Just a quick post this evening. I saw this article yesterday and thought it was really interesting.

First of all, I love Daniel Pink.  He is a fantastic author, and I really relate to his theories related to work in the current world.  He talks a lot about emphasizing creativity and “right-brain” thinking, traditionally defined as softer skills.

In the article, Daniel Pink starts by describing what sounds like an awesome experiment I could never ask an employer to preform: to draw an E on his or her own head.  I’m going to pause for you to do this, if you want to play along.  I wish I did the experiment before I knew the meaning of the results because now I don’t think I will ever know what I would have done.  (Is it weird that I’m disappointed by that?  But I digress…)  So, do it.  Just draw an “E” on your forehead.

Ok, now that you have (hopefully) done that, check out the results. If the person draws the “E” so that is correct when looking head-on at her/him (but incorrect from his/her perspective) then it shows, according to studies, that the person is more capable or attuned to thinking from the other person’s perspective.

Anyway, I thought it was a fantastic piece, as almost all of Pink’s pieces are.  Below is one of my favorite quotes.  To add some context, Pink is talking about how empathy cannot prevent action — meaning leaders must be both empathetic and decisive, which can be seen as contradictory traits.  Not quite, says Pink:

The key is to strike a delicate balance between action-orientation and perspective-taking. It’s not a matter of deciding between hitting your numbers or drawing the E. It’s a matter of hitting your numbers by drawing the E.

What’s more, unlike many technical skills, empathy is extremely difficult to shift to low-cost providers and nearly impossible to reduce to lines of code in a computer program – which makes it a scarce, and therefore more valuable, commodity.

Anyway, I just thought that was an interesting tool and great information.  My former roomie might be able to relate to this, but I think everyone truly could use it.  You just won’t find me asking my new boss or coworkers to do it!