David Pink awhole new mind

[Music]

[Music]

I think a great life is is is um using

your strength

understanding what it is you were put on

this Earth to do okay understanding what

it is that makes you unique and what

allows and and what is the truest

expression of who you are doing that

persistently in the service of something

larger than yourself I worked on a

number of political campaigns and most

of them lost and so my future as a

political operative and strategist was

looking somewhat dim and I had the Good

Fortune to being a very fast typist um

and and as a fast typist I was called on

to write a few things and it turned out

I was reasonably good at that and then

became basically a speech writer writing

for a few politicians a cabinet

secretary and then Chief speech writer

for vice president Gore during 95 96 and

97 one of the reasons that I left

politics and one of the reasons I left

writing for other people is because

there was that voice that wasn't being

heard um I was doing some amount of

writing on my own on the side but in it

very demanding job that was difficult

and I felt like if I stayed around

writing for other people eventually that

voice that internal voice would be

suffocated what worries me a little bit

about some of the younger folks they

folks in their 20s is that they've been

they've been so indoctrinated in the

school system that's about that's

focused on right answers and pleasing

authority figures that they have in some

ways not even allowed their intrinsic

motivation to Blossom um when I talk to

college classes um it's always a little

bit disturbing because I find that um

whole I have to see of faces looking at

me saying is this going to be on a test

we got a 9-year-old a 7-year-old and a

three-year-old right now they all seem

headed for right Brin careers my

9-year-old daughter wants to be a

novelist my 7-year-old daughter wants to

be an art teacher and my three-year-old

son wants to operate his own Digger

truck so I want my kids I think I want

everybody to find out what it is that

they do out of a sense of enjoyment and

challenge not for the external rewards

okay forget about that do what you do

because you like it because it's fun

because it's interesting because it's

challenging because it's meaningful um

people who are intrinsically motivated

they do just fine they really do just

fine okay it's the folks who the folks I

worry about the folks who are always

chasing these kind of external rewards

external validations I think over time

they start to wonder what their life is

all about and they have huge

regrets thank you thanks very much

thanks so much

thanks well thank you thank you for that

very warm welcome um one of the things

about my past which I often don't reveal

is that in a former life I worked as a

political speech writer um and because

of that people sometimes ask me Dan what

makes a good speech and I've thought

about that question quite a bit over the

years and I have discovered that good

speeches in general have three key

elements three key elements to a good

speech

brevity

levity and

repetition let me say that again

brevity levity and repetition so I

promise to be reasonably brief I promise

not to be too too severe and serious and

I promise you and I guarantee you I will

honor this promise I will repeat the

important stuff over and over and over

and over again until you want to scream

now here's what I want to talk about

sort of it divided into two halves the

first half I want to tell you about some

broad forces in the economy that are

putting a premium on a very different

approach to business a very different

approach to life a very different set of

ability that are necessary to succeed in

the 21st century then I want to talk

about the six particular abilities that

matter most and how smart individuals

and smart organizations are putting them

into practice and I want to get into

this by confessing I want to tell you

about the biggest mistake I ever made

and that's going to launch us into this

conversation the biggest mistake I ever

made occurred about 20 years ago when in

a moment of youthful indiscretion I went

to law school now

wow I did not do especially well in law

school to put it mildly to put it mildly

I in fact graduated in the part of my

law school class that made the top 90%

possible

um now if I I can digress here for a

moment it turned out that happily enough

for me that law school more than

anything else I've done in my life

dramatically profoundly I would argue

permanently permanently increase my

earning power

because in law school I met my wife

otherwise it was a total total loss

total loss I didn't enjoy it I graduated

massively in debt I didn't enjoy it I

didn't do well I never practiced law a

day in my life if I could press the

rewind button and live that part of my

life over again I would in a second

which of course raises a question which

I'm going to toss over to you which is

this why did I do that why did I do that

anybody have an answer societ Society

close parents exactly it turns out that

this horrific decision like so many

negative things in life is actually my

parents

fault but let me explain what I mean by

that when I was a kid and I grew up in

the

midwest Columbus Ohio grew up in the

early 1970s middle- class family middle

of America when I was a kid parents like

mine dished out the same basic plate of

advice to their children many of you

probably were on the receiving end of

this advice some of you might have been

on the dispensing end of this advice and

the the advice went like this get good

grades go to college pursue a profession

that would give you some amount of

Economic Security and maybe a smidgen of

prestige so what did that mean in

practice that meant that if you were as

I was as my wife was reasonably good at

subjects like English and history go to

law school let's say you're better at

math and science what do you

doic school go to medical school get an

engineering degree and even in that

economy okay is the early 1970s okay

before globalization before the even in

that very buoyant economy if blood

grossed you out your verbal skills were

a little shaky you could still go and

get a job as an

accountant but if you think about let's

think about those professions for a

moment one accountant just walked out of

the room if you think about those if you

think about those professions for a

moment okay think about those

professions accountants and lawyers and

Engineers but more important than that

think about the abilities this is the

key here the abilities at the heart of

those professions those were the

abilities that mattered most those were

the abilities that got you ahead in your

career those were the abilities that

organizations were demanding those were

the abilities that in some sense even

fueled the entire macroeconomy well my

argument is that those abilities still

matter but they matter less those

engineer abilities those lawyer

