Pink: Creative thinking essential
Self-made millionaires -- the kind of people who founded IKEA and Kinko’s -- are four times more likely to be dyslexic than the general population, author Daniel H. Pink said March 30 at his Focus on Education lecture.
What does this tell school board members? It’s not that dyslexia isn’t a serious problem; it’s the way in which these individuals responded that says a lot about the kind of thinking that will be rewarded in the future: creative thinking, big-picture thinking -- the kind of thinking that applies to both sides of the brain, not just the analytical left side.
Pink, a former speechwriter for Al Gore and author of A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, describes himself as a “super left brainer” who says he loves charts and graphs.
Students today need more than basic, analytical skills (although they still need those). They must be creative thinkers who have empathy, a design sense, and a knack for working with others. (Pink cited six key abilities that he explains in greater detail in his book: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning.)
Three forces are driving this new marketplace: abundance, Asia, and automation, Pink said. Despite the current economic downturn, the United States is experiencing an unprecedented level of abundance. To compete in today’s economy, products must not only be functional, they must be aesthetic as well. Pink pointed to a toilet brush, sold at Target stores, that is designed by architect Michael Graves.
The challenge from Asia is a huge, well-educated work force that is already doing many routine white-collar jobs, and a few non-routine ones as well. To compete, American workers will need to offer something more, Pink said. He said the outsourcing of white-collar jobs may be overstated in the short run but understated in the long run.
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