Section One Summary - A Whole New Mind

A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink

Chapters 1, 2 and 3 - A summary

The author begins the book for the reader by giving a personal account of what it was like for him to undergo a series of tests using current technologies to study his own brain. He gives these experiences from the perspective of both patient and researcher.

He provides a history behind the change in thinking about the role that each hemisphere of the brain plays as research was conducted over many years. As far back as Hippocrates, it was thought that the right side of the brain was totally useless. That it was like a piece of the body from the past that we had evolved beyond the need for.

He then gives information as to present research, and current thinking about the role each half of the brain plays:

• The left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, and the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body.

• The left hemisphere is sequential, and the right hemisphere is simultaneous.
• The left hemisphere is good at recognizing serial events such as talking, understanding the speech of other people, reading and writing. The right hemisphere interprets things simultaneously.
• The right hemisphere is the picture, the left hemisphere is the thousand words.

• The left hemisphere specializes in text, and the right hemisphere specializes in context.
• The left hemisphere understands verbal communication, the right understands non-verbal communication. 
• The left understands what is said, the right understands how it’s said.

• The left hemisphere analyzes the details, and the right hemisphere synthesizes the big picture.
• The left participates in the analysis of information, the right is specialized for synthesis – putting isolated elements together to perceive things as a whole.
• The left hemisphere knows how to handle logic, and the right knows about the world.

 The author goes on to describe what is known as L-Directed thinking and R-Directed thinking. L-Directed thinking is a form of thinking characteristic of the left hemisphere. This type if thinking is sequential, literal, functional, textual, and analytic. R-Directed thinking is a form of thinking directed by the right hemisphere – simultaneous, metaphorical, aesthetic, contextual and synthetic.

It is the author’s view that L-Directed thinking was prevalent in the Information Age, but it is the R-Directed thinker in this Conceptual Age that is, and will continue, to surpass the L-Directed thinker for the dominant highly-prized jobs of current and future.

Jobs, such as programmers, used to be highly prized positions – paying handsomely for the talents of the individual possessing those skills. Now those types of positions have been overtaken by the computers and software themselves that these individuals have created. These L-Directed jobs have also been out-sourced all over the world, employing individuals from other countries to do the same work for far less money.

It is the “Idea Guy/Gal” that holds the purse strings of the current world. The R-Directed thinker who can take seemingly unrelated thoughts, patterns and ideas and put them together to make whole new products, services, plans and approaches. Ingenuity. Entrepreneurship. Creativity. Artistry. These individuals are the ones who are, and will be, in demand by companies and employers.

Leadership roles have also changed. Leaders who inspire through laughter, empathy, kindness, and example. Those that take an active, on-going interest in their employees, thus creating a more “family-feel” to the workplace are those who are more in demand. Thank heavens! Perhaps we are getting beyond the “Divide and Conquer” approach to management. We continue to see that approach epically fail time, and time again.