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Think Pink! Former Fed Dan Pink's book "A Whole New Mind" is Changing Minds About the Future of Work
Philosophy majors of the world: Rejoice! Your parents were wrong! Not only will you be able to survive in the future. You’re gonna THRIVE!
That’s the message from former Fed Dan Pink, author of
A Whole New Mind--now available in paperback and updated with new information and insight.
Pink, a former speech writer for Vice President Al Gore, made a name for himself a few years ago with his first book Free Agent Nation which identified and captured the growing trend and impact of office-less, boss-less workers and became, according to Publishers Weekly, the “cornerstone of employee-management relations.”
A Whole New Mind takes the next step and identifies the new skills needed for success in what Pink calls the upcoming “Conceptual Age.” His theories are likely tough pills for the average button-downed, logical thinker and doer to swallow, but you can’t argue with the fact that it’s pretty hard to outsource creativity.
A popular and entertaining blogger, writer (Wired, Fast Company) and speaker (if you ever get the chance to hear him speak, don’t miss it) Pink waxed poetic on the future of work... and what it can mean for young Feds.
In A Whole New Mind, you advocate that skills and talents like creativity, empathy and intuition will be the keys to success in the (not too distant) future. How does this impact young Feds?
Today -- no matter where you work or what you do -- you have to be able to do something that's hard to outsource and hard to automate. That's true of working in the federal government, too, even though outsourcing is less of an issue. Given budget pressures in nearly every agency, agency heads will be looking to automate and streamline every routine function. If you want a job -- especially an interesting job -- you have to be adept at these abilities.
You state that there are six essential abilities needed in the Conceptual Age: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning. Relate these to the public sector. Are government workers going to have to change? Is the way government does business going to have to change? Or is it both?
I think it's both. If the federal government wants to attract good people, it needs to create a setting that allows people to do these things -- and not mire them in brain-dead routines. At the same time, in the age of the Internet, federal workers can merely be dispensers of information and processors of paper. If they want to be effective and to enjoy their work, they're going to have to depend on high concept, high touch abilities.
Do you think younger people are better equipped to succeed in the Conceptual Age, because they are not yet bogged down by traditional thinking and management styles?
Yes, very much so. They have less to unlearn. And they've been steeped in a culture that is much more visual, interactive, connected, and playful. That goes a long way.
Your first book, Free Agent Nation redefined work in America today, and became the playbook for a work/cultural revolution. Any predictions about what the next big thing is--or could be--in government?
Hmmm. I'm not sure these are the next big things, but here are two trends that I see percolating. First, I think it's inevitable that we're going to have a heckuva lot more transnational entities -- whether on the environment, trade, communications policy, weapons proliferation, whatever. The very best federal workers will be "multis" -- multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-disciplinary. And their playing field will increasingly be the whole world, rather than one narrow patch of a single agency. Second, I think that peer production -- which gave us Wikipedia, Flickr, Linux, and YouTube -- has to affect the government somehow. If loosely-connected, intrinsically-motivated, web-enabled people can build an encyclopedia bigger than Britannica or create a computer operating system to rival Microsoft's, surely there's a way for government to enlist all this collective wisdom.
Aside from nearly throwing up on the Vice President of the United State (which you mentioned in your first book) what are some of your best memories of your life as a Fed?
I've got a bunch good memories. But let me offer a couple of overarching ones. First, I had some really amazing, really talented colleagues. It's great working with great people. And lots of these folks are still my friends. Second, I felt like every once in awhile, I played a small role in pushing the boulder up the mountain. It sounds corny, I know, but you can make a difference.
Booklist called A Whole New Mind "a profound read." The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram said your writing is "masterful." Po Bronson (this generation’s career guru) thinks your work is "mind altering" and Tom Peters, the grand-daddy of organizational development called your book "a miracle." Has any of this gone to your head, and do you have any advice on how to graciously accept a complement?
Ha! No, it hasn't gone to my head. One of the great lessons of federal government, which applies with equal force to writing books, is that we're in a Jacksonian era. Not Andrew Jackson, though. Janet Jackson. Everyone is always asking, "What have you done for me lately?" As for how to graciously accept a compliment, it's an easy: Say thank you. And get back to work.
