1. the Agrarian Society: which focused on individualized work centered on subsidence and the ability/output of one worker
2. the Industrial Age: which focused on the assembly line improving speed, efficiency and productivity and the machine replacing the individual worker
3. the Information Age: which focused on knowledge becoming the supreme commodity, the product being information and content, and no longer centered on physical or temporal limitation
4. the Conceptual Age: in which consumers have too many choices in an age of abundance, products can be made cheaper and more efficiently by outsourcing and automation and creativity and empathy become the only competitive edge (Pink, 49)
The last stage, the Conceptual Age, is what Pink terms the new marketplace. This Age replaces the Postmodernist Era or Information Age. It is the dawning of the humanist era that activist Grace Lee Boggs hopes for humanity. And it is the new markets predicted by Robert B. Reich. Pink references both Betty Edwards’ Drawing on the Artist Within and Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience and Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. From Edwards, Pink emphasis connections and relationships within the big picture and from Csikszentmihalyi, Pink quotes, “creativity generally involves crossing the boundaries of domains” (Pink, 135). These sources support Pink’s new era and new mind theories. From his research he concludes: in the Conceptual Age the left-brain must be complimented by the right. Pink’s work builds towards the development of six specific “senses” or skills and qualities necessary for success in the new marketplace. He calls for these new skill sets, based on the shift from the Information Age (the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century) into the Conceptual Age.
The Information Age focused on global communication and the availability of knowledge, but the Conceptual Age will focus on the development and exchange of big ideas. Pink argues that 21st century employers are looking for creative thinkers and creative ideas. He identifies three main reasons why: 1) automation – machines and computers can do it faster than the worker, 2) the global marketplace – outsourcing and lower costs make the American worker obsolete and 3) material abundance – with so many gadgets and gizmos, how can any new idea stand out? (Pink, 46 – 47). From these three facts, Pink surmises that there will be little need for the “old” jobs, of the 20th century, within a decade. He determines key concepts to finding success in the new market based on the fact that the specialist will no longer be viable. Here are Pink’s four key concepts which will shape the future economy:
1. products and services will need to be “high concept” meaning creative, innovative and inventive
2. professionals will need to be “high touch” or “in touch” meaning empathetic, interpersonal, seekers of joy and meaning, and charismatic
3. EQ replaces IQ, because a person’s IQ only has 4% to 10% impact on job performance, emotions, sensitivity and empathy will replace the high demand for logic and reasoning
4. the MFA replaces the MBA because aesthetics and beauty are just as important (if not more important) than function – for example, the iPod and iMac’s success is both from functionality and aesthetic design (Pink, 51 – 61)
As, we have determined, in the Conceptual Age the left-brain must be paired with the right and these new skills will pull from both sides of the brain. Pink concludes that: because left-brain thinking focuses on logic, logistics, reason, and analysis whereas, right-brain thinking is more creative, more holistic and more intuitive, professionals will need both hemispheres; new aptitudes must be developed which will be high-concept and high-touch; over-arching “what-if” scenarios which give meaning and purpose must be succinctly explained through purposefully designed premises; and human creatures require a human touch – personalization is desperately needed in the new marketplace (Pink, 61).
The 20th century marketplace was autogamous, and was characterized by methods which are no longer effective: bureaucratic organization, authoritarian leadership, employee compliance and conformity, the compartmentalization of the workforce through the division of labor, top-down edicts, and mechanization and assembly line mentalities. The 21st century marketplace is allogamous and is characterized by methods which replace the antiquated, ineffective 20th century practices. These new methods include: team organization, positive reinforcement, developing employee autonomy and accountability, managing through diversity, creating integration, coordination, and cooperation, and using holistic communication.
The Conceptual Age relies on a new system: focusing on participation and cooperation, not authoritarian leaders; fostering visualization and conceptualization, not edicts and dictates; and relying on positive, open-minded and free-thinking environments. From these conclusions and his four key characteristics of the new marketplace, Pink identifies six personal traits and skills which the new professional will need in order to compete in the global market. These include:
• not just function but also DESIGN – products and services cannot be merely functional, but must also add to experience and lifestyle – the new marketplace demands beautiful, whimsical and/or emotionally engaging objects and experiences
• not just argument but also STORY – information and data, alone, cannot offer a sufficient argument – everything requires a narrative, from political campaigns to product placement – the essence of persuasion, communication, and self-understanding comes through narrative
• not just focus but SYMPHONY – the Information Age was dominated by focus and specialization – the Conceptual Age requires the ability to piece things together – this emphasizes synthesis over analysis, requires seeing the big picture, being able to cross boundaries and being able to combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole
• not just logic but EMPATHY – logic alone is no longer enough in a world of ubiquitous information and advanced analytical tools – understanding and sympathizing: being able to put oneself in someone else’s shoes – seeing situations from multiple perspectives – forming and maintaining relationships through care - being emotionally concerned and regarding, considering and providing for others
• not just seriousness but also PLAY – there are ample health and professional benefits of laughter, lightheartedness, games and humor – there is a time for seriousness but this must be balanced for overall well-being
• not just accumulation but also MEANING – deriving purpose and pleasure other than material plenty – develop more significant desires: purpose, transcendence and aesthetics (Pink, 65 – 67)
We can use Pink’s six senses in the educational arena as well. If we look at developing these six senses as the primary goal of education, we accomplish the two (seemingly opposing) objectives outlined earlier: 1) idealism and 2) pragmatism. What I like about Pink’s language is that he emphasizes not necessarily a replacement of old skills or old traits, but an incorporation of new skills and new traits. He is clearly pushing the new skills, identifying them as being the primary traits of success, but he allows for the secondary (ie. empathy as well as logic). This seems very akin to cross-pollination and Csikszentmihalyi’s balance of dualities. But this also brings to mind the notion of complementarity. The Danish physicist, Niels Bohr, is credited with coining the term complementarity when trying to describe the dual nature of quantum – as both a wave and as a particle. Because of the complexity of quantum mechanics, it was necessary to understand these elementary units of nature in a simultaneous, contrasting duality (Peat, 8).