abilities those accountant abilities

they still matter but they matter less

and a different set of abilities matters

more and there's a way that I've chosen

to explain this now I'm a writer and one

of the ways that people like to torture

writers and there are many is to tell

them that a picture is worth a thousand

words but good writers and I would argue

good business people know that while a

picture is worth a thousand words

sometimes a metaphor a metaphor is worth

a thousand pictures a picture may be

worth a thousand words but a metaphor is

often worth a thousand pictures and I

think that there is a

metaphor that explains what's going on

in the economy in careers in business

today and the metaphor

is

this this is a brain a human brain a

model of a human

brain same size and weight of a brain

see it sort of fits right

here now tempted as I am to give you a

little mini lecture on neuroanatomy I'll

resist and instead points you to

probably the main most distinguishing

topographical feature of this brain of

your brain of my brain of everybody's

brain running down the center of this

brain you see right here is a Mason

Dixon line

cleaving this brain into two equal

halves the left hemisphere and the right

hemisphere now many of you have probably

heard about left brain this and right

brain that over the years and a lot of

what you've heard is garbage this is one

of those ideas where the popularization

of the idea has Gallop far ahead of the

science behind it but in the last 5

years especially the science has caught

up and we know thanks to functional

magnetic resonance imaging fmis brain

scans we know an enormous amount about

how our brains are organized we're

barely beginning to understand our

brains they're so complex but we do have

a sense at a very broad level of how our

brains are organized and there is it

turns out this very elegant very

efficient division of labor in our

brains our brains have different

departments that carry out different

functions the left hemisphere deals with

tasks that are logical linear sequential

analytical okay make

sense this side of the brain the right

hemisphere of the brain not better not

worse just a different department it

deals with tasks that are more artistic

more empathic more about synthesis

rather than analysis more about the big

picture more about context rather than

text there you have it 50 years of

Neuroscience and 60

seconds now here's where the metaphor

comes in it used to be that these

abilities mattered most The Logical

linear sequential analytical sat

spreadsheet zero in on the right answer

abilities these were the ones

metaphorically that used to matter the

most and today and I want to underscore

this right

now today these abilities are still

absolutely 100% necessary okay let me

say that again absolutely 100%

necessary but but but but but but no

longer sufficient and these abilities

okay and these these abilities abilities

characteristic of the right hemisphere

of the brain Artistry empathy

inventiveness big picture thinking these

abilities are not the first among equals

these abilities are the ones that matter

most that's the

punchline now you offer up this argument

and you often get a bipolar response

okay on one poll are artists and

designers who think this is all pretty

cool and Nifty they think think it makes

perfect intuitive sense okay on the

other poll you have Engineers or

accountants or Worse loyers who think

that this is and this is not the exact

language they use a bunch of Hoy okay

what's really important to understand

here is that what I'm saying here this

tilt from the left brain thinking to

right brain thinking is not some kind of

fantasy it's not some kind of Yearning

it's not some kind of wish wouldn't it

be lovely if we had an economy built

Less on these cold hard analytic

abilities and more on Artistry and

empathy and we could all link arms and

Frolic through the daisies no no no no

no the truth of the matter is that I am

myself a very very left brain guy I'm

very analytical I'm very numerate I'm

the most sequential person you've ever

met in your life I cannot multitask to

save my life in my hierarchy of loves

I've got my wife and our three children

number one and number two in my

hierarchy of loves are charts and

graphs I love charts and graphs if I

want to explain something to someone I'm

going to draw your chart okay but over

the last couple of years I have taken a

very hard very analytical very left

brain look at the evidence at the facts

at the data crunched the numbers looked

hard at what's really going on in

organizations in individual careers and

in the macroeconomy brought to bear the

fiercest kind of analytic reasoning that

I could muster and listed other analytic

Minds on the task to really look hard

and crunch the numbers and look at the

evidence and and take apart the data and

after doing that I don't even think it's

close that the scales are tilting and

that people like me have a lot of

catching up to do but I want to make

this argument for you over the next few

minutes because I think it gives you the

context of what your care how your

career is progressing how your

organization is moving so I'm going to

make an argument here in public despite

my law school performance okay it's a

cause and effect linear argument the

effect is that the scales are tilting

making the left brain abilities

necessary no longer sufficient the right

brain abilities the first among equals

and the causes are

three-fold they

are abundance Asia and automation

abundance you're laughing at this it

took me four months to get them all to

start with a okay abundance Asia

automation let's start with abundance

now what I'm going to say here is

somewhat Politically Incorrect but I

will say it anyway the United States of

America is doing very very well very

well deep into the middle class this

country has a standard of living that is

breathtaking By historic standards and

international standards now we have a

problem in this country with poverty we

got 12% of our country living in poverty

we got 10% worried they're going to fall

through the trap door into poverty

that's a moral disgrace on its own terms

but it's a double disgrace a triple

disgrace a quadruple disgrace when you

look at how well off the rest of the

country is if you look at the data this

country is doing spectacularly well let

me give you a few examples let take

automobiles okay my grandparents when

they were my age an automobile was

essentially a rich person's toy a luxury

item you know how many automobiles there

are

today a lot right a lot here let's do an

audience poll I want you to raise one

hand for every car you own if you own

one car raise one hand if you own two

cars raise two hands if you own three

cars um stand up okay how many cars do

you

own okay look at this audience this

audience reflects what's going on in the

United States okay today in the United

States there are more automobiles than

there are licensed drivers there's a

