Five Minds For the Future

Harvard Graduate School for Education professor Howard Gardner reveals the Five Minds for the Future that represents the five different frames of mind that will be vital to success in the future. Developing one or more of these mindsets will create the opportunity for success in future for the individual. 

The disciplined mind is one that requires a great deal of focus. This state of mind entails mastering information that pertains to important fields such as math, history, science and arts as well as major professions such as law, management and finance. These fields are very difficult to learn and understand; therefore they take a great deal of learning as well as practice. Due to the abundance of knowledge and information available, these people must have the ability to distinguish the important, relevant information from what is not.

The synthesizing mind is a mind that understands and then interprets. People in this state of mind analyze what they have learnt, gain an in depth understanding of the topic and then communicate it with others when necessary. Once a person has accumulated a sufficient amount of knowledge in their discipline and has properly synthesized it, they must then begin to think in a more abstract manner than the conventional thought process in that field.

The creative mind encourages innovation and alternative means of accomplishing tasks. By taking chances and acknowledging criticism, a person can set themselves up for future achievements. They accept the feedback they receive and use it to build upon their position or aid in a new direction.

In a diverse world containing a vast amount of perspectives, the respectful mind is vital. Gardner consciously distinguishes tolerance from respect. This is the difference between people that merely tolerates the differences of another compared to a person with a real, sincere sense of respect. He further states that encouraging respect amongst students, teacher and the school community will have a positive impact on our future.

The ethical mind is one that reveals itself under all business circumstances. This mindset requires a person to reflect upon their behavior and actions. This state of mind entails creating good quality work while upholding ethical standards, followed by a completion of responsibilities. A person that does not use this frame of mind is more likely to compromise the quality of their work and cut corners to accomplish their task. Both of these outcomes could directly result in unethical behavior.

The model provided by Gardner is very useful for the any businessperson but the business leaders in particular. Asking a leader to balance all five frames of mind optimally could be very difficult. However, if that leader can assume multiple mindsets while acknowledging and appreciating that there are employees that may be of a different frame of mind, that leader will be effective.

In his conclusion, the author recognizes the potential difficulty in developing these frames of mind. The author himself admitts that he was overwhelmed at times. Gardner also does not attempt to impose what he believes are the optimal levels of synthesis to the reader. Alternatively, he chooses to simply provide recommendations. I believe this provides a great deal of credibility, reliability and sincerity. It allowed me to further understand the model as his perspective is very open minded and does not provide too much bias.