Pink @ OLA06

Wednesday night at OLA: A surprising number of us trekked over to the convention centre to hear Dan Pink on Wed at 8:00 PM — and it was well worth the effort! He told us that the world is shifting from being dominated by left-brain thinkers (the analytical, number crunching type) to more right-brain thinkers (the artistic, wholistic, big picture inventors) — which is good news for librarians who tend to be more of the latter. What’s causing this shift? Abundance (eg. in Cda, 25 M vehicles — for 24 M eligible drivers), Asia (ie. in India, there are 150 M people in the middle-class = 4 -5 times the size of Cda!) and automation. The shift is leading to offshoring. What kinds of tasks are most readily sent offshore? “The most dangerous word in the world: ROUTINE”. Routine represents all those left-brain activities — activities that are well-suited to being “routine-ized”. So, in our emerging new world dominated by the right-side of the brain, “routine and right answers are not enough — what matters is novelty and nuance”. Dan concluded with some buzzwords for the new world: design; story; symphony; empathy; play; meaning. What’s in it for libraries? Design great buildings, tell a good story, pull it all together, listen to our customers, have fun, and show our clients the profound meaning of it all = success for libraries in the brave new world!
Juanita Richardson