greater than 1: one ratio between cars

and people eligible to drive them that's

what I mean by abundance okay let's do

this is fun let's do another audience

poll how many of you have something in

Self

Storage what do you have in Self Storage

a lot of business literature a lot of

business literature okay so remaindered

copies of my books like that that kind

of thing um what do you have in self

storage extra stuff extra stuff that's

exactly right that's exactly right that

what's in Self Storage okay Self Storage

is an industry built on extra stuff now

that's interesting in its own right okay

but let's look at this analytically okay

like I do okay what has happened let's

look at some trend lines what's happened

to the size of the typical American

dwelling over the last 50

years bigger right what's happened to

the size of the typical American

household over the last 50 years smaller

class what does that net out to more

space per per person in fact I'm the

only person in America who's gone back

and actually looked at these numbers and

crunched the data I could only get clean

data sets to 1974 since 1974 in this

country there has been a 65% increase in

residential space per capita that's

pretty amazing let's go back to our self

storage industry so let's we got bigger

houses fewer people living in them but a

whole industry has

emerged to house our extra

stuff I don't know if any of you are

history buffed but I wonder do you think

there was a self storage industry during

the Great

Depression no it would have been

Preposterous today in America the Self

Storage industry is a seven

billion a year business it is larger

than the motion picture business there

are more self storage facilities in the

United States than there are McDonald's

restaurants Wendy's restaurants and

Burger King restaurants

combined that's what I mean by self

that's what I mean by abundance now

abundance remember we're making an

argument here abundance has two

consequences for this tilt from left to

right here's the first set of

consequences what's this toilet very

good what kind of toilet brush a

designer a designer toilet brush this is

a toilet brush designed by Michael

Graves one of the greatest product

designers and architects of our time in

fact he's so proud of this toilet brush

that he has etched his signature here on

the handle okay so this is a signed

designer toilet brush that's what H

don't laugh at this this's a serious

economic Point here that's what that's

what happens in a world of abundance

okay suppose you're in the toilet don't

laugh at this there's a serious economic

Point suppose you're in the toilet brush

business

okay you want to sell toilet brushes you

face a threshold challenge if you want

to sell more toilet brushes what is that

threshold challenge the challenge you

face is that in this country we have

pretty much cracked the engineering side

of the toilet brush challenge okay we

figured out how to make a toilet brush

that more or less scrubs the bowl so if

you want to sell more toilet brushes

what do you do well you either make a

dramatic leap in toilet brush

technology which no one has done or that

leaves you if you don't do that you have

two options compete on price we don't

like that that's a downward death spiral

or you compete not on these left brain

features functionality but on these

right brain features you come up with a

cool shade of blue you come up with a

Nifty handle you link it to other kinds

of housewares even though in a word of

abundance even the most most mundane

utilitarian products services and

experiences have become objects of

Desire because that's how you stand out

in a crowded Marketplace let's go to

another example what's

this but not just any fce water right

what kind of fce water

a three-legged fly swatter but that's

actually a very important point which

we'll get to in a moment that's a very

good Keen Eye this is a designer fly

swatter a Philipe Stark fly swatter okay

designed by one of the great French

designers

now if you were to take a design class

you would learn something on day one the

professor would come before you and say

class design is a combination of utility

and significance make sense utility and

significance utility it has to work

significance it has to have some other

kind of attribute okay this fly satter

has utility if there were a fly

here I could SWAT it kill it put it in

myself storage

locker but think about let's

anthropomorphize this fce water for a

moment think about this fce water's life

how much does it spend in

utility very little it spends more of

its life in significance and that's

where your point comes in that's why the

ingenious move here is to equip it with

a pedestal so it can hang

out and be

significant now again I'm a left brain

guy so this is significant stuff I don't

quite get I can sort of get it

intellectually here's what I do care

about math and money okay let's talk

about those two things how much do you

think the plastic in that fly water is

worth two

cents penny how much is this retail for

do you think five bucks five bucks

higher 9.99 $9.99 higher

14 bucks okay let's say I'm going to

save you from getting an MBA because

here's what you learn class selling

three cents of plastic for 14 bucks

those are what we call

margins here's the point increasingly in

a world of abundance you get your

margins out of significance rather than

utility okay this fly water cost 14

bucks not because it's the most

utilitarian fly satter but because it's

the most significant you get your

margins out of sign ific rather than

utility that's one way abundance tilt of

scales the other way is more interesting

I think because I can render it as a

chart now I get to put up a chart here's

a chart on this axis is more and less

and this axis is time here's what's

happened to American per capita GDP over

the last 50 years three-fold increase in

prosperity now you would think that a

country that gets richer and richer and

richer gets happier and happier and

happier right no you wouldn't think that

because that would not be an interesting

chart there's a lot of data out of the

University of Michigan that measures

levels of satisfaction asking countries

people in countries around the world are

you satisfied with your life are you

satisfied with the way things are going

are you happy measures of subjective

well-being here's what the trend line

Looks like during this period when per

capita GDP has

tripled it's flat we've gotten three

times richer but not one jot happier

that's very very interesting and this

Gap here what I call the abundance Gap

explains a huge amount of what's going

on in this country it explains why the

bestselling non-fiction book of the last

eight years is the purpose-driven life

about how to lead a life of purpose and

meaning and significance um it explains

why you have 10 million Americans

meditating while you have 15 million

Americans doing yoga why these once

fringy meaning centered Transcendent

