Paradigms Worksheet

1: Back to Zero

Keeping in mind that Joel Barker states that to be an effective leader you have to be good at two types of change: Paradigm enhancements and paradigm shifts.

When a paradigm shifts, everyone goes back to zero.

Thinking of a business you have been associate with, what event or occurrence could set your organization back to zero?  Read each of the events listed below.  Describe the potential consequences and how they could set your organization back to zero.

  • A new law is passed that:
  • Competition invents a new:
  • Scientists report that:
  • Your suppliers can no longer:

Describe your own hypothetical event.  Explain how it could set your organization back to zero.

 

2: What’s impossible?

What is impossible to do in your organization today, but if it could be done would fundamentally change the organization for the better?

Ask this question often and at every level of the organization – the answers automatically describe a paradigm shift.  Listen to others’ answers – they will help you focus your attention on what could be your future.

What do you think? What is impossible to do in your organization today, but if it could be done would fundamentally change the organization for the better?

 

3: It Takes Courage

It takes great courage to challenge existing paradigms.  If you could challenge the paradigms in your organization, which of the issues below would you raise and why?

Compensation paradigm: “this is the way we pay people here”

  • Marketing paradigm: “this has been our market for years.”
  • Management paradigm: “this is the way we do things here”
  • Customer paradigm: “this is who our customers are and this is what they want”
  • Size paradigm:  “that’s not for us; we are too big/small”

 

4; Start your own Shift

We can choose to change paradigms.  Perhaps the most powerful advantage human beings have is that we are not genetically programmed to look at the world in just one way.

  • What is changing in your organization/world/business/market?
  • What problem is being created because of this change?
  • What idea do you have to address this problem?
  • Is there an upside to this idea?  What is the advantage?
  • What are the consequences if your idea doesn’t work as planned?
  • If your idea is simple, explain why it is.
  • Explain how your idea is compatible (or not) with what is already being used.