L-directed or R-directed

I just finished reading the book A Whole New Mind - Why Right-Brainers will rule the Future. The book as may be obvious from the title speaks to why the right brain is becoming much more important in this age of what the author refers to as "Abundance, Asia and Automation". In other words, Daniel H. Pink says it is right brain abilities such as design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning that will be traits of winners in the future. While he refers to this at a personal level, how does it apply to high tech companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Google etc? Do these companies' follow a culture of L-directed or R-directed (left brained or right brained) thinking? If so, does this have an impact on their products? Below we see various R-directed abilities and how it applies to making software products at a macro level.

Design

This refers to some level of aesthetic feel. Does everyone in a company need to have some level of design ability? Maybe usability design acumen must be a core skill even for engineering roles such as development or testing.

Story

This refers to the ability to convert factual information into a story that strikes an emotional tune. Being able to create these stories as well as understand these stories is key to producing great products. When you buy into a product's usability story, you are not just aligned on a logical level but also at an emotional one.

Symphony

This refers to seeing the bigger picture out of several minor details. When you see the big picture, you understand how various engineering details result in the Story coming together. Do companies differ in the way their core engineering units are capable of seeing the bigger picture?

Empathy

This refers to being able to identify with others and being able to see what they are seeing. Without empathy being a core competency, can a company produce usable products? Can they really see what the customer is seeing? Is it sufficient if only a part of the company (UX designers) has this quality?

Play

This refers to humor, fun, and seeing the lighter side. This could translate to making a knowledge worker product actually fun to use!

Meaning

This refers to an understanding of the vision, an end goal of sorts. Is it important for everyone to understand the true meaning of why they create the products they create? What is the end goal? What is the vision? Is the vision to place a PC on every desk or is it to place a PC in every pocket? Doesn't everyone in a company need to have this higher level understanding so you weave it into your daily activities? How will the parts add up to the whole if you don't know what the whole is

My claim is the above are not just abilities of UX designers or product managers but should be abilities of core engineering disciplines such as developers, testers and program managers as well. Can you see the bigger picture of where your company fits in a customer's lifestyle, do work that connects with the customer's soul, create and understand the stories that your product delivers, know what the customer feels and make it fun? From my understanding of Daniel H. Pink's book and applying it to the corporate world, I believe those companies that master these qualities and recruit engineering units aware of such qualities will deliver the best products of the future!

Comments

[Nikhil]

Awesome..! So you made the move to typepad! This is going on my feeds list!

PS: Btw, wonder if you can backdate your posts (to the real time they were written)?

[Chris]

Thanks Nikhil. Great idea, I've just backdated my posts to when they were truly written!

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