Center things are moving into mainstream

Society we have been liberated by

Prosperity but not but not for filled by

it and so you have this widespread

democratization of the search for

meaning this widespread democratization

of self-realization self-actualization

all these touchy Fey things that we used

to think were kind of luxuries for the

very well-off have become a middle class

phenomenon this is a big big deal it

might be the biggest thing going on in

this country today this explains why

Oprah is a cultural phenomenon because

she's about living your best life this

explains why my two grandp my two

grandfathers would be against asked that

they have grandchildren who quit jobs

because they're not meaningful enough

okay oh it's not really a true

expression of myself Grandpa you know

they would be appalled by that but if

you ever hire anybody that's what people

are looking for they're looking for

meaning this is really unprecedented and

here's the thing it's not going away why

isn't it going away two

words

Boomers I guess that's one word Boomers

Baby Boomers two words two words first

baby boomers turn start turning 60 in

2006 okay what happens when a baby

boomer turns 60 here's what happens two

things one they F first they ask

themselves how the heck did I get to be

60 second for one brief Shining Moment

they begin to reckon with their own

mortality they say 60 that's not old

anymore but it might mean that I'm

mortal it might mean that my life is not

infinite I might have say 25 years left

okay seems like a long time then they

look back 2 5 years to when they're 35

and they say holy

smokes that sure happen fast are these

next 25 years going to happen as fast

and if they are when am I going to lead

a purpose-driven life when am I going to

do something that matters when am I

going to lead a life of meaning when am

I going to leave a legacy when am I

going to live my best life now it's all

very touchy feely right but this is

going on at a scale and this is not

hyperbole that is unprecedented in human

civilization unprecedented in human

civilization 7,900 Baby Boomers turn 60

every day every day that means that

again I love math okay that means that

you have a 100 baby boomers turning 60

every 18 minutes every 18 minutes you

got another hundred folks who are

thinking about this another hundred

folks who are thinking about how to live

their best life every 18 minutes 100

people will turn 60 and this will go on

for the next 18 years that's a big deal

but it's not about this left brain get

me the right answer stuff it's about

meaning and purpose and significance

okay we're making an argument here

abundance Asia automation tilting the

scales let's go to

Asia here are six people I met in Mumbai

India not too long ago all of them do

work for North American companies some

um Canadian companies several American

companies one German company all of them

do work that you get paid maybe 60

$65,000 a year for in the United States

none of these people who have degrees in

computer science and engineering makes

more than $155,000 a

year you've all heard about offshoring

and Outsourcing let me tell you what I

think you need to know about offshoring

and Outsourcing and its effect on your

career and your business offshoring

massively massively massively overhyped

in the short term massively overhyped in

the short term the number of jobs lost

to offshoring so far in the grand scheme

of things is been relatively small fewer

than the typical turnover in a single

month in American labor markets okay

shortterm impact hasn't been great

overhyped in the short term but but but

but but offshoring I hate to break it to

you is actually underhyped in the long

term it's underhyped in the long term

and the reason I say that is not because

I like hyperb not because I like to

stoke fear in my fellow citizens it's

because I can do math I want to Stack up

three numbers for you to show you what I

mean first number begins with this India

and I'm using India as the the

embodiment of Asia only because I've had

the Good Fortune of spending a lot of

time there and I think it's one of the

most exciting places on Earth right now

India has an advantage in the global

economy India is very big okay India has

a billion people okay now for those of

you who are liberal arts majors in

college a billion is a very large number

okay what do we know about large numbers

we know about the statistical principle

called The Law of large numberb which

states if you take a small percentage of

a very very large number you get another

large number so let's say that 15% 15%

of India's population makes it to this

status okay5 15% meaning 85% basically

get left behind from this way of living

okay 15% of a billion is 150

million 150 million you know how large

the entire us Workforce is 100 50

million so if 85% of India's population

gets left

behind you've got as many upper middle

class talented well-educated ambitious

Indians as you have

workers in a 12 trillion doll economy

that's number one 150 that's the first

number India is going to be the largest

englishspeaking country on the planet

when

2010 United States of America in four

years is not going to be the largest

English speaking country in the in the

world that's a remarkable thing I didn't

think that would happen in my

lifetime okay now let's talk about again

let's talk about money and math my two

favorite subjects what is the cost of

communication between United States

North America and India what's the trend

line look like up or down the cost of

communication between the United States

and India down you want to see how far

it down it's so far down the trend line

is circular actually it's zero okay so

let's stack this up okay we're just

doing math here let's stack this up 150

million upper middle class people speak

perfect English connected to North

America for

free okay that might have an

effect and here's the effect that it's

going to have and if you remember

nothing else here I would like you to

remember one word particularly if you

have children this fact these facts have

made one word the most dangerous word in

the economy they have made one word a

vocational death sentence they've made

one word a word that will obliterate

your career obliterate your business I'm

going to share you this word share this

word with you if you can take it the

scarious word I want you to know this

word I want your kids to know this word

in fact I want your kids to write it on

their notebooks look at it each morning

and run screaming in the other direction

that's how terrifying this word

is

routine routine

any kind of routine work is going to

disappear from this country period what

do I mean by routine work routine work

is any work you can reduce to a script

to a spec sheet to a formula to a set of

rules to a series of steps that produces

a right answer okay that's what I mean

by routine work and you know what that's

the kind of work that used to get you

