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By Ellen Pearlman
Strategic Thinker:
Howard Gardner
Credentials:
Gardner is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is best known for his theory of multiple intelligences. Since 1995 Gardner, in collaboration with two psychologists, has studied GoodWork-work that is excellent in quality, personally engaging and socially responsible. He is the author of several hundred articles and two dozen books. In 1981 Gardner received a MacArthur Prize fellowship.
Big Idea:
In the future individuals will need five specific cognitive abilities to thrive and survive.
Book:
Five Minds for the Future, paperback published by Harvard Business Press, February 2009
Web site:
http://www.howardgardner.com/
In 1983 Howard Gardner created a stir in education circles for his ideas about multiple intelligences, which questioned the long-standing belief that intelligence is a single entity that can be measured by standard IQ tests. In his latest book, Five Minds for the Future, he explores five specific cognitive abilities that people and organizations throughout the world will need to thrive and perhaps survive. These are capabilities he believes schools and workplaces should be cultivating now. Most formal education today, says Gardner, "prepares students primarily for the world of the past, rather than for possible worlds of the future."
Likewise, much of corporate education is focused on skills, with innovation shifted to a skunk works group. And few companies "embrace a liberal arts perspective" for its employees, says Gardner, other than the few executives attending seminars at the Aspen Institute. "We do not think deeply enough," he adds, "about the human qualities that we want to cultivate at the workplace."
The five minds that he envisions for the future are: the disciplined mind, synthesizing mind, creating mind, respectful mind and ethical mind.
- The disciplined mind is master of at least one discipline, craft or profession and knows how to work studiously over many years to improve his or her skill and understanding. Research shows that it takes up to ten years to master a discipline. "Without at least one discipline under his belt, the individual is destined to march to someone else's tune," says Gardner. This type of worker is likely to be limited to menial tasks in any demanding workplace, he adds.
- The synthesizing mind takes information from disparate sources, understands and evaluates it objectively and then puts it together in ways that make sense to others. People that cannot do this will be "overwhelmed by information and unable to make judicious decisions about personal or professional matters," Gardner says.
- The creating mind breaks new ground, putting forth new ideas, posing unfamiliar questions, coming up with new ways of thinking. Individuals that cannot do this, says Gardner, "will be replaced by computers and will drive away those who do have the creative spark."
- The respectful mind welcomes differences between people and groups and tries to understand and work effectively with people who are different. Individuals without respect for others will not be respected and will "poison the workplace and the commons," says Gardner.
- The ethical mind is able to move beyond self-interest and ponder the needs and desires of the society in which one lives. People without ethics will "yield a world devoid of decent workers and responsible citizens," says Gardner.
Next:Rebuilding an Ethical Culture in Business
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