In sum, his answer was about re-directing our minds to the power
of conceptual thinking to create new opportunities and build new
barriers to external threats on growth.
Being constantly reminded by Rodin's 'Thinker' statuette in
our foyer and the Einstein belief that "imagination is more
important than knowledge", our bias to the power of challenging
thinking gave a fertile reception to his plea for more right
brain leverage in business management.
But this was tempered by the reality of the global business
imperatives of the day. This period was the technologically enabled
'information age' in full cry and anything other than hard-headed,
data legitimised, linear thinking was a distraction.
This left brain dominant world was unyielding.
'A Whole New World' and its arguments were put aside as a 'great
ideas, but would never catch on". Fascinating maybe, but
lacking in relevance and real world application.
Over the holiday break, I found it hiding on the
bookshelf. More out of curiosity than any expectation of
re-generated interest it was skimmed and then re-read.
Thankfully.
If ever a soundly articulated view on creating business
advantage has found its time, this may be it. Certainly, now
is a very good time to examine its message.
The current reactivated agenda for growth and the recognition
that this will need to be new growth, not a re-run of the past,
will demand more creative thinking and more daring goal
setting.
Let us be clear about one thing right at the outset. This
is not a call to tip over all the proven performance tools and
cultures in business management as we know them. This a not a pitch
to jump to a new commercial fad.
The business world has been jerked around enough
over the years by addictions to fashionable thinking that come and
go. To passionately advocate an overpowering role for right brain,
conceptual thought supremacy is as futile and dangerous as
being deaf to the possibility that there is a need and a
dividend in asking for more imaginative approaches to business
planning and implementation.
As always, the rewarding answer is in finding the balancing
point.
David Pink says in this book, that an understanding of his
'conceptual age' requires an androgynous mind. Perhaps
more to the point is the need to be open minded and welcoming to
the the value of imaginative thinking, not in a siloed role, but in
tandem with all the proven strengths of the left-brain input.
He is not just another writer getting attention by exploring
some intriguing observations about the human brain. There are
dozens of these around, some serious enough to warrant a level of
interest, and some just 'pop', for all those headline
promotional reasons. There is both rigour and application in Pink's
writing with very plausible pathways of thought for consideration
and stimulation.
Neuroscience is a critically important and massively
contributory field of science. Australia is up with some of
the leading thinking in the world.
But Pink uses his search into the miraculous functions of the
brain (including subjecting himself to some laboratory testing) to
point to the timely need to elevate and integrate the role of the
right brain's extraordinary capabilities in creativity, empathy and
meaning, into the way we employ the talents of our people to
create, develop, organise and implement strategies and manage
businesses.
Without stretching the Pink bow too far, it might be instructive
to look at the outstanding success stories in business over more
recent memory and see if evidence of a core commitment to
imaginative thinking was a key to these successes.
Microsoft: Was that a predictable organisational approach to a
business? Or was the driving goal and its pursuit
framed in a big idea?
Apple: Did Steve Jobs follow the handbook in building another
'competitively priced' PC business. Was the iPod just another
linear extension? (What do you mean we are not a telco player
so we don't do phones? Correct. They did not just do a phone).
Ikea: They could make furniture. So could thousands of
other companies around the world. Where would they be today without
an imaginative look at their industry, how it went to market and
whether that met all homemakers shopping needs?
Then there is the iconoclastic world of Sir Richard Branson.
(Those brash ideas won't make it. You can't stretch the
Virgin brand across all those categories. Especially when
those categories were all mature, fully exploited and held strongly
by proven category leaders. It's all just a guy suffering from too
much imagination). Maybe his is a different world. And so on for
Google (what a weird name..and how can it make money?), Orange,
Dyson ,The Body Shop, Nintendo, Amazon..and more.
But wait on. Don't knock the powerfully established
successes of companies like Unilever, Proctor and Gamble, Kraft,
GE, Boeing, Tesco, Woolworths, Coca Cola, BHP Billiton, Westfield
etc.etc..
These are all very well managed companies with evolving
strategies and structures to stay on top of their markets and
deliver consistently good value to customers and shareholders.
As analysed and described in "Built to last", these are the
companies that keep doing all the performance bearing things very
well, from people, to products, to financial diligence, in line
with agreed strategies and consistently on target.
Is this an either/or argument? No. It is a reminder of how
the mix of prudent, experienced direction and management with the
encouragement of open -minded, creative thinking is the killer
formula.
There should be no doubt that all the 'great ', lasting
companies above have each had periods of new energy and revitalised
growth through the power of a fresh idea. It may have been a new
product, a previously unheard of distribution channel, an inspired
acquisition, an R & D breakthrough, a cleverly re-positioned
brand within their portfolio, and so on. There is also no argument
that the imaginatively created companies of recent history will
need the same clear minded and disciplined management to sustain,
survive and grow.
So what is the Pink coloured message?
It really is a call to dial up the value of more right brain
contribution in our organisations. He instances the powerful
influence of design, in its broadest (correct) definition, across
all parts of a business.
He really asks for more understanding of right and left brain
convergence in our thinking, not looking to swing from what he
calls left directed minds to right directed minds.
In our own business, we have deliberately selected a mix of
talents and backgrounds with left and right brain bias, with the
goal of rounding their thinking to a more open and balanced
mindset. Fact based rigour remains mandatory, but free minded
exploration of possible answers is the driver of the outcomes.
That is the basis of great scientific breakthroughs, of
outstanding engineering achievements, of inspired technological
impact.
It needs to be instilled in the culture, environment and
expectations of business management to create new growth today.
David Pink exaggerated his proposition with the title "A Whole
New World". Perhaps a better way to look at his
thinking is in terms of a whole of mind, a whole of individual
capability, a whole of company and a whole of customer view in
building a stronger business.
Do the required capabilities to get the full power of the
"whole" mind exist in the today's businesses? From the experience
of our work with a wide spread of client organisations, in most
cases the answer is 'yes'.
The task however is much more about opening up the opportunities
to think more challengingly and more imaginatively than it is about
searching for new and different talents.
Sometimes all it takes is to set a fresh and more aspiring
direction from the top.
Imagine for a moment the possible difference in outcome between
an annual business planning kick-off that started with the CEO
outlining the goals in terms of top line numbers, IRR targets,
EBITDA expectations, Cash management disciplines etc. ...and one
where the same role touched on all those mandatories and then said,
in borrowing a famous Martin Luther King quote ...."but
I HAVE A DREAM...".
Imagine, to borrow another more localised quote, a CEO
looking at a plan that looked a lot like previous years, with
modest market share growth and' satisfactory' profit delivery, and
said "We make the the highest quality products in our industry, we
are competitively priced, we are in wide distribution, but we are
still number two in the market. WHY IS THIS SO?"
Or more simply and constantly, if the challenging voice from the
top and and echoing right through the business was
"WHAT IF...?".
That may be all that's needed to pull the right brain thinking
up to the top and start pushing for more ambitious goals,
challenging the way things get routinely done, seeking more
insightful market understanding and finding more creative ways to
build competitive advantage, all done in sync with the left brain
facts and logic that set the right framework.
This is not suggesting 'a Whole New World'. But it might open
the way, and the right and left minds, to a whole new growth
experience.