into the middle class certain kinds of

financial analysis certain kinds of

accounting certain kinds of legal work

okay that kind of work anything that is

routine where you can write down the

steps and delivers a right answer that

kind of work is gone it is going to

disappear from this country period some

of it's gone the rest of it's going to

follow over the next several years we've

seen this movie before this is what

happened to mass production work the

United States still does plenty of mass

production work plenty of manufacturing

we've got the largest manufacturing

economy in the world we just got so good

at it we do it with fewer people and the

work gets increasingly sophisticated a

factory floor today has robots computers

people with Associates degrees CU all

the routine white blue collar work has

gone the routine White Collar work is

following its way out now class let's go

back to our metaphor which side of the

brain is routine step by step okay left

so you ship this to India okay bye what

are you left with half a bra half a

brain but the important half

now okay that is Asia now let's go to

automation okay it's the same story okay

we've seen this movie before too last

century machines repl human back human

muscle this

Century software is replacing the human

brain but let's go to it again what part

of the brain can software

replace exactly not the artistic

empathic side The Logical linear

rulebase get me the right answer side so

now you see certain kinds of White

Collar professions at risk of Automation

in a way that we haven't seen before

give you an example my parents told me

to go to law school even if I didn't

want to be a lawyer because they said

Danny still call me Danny into my 40s

Danny we won't talk about that

Danny you got to go to law school

because it's something to fall back on

okay classic middle classic phrase I'm

not sure anymore I want to give you a

delicious example of how even law can be

automated let's say you want to get an

uncont I'm in Washington DC and I want

to stipulate here that I'm very happily

married let's say you live in Washington

DC and want to get an uncontested

divorce okay you go to a lawyer to get

an uncontested divorce in Washington DC

and it's going to cost you about

$2,000 but an uncontested divorce is not

very complicated is it it's uncontested

right no one they just want to get away

from each other so what does a lawyer

and an uncontested divorce actually do

think about what a lawyer in an

uncontested divorce actually does first

he or she tries to make it contested

okay but assuming assuming assuming here

she can't do that they fill out forms

right we could we could do a little bit

of research and in 20 minutes in this

audience right here find exactly what it

is a lawyer in the District of Columbia

did to get somebody an uncontested

divorce we could list the steps

that makes it the

RW what happens to the RW gets offshored

or it gets automated so now in this

great country you have a choice you can

go to that lawyer for two grand or you

can go to completecase.com for

affordable divorce

Solutions couple people in the back

writing down that URL right

now what happens at completecase.com

here's what happens at completecase.com

you go to the website you pull down the

menu you pick your state you check the

residency requirements you go to the

form you fill it out yourself they then

transmit the form

electronically to a lawyer because State

Bar regulations require a lawyer to

actually you know bless the document

okay so they ship it electronically to a

lawyer who blesses the document I bless

thee okay they pay that lawyer 50 bucks

the one guy who did worse than I did in

law school that's actually his job um

lawyer blesses the document they ship it

off to the courthouse and you've got

yourself a divorce not for $2,000 not

for $1,500 not for $1,000 not for $500

but for

$249 bucks now think about that think

about being the lawyer doing the routine

uncontested divorce you've got a

competitor coming in they're not

charging 1,800 or, 1750 they're coming

in and saying I'm going to do the exact

same thing faster for 85% less that's a

big deal you see it now in its incipient

stages with medical diagnosis because

medical diagnosis is about following

decision trees that bracket to yes no

questions you see it also with our

friends the accountants okay we had

large number of us tax returns done in

India because an Indian chartered

accountant makes $500 a month well you

had 21 million Americans who did their

taxes on Turbo Tax on a piece of

software this is the accountant job

killer right here 21 million Americans

did their taxes on a$ 39.95 piece of

software rather than go to an accountant

because certain kinds of accounting is

routine logical linear step by step so

we add these all up abundance Asia

Automation and it's tilting the scales

the left brain abilities are necessary

but no longer sufficient the right brain

abilities have become the first among

equals now in that kind of setting you

need to look very hard at what you're

doing and ask yourself these three

questions these three questions can

someone overseas do it

cheaper can a computer do it faster and

is what you're selling in demand in an

age of abundance that is is what you're

selling Happ significance that's the

whole ball game right here folks that's

the whole ball game right here now what

doesn't pass this test certain kinds of

accounting certain kinds of financial

analysis certain kinds of law certain

kinds of things our parents told us to

do what does pass this

test

designers artists nurses teachers

inventors

entrepreneurs people who are

multifaceted those are the abilities

that are really going to matter the most

what matters we tend to to obsess over

high- Tech abilities but you know and

I'm old enough to remember when people

on the resume would put that they had

computer skills okay it seems kind of

silly now I've got a nine-year-old

daughter with computer skills okay don't

tell me about computer skills what

matters more than these high tech

abilities are abilities that are high

concept and high touch hard to Outsource

hard to automate and it delivers

significance economies used to be about

routines and right answers not anymore

okay routines and right answers you can

Outsource and automate they're basically

become Commodities what matters more is

novelty and Nuance this is what most of

you in this audience do for a living is

novelty and Nuance not routines and

right answers now I'm going to leave

aside the fact that our schools are just

maniacally pathologically obsessed with

routines and right answers it's another

story altogether but this is what the

economy is about now novelty and Nuance

more right brain kind of capacities now

I want to take a few moments to talk

about the six abilities that matter most

the six abilities that matter most the

six abilities that matter most begin

with design go back to our fly swatter

