Recommended reading: A Whole New Mind

Recommended reading: A Whole New Mind
by Karyn Romeis | Mon, 11/17/2008 - 04:54

This book by Dan Pink is having a strong impact in the edublogosphere. Let me say right up front that I have a significant problem with part of the premise for the book, which is addressed in the strapline/subtitle "Why right-brainers will rule the future".

One of my professors is the neuroscientist John Geake whose work has persuaded me that the whole left brain/right brain thing is a myth. According to him, we are all whole-brain thinkers (barring some form of aberration, of course). In fact, it is apparently impossible to function without cross-hemispheric 'co-operation' (I'm sure he used a better word, but I can't think of it right now).

Be that as it may, Pink has explored the changing way in which we approach learning, living and working. He has identified three forces which he explores in terms of their impact:

• abundance - Pink contends that there is an abundance of material goods in the western world, where few of us are struggling for our daily bread. Of course the book was written before the current recession, but even now, we are no doubt still better off than the majority of the world's population in terms of material wealth.
• Asia, which has now become a resource pool of cheap labour, with many labour intensive projects being outsourced there.
• automation, which has changed and continues to chage the way we work. Increasingly, operations are broken down into small steps, many of which are being automated.

Pink contends that we are now compelled to major on our more conceptual side (what he refers to the as the 'right brain' approach), and he has identified 6 core competencies:

• Design
• Story
• Symphony
• Empathy
• Play
• Meaning

Whether you agree with Pink or John Geake on the left brain/right brain idea, Pink paints a picture of a much more creative, exciting way to work, onme in which my favourite term - 'workafrolic' - becomes a far more realisable notion. He supplies a portfolio of resources for the development of each of the 6 competencies which are something of a romp in themselves.

Pink quotes Pat Kane (author of The Play Ethic) as saying “Play will be to the 21st century what work was to the last 300 years of industrial society—our dominant way of knowing, doing and creating value”.

What's not to like about that?

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