In this continuing series on Dan Pink’s
book, A
Whole New Mind, we’ve been reviewing what Dan refers to as the six senses
of the Concept
Age. To date, we’ve covered Story,
Design,
Empathy,
and Play.
The last two senses are Symphony and
Meaning.  

Dan characterizes symphony as the ability to see relationships between
seemingly disparate things. Symphony also
exposes these relationships in a way that makes them meaningful to a broader
audience – through metaphor and analogy. He defines three types of people adept at this kind of synthesis:

The boundary crosser sees similarities across disciplines,
cultures, industries, and just about any setting. Having accomplished something in one distinct
area, they are able apply their expertise somewhere else.  

The inventor sees potential convergence in disparate ideas and combines
those ideas in a way that creates something new. 

The metaphor maker provides the language we need to understand and
internalize relationships we may not have seen on our own. Metaphor enables empathy. 

My favorite exercise Dan mentioned for increasing your sense of
symphony was “news-stand round up”. Go
to a news-stand and pick up several magazines that you would never have noticed
and would never buy. Review them and try
to figure out the intended audience and how the magazine is trying to connect
with them. Then try and find ideas in
that magazine that you could connect to your own business.

Why don’t you try it and tell me what you learned?

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