Daniel H. Pink is the author of five provocative bestselling books about the changing world of work. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and their three children.
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The Introduction to Dan’s new book.
It’s the question that has vexed philosophers and statesmen since the time of Cicero: Can emotionally intelligent signage reduce napkin use in fast food restaurants? Now Burger King restaurants are working on an answer with emotionally intelligent messages printed directly on the napkins themselves. (Thanks to Joseph Hrycak and NudgeBlog for this example)
Chapter 7 of To Sell is Human explores the art and science of pitching — the ability to distill one’s point to its persuasive essence. Along the way I show why we need to move beyond the elevator pitch and why the social science says we should pitch with questions and even rhymes. But I never expected [...]
From NPR’s Robert Krulwich comes the tale of how a bus stop in Milan is making the wait for public transportation more bearable. The answer: Bubble wrap — cut into different sized sheets based on how long you expect to wait. Occupied time, it turns out, feels shorter and less stressful than unoccupied time. So anything [...]
Folks, it never stops. Each week brings more emotionally intelligent signage from readers around the world. One of these days I’m gonna set up a Tumblr dedicated to this topic. Until then, here are four diverse signs we thought you’d enjoy: Eileen Can shows how one coffee joint guards against seared laps and eager plaintiffs’ [...]
I haven’t been blogging much the last few weeks because I’ve been putting the finishing touches on a new book, which will be out at the end of the year. (Pre-order now. It’s worth it. I beg you.) But the mailbag is always brimming with emotionally intelligent signage, so I’ve plucked four recent reader submissions [...]
As I mentioned in the last post, summer is a great time for emotionally intelligent signs. One reason is that more people are traveling, camera phones at the ready, as this batch of road photos demonstrates. Tabitha Core found this pleading sign in a work zone in the suburbs of Durban, South Africa: On the [...]
Summers always bring a bountiful harvest of emotionally intelligent signs — and the steamy summer of 2012 has been no exception. Over the past several weeks, readers have sent in tons of photos, usually taken with their phones, from their travels around the world. Here’s the first batch of favorites. Look closely and squint with [...]
Ahh, summer. A time when some of us descend into the salt mines to finish a big project — while others of us get all Kerouac and hit the open road. If you’re in that former group, please stop complaining. If you’re in the latter, please bring your camera phone on your journey to take [...]
Last week, Mrs. Danpink.com and one of our kids ventured to the IKEA store in College Park, Maryland. They returned with a hard-to-assemble bookshelf, a ginormous bag of Swedish meatballs, and a great example of emotionally intelligent signage from the store cafeteria.
As always, the mailbag of emotionally intelligent signage is brimming with examples sent by readers around the world. And as always, the most prevalent target of this new approach to sign and symbol is dangerous driving. Here are three that caught my eye: A homemade sign from a tough-minded (but not litigious) parent: An official [...]