The Contours of of Times: Information, Knowledge, & Wisdom

The leadership of most corporations are in the business for the power and the leadership, thus it is in their best interest to see their organization grow -- its part of their legacy. And when these leaders look around them, they are starting to take notice of whole brain companies, which are simply outpacing the rest and getting the press (and most of the powerful love good press), thus they would love to be the next Apple, Starbucks, Google, FireFox, etc. It is companies like these that ensure our future (thus it is in our best interest to us to help others become like them). And to get there, they need more than their present linear thinking. Linear thinking gets you to a certain point, then you need some imagination to give it a good kick in the rear-end so you can start off in a new direction. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T.S. Eliot's The Rock (1934) Shortly after the offshoring and outsourcing began making headline news, I heard someone say that since we went through the information age, and now that we are losing in the Knowledge Age, then it was time to go to the next one on the list -- wisdom. This of course referring to the knowledge archetype: data -> information -> knowledge -> wisdom. So while I thought it was an interesting concept, I brushed it off as I could not fathom teaching someone wisdom. So when I read Pink's article, I thought aha (in all actuality it was a four-letter word), you don't actually teach or strive for wisdom, you actually break it down into components and go from there. Now I'm not sure what all wisdom is composed of, but upon finishing the article, I believe the right-brain/left-brain metaphor is one of them. It just fits in where the outstanding companies that I know of are going. Now I don't really expect a whole lot more from Pink's book and I doubt that he got it all, but his article is a quite interesting beginning.