) (49)
Left-brain thinking is still indispensable but it’s no
longer sufficient. “What we need
instead is a whole new mind.”
We must supplement with high concept and high touch. We must “create artistic and emotional
beauty, ... create a satisfying narrative [see Branded Nation by James
B. Twitchell], and ... combine seemingly unrelated ideas into a novel
invention.” (51)
“High touch involves the ability to empathize, 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.” (52)
The only way to differentiate your product is to make it
physically beautiful and emotionally compelling. “Today we’re all in the art business.”
(55) “Meaning is the new money.” (61)
Part Two: the Six Senses
1. Design
(utility enhanced by significance) – beautiful, whimsical, or emotionally
engaging
2. Story
– A compelling narrative facilitates persuasion, communication, and
self-understanding.
3. Symphony
represents synthesis, seeing the big picture and combining pieces into an
arresting new whole.
4. Empathy
– Understanding relationships and caring for others
5. Play
contributes to health and well-being.
6. Meaning
– “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 fulfillment.” (67) [This is an
interesting analysis but something seems awry. Did not our forbears, whose lives consisted
of difficulty and hardship, also have a very strong sense of purpose and
meaning? And has not our luxury
provided diversion that dims that sensitivity? dlm]
Pink has a chapter on each of the senses and some
exercises and resources to develop that sense or aptitude.
“Design is the only thing that differentiates one
product from another in the marketplace.”
(78) [Twitchell says it is branding. dlm] “You need to differentiate or you cannot
survive.” (79, quoting Asenio)
Stories are easier to remember—because in many ways,
stories are how we remember.”
“Most of our experience, our knowledge and our thinking is organized
as stories.” (99)
“Today facts are ubiquitous, nearly free, and available
at the speed of light.” “What begins to matter more is the ability to place
these facts in context and to deliver them with emotional impact.”
(100-101)
A midlevel executive at the World Bank “discovered that
he learned more from trading stories in the cafeteria than he did from
reading the bank’s official documents and reports. An organization’s knowledge, he realized,
is contained in its stories.” (105)
“Symphony...is the ability to put together the
pieces. It is the capacity to
synthesize rather than to analyze; to see relationships between seemingly
unrelated fields; to detect broad patterns rather than to deliver specific
answers; and to invent something new by combining elements nobody else
thought to pair.” (126)
“Modern life’s glut of options and stimuli can be so
overwhelming that those with the ability to see the big picture—to sort out
what really matters—have a decided advantage in their pursuit of personal
well-being.” (127)
Symphony is largely about relationships...connecting
diverse and seemingly separate disciplines.
It uses analogy. These people
are boundary crossers. (130) “They
reject either/or choices and seek multiple options and blended solutions.”
(132)
“Metaphorical imagination is essential in forging
empathic connections....” (136)
“Seeing the big picture is fast becoming a killer app in
business.” (137)
“Many of us are crunched for time, deluged by
information, and paralyzed by the weight of too many choices. The best prescription for these modern
maladies may be to approach one’s own life in a contextual, big-picture
fashion—to distinguish between what really matters and what merely annoys.”
(139)
One suggestion:
“Visit the largest newsstand you can find. Spend twenty minutes browsing—and select
ten publications that you’ve never read and would likely never buy. That’s the key: buy magazines you never
noticed before. Then take some time to
look through them.”
Write down compelling and surprising metaphors you
encounter. Read Metaphors We Live
By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
Empathy is “climbing into another’s mind to experience
the world from that person’s perspective.” (153)
The mode of the emotions is nonverbal. The main display is the face. You begin by looking in another’s face.
(156) When it comes to interacting
with people, computers are autistic. (158)
Empathy is powerful, even in medicine. (163) But it can’t be delivered by fiber optic
cable! (165)
“The Web is full of self-assessments, many of which have
all the scientific validity of phrenology.” (171)
Play. “People
rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it.” (179,
quoting Southwest Airlines Mission Statement)
“Humor is showing itself to be an accurate marker for
managerial effectiveness.... Laughter
is demonstrating its power to make us more productive and fulfilled.” (180)
“Shammi and Stuss maintain that humor represents one of
the highest forms of human intelligence.”
(190) [Harold Stukes confirms this. dlm]
“Jokes that people tell at the workplace can reveal as
much or perhaps more about the organization, its management, its culture, and
its conflicts than answers to carefully administered surveys.” (191, quoting
David Collinson)
“Inglehart believes that the advanced world is in the
midst of a slow change in its operating principles, ‘a gradual shift from
‘Materialist’ values...toward ‘Postmaterialist’ priorities (emphasizing
self-expression and the quality of life).’”
“A transition from material want to meaning want is in progress on an
historically unprecedented scale.... and may eventually be recognized as the
principal cultural development of our age.” (quoting Gregg Easterborrk,
American journalist), (210)
“Across many different realms, there’s a growing
recognition that spirituality—not religion necessarily, but the more broadly
defined concern for the meaning and purpose of life—is a fundamental part of
the human condition.” (212) [!]
“At the very least, we ought to take spirituality seriously
because of its demonstrated ability to improve our lives....” (213) [Be
pragmatic. dlm]
“Meaning. Purpose. Deep life experience. Use whatever word or phrase you like, but
know that consumer desire for these qualities is on the rise.” (216, quoting
Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes) [It’s marketable. dlm]
“In this new era each of us must look carefully at what
we do and ask ourselves:
1. Can
someone overseas do it cheaper?’
2. Can
a computer do it faster?
3. Am
I offering something that satisfies the nonmaterial, transcendent desires of
an abundant age?” (232)
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