Monday, July 19, 2010

Dan Pink Returns!

Dan Pink, who gave the McGovern Lecture at MLA, returned to us for a webcast this afternoon.

I was listening while cataloging, so I did not take nearly the pages of notes on this hour as the last time I had a chance to hear him, but following are a few scratches.

This live web presentation was a very quick recap of the talk in DC (my voluminous notes here for a less-quick recap), focusing especially on the idea that the work that will be important in the future is less high-tech than high-touch--that the jobs we value will increasingly be the things that can't be automated, routinized or sent overseas.

He also spoke again about six important qualities he sees for this work: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning.

He suggested a number of exercises, including some covered in DC like the 6-word autobiography, and the design notebook (carry a notebook for a week and write down an instance of good design, and an instance of bad design, that you see as you go about your day).

There was also one he called "a day in the life" exercise, which you can do with members of a team in order to get to know each other better, and which involves having each member write down what they think are their teammates "ups, downs, challenges and rewards" from work, and then each person tells what these things actually are for him or her.

I especially liked an exercise using magazines, designed to extend ones 'symphony' skills. In this exercise, you, either with other members of a team or alone, gather a number of magazines (it often helps if they're nothing you would normally read, or know anything about) and, keeping in mind a certain problem or issue you're working on, read them and try to see what solutions they suggest.

Another exercise was to first clarify and write down your priorities, and then looking over your calendar to see how you actually spend your time, and how it matches up with those priorities. He said it's often quite telling to find how little time we often spend, in our daily lives, on what we consider to be our top priorities.

Another involved the classic "if you had ten million dollars, or if you only had ten years to live, which of the things you do now would you still do, and which would you do differently?"

In the discussion period at the end, T. Scott made the point that, with all the things we're trying to do, it's also important to think about what we may need to stop doing, and Dan Pink said that he is in favor of a "to don't" list for this purpose and that it can often be productive to intentionally meet, figure out what you need to stop doing, and write it down.

I'm struck by this idea of the "to don't list," which is something I've toyed with in the past but never thought about as a serious tool. More a sort of "ugh, trying that hideous food is on my to-don't list."

But it's a very good point: we can't do everything, and maybe sometimes when we're getting bogged down trying to keep up with too many things, it could really be useful to stop, consider some things that aren't really practicable/don't really serve our mission/aren't really necessary, and say straight out "this is something we specifically intend to not do."

I kind of like it.

I also tried to come up with a 6-word autobiography, which is actually pretty tough. Maybe "oddly near normal considering adventuresome childhood." But you really have to think: what is it you want to say about yourself?

Are you summing up your history? What you do?

Who are you, and since you're inevitably more than fits into six words, what part of who you are do you want to foreground?

Someone whose name I forget (apologies!) wondered in the discussion if coming up with a daily 6-word sentence might be helpful, which Dan Pink said he had not considered, but would be interested to hear how it turns out if anyone wants to try it.

I wonder how that would work. Six words to define what you hope to accomplish each day? What qualities in yourself you want to stress for that day? Interesting thought.

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