A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H. Pink
My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
I read this book straight through in a single sitting, my companion during a long day of trans-Pacific travel, yet it will be one that I keep at my side for a few more weeks to come, perhaps longer, for it begs study and self-application.
A Whole New Mind is very easy to read: In the initial chapters Pink explains and describes “a seismic —though as yet undetected— shift now underway in much of the advanced world. We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computerlike capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathetic, big-picture capabilities of what's rising in its place, the Conceptual Age.”
As he describes this, it seems to be great news, especially to those who revere the arts and fully realize how we miss understanding their larger benefits; we are evolving well! However the fact remains that we will need some coping strategies, and Pink sets out to give them to us in the form of what he calls learning to use six senses that may not be dormant for us — all released by more right brain direction.
Pink has updated this revised paperback version of his book with a bit of new material, and there are six mini portfolios designed to help the reader who does decide to study further and self-coach themselves into more right-brain-directed thinking: There is a portfolio for each of the "six high-touch senses" he advocates we learn to better use: Design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. I would highly recommend this in my managerial coaching, and want to explore it more, bringing it into alignment with my Managing with Aloha mana‘o.
For now, and for fun, I did attempt a bit of a stretch, applying the book to our February theme on Joyful Jubilant Learning:
Yesterday, I’d said I believe that “we within the Joyful Jubilant Learning community do ‘wholeheartedly’ very, very well.” It’s one reason that this month’s theme, where we are learning about love feels like such a natural to me. I often think of love
as an affair of the heart and soul, and of oh-so-human feelings openly
revealed. Hopefully wise in its intuition, love is wholehearted.
On the other hand, I first think of learning
as more physical (tactical) and intellectual —cerebral. How to
reconcile those two thoughts, and bring them together in the most
pleasing way?
A possible answer came to me unexpectedly this past weekend, when comfy and secure in the knowledge that Karen Wallace would be kicking the month off for us here, I put my normal Day One
flurry of writing aside, and collected some reading for a full day of
cross-Pacific travel. I devoured one of the books I had with me in a
single sitting: Daniel H. Pink’s A Whole New Mind. He was writing about our brains, but in thinking about our JJL theme, I was mostly reading about our hearts.
A stretch? Maybe, but it could be fun” it could be right-brain creative!
Can we learn more about Love in a Whole Minded way?
…continued at JJL: Whole Minded Love
View all my reviews (at Goodreads).
You might also want to check out this page for my business books:
Mana‘o on a Virtual Bookshelf.
Postscript: If you are a blogger, the bones for this post came from a great “post this review to your blog” option at GoodReads, a social network for readers that will give you even more incentive to read more this year with me too!
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