Summary Section 3

A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink
Part 3
Pages 100-158

STORY
Context enriched by emotion pg 103

Daniel Pink uses this chapter to illustrate that stories are easier to remember than facts because stories are how we remember. In society today facts can be found in seconds using technology. The author suggests when facts become so accessible, the value decreases. Being able to put these facts in context and to deliver them with emotional impact is what begins to emerge as important. According to the author, in the conceptual age minimizing the importance of story places you in professional and personal peril. The author continues by telling a variation of “the hero’s journey”. He identifies the hero’s journey as the underlying story of this book. The three main parts of the journey: Departure, Initiation, & Return. The master of L-Directed aptitudes facing a crisis, resisting, but answering a call and eventually crossing the threshold into the conceptual age with a whole new mind – the capability to inhabit both worlds.
This chapter examines how story has become an essential aptitude in business, medicine and personal life.

**IN BUSINESS Daniel Pink names many well known companies incorporating the aptitude of Story into their businesses. It is becoming a key way to distinguish good s and services.
**IN MEDICINE With all the astounding advances in medicine, anecdote is seen as a low form of science. Narrative medicine proponents are trying to change this. They believe physicians need the ability to listen to the narratives of the patient, grasp and honor their meanings, and be moved to act on the patient’s behalf. They acknowledge stories alone won’t heal the sick, but they have an undeniable healing power.
**IN PERSONAL LIFE “WE ARE OUR STORIES.”pg 115. This section mentions the scrapbooking movement and popularity of genealogy as examples of the importance of story in our lives. He reminds us that we must listen to each other’s stories and that we are each the “authors of our own lives.”

In the portfolio section for Story the author offers a collection of tools, exercises, and further readings including: Write a Mini-Saga, Enlist in StoryCorps, Whip Out the Tape Recorder, Visit a Storytelling Festival, Get One Story, Riff on Opening Lines, Play Photo Finish, Experiment with Digital Storytelling, Ask Yourself: “Who Are These People?”, Read from A list of suggestions Books

SYMPHONY
The ability to put together the pieces, to synthesize rather than analyze, see relationships between items that appear unrelated, invent something new by combining elements no one else has thought to put together, the ability of composers and conductors to create a beautiful masterpiece.

Through the chapter the author describes his attempt to learn to draw. Learning how to draw helps understand and develop the skill of Symphony. His instructor informed the class it was about tricking the left hemisphere so the right can work. An element in learning to draw was learning to see the relationships between space and negative space, light and shadow, angles and proportion. This understanding led to seeing the big picture. These notions were the two topics of chapter 6.

**SEEING RELATIONSHIPS This section defines symphony as seeing relationships. The author identified 3 types of people who excel in understanding the importance of relationships:
• Boundary crosser who are comfortable operating in multiply roles and worlds
• Inventors who have the intuitiveness to see relationships between seemingly unrelated objects. They may take something that exists and transform it in a new way.
• Metaphor makers who can think metaphorically and see relationships computers can’t. It aides in understand others and understanding ourselves.

**SEEING THE BIG PICTURE This section describes the need to distinguish what really matters. To create a final product in which the outcome exceeds the sum of its parts. This section included research on Dyslexia. It stated “self made millionaires are four times more likely than the rest of the population to be dyslexic.” Pg 141. They struggle with L-directed Thinking. The author suggests they compensate for this by strengthening other abilities such as problem-solving, and seeing the big picture.

Seeing the big picture transformed the author’s original self-portrait to a remarkable rending of himself.

The symphony portfolio includes: Listen to the Great Symphonies, Hit the Newsstand, Draw, Keep a Metaphor Log, Follow the Links, Look for Solutions in Search of Problems, Create an Inspiration Board, Read Suggested Books, Do some Real Brainstorming, Celebrate your Amateurness, Look for the Negative Spaces.

One question – What did you see in the negative space of the Hershey’s kiss? Was it the image of a kiss between the K & I or something else?