go back to our toilet brush design

design has become a fundamental business

literacy in business today you must be

literate in design period you don't have

to be a great designer you must be

literate in design it's that important I

want to show you two examples of how

much it's taken hold in business let's

take General Motors General Motors

having some tough times General Motors

lost a lot of money last year and they

had a shareholders meeting and when

shareholders lose a few billion dollars

they're generally not that happy um a

fellow named Bob Lutz who is a

70-year-old white man with white hair

former fight pilot takes a helicopter to

work not a touchy feely dude he got up

before this group of disgruntled

shareholders and here's what he said

about how to turn around General

Motors what we've got at GM now Mr Lutz

said is a general comprehension that you

can't run this business by the left

intellectual analytical side of the

brain you have to have a lot of right

side creative input we are in the Arts

and entertainment business we are in the

Arts and entertainment business we are

in the Arts and entertainment business

and we're putting a huge emphasis on

worldclass design

hello General Motors is in the art and

entertainment business how the heck did

that

happen we got more cars than people okay

you can find a way to get from point A

to point B so Mr Lutz is talking about

cars as a form of mobile sculpture he's

hiring sculptors as much as Engineers

okay when General Motors is in the art

business we're all in the art business

let me give you another example here's

the CEO the CEO okay that's a pretty

important job in a Fortune 15 company

the CEO of Proctor and Gamble who says

remember what Proctor and Gamble does

it's a fabulous company but think about

what Proctor and Gamble makes okay makes

powder you put in your washing machine

it's one of the things that it makes

here's what here's what the CEO says not

some Renegade in the design Department

he says I don't think anybody thinks

we're not seriously in the design

business we want to design the

purchasing experience we want to design

the communication experience and the

user experience I mean it's all

design says the CEO

of Proctor and Gamba because he

recognizes that design is the antidote

to

commodification this is why I like to

tell people that the MFA the masters of

Fine Art is the new MBA these MBA skills

you can Outsource and automate MFA

skills harder to Outsource harder to

automate in big demand in an age where

design is an important distinguishing

factor in products and services and

businesses not just arguing but also

story here's why story matters story

matters because of the internet let me

give you a scenario here suppose it's

1991 and I decided to have a contest the

contest is one question the question is

this I want to know the gross domestic

product of Ecuador last year it's 1991

and I have two contestants in this

contest one of them is the head

librarian of Cambridge University in the

UK the other one is a 30-year-old woman

in Tanzania it's 1991 we have a one-

question contest who can I want to know

the gross domestic product of Ecuador

last year Ready set go who do you think

is going to win the librarian it's

1991 cut fade out let's go to

2006 that 30-year-old woman now has a

14-year-old daughter okay we're gonna

have the same contest head librarian at

Cambridge same guy they don't change

jobs same

guy versus the 14-year-old daughter only

this time the 14-year-old daughter has a

high-speed internet connection

so we have a race who can find out the

gross domestic product of Ecuador the

fastest race between the head librarian

of Cambridge University and the

14-year-old girl in Tanzania who are you

going to bet

on hey it's a fair fight now now that's

a remarkable thing that a 14-year-old

girl in Tanzania can find facts as fast

as the head librarian of one of the

greatest universities on the planet

that's a big deal guys here's what it

means facts have become ubiquitous facts

have become free therefore okay

economics 101 something that is free

doesn't have enormous economic value

right what matters more in this world of

ubiquitous easily discovered facts is

putting facts in context and delivering

them with emotional impact that's what a

story does so you now see story moving

into a range of business functions into

Knowledge Management into leadership and

also into differentiation in the

marketplace I want to give you one

really interesting example of this the

use of story as a differentiator in a

crowded Marketplace is where design was

10 or 12 years ago if Mr Lafley had said

10 or 12 years ago that his company

Proctor and Gamble it's all design the

boy would have had a meeting okay gotten

some medical tests for him shipped him

out okay it would have seen this freaky

notion okay now everyone's like yeah of

course story I think is where design was

10 or 12 years ago it is about to break

through the surface as a hugely

important differentiator in a very

crowded Marketplace I'm going to give

you an example from my own consumer life

about the importance of story as a

product

differentiator I've got three children

with a combined age of

19 when you have three children with a

combined age of 19 strange things can

happen in your household like one

morning I come downstairs to the kitchen

and the cordless phone that usually

hangs on the wall is no longer hanging

on the wall but is on the floor in

pieces no one knows how it

happened I admire The Sibling solidarity

a little but what it means is that I

have to go to the store so I go to a

major Electronics retailer walk into

this giant big box Electronics retailer

to find a cordless phone the doors swing

open I get hit by that wall of stuff I

stagger my way to the cordless phone

section I look for a cordless phone

they're 83 kinds of cordless phone

abundance right so I'm shaking my head I

don't want to spend my Saturday looking

for a phone I say

oh design has become a fundamental

business literacy I'm going to get me a

phone that combines utility and

significance I'm going to get me a cool

looking cordless phone 60 of them are

fairly cool

looking so I finally get a phone that

has a modest number of features right

price race out of the store and until I

started thinking about this I didn't

know what brand phone I bought cut fade

out two weeks later I'm in a food

retailer picking up some dinner for my

family and because I have three children

with a combined age of 19 I'm also

picking up several bottles of

wine I go to the wine section I go to

the wine section I'm a cheap guy I want

a $10 bottle of wine huge numbers of

bottles of wine I finally go at the

bottom where they have the cheap wine

because people some people not me

apparently are shag grinded about

getting on their knees looking for a

bargain not me I find three bottles of

wine in the $10 price range collect the

bottles to look at them I look at the

first bottle it says on the back it has

