Dan Pink and the rise of the right brain

The bestselling author of A Whole New Mind highlights what can happen when you lead less by logic and more by emotion and creativity.

WHEN THE EDITORS OF EXECUTIVE TRAVEL TOLD me the topic for this issue of the magazine would be “trends,” I was thrilled to have an excuse to interview trendsetter and New York Times bestselling author Dan Pink, who recently brought us the book A Whole New Mind. According to Pink, trends like the rise of right-brain capabilities are fast coming to take over your workplace.

KS: What are the top four right-brain trends we should watch for at work?

DP: One of them would be the rise of the right-brain qualities as the most important in business: inventiveness, visual thinking, empathy and meaning. Another of even greater importance is this: baby boomers seeking meaning and purpose through their work. Number three is more programmatic: the continuing shift from defined benefits to more [risky ones], where responsibility is on individual, rather than organizational, shoulders. The fourth is that we are adopting increasingly idiosyncratic ways of working. People are fashioning unique ways of working that don’t necessarily look the same as a traditional job. I call this the “my-size-fits-me workforce.”

KS: What business leader exemplifies someone who regularly uses right-brain abilities?

DP: Steve Jobs has used design to distinguish his company in a crowded marketplace. He is inventive beyond focus groups and polls. The iPod, and even the iMacs that started coming out six or seven years ago, are incredibly well-designed and different than what is expected by the consumer. [Jobs] is relentlessly innovative. What this guy has done over the course of his career is stunning, from Mac to Pixar to the iPod.

KS:Why should we care about high-end design?

DP:Consumers today have an enormous amount of choice. How do you differentiate your product? It doesn’t matter if you just address functionality. Your product needs to be more than functional. What stands out is more aesthetic, more spiritual, more right-brain. To be in business today, you have to be literate in design—and the impact of that design to differentiate.

KS:How can our readers address the baby boomers’ need for meaning at work?

DP:Establishing companies that make money...but by achieving something purposeful, meaningful, transcendent. Whole Foods has a mission of health, and GE’s “eco-imagination” initiative is promising to invest enormous sums in saving our environment. Google promises that if you go to work for them, you can help organize the world’s information. Even Sun Microsystems is going this direction, saying they want to get everyone in the world access to the Internet. This goes beyond just workday or workplace flexibility to being part of a cause larger or greater than oneself.

KS: What are the qualities that will become more and more important in organizational leadership?

DP:As simplistic as it sounds, one of the lessons is that everyone needs to treat all of their employees as individuals. That important trend of the “my-size-fits-me workforce” is about helping each individual fashion the work arrangement that’s right for them. Leadership skills are becoming the right-brain skills of empathy and listening, rather than the command-and-control approach.

KS:What company does this well?

DP: Google does this very well. One of the things they have done is allow employees to work on whatever project they want one day per week. [Their workers] have autonomy and freedom to do what they are interested in. JetBlue has incredible retention with their customer service people, because they hire stay-at-home moms who...can do their job with just a phone and a computer.

What does this trend mean? That the old models of leadership success are becoming a thing of the past, visual communication is becoming more important every day, and a rapidly changing world requires different ways of working, more flexible and adaptive thinking, and a commitment by employers to define their organizations by meaning as well as by profit. It means treating each individual as important and unique, and finding new and creative ways to address each worker’s needs and motivations. It means honing our “soft” leadership skills: communication, empathy, listening, self-knowledge and self-management. Finally, it means willingness to stop and think not just about the bottom line, but about what innovations we can bring to our businesses.