In A Whole New Mind, Dan Pink presented six aptitudes that are highly subjective, socially- and culturally-dependent. In his view:
- Design is an asset above function
- Story is an asset above argument
- Symphony is an asset above focus
- Empathy is an asset above logic
- Play is an asset above seriousness, and
- Meaning is an asset above accumulation
As it is the case for many books that stand the test of time, Dan Pink's concepts have begun to make more sense now that some time has passed and we've had the chance to test them. Look around and you will see that the demand for people who create something, or are capable of empathizing with others has gone up.
Connected customers increasingly want tools to help them understand by comparing, analyzing, comprehending, exploring, evaluating, and synthesizing. Pull vs. push is creating this demand.
At work, we increasingly learn by doing.
Like in the examples cited in this deck by Stephen Anderson, my education was based on the Montessori methodology.
Being self-motivated and inquisitive, not following rules and orders, questioning what’s going on, which drove my elementary school teacher crazy, and doing things differently have been a hallmark of my learning style. Anderson highlighted other familiar Italian references.
I was lucky, because much of our education was based on doing. Learning and thinking is so much better with the whole body. Emphasis and effort are so often put toward exercising the body, and comparatively less in exercising the mind.
Yet in business the emphasis is in mining the brain while we hardly utilize physical curiosity -- doing, working with our hands, moving around -- to benefit from interaction generated by motion.
With technology fading into the background, connected customers also increasingly want tools to help them experience new forms of interaction. Customers are beginning to engage with visualizations, online learning, smart objects, and even 3D printing. Why?
Because sense making is a constant human need -- and there is just so much information and data people can process at any one time. Experiencing in more than one dimension using more senses helps with sorting and ranking the results of comparisons and evaluations.
How do you help customers sort through what is meaningful?
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Valeria is an experienced listener. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. To book her for a speaking engagement click here.