LeaderStrength Rating System for this book:
Focus 4
Build 3
Adapt 3
Overall 3
*See how we rate in the column at the right

Who is Dan Pink? What is the conceptual age? And what does all of this have to do with leadership?

Who is Dan Pink?
Dan Pink is a former speech writer for Al Gore. A Whole New Mind  is Dan's second book. I remembered Dan's name because his first book was about working independently outside of a traditional job. On April 12th of this year, I finally had a chance to hear Dan speak when he was in Philadelphia promoting his new book at the Charter High School for Architecture and Design (CHAD). The school was an appropriate venue, given the focus of the book and his perception of the present and future economy in the US. As the title suggests, the author promotes the notion that we are in transition between the Information Age and the Conceptual Age.

What is the conceptual age?
The answer to that question lies in three concepts he teaches: Abundance, Asia, and Automation.

Abundance
Our society has reached a state of abundance because we have mastered the left-brain, linear, logical, and abstract thinking of engineering, mathematics, traditional science and business. This kind of thinking brought us an abundance of products that can stand apart from each other only in their design. Dan made his point when he brought to the presentation a toilet brush he purchased at Target that stands apart from the many other functional brushes because of its elegant design. Evidently we live in such an abundant society that we will buy a toilet brush for its aesthetic value.

Asia
Dan reminds us that our parents gave us advice to study computers, engineering, law, medicine and other left-brain focused careers. He then makes the point that parents in Asia have been doing the same thing and now, with the technology we created, we have Asia’s abundance of engineers and technicians as direct competition to our own.

Automation
Software is now considered to be a forklift to the left-brain's work. The future will include more outsourcing of what the author calls, "L-Directed Thinking" jobs. The message for us is to increase our right brain competencies, because the demand for these skills will only expand in our marketplace. Therefore a Master of Fine Arts with its emphasis on design, will be a better preparation for a business career than a Master of Business Administration degree. A career like nursing, with its emphasis on empathy, a right-brain competency will be an example of a career that will continue to expand in the future.

These three forces are a sign the information age is giving way to the an age where concepts matter more than just raw information. What you do with all of the information is what makes the new competitive difference.

What does all of this have to do with leadership? I wrote to Dan as a follow-up to his presentation and asked him why leaders should read his book. Dan replied,

"In this outsourced, automated, upside-down world, leaders will have to develop a whole new mind. They'll have to supplement their powers of analytic reasoning with equal measures of artistry, empathy, and big picture thinking."

Dan makes it clear that we don’t ignore the qualities of the left-brain, we just need to expand our capabilities to include six competencies he calls Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. As a leader, you can follow Dan’s suggestions for expanding each of these sensibilities.

Recommendation
You will want to read this book for all kinds of reasons. Read it to understand your own need to grow some R-Directed capacities. Read the book to guide your children into future careers. The book is written with a strong sense of design and story. Therefore the book is a model of the information it presents. You will have a chance to empathize with Dan as he gets his brain scanned, attends a week-long drawing class, and visits a laughter club in India.

Here are a few interesting links:
Dan's website click here  Laughter Club click here
Philadelphia Charter School for Architecture and
Design click here

Temple University Business Agenda
High Performance Team Building- TBA (Center City)
Leading for Results- June 23, 2005 (Center City)
Project Management-TBA (Fort Washington)
Delegate and Empower-June 24, 2005 (Fort Washington)

Burlington County College (New Jersey)
Time Management-June 29, 2005
Communicate for Results-June 1, 2005
Supervisory Skills-May 18, 2005
Delegate and Empower-June 8, 2005
Motivate and Inspire-June 15, 2005
Dealing with Difficult People-June 22, 2005

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