My name is Raven. I design and market visual advocacy tools for an NPO start-up in Chicago, IL.
Yellow is my favorite color.
Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind describes why we need to listen to our right brain more often.
This is perfect for a logical left brainer like me. As a child, I was told that if you focus on math and science plenty of job opportunities will be available for you as an adult.
So, I became an optical engineer. I design light bulbs. Yes, I light up your life.
Problem? There are thousands of people who can do this for a lot less money in other countries. This is not new. Engineering and IT jobs have been shipped overseas for the last fifteen years.
Pink’s book, however, is not all doom and gloom.
A Whole New Mind explains what tools are needed to keep the Left Brainer relevant in today’s job market by sharpening several senses: design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning.
Design
Other than design, there is little to differentiate mature products from one another. Everybody wants products with great design.
Unfortunately, this sense goes undeveloped in most of us. Pink simply suggests visiting places like the Museum of Modern Art or checking out a website like How to Design.
For those needing more inspiration, the book suggests keeping a design notebook. The notebook should keep track of anything you think has good design.
When needing a muse for eventual design work, you can use the notebook as a reference. It doesn’t have to be a traditional paper notebook. You can use a digital camera and take pictures of anything inspiring and review the pictures for reference.
Story
Everyone can remember a silly knock-knock joke, but how many of us remember the date the Magna-Carta was signed?
We learned both as children, but only remember the joke because it’s a story and not a number. Minds remember stories. Stories help provoke emotion which is driven by the right side of the brain. Telling stories doesn’t mean telling lies.
It means providing compelling narratives. A story that delivers an emotional punch. Pink offers several suggestions for beefing up your storytelling panache. They include visiting storytelling festivals and writing mini-sagas.
Symphony
Lacking symphony means not being able to see the big picture. I suffer from this often. I get caught up in minute detail.
I spend hours on something that has no value. I know I’m not alone. I believe this is the biggest problem with engineers. We try to make things perfect. In reality, we don’t need to be perfect. We need to understand the big picture.
Pink suggests taking a drawing class, keeping a metaphor log and using inspiration boards.
Empathy
Do not mistake this for sympathy. Empathy is the ability to understand what another is going through. Mastering this allows one to better understand their customers.
Empathy in product development is similar to user centered design. The only difference is that user centered design lacks the high emotional content empathy provides.
Two great ways to hone empathy are volunteering and acting classes.
Play
Easy: relax more. Whatever you enjoy, do it more often. Don’t take yourself too seriously. I think we all know how to play
Meaning
Understanding one’s purpose, in most cases, involves religion, but in Pink’s context it does not need to be. Essentially, meaning derives from understanding what drives a person.
It takes many forms and is often considered spirituality. Again, that does not necessarily mean religion. Understand it as your internal drive.
Figuring out one’s meaning is a journey to make yourself happy. The marketplace is rough and you may still lose your job, but I believe you will be in a better place – mentally – than a typical Left Brainer.
Marvin Ruffin is a graduate student at Northwestern University.
He is enrolled in the fairly new Masters in Product Design & Development program.
He lives in Bucktown with his fiancee, has 2 cats and likes the color orange.
