Winter Institute Speaker Daniel Pink: Right-Brainers to Rule the Future

October 19, 2006

Daniel Pink thinks the creative types shall inherit the earth. Pink -- author of A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (Riverhead) and plenary speaker at the American Booksellers Association's upcoming Winter Institute -- says a sea change is already taking place in our business and personal lives. We are moving from the Information Age (where lawyers, programmers, and accountants ruled) to what he dubs the Conceptual Age (artists, inventors, and designers, your time has come!).

Author Daniel Pink

In seeming contrast to his book's exhortations, Pink revealed to BTW that he followed a more analytical path in his younger years: "I actually went to law school, if you can believe it. You can't get any more left-brain than that."

He noted, though, that this was two decades ago, when parents told their children the only way to have a solid place in the middle class was to work in professions such as law, accounting, or engineering -- and "it was good advice at the time." Nonetheless, Pink never did use that law degree; instead, he worked as a political speechwriter, and eventually left that field to work as a writer for Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, the New York Times, and Wired.

"When I left politics to work for myself, I looked around and saw so many others doing it ... so I wrote a book about it. I traveled the country to get a sense of what this new way of working was about," Pink said. As he worked on that book -- Free Agent Nation -- the idea for A Whole New Mind began to percolate.

"I noticed that people who worked for themselves were living like artists. Also, I lived in India 20 years ago, so I saw the outsourcing story early and began to write about it. On top of that, when I was in the business world I kept encountering people with backgrounds in fine arts," he said.

Those observations -- plus plenty of intensive research and even more traveling -- added up to the main premise of A Whole New Mind: the intensely analytical jobs that have been the mainstay of our economy are becoming automated and/or shipped overseas, and creativity and emotional intelligence are becoming ever more valuable. Thus, those who wish to succeed would do well to develop both sides of their brains.

With Pink's help, identifying and developing six important "high-touch, high-concept senses" (design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning) is easier, and more fun, than it sounds. He's done his homework in regard to researching and explaining what science knows about the workings of the brain, and provides an engaging and highly readable chronicle of his own journey to understanding what forces are bringing about this social and economic shape-shifting, which affects us on a grand scale as well as on a personal level.

In keeping with the whole-mind concept, the book is organized in a user-friendly way; each sense-section has a corresponding Portfolio filled with websites, books, and other resources (Pink made sure the page-edges are shaded, too, so they're easy to find). Historic and scientific information shares space with quotes uttered by everyone from Sid Caesar to Oprah to a cognitive scientist, and Pink's humorous yet knowledgeable narrative gives it structure, personality, and flow.

"I think a lot of business books are too impersonal -- they don't have enough of a narration," Pink explained, "and since the book is not character-driven in any way, the only plausible narrator was me."

Since A Whole New Mind's publication last year, the author has been putting that narrative voice to good use at 100-plus speaking engagements at businesses, universities, associations, and schools.

He said, "I've been surprised at the lack of resistance to the main claim of the book.... I'm not getting the fight I was prepared for. Instead, I'm getting, 'This makes sense, now tell me what to do.'"

Pink said that's likely because writers "illuminate what people already have a visceral sense of; in this case, people sense the rules of work have been changing and a new set of abilities and people is needed. I can provide the vocabulary to talk about these changes and a framework to understand them."

In regard to independent bookstores, Pink said, "Story can be a differentiator of products and services. For example, he's noticed that companies have in recent months been working to engage customers in storytelling: JetBlue is collecting customer stories in person and online, and AmericanExpress hosted a videoclip competition in support of its "My life. My card." campaign. Even Nationwide Insurance got into the game, asking customers to submit "Life Comes at You Fast" moments.

"I could totally see booksellers doing this," Pink said. "People have stories that need to be collected and surfaced. When a person gets handsold a book, and that book changes a person's life ... those are the kinds of stories that go on at independent bookstores. Collecting and broadcasting those stories can be very powerful."

Another central concept in A Whole New Mind is the democratization of the search for meaning: "The way things used to be, if you wanted to devote a serious amount of time to search for meaning and purpose, you had to be in the extreme -- sell everything and go to a monastery or be so rich as to be exempt from the daily struggle to survive," Pink explained.

"Now, literally tens of millions of people are spending their time and brainpower pursuing meaning.... If companies want to attract talented people, they'll need to provide opportunities for learning -- and a sense of purpose," he said.

In that vein, he added, "People going into bookstores are seekers of enlightenment ... a very powerful instinct draws people in, and can make the experience of being in the store more meaningful than a transaction. A store may not have the same inventory as a giant online bookseller, but the collection there is carefully curated by a person who knows what they're talking about. You can trust their recommendations, and have the kind of life-changing experience that often happens when you encounter a book you didn't know you were missing."

Pink said he's an avid reader with eclectic taste: he's reading The Adventures of Augie March now, and The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation and The Last Folk Hero are up next. The author said he's working on a proposal for a third book, too.

"I like to write about big ideas that help people live and work a little better ... something readers can use, that helps people change their lives," he said. But before he turned back to his writing, Pink had an engagement that drew a small, but very important audience: after he hung up the phone with BTW, he was going to do magic tricks at his son's fourth birthday party. High-touch, indeed. --Linda M. Castellitto

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