a all of those fancy wine adjectives you

know this wine has a sarcastic nose okay

and I don't even know what that means so

I go to the next bottle and it's this

very elaborate description of the

process by which the wine was made the

temperature that which which it was kept

the kind of barrels it was in it sounds

good but I'm not a chemical engineer so

I don't know understand what that means

either then I go to the third bottle of

wine this bottle of

wine Two Brothers Big tattoo

red I look at the

label I don't get adjectives I don't get

fermentation processes I get a story

here's what it says this wine comes from

Two Brothers Alex a wine importer and

Eric a tattoo

artist together they created big tattoo

red in honor of their mother Liliana who

passed away from cancer in 2000 Alex

created the blend and Eric designed the

label using liliana's favorite symbol

the Flur de Lee for every bottle sold

the brothers donate 50 cents to the

hospice of Northern Virginia and other

breast cancer related charities in the

name of Lily Anna s barthamus the debut

2001 vintage allowed donations of

$83,000 2002 was over $240,000

um with your with your help uh we expect

to surpass a quarter of a million

dollars for the 2003 vintage Alex and

Eric thank you for your support and for

honoring their

mother okay which wine are you going to

buy okay now here's but but here's the

thing if the wine weren't any good you

wouldn't buy it again but you know what

it's perfectly fine and I bought it

again and again and again and obviously

I've fallen into the bar's Brothers

Insidious marketing Trap by telling you

about it as well the point is that the

backstories of products services and

experiences are now a very important

differentiator you see this in a range

of Industries it is where design was 10

or 12 years ago about to shoot through

the surface let's go to the third one

Symphony not just focus but also

Symphony we tend in business to obsess

over focus focus focus focus focus focus

focus focus focus when in fact sometimes

the opposite ability is the most

important in fact often the opposite

ability is the most important I call

that ability Symphony which is the

ability to see the big picture to detect

patterns to combine disperate things

into something the world didn't know it

was missing there's a very interesting

example of how powerful this can

be self-made millionaires it turns out

are four times as likely to be

dyslexic as the rest of the population

Now isn't that interesting isn't that

interesting one possibility is that

because they have difficulty with some

of the left brain functioning

particularly the sequential functioning

what happens if you have difficulty

doing that you overcompensate okay so

some dis not all develop almost a hyperm

mused ability in this kind of stuff okay

if this stuff is difficult for you you

overcompensate in the way that someone

who is blind develops a more acute sense

of hearing so they often not always

develop a hyperm muscled capability on

this side not because they're trying to

get a job in the 21st century labor

market because they're trying to

freaking get through the day they're

trying to survive right so the list of

game-changing entrepreneurs

entrepreneurs who are dyslexic is

unbelievable

Charles Schwab is dyslexic the founder

of Ikea okay who is the richest man in

the world depending on currency

valuations is um dyslexic one female

Real Estate Mogul in New York Barbara

corkran she's dyslexic founder of Jet

Blue David neilan he's

dyslexic virgin is a pretty successful

company in a range of Industries Richard

Branson dyslexic on and on and on it

goes because this ability in many ways

is a killer app and it's hard to

Outsource and it's hard to automate now

how do you get better at this how do you

get better at this well one way is to

learn how to draw artists understand

this ability artists know how know about

symphonic thinking artists can see the

big picture they can make new

combinations they can detect the pattern

so I decided to test this proposition

and learn how to draw

myself having taken no fine arts classes

in high school no fine arts classes in

college no fine arts classes an adult

very well-rounded guy that I am but I

decided to learn how to draw so I took a

5-day Course in New York City called

drawing on the right side of the brain

drawing on the right side of the brain

modeled after the famous book called

drawing on the right side of the brain

and taught by the author's

son on day one we were asked to draw our

selfportrait and here's

mine okay that's not very good is it

class why isn't it very good well take

check out these lips okay I might as

well have written l i PS okay cuz

nobody's lips look like that that's

basically a symbol for lips okay how

about this chin a single semicircle okay

nobody's I don't have a little line here

that signifies my chin and then we're

not going to talk about my unresolved

nostril issues either okay

so the reason this isn't very good is

not because I couldn't draw that was a

little bit of it it was because I

couldn't see so over the next 5 days I

started learning about things I never

knew about I feel like an ignoramus now

and many of you will think I am if you

have any kind of artistic background I

learned about proportions about

relationships about light and Shadow

about something called negative space

which is the space between spaces okay

the space between spaces so in this D

this very this little spot right here is

negative space okay suddenly the scales

are falling off my eyes wow what an

interesting world we live in now that I

can actually see

it on day five we had to draw our s

portrait here's

mine now that's not great

okay and I got a little Picassa thing

going on with the eyes

here but let's pretend we're at the

optometrist okay better one or two

better one or

two if I can do that you can imagine

what kind of unliberated symphonic

capacity there is in yourself and in

others there's a very prominent negative

space in this corporate logo I'm

obsessed with negative spaces right now

see this right here this is a negative

space in here there's a very prominent

negative space here that some of you

might not have seen does everybody see

the arrow

start looking for negative space and

you'll be amazed at what you see not

just logic but also empathy empathy

makes the world better standing in

someone else's shoes feeling with their

hearts seeing with their eyes it makes

the world a better place that's nice

here's what I care about empathy you

can't Outsource it and you can't

automate it that's what makes it

important so it's important in sales

it's important in medicine it's

important in design is important in a

range of professions there's a study out

of uh Pennsylvania Philadelphia has a

medical school called the School

Jefferson School of Medicine they have

established What's called the jspe the

Jefferson scale of physician empathy

there's something very interesting here

