Celebrate Soup

    A book that is very important to me is the 2006 best-seller  A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future by Daniel H Pink. 
    The book explores ways that the West is moving out of an information-based society into a time of concept and conceptualization. Pink names three particularly important influences:
Automation
       Informational thinking is sequential, logical and rational. It is a series of 'if this, then that…' formulae which can very often be transferred to and performed by algorithms. Not only is this possible, it is made preferable by removing the possibility – and inevitability – of human error.
       Computers compute at a level of accuracy and speed which cannot be approached by the human brain. They can compile statistics and create reports and determine averages in any of hundreds of combinations.
       Entire systems are changed by the presence of these abilities: the bankers of the past could not have calculated daily interest on accounts. Even if such a scheme had been considered, who could have financed the army of mathematicians to do the arithmetic? 
Asia
       Data-bases and automated calculations have transformed our expectations as well as how knowledge is tracked and accessed.  Information-based work is largely removed from daily task-lists.
       Where human interventions are needed to input data, Western businesses and multinationals find it cost effective to employ qualified workers in Asia who are available more cheaply than similarly educated Westerners.
Abundance
    The industrial practice of mass production has resulted in abundance in the West, a situation which has not necessarily made life simpler.
    Josh Cohen writes “as anyone who’s tried to decide between 22 nearly identical brands of yoghurt in an American organic hypermarket can confirm, limitless choice debilitates far more than it liberates.”

    Consumption is no longer based in the need for a product: customers do not purchase soup because they need soup and soup is available. The array of choices in the soup aisle calls for marketers to address much more than the desire for soup. Advertisers peddle soup as a way to be warm in winter; as a way that families become cohesive; that children express gratitude. The story of the soup sells something quite different from pureed tomatoes or chicken and noodles in broth. The commercials are selling a desirable concept.
Concept
    The Conceptual Age is a culture of wisdom rather than knowledge.
    Conceptual thinking is nonlinear. It is intuitive and holistic, embracing attributes such as inventiveness, joyfulness, relationships and empathy. The Six senses for the Conceptual Age, as described in the book, are Design; Story; Symphony; Empathy; Play; and Meaning. Any or all of these can be found in the narrow field of soup marketing.
    A concept creates a Big Picture, like the Family Harmony that the soup company is claiming its product will promote.
Soup
    A modern and ongoing concept for soup is much more personal and hands-on. Soup is no longer about industrial production or factory assembly-lines.
    Purchasing hand-made home-made soup from the cook is now possible. When the chef is present, making sales at a local market, the soup shifts out of mass consumerism and to the new society. Customers can now access the design of the recipe and its tale of origin; the synthesis story of combining this ingredient with that technique; the shared emotion of trials and errors; the joys of experimentation and success.
    A feeling of meaningfulness enters the transaction, as payment moves to a neighbour instead of a faceless corporation, and the soup is enjoyed as the work of a caring community member.
Explore
     The work that I do is conceptual. I help clients to release the constraints of living in the information age, and connect to the wisdom which serves them inherently. As society changes, life can feel confused and chaotic, yet there is an underlying structure which serves each of us. If you are ready to explore your future, drop me a line!

    I have  been supporting clients through change and growth since the 1980s.
    For a consultation or other session, in person or by Skype click here