From the Education Minded to the Business Minded

I first heard about psychologist Howard Gardner when his highly theoretical Frames of Minds (1983) proclaimed his theory of multiple intelligences (MI), which became the mantra for schoolteachers interested in challenging the whole child and respecting different forms of intelligence. Gardner explained that humans have seven intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, ad intrapersonal), and in 1999 her added an eighth, naturalistic, to account for those highly skilled in environmental concerns.

Nearly a quarter-century later, Gardner's Five Minds for the Future (Harvard Business School Publishing, 2007), adapts MI theory for a broader audience, extending beyond the classroom to the office, board room, laboratory--virtually anywhere. The Fall 2007 issue of MWorld captures the sound bites from the author himself on those five minds: the disciplined mind, the synthesizing mind, the creating mind, the respectful mind, and the ethical mind. All five contribute to the achievement of a successful thinker.