So, in the last post we talked a bit about what a paradigm is. Now I'd like to talk about what is known about how to bust out of them.
Have you ever been in a meeting where you were told to "think outside the box"? Usually what this sentence means (despite its Dilbert-like cheesyness) is that you are being invited to shift outside the group paradigm. But how can we do this?
Authors in the field (see the end of this post for a brief bibliography) suggest that there are a few ways to accomplish this shift. The first is what I call the "The Sky is Falling!" method of paradigm shift. Some people call this a disorienting dilemma or a moment of truth. In essence what it means is that some people make a paradigm shift when they find that the things they are experiencing make absolutely no sense within the paradigm they currently have.
Examples:
A young woman toils at a job she hates because it pays well, and she believes that the only purpose of working is to make lots of money. A close friend dies, and she is suddenly shocked by how short life is. She abruptly quits her job, and accepts less pay in order to lead a more meaningful and joyful life.
A director at a large technology firm is proud of his "no-nonsense" management style and the fact that his employees know exactly where they stand with him. He credits his direct approach with many of the successes in his career. Frustrated by the fact that turnover is on the rise in his division, he commissions an employee survey to get to the bottom of things. To his surprise, his leadership style is listed as a major dis-satisfier in his team. Recognizing that what he felt were his strengths are actually a weakness, he resolves to become a better leader - no matter how painful or humbling it is.
Sometimes paradigm shifts come from a "shock to the system."
Now, if you want to consciously shift your paradigm, how do you do it? It's not like you can orchestrate a jolt to your world, and even if you could it doesn't sound too pleasant.
Never fear, an answer to this puzzle comes to us from systems theorist Jamshid Gharajedaghi.
Gharajedaghi suggests that we can change our paradigm through a conscious process of unlearning and relearning. In short, this means questioning our assumptions, and then building new ones.
Unlearning our assumptions is not easy, and it can be better (in my mind at least) to think of this process as "checking" our assumptions. After all, why unlearn something when it's useful? Equally foolish I think would be to simply let our life assumptions roll under us unchecked.
So how do we question our assumptions? I find that reframing the questions we ask is one concrete way to do so. Here are a few examples of reframing to expose our assumptions.
Initial Problem: Sales revenues are declining in the Western division.
Initial Question: Why isn't our salesforce meeting targets in that division?
Reframed Question: Why do I assume that the salesforce is the problem? What other factors might be influencing revenues? If I remove the notion of "targets" from the equation, what is going on?
Initial Problem: I've tightened controls on inventory, but it is getting even tougher to maintain the right levels!
Reframed issue: Why do I believe that controls on inventory are the answer? What are the "right levels" for our inventory system?
In summary yes we can wait for the moment of crisis to change our paradigms. We can let the crisis of a disorienting dilemma tell us that we need to shift our paradigm. But it's not the only option. By "questioning our questions" and even "questioning our problems" we can begin to think (forgive me) outside the box and avoid the unnecessary constraints set up by inflexible paradigms.
What questions have you asked your team lately? What do those questions indicate about your mental models?
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