If we only had a (whole) brain: Retooling the American worker for the next economy
By Bill Settlemyer
Executive Publisher
A few months ago, I wrote about Tom Friedman’s new book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century.
Friedman sounded the alarm about the rising economic power of nations like China and India and the increasing ease with which foreign knowledge workers can compete across time zones with our own.
The problem is not just that workers elsewhere are willing to work for a fraction of the wages we expect here.
Of equal concern is the rapidly growing cadre of foreign workers who have the education, training and motivation to equal or outperform our workers. This applies from the factory floor to more sophisticated jobs, like engineering, software programming and radiology, to name a few.
A recent article in Fortune magazine jumps on Friedman’s bandwagon, noting ominously that U.S. workers’ wages are relatively stagnant at a time of healthy economic growth and rising productivity.
In the past, these two elements usually led to solid growth in jobs and real wages, but not this time.
Is the impact of competition from foreign workers to blame? Could be.
For those who’ve studied the situation, it is not hard to imagine a scenario in which wages of American workers slowly slide south to meet the much lower but rising wages of overseas workers, while the U.S. job market stagnates.
Fortune notes that our 15-year-olds now rank 28th behind leading nations such as Finland, South Korea and Canada in math skills.
Moreover, there is little evidence in the United States of the burning passion for achievement that is driving the success of students elsewhere around the globe.
It is not that you won’t find outstanding students in our country; it is that there are far too few of them relative to our total population.
A whole new mind
Daniel Pink has a different take on these disturbing trends in his recent book A Whole New Mind—Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age.
He sees the world economy moving to a new era where “high concept” and “high touch” right-brain skills, such as creativity and empathy, will take precedence over the logical and technical left brain skills required for fields such as engineering, math and programming.
Pink thinks this shift could open a new world of opportunity for American workers.
Pink lists the right-brained skills that will carry the day under these chapter headings: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning. So take heart, all you creative liberal arts types—there is hope yet for your kind.
A reviewer of Pink’s book on Amazon.com took him to task for glibly implying that the United States will somehow have a natural advantage if the focal point of economic success shifts away from left-brain to right-brain skills.
My take is that the reviewer is half-right, and so is Pink. Our culture has always been innovative in unexpected ways, driven by the energy of waves of immigrants during the past two centuries. We must hope this continues to give us an edge, and perhaps it will.
On the other hand, as the reviewer argues, Americans have no monopoly on creativity or empathy or design skills.
Are we better designers than the Italians?
Are we more empathetic or playful than Indians?
Do we search for meaning with more fervor than the French?
Is Detroit better at synthesizing and orchestrating industrial change than Toyota?
In fairness to Pink, a careful review of his book reveals that the title could as easily have been “A New WHOLE Mind.”
In essence, Pink is saying that economic progress has been driven largely by logical left-brain directed thinking, but in the future, those better able to integrate right-brain directed thinking into their lives and careers will enjoy greater success than those who focus only on logical and analytical skills.
Examples of success grounded in Pink’s six right-brain skills are not hard to find:
Not only function, but also DESIGN. Apple’s iPod is a great example. Its functionality is great, but design sets it apart. People love their iPods, and design is integral to its appeal.
Not only argument, but also STORY. Political analysts are now telling Democrats that the Republicans are eating their lunch because conservatives understand the importance of telling a better story.
You can call this old fashioned spin, of course, but the message is that telling a better story to support your political beliefs and policies can pay huge dividends.
Not only focus but also SYMPHONY. In other words, being able to see the big picture. Maybe that is what Boeing was doing when it developed a new airplane called the Dreamliner.
Boeing’s game-changing design includes the fundamentals of better performance and economy, but it also includes a dramatically fresh and new experience for airline passengers.
Elements like bigger windows, mood lighting and higher cabin pressure and humidity at cruising altitude are likely to wow the flying public.
Not only logic but also EMPATHY. Understanding what make the others tick. Think Starbucks: it is not the coffee you’re paying for, it is the ambience, the experience and the camaraderie. (OK, the coffee’s not bad either.)
Not only seriousness, but also PLAY. Toyota rolled out the Scion, a car designed for owners to play with, literally, by reconfiguring and customizing the product.
The Army realized a training video could morph into a hot video game to use for recruiting prospects for military service.
Not only accumulation, but also MEANING. This one is hard to grasp as an economic driver, and maybe the most important markers are yet to appear.
We are still a culture obsessed with accumulating things—big cars, big houses, big TVs, more, more and more.
Yet something is still missing in our very modern lives. Many find the answer in religion, a growing industry in its own right.
But we still seem to split our lives between the material and the spiritual.
In the search for meaning, perhaps we really do need a whole new mind.
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