very interesting here measures on this

empathy index correlate well with

patient

outcomes the more empathic your doctor

is the more likely you are to get better

faster now what doesn't correlate with

patient outcomes MCAT scores board

scores that kind of thing it's not a

negative correlation it's just there's

no correlation that empathy saves

hospitals money gets patients better

fast now there's some other curious

things on on this generalists score

better than Specialists on this that's

Symphony nurses score better than

Physicians probably because they spend

more time with patients and here's a

shocker women score better than

men so you see empathy moving into sales

as well good sales people test off the

charts empathy has become

extraordinarily important because it's

one of the few remaining abilities you

can't Outsource and can't automate not

just seriousness but also play by play I

mean sense of humor uh laughter uh

spirit of playfulness and even game okay

video games obviously are hugely

important culturally I don't think

people over 35

including understand that I would like

to see a reverse mentoring program in

this country where everybody under 35

explains video games to everybody over

35 because you see a range of of um

marketing and Leadership efforts that

are centered on simulation and games um

so that it's not a frivolity this is a

photograph I took in India of a laughter

Club where people get together every

morning and laugh for for no reason I

took this picture about 6:30 in the

morning where 45 people had gotten

together at a muddy soccer field in

Suburban Mumbai to laugh these laughter

clubs started by a doctor who has a a

practice that he calls laughter Yoga

because there's now basically an

exorable evidence that laughter is good

for you physiologically psychologically

there are European companies that have

um laughter clubs um in house there are

a thousand of these clubs in India there

are a thousand more now in the United

States because laughter is cheap and

valuable finally not just accumulation

but also meaning okay I am convinced I

am convinced that meaning is moving to

the center of every successful business

certainly every successful career let me

give you one quick example of this I

want to show you a quotation from a

fellow named John Mackey who's the CEO

of Whole Foods this is a remarkable

statement he says making high profits is

the means to the end of fulfilling Whole

Food's Core Business Mission we want to

improve the health and well-being of

everyone on the Planet through higher

quality foods and better nutrition and

we can't fulfill this mission unless we

are highly profitable just as people

cannot live without eating so a business

cannot live without profits but most

people don't live to eat and neither

must a business live just to make

profits now that's a remarkable

statement from the CEO of a publicly

held

company downplaying the importance of

profits I mean to me it strikes my ear

as vaguely communistic okay Whole Foods

has a $9 million market cap Whole Foods

is the fastest growing grocery chain in

America Whole Foods has entered a really

terrible business retail grocery where

the margins are as thin as you know the

shaved ham okay and they have managed to

make a big difference by emphasizing

meaning and a big audacious Mission this

is not some kind of anod antiseptic

corporate Mission about satisfying

stakeholders or being proactive they're

saying their business mission is to

improve the health and well-being of

everyone on the planet it is big it is

bold it is audacious it is public

spirited those are how the top

performing companies are operating how

they're talking here's what I think is

going on we know about for-profit

companies we know about not for-profit

organizations I think the best companies

the best performing companies today are

not only for profit companies they're

companies that make money they Delight

in making money they make profits they

satisfy their shareholders they do all

those things but the avenue to getting

there is doing something big and bold

and audacious in public Spirit these are

companies that in some ways have linked

purpose and profit they want to do good

and they can do and by doing good they

can do right by their employees and

their Executives and their shareholders

let's wrap

up we'll review what class are the three

forces that are tilting the scales away

from these left brain abilities toward

these right brain abilities they are

abundance Asia

automation what's the scariest word

routine and finally the six abilities

that matter most are these design design

Symphony empathy

play and meaning one last word then I'm

done some people might be daunted by

these abilities they might listen to the

argument about the economy and say Dan

your logic is airtight I'm thoroughly

convinced but if these are the abilities

that matter most I'm toast I don't do

this kind of stuff I think you're wrong

I think we all do this kind of stuff I

think these abilities are fundamental

human abilities they're part of what it

means to be human it's just that in the

information age the SAT age the

spreadsheet age these abilities were

never called out of hiding they weren't

in demand and they're like muscles that

have atrophied we simply need to work

them back into shape the final thing

that I want to say about this it should

make us optimistic is this these are

things people actually want to do they

are things people actually want to do

they are things you don't need to co

people into doing they are things people

do out of a sense of intrinsic

motivation think about it this weekend

you will have an accountant who's in her

backyard painting portrait landscape

right that's design you'll have a lawyer

who's in his home

office um writing a screenplay writing a

novel right that's story you'll have an

engineer in a routine job who's

tinkering in the basement trying to

invent something Symphony you'll have

another engineer in a routine job who's

doing volunteer work at a church or a

synagogue or a mosque it's empathy right

that makes perfect sense but here's what

won't go on this weekend I guarantee it

this weekend or any weekend you will not

find someone who has a day job as a

sculptor who on weekends

for

fun is doing other people's

taxes the sorts of things we do out of a

sense of intrinsic motivation out of the

joy and challenge of the task itself are

the things that are now conferring the

greatest advantage in the economy I

think that's a pretty nifty world to

live in and I want to thank all of you

for helping bring that world into being

thanks so

much thank you

thank you I think a great life is is is

um using your strengths understanding

what it is you were put on this Earth to

do okay understanding what it is that

makes you unique and what allows and and

what is the truest expression of who you

are doing that persistently in the

service of something larger than

yourself