Pink

(A Whole New Mind) &

Littky

(The Big Picture)

Prepared by Tom Peters/09.05.2004

Dan Pink

The era of left brain dominanceand the Information Age it engendered Is giving way to a new world in which right brain qualities inventiveness, empathy, meaningwill govern. Dan Pink, A
Whole New Mind

The past few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mindcomputer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mindcreators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These peopleartists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkerswill now reap societys richest rewards and share its greatest joys. Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

L-Directed Thinking: sequential, literal, functional, textual, analytic

to

R-Directed Thinking: simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, contextual, synthetic

Source: Dan Pink/A Whole New Mind

Left-brain style thinking used to be the driver, and right-brain style thinking the passenger. Now R-Directed Thinking is suddenly grabbing the wheel, stepping on the gas, and determining where were going and how were going to get there. LDirected aptitudesthe kind measured by the SAT and employed by CPAsare still necessary. But theyre no longer sufficient. Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

The Big Three Drivers of Change

Abundance Asia Automation

Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

But abundance has also produced an ironic result: The very triumph of LDirected Thinking has lessened its significance. The prosperity it has unleashed has placed a premium on things that appeal to less rational, more R-Directed sensibilitiesbeauty, spirituality, emotion. Dan Pink,
A Whole New Mind

India

350,000 engineering grads per year

>50% F500 outsource software work to India GE: 48% of software developed in India
(Sign in GE India office: Trespassers will be recruited)
Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

Softwares Enormous Inroads

Docs Lawyers Accountants

Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

Agriculture Age (farmers) Industrial Age (factory workers) Information Age (knowledge workers) Conceptual Age (creators and
empathizers)

Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

The MFA is the new MBA.

Mind

Dan Pink, A Whole New

What does this mean for you and me? How can we prepare for the conceptual age? On one level, the answer is straightforward. In a world tossed by Abundance, Asia and Automation, in a which L-Directed Thinking remains necessary but no longer sufficient, we must become proficient in R-Directed Thinking and master aptitudes that are high concept and high touch. But on another level, that answer is inadequate. What exactly are we supposed to do? Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

Design. Story. Symphony. Empathy. Play.

Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

Not just function, but also DESIGN. Not just argument, but also STORY. Not just focus, but also SYMPHONY. Not just logic, but also EMPATHY. Not just seriousness, but also PLAY.

Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind

Dennis Littky

Thousands of years of history suggest that the schoolhouse as we know it is an absurd way to rear our young; its contrary to everything we know about what it is to be a human being. For example, we know that doing and talking are what most successful people are very good atthats where they truly show their stuff. We know that reading and writing are important, but also that these are things that only a small and specialized group of people is primarily good at doing. And yet we persist in a form of schooling that measures our childrens achievement largely in the latter terms, not the former and sometimes through written tests alone. Deborah Meier, Foreword to Dennis Littkys The Big Picture

The Real Goals of Education/Dennis Littky/The Big Picture

*Be lifelong learners *Be passionate *Be ready to take risks *Be able to problem solve and think critically *Be able to look at things differently *Be able to work independently and with others *Be creative *Care and want to give back to their community *Persevere *Have integrity and self-respect *Have moral courage *Be able to use the world around them well *Speak well, write well, read well, and work well with numbers *AND TRULY ENJOY THEIR LIFE AND WORK

What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child. George Bernard Shaw

Teaching is listening. Learning is talking.

Message painted on a Met

advisors truck by his students (from Dennis Littky, The Big Picture)

We have plenty of people who can teach what they know, but very few who can teach their own capacity to learn.
Joseph Hart, educator

From the media, we hear these great tearjerker stories of kids who succeeded despite the odds. But all of our kids are instead facing the odds of an education system that is all wrong. The odds are against them because the system works against them instead of with them. I see it every day: kids who people have dismissed as dumb in math or uninterested in science or nonreaders doing incredible things in these exact same areas because they were (finally) allowed to start with something they were already interested in. A 9th-grade kid who hates science sees a movie about freezing people, then decides to read a college biology text on cryogenics, and then gives a presentation on it that blows your socks off. Dennis
Littky, The Big Picture