Six Right-brain Skills Every Intrapreneur Should Cultivate

In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink, a best-selling author who focuses on the changing nature of work, argues that we have moved from the Information Age to what he labels the Conceptual Age. In this new age, he posits, certain skills associated with the right side of the brain are of increasing importance. As it happens, these skills are also highly relevant to the world in which innovation leaders and intrapreneurs work.    

But before we turn to the specific right-brain skills Pink discusses, let’s look at what he means by the Conceptual Age. In the Information Age, left-brain attributes–logical, sequential, analytic, textual, and functional reasoning–dominated. The most valued worker (and, ergo, the best-paid) was the knowledge worker. These skills are obviously still valuable, but, says Pink, they are no longer the sole drivers of business success they once where due to three factors:

- The abundance of affordable goods in developed countries, where consumers now take for granted manufacturers’ ability to churn out reasonably priced, adequately functioning products. Instead, they increasingly seek producers who create something aesthetically pleasing that will stand out among the glut of products. In other words, knowing where to find the cheapest raw materials, how to crank up factory production, or how to manage the supply chain are all still important but by themselves will not win the competitive battle. 

- The emergence of Asia’s massive outsourcing capabilities, which means much of the knowledge work formerly so valued in the developed world can now be done much cheaper overseas. 

- The automation of information, which is impacting white-collar workers in the same way factory automation hit blue-collar workers a generation ago.

The Information Age is being replaced by an era of high concept, which Pink defines as “the ability to create artistic and emotional beauty, to detect patterns and opportunities, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combined seemingly unrelated ideas into a novel invention.” It will also be an era of high touch, which Pink says “involves the ability to empathize, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one’s self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond the quotidian, in pursuit of purpose and meaning.”
In such a world, right-brained attributes, such as holistic, intuitive and nonlinear reasoning, become significantly more important.

Six Skills for the Conceptual Age

Note how the following six right-brain aptitudes that Pink has identified as being critical to professional and personal success in the Conceptual Age fit right in with any environment devoted to innovation:
- Design: Being an expert on function is no longer enough. People now want companies to offer us something that is beautifully designed, whimsical or emotionally engaging.
- Story: Flooded by information every day, we need story tellers who can help us make sense of it. Being able to form a compelling narrative is critical.
- Symphony: We also need people who can synthesize ideas from different realms and create something entirely new. This requires nonlinear thinking.
 - Empathy: Logic is still important but much of the analytical work can now be done by computers. But computers don’t have the ability to empathize and thereby build relationships that will help drive projects and partnerships forward takes on equal importance as logic. People and organizations with this skill will thrive.
- Play: The heap of evidence that shows the value of play in both work and non-work environments just keeps growing. Surely in a workplace devoted to innovation play is especially important.
- Meaning: In a world where it is easy to accumulate things, Pink says the struggle for survival has been replaced with time to “pursue more significant desires, such as purpose, transcendence and spiritual fulfillment.” Taking this drive for meaning seriously in the workplace helps strengthen organizations.

Pink rounds out his book with numerous on-line and published sources for learning more about how to develop these skills.