We can think of complementarity in terms of color. The color of a red apple is actually the reflection and absorption of white light. White light is made up of the entire spectrum, and some frequencies of light are absorbed by the apple and some frequencies are repelled. Those frequencies which are repelled are seen by our eyes, whereas the other frequencies are absorbed. So although the apple appears red, it is actually all of the other colors except red. Now we can honestly say the apple is red. But it is also green and cyan, as well as the other colors. Green is red’s natural opposite in pigment color theory and cyan is red’s natural opposite hue in light. This means that the apple’s color is both its visible color and its opposite color. The reason we view it as red, is because it has more “redness” but underlying its redness there are levels of greenness and cyanness. Although a physicist, “Bohr believed that complementarity was far more general than just a description of the nature of electrons. Complementarity, he felt, was basic to human consciousness and to the way the mind worked” (Peat, 8). Up until the New Physics of the early 20th century, a thing was a thing because it was not another thing (ie. Aristotelian thought: A is A, because it is not B). But as New Physics has became more accessible to the contemporary culture, we can see that sometimes A is A, but it is also not A (Peat, 8). This is the new normal of the 21st century.
This is certainly a very, uneasy principle of uncertainty, especially when extrapolated. If everything, including the human mind, can be composed of such dualities, what does that mean for our knowledge systems? F. David Peat, holistic physicist and author of From Certainty to Uncertainty, does a wonderful job of exploring how complementarity is crucial to the way we think and express big ideas. In many ways, Peat argues that you have to hold two opposing ideas in your mind. Although two things might be paradoxical or contradictions, they can in fact simultaneously exist (just like the color red is also a little green and a little cyan, even if red is not green or cyan). Peat does not think that the ideas have to be balanced, in a push-pull relationship. Rather, the two opposing truths are part of a bigger, deeper truth (Peat, 63). Examples of this ripple through our culture: something can be horrific but also beautiful; something can be sweet and sour; something can be dark and light etc. Where this has deep implications for education lies in the separation of the disciplines – something can be scientific and artistic; something can be objective and subjective; something can be divided and whole.
If something as rigid and autogamous as objective science can be shown to be flexible enough to be integrated allogamously, then why not other disciplines and subject matters? Bohr was and Peat is a holistic physicist – they both refuted reductionism and looked at holistic systems. This means that a segregated view of the world is in error, and knowledge separated and isolated is ineffective. Peat’s book is filled with references to art, culture, indigenous peoples, the history of science, philosophy and psychology. On one page you will find a description of a very complex, physical process and on the next page a section on Cezanne’s art or the Blackfoot Native American tribe’s description of the universe (Peat, 62, 69). This sort of big picture thinking is crucial to the 21st century. Pink argues that these sorts of narratives and meanings are what the 21st century person needs in order to find contentment and place in the world. I argue this is the sort of educational model we need if we are going to introduce institutional change and meet the challenges of the 21st century marketplace and culture. This is how we, as a people, are going to face the needs of the Conceptual Age.
references
1. Rimer, Sara. "Study: Many College Students Not Learning to Think Critically." The Hechinger Report January 18 (2011). Print. Teachers College, Columbia University
2. Pink, Daniel H. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future. New York: Riverhead, 2006. Print.
3. Peat, F. David. From Certainty to Uncertainty: the Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry, 2002. Print.
4. “Grow up? Not so fast,” By Lev Grossman. Time, January 16, 2005.
5. Robbins, Alexandra, and Abby Wilner. Quarterlife Crisis: the Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. New York: J.P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2001. Print.
6. Palmer, Parker J., Arthur Zajonc, and Megan Scribner. The Heart of Higher Education: a Call to Renewal. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print.
7. Shoemaker, Jean Eklund, and Larry Lewin. "Curriculum and Assessment: Two Sides of the Same Coin." The Changing Curriculum Number 8 50.May 1993 (1993): 55-57. Print.
8. Fiero, Gloria K. Landmarks in Humanities. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. Print.
9. Tufte, Edward. "PowerPoint Is Evil; Power Corrupts. PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely." Wired Sept. 2003. Print. Issue 11.09
10. Reynolds, Garr. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. Berkeley, CA: New Riders Pub., 2008. Print.
11. Reynolds, Garr. "Storytelling Lessons from Bill Cosby." Rev. of Keynote Speeches and Comedic Career. Web log post. Presentation Zen. Garr Reynolds, 28 June 2011. Web. 30 June 2011.
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