未來在等待的人才 A Whole New Mind

“A whole new mind” 這本由Daniel H. Pink 寫作，中譯版翻為『未來在等待的人才』獲得了哈佛商業評論，新聞週刊及『紫牛』作者高汀等人的好評，同時被 strategy + business, The Miami Herald and Fast Company 等媒體推薦為2005年最佳企管書。文中揭露了並不是為他發明之理論，但是卻是近年來最好的，也是一本以淺顯易懂的寫作方式完整描繪出一個新趨勢的到來--那就是21世紀將是一個從知識經濟體系轉變到一個以重視創新，同理心與整合力的創意感性社會時代。他指出，在上一個世紀叱吒風雲，以高度左腦思考職業菁英為代表的電腦工程師、會計師、律師、及MBA等優秀職業人才即將非常可能會被新一波具有創造力、具同理心且能觀察趨勢並賦予事物意義的人如藝術家、設計師、護士、心理諮商者或宏觀人士來取代他們在職場上的主流位置。
為什麼這些原本以高IQ為優勢的人即將在職場上受到嚴酷的考驗？而以前被視為風花雪月，不切實際的包裝設計，藝術行業，玩樂技能感覺就要鹹魚大翻身？Pink 提出了三個主要的觀點：富裕，亞洲崛起，和自動化。

The book “A whole new mind” written by Daniel H. Pink gained favorable reviews by Harvard Business Review, Newsweek and Seth Godin, the author of the book “Purple Cow”. In the meantime it was recommended as a best business book of 2005 by strategy + business, The Miami Herald and Fast Company. In his book, he reveals the theories not invented by him, but it is the best, and also a book easy to be understood that completely describes the coming of a whole new trend: the 21st century is the era that progressed from a highly knowledge economic system to a conceptual age which values innovation, empathy and integration power. He said that these professionals who highly focus on left-brain abilities such as accountants, lawyers, computer engineers or MBA our fathers and mothers encouraged us to become in the past may be replaced the main stream by a group of special people who have creativity, empathy and who can catch trends or who can make our life meaningful such as designers, artists, nurses, psychologist and big-picture thinkers.
Why people who have high IQ now will face stern challenges? Why these skills which was regarded as no much useful and practical like design, art, and even playing just rise from the valley bottom? Pink indicates 3A main reasons: Abundance, Asia and Automation.

現在這個世界可說是全世界有史以來人類處最富裕的年代，當人們不只有為三餐奔波勞碌時，很自然的他們就會轉向對美感，性靈等等方面的追求。而實際上，物質上的富裕對人類快樂的滿足非常有限，大家對於性靈的關注，自我實現的重視的需求遠超乎我們所想像。因此，掌握設計，趣味和同理心，能夠跟人類產生情感連結的能力變成關鍵。一個很好的例子：當電燈發明以後，大家是不是就不再需要蠟燭？事實證明蠟燭的需求還是很大，只是不是單單只在為了照明而已。另外還有一個例子，烤麵包機不在只是烤麵包機器，而是裝飾品。想想看我們一天真正用到烤麵包機的時間有多久？而其他時間他就是大家家中的裝飾品，為什麼他不應該好看呢？
We can say that the present is the richest period than all other periods in the human’s history. When people don’t need to just be busy for three meals per day, it is very natural that people start to pay their attention to seeking for values about soul and esthetic sensibilities. In fact, the satisfactions material abundance can provide us are very limited. The fact that we care about soul issues and the fact that we are eager for personal fulfillment go much beyond our imagination. Therefore, the abilities to master design, interests & fun and the ability to make link to people’s emotions have became the keys. A good example: after the invention of electric light, do we need candles? The fact is we still need a lot of candles, but not only for illumination. Another example is how do you consider a toaster? A toaster is not only a toaster, but it is a decoration. How long we use toasters per day? Don’t you think a toaster should be beautiful as a decoration in your house by the other 1000+ minutes every day?


第二是亞洲崛起，現在亞洲國家如印度中國等教育越來越好，他們寫電腦程式的能力，算算數的能力已經不輸給西歐和美國等先進國家，但是這些優秀人才卻能夠以歐美當地速食店服務生的價格來雇用，這造成了很多以左腦制式化工作轉出到這些海外新興國家。這還不只限於印度和中國，很多左向類型的白領工作也移到如埃及，巴西或是東歐這些有著物美價廉員工的國家。類似的情形還包括台灣很多科技廠區外移到大陸越南等工資超低的國家，這不也是這種效應嗎？
The next idea is Asia. The education in some Asia countries like India and china is becoming better and better. The graduates from these countries are the same good for writing computer programs or for finance accountings as American students. However, the important thing is they can be hired just with a cheap price equal to a fast-food part-time staff in America and Western European. Because of this, many left-brain job opportunities transfer to overseas developing countries. Not only limited in India and China, similarly many logically fixed flow path jobs run to Egypt, Brazil and Eastern European countries. In Taiwan, many Hi-tech companies moved their production operation to China and Vietnam where we can hire employees with very low salary. Isn’t this the same effect?


第三就是自動化，自動化則是亞洲崛起的進階版，意思是電腦科技的崛起，讓我們的左腦邏輯運算在電腦前面變的好像一無是處。電腦一分鐘可以執行上千萬指令的運算，不論是會計，律師狀處理，醫生初期診斷幾乎都可以靠電腦完成，另外一方面便利的電腦和網路讓知識的取得變為非常容易。以前博學多聞的人很厲害，現在你就算記憶力在好也比不過電腦一個晶片就可以儲存整個大英百科全書所有的知識。也就是說，若是不能有效統合，知識現在已經變的相當廉價。“背多芬”一點用都沒有。
The third is Automation. It is the next edition of “Asia”, meaning the progress of computer science. We feel we are nothing if we just compare our left logical brain with computers. A computer can execute millions of count orders per second. Whatever accounting works, an indictment or a pre-diagnoses work can be almost done by computers perfectly. On the other hand, the Internet and computers make it much easy for us to get information. In the past, a person who knows everything is valuable. Now all the Encyclopedia Britannica knowledge can be saved in just a chip, $5. In other words, if we can not handle relevant or irrelevant information well, knowledge has become low price and useless at present.


簡單的說，有三個問題要解決：1.海外勞工比我便宜嗎？ 2. 電腦有沒有比你更快？ 3. 現在你的工作在富裕時代還有需求嗎？
In a simple way, there are three questions need to be solved.
1. Can someone offshore do it cheaper?
2. Can a computer do it faster?
3. Is what I am offering in demand in an age of abundance?


還好Pink 認為事情沒有那麼糟糕，因為因應新時代所需的技能的解決方案就在我們的大腦裡。更精確的說，喚醒我們對右腦的重視來培養高感性，高體會等技能。更棒的是，這些技能似乎是與生俱來，每個人都可以學會 。
Fortunately, Pink thinks the fact is not that awful. The solution for developing skills for adapting to new eras is in our brain. Exactly to say, we need to wake up our right brain to develop High Concept and High Touch ability. The better thing is these skills are innate. Everyone is able to learn and do it well.



Continued to Part Two