Business Psychology Big Ideas

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future (Summary)

by Daniel H. Pink

Your well-paid accounting job can be done faster and cheaper by software or someone in India. Your MFA in creative writing? Suddenly, it's your most valuable professional asset. Why? Because the logical, linear, spreadsheet-and-SAT-style thinking that once guaranteed success is now being automated and outsourced, while 'softer,' right-brain skills like creativity, empathy, and meaning-making are becoming the new keys to professional survival and personal fulfillment.

Your Job is Being Eaten by Abundance, Asia, and Automation

Pink identifies three massive forces that are dethroning left-brain dominance. We now live in a world of material abundance (making beauty and emotion more valuable), where routine white-collar work is being outsourced (to Asia and elsewhere), and where software is replacing analytical jobs (Automation).

General Motors once employed legions of accountants and engineers. Today, much of that logical, sequential work can be automated by software or outsourced to a firm in Bangalore for a fraction of the cost. However, the design of the carā€”its story, its aesthetic appeal, and the feeling it evokesā€”cannot be easily outsourced or automated and is now a key competitive advantage.

Master the Six Senses of the Conceptual Age

To thrive in this new era, we must cultivate six essential, high-concept, high-touch aptitudes: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, and Meaning. These are the skills that computers can't replicate and foreign knowledge workers can't do cheaper.

The Mayo Clinic, a world-renowned medical center, now trains its doctors by sending them to art museums. The goal is to improve their powers of observation and help them see the 'whole picture' of a patient's conditionā€”a skill of Symphony (seeing patterns and relationships) and Empathy that a diagnostic checklist often misses.

Success is Now High-Concept and High-Touch

'High-concept' involves the ability to create artistic beauty, detect patterns, and craft compelling narratives. 'High-touch' involves the ability to empathize, understand the subtleties of human interaction, and find purpose.

The runaway success of the Nest thermostat wasn't just its superior technology. It was its beautiful, intuitive design (High-Concept) and its ability to learn and anticipate a family's needs, creating a feeling of comfort and care (High-Touch). It solved a technical problem while also being a pleasure to interact with.

Facts Persuade, But Stories Stick

In an age saturated with data, facts alone are not enough. The ability to place facts into the context of a story and imbue them with emotion is a fundamentally more powerful and persuasive form of communication.

A non-profit can present endless statistics about the global water crisis, which often fail to move donors. But telling the specific, personal story of one young girl who now attends school because a new well was built in her village creates an empathetic connection that spreadsheets never can. That story is far more effective at fundraising.

Go deeper into these insights in the full book:
Buy on Amazon
Listen to the full audio book with an Audible Free Trial.
As an Amazon Associate, qualifying purchases help support this site.