Introduction:

During the 80s and the 90s, a certain kind of person and a certain
kind of mind was on a rise. These were the knowledge workers with
good analytical and algorithmic aptitude, commonly known as the L-
directed thinkers. With the global business dynamics changing
rapidly, we are moving from an Information age to the Conceptual
age. The key to thriving in this new age is to move from a logical
and linear approach to creative, artistic, story telling, big picture
thinkers. Today, the definitive skills of the Information age are
necessary but not just sufficient.

The Conceptual Age:

The human brain is composed of the left and right hemisphere. They
don't operate in a mutually exclusive way in that both play a role in
everything we do. While the left hemisphere is linear, the right is
simultaneous. The left hemisphere specializes in text whereas the
right specializes in context. The left hemisphere analyses the details
and the right hemisphere synthesizes the big picture. We need both
L-Directed thinking and R-Directed thinking in order to craft fulfilling
lives.

The Conceptual age is driven by the 3As: Abundance, Asia and

Automation.

The abundance of material has produced a high standard of living in

the developed world. But abundance has produced an ironic result.
The prosperity it has unleashed has placed a premium on less
rational, more R-Directed sensibilitiesbeauty, spirituality, and
emotion. For businesses, its no longer enough to create a product
thats reasonably priced and adequately functional. It must also be
beautiful, unique, and meaningful.

Asia has now become the outsourcing destination and performing

more of the routine jobs at significantly lower costs. This has forced
the knowledge workers in developed markets to master a new set of
skills that workers in outsourced destination cannot do equally well
for less money.

Automation has affected todays knowledge worker in a way similar

to it did last generations blue-collar workers. The L-Directed
thinkers need to develop the aptitudes and provide something that
computers cant do better, faster or cheaper.

The knowledge worker in the advanced countries needs to

introspect and examine if the work done by him can be done by
someone overseas at a cheaper rate or if a computer can do it
faster or if the work is actually in demand. If the answer to each is
no, the L-Directed thinkers need to be proficient in R-Directed
thinking and master aptitudes that are high concept and high touch.
The resolution of the above can be categorized into six specific
senses Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning.
The Six Senses

Design
Creating a product, a service or an experience, appealing to
rational, logical and functional needs, is woefully insufficient.
Mastery of design and other soft aptitude is now the main way
for individuals and firms to stay out in a crowded marketplace.
It is a high-concept aptitude that is difficult to outsource or
automateand that increasingly confers a competitive
advantage in business. Hence, it is decisive to create
something that is beautiful, compact, energy-efficient,
ergonomic and useful.

Story
Our minds and memories work primarily through stories,
rather than facts. Story is how information has been passed
from one generation to another. Facts have become widely
available and as a result less valuable. What matters is the
ability to place these facts in a context and convey them in an
influential way. It is the emotional element that makes the
information stick.

Symphony
Symphony is about seeing the big picture. It is the ability to
put together the pieces to synthesize rather than analyze. The
R-Directed thinkers should be able to see relationship between
seemingly unrelated areas. They look from a different
perspective altogether and are generally good at multi
tasking.

Empathy
Empathy is something that cannot be outsourced. It is the
capacity to understand, recognize and share the feelings of
another. The current era of advanced economies are
appreciating the ability of the knowledge workers to step
back, assess the situation and then make decisions without
getting influenced by emotions.

Play
People rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun
doing it. The Conceptual age allows us to combine both work
and play. Today, fun and games are not just fun and games. In
a sense, we have to become childlike again if we want to
produce creative innovative organizations.

Meaning
Mans main concern is to see meaning in his life. People have
enough to live, but nothing to live for; they have the means,
but no meaning. The greatest meaning of all comes from our
relationships: The relationships that we have with our work
individually, the relationships that we have with our co-
workers and the relationships that we have with our
customers and clients.