The landscape of job opportunities is changing dramatically and the time has come to rethink how one makes a job selection decision as well as how individuals are counseled in relation to career planning.

Recent research has identified a dramatic shift in the kinds of jobs that are in demand now, in the near future, and beyond. Jobs can be classified into two major dimensions, namely; Left Brain and Right Brain directed jobs. Left and right brain activities are intimately linked to a concept called Learning Styles.

To get a clearer picture of this taxonomy, a distinction can be made regarding the two brain functions. Left brain jobs require logical, linear, sequential, analytical, objective, literal, and structured thinking and activities, while Right brain jobs require a holistic approach, a certain amount of dealing in fantasy, random thinking, the need to look for patterns, the general as opposed to the specifics, and relying on intuition and integrated thought patterns. As you can see they are almost direct opposites.

In his new book “A Whole New Mind” Daniel Pink has researched left and right brain directed thinking and how these two factors relate to the changing landscape of the “World of Work.” According to Pink there is a paradigm shift from Left brain directed jobs to right brain directed jobs. This phenomenon is due to three major shifts which he describes as Abundance, Asia, and Automation.

In the past 150 years we have evolved through three major ages, namely; Agriculture Age (farmers), Industrial Age (factory workers), Information age (knowledge workers) and we are now evolving into the Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers). Pink define these forces as:

Abundance – “The prosperity of Abundance has been unleashed and has placed a premium on less rational, more R-Directed sensibilities such as beauty, spirituality, and emotion. For business, it’s no longer enough to create a product that’s reasonably priced and adequately functional. It now must be beautiful, unique, and meaningful” (Pink). Abundance elevates R-Directed Thinking and this creates the climate for R-Directed jobs and careers

Asia –“Knowledge” workers in Asia earn a little over $10,000 per year while in the US the same worker would earn over $70,000. Each year foreign universities produce about 350,000 graduating engineers. Many US companies are moving overseas. One in four US IT jobs will be moved offshore by 2010. Therefore, L-Directed jobs are on the downturn in the US.

Automation –Today any job that depends on routines that can be reduced to a set of rules or broken down to a set of repeatable steps is “at risk.” A programmer today can write about four hundred lines of code per day, Appligenics (computer software that writes code) applications can do the same work in less than a second. Therefore, as more and more Left brain activities are replaced by Automation, the workers in these fields must master a different set of aptitudes (soft aptitudes) relying more on creativity than competence, more on tacit knowledge than technical manuals, and more on fashioning the big picture than sweating the details.

What does all this mean? What does Learning Styles have to do with this shift and what are the implications for Career planning?

Right and Left Brain thinking is the core of Learning Styles. Learning Styles is defined as “how we concentrate, absorb, process and retain new and different information.”

Barbara Prashnig, author of “The Power of Diversity”, has explored the new ways of learning and teaching using learning styles. She defines a clear distinction of the left and the right brain activities. In her pioneering work Barbara identified 25 different learning style dimensions. Each of the 25 can be classified into two areas of brain dominance; left and right brain.

On one side we have Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, researching left brain and right brain directed thinking and how these two factors relate to the changing landscape of the world of work. On the other side we have Barbara Prashnig researching Learning Styles and the overwhelming evidence that supports the fact that every one of us should be aware of our learning styles and especially our brain dominance. Even “No Child Left Behind” U.S. legislation recommends that every child should have an awareness of their learning styles.

Career Planning Implications

If you are in a position of having to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life, in reference to a job or a career, you should first ask yourself these three questions:

1. Is what I am offering in demand in an age of abundance (Abundance)?
2. Can someone overseas do it cheaper (Asia)?
3. Can a computer do it faster (Automation)?

An interesting fact pointed out by Pink is that MFA degrees (Master of Fine Arts) are in greater demand than MBA degrees (Master of Business Administration). We are exporting Left Brain Jobs while we are importing Right Brain Jobs from Asia.

The new and emerging Right Brain jobs require what is termed “High-Touch Abilities” such as the capacity for compassion, care and uplift. These traits or abilities lead directly to the caring professions, counseling, nursing, and hands on health assistance.

As you can tell, it is imperative to determine whether an individual is a right or a left brain person. To determine if you are a left or right brain person, take the on line Learning Styles Assessment. The test takes approximately 20 minutes and generates a report immediately. For more information, please click here.

For more information on the assessments mentioned in this article please call Jim Roberts, President of Technology Based Solutions at 215-0579-0901. Jim can also be reached by email at jim@askTBS.com.

The information contained in this news letter is derived from two sources, “The Power of Diversity” by Barbara Prashnig, and “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel H. Pink.

email: jim@asktbs.com

phone: 215.579.0901

web: http://www.asktbs.com