SGDU5074 Strategic Management In Education

Video Review: Paradigms Shift by Joel Arthur Barker

Nazzir Hussain Bin Haji Mydeen

(814066)

LECTURER

Prof. Dr. Kamarulzaman Md Ali

Excellence is at the base of success in the 21st Century. While Innovation will
gain you the competitive edge, Anticipation provides the information needed
and Guts will allow you to anticipate your customer's needs, innovate the
product to fulfill need, and to produce the product with excellence. It is about
anticipation and innovation.

The Future is where our greatest leverage is outlines how the Swiss, supreme
watch makers, did not anticipate the demise of mainsprings and such for the
battery and electronics as espoused by the Japanese. The irony is that the Swiss
were the ones who introduced electronic quartz and let it go. Hopefully we learn
from the past, the present is too slim in which to act, it is with the future we
must prepare.

The Importance of Anticipation is that you must shape your own future,
because, if you don't, someone else surely will. The study is divided into two
fields: Content futurist specializing in an area of info about the future and
Process futurism which focuses on the whats and how to manipulate the info.

Reaction Theory is if you anticipate the problem, you won't have to react. You
simply work around the problem and avoid it altogether. Good anticipation is the
product of good exploration. Five components to strategic exploration:

Influence understanding: to understand what influences your perceptions

Divergent thinking: thinking skills to discover more than one answer.
Convergent thinking: thinking skills to focus integrated data and prioritized

choices.
Mapping: draw pathways to get from present to future.
Imaging: to picture words or drawings or models of the future as found in
exploration.

Paradigm are defined as words that represent subsets of the paradigm concept:
theory, model, methodology, principles, standards, protocol, routines,
assumptions, conventions, patterns, habits, common sense, conventional
wisdom, mind-set, values, frames of reference, traditions, customs, prejudices,
ideology, inhibitions, superstitions, rituals, compulsions, addictions, doctrine,
dogma.

Thomas Kuhn defines it as accepted examples of actual scientific practice, which

include law, theory, application, and instrumentation. Adam Smith defines it as
explaining the world to us and helps us predict its behavior. Willis Harmon
explains paradigm as a basic way of perceiving, thinking, valuing, and doing.
Thus: a paradigm is a set of rules and regulations that does two things:

1. It establishes and defines boundaries;

It tells you how to behave inside those boundaries to be successful.

2.

A paradigm shift is a change to a new game, a new set of rules. The key is what
instigated the change in the first place? Four questions about paradigms:

When do new paradigms appear? If we know when rules change, we can

anticipate.
What kind of person is a paradigm shifter? He who changes the rules will

dictate terms.
Who are the early followers of the paradigm shifters and why do they follow

them?
How does a paradigm shift affect those who go through it?

A new paradigm begins when some problems are solved and represent the start.

Phase A begins: Problems are being solved as boundaries are being

understood.
Phase B indicates an increase in problems being solved in shorter time.
Phase C sees a slowing in problem solving.

This is the Paradigm Curve, classic S curve: slow in phase A because we don't
know the rules, fast in phase B because we know how to play the game, and
slow again in phase C because we have left difficult problems.

What causes a paradigm to shift? Because we aren't solving 100% of the

problems we will eventually have to change our tact to solve them. Problems
that can be solved with existing paradigms will and those that can't will
be shelved. How are the shelved problems solved? Every paradigm will in the
process uncover problems it cannot solve. And those unsolvable problems
provide the catalyst for triggering the paradigm shift. Each paradigm beacons
the next paradigm.
Who Changes the Paradigm? An outsider:
1. A young person fresh out of training.
2. An older person shifting fields
3. The Maverick is an insider but is not captured by it.
4. The Tinkerer plays around and keeps fiddling.
All are rare precious and hard finds. These categories are successful because
they bring navet and they don't know what can't be done. They ask "dumb"
questions, they probe with fresh eyes, they wonder. When training the
newcomers give them some of the shelved problems. They will not do it the
"correct" way since they don't know the current paradigm. Bingo, new paradigm.
If only they would listen. To accept the new you have to abandon the old and this
is hard. Be open minded.

Who are the Paradigm Pioneers? The pioneer takes the risk. Once the paradigm
is discovered the pioneer will trek. Pioneers bring the brains, brawn, time, effort,
and capital. The pioneer must act alone or in the face of contradictions. Intuitive
judgment in the face of incomplete data and on faith, pioneers use more heart
than head. Pioneers may risk everything on the new paradigm. Frustration of the
old may be a catalyst. They see the big picture or can project.
The Leverage of Pioneering, you may not be the first, but if you are listening you
can act and enjoy. Get in early and stay the course is the key to successful
paradigm shifting. Japanese Kaizen which means to make small improvements
every day, being a pioneer and kaizen means you always on top.
What may be perfectly clear and visible to one person is invisible to another
because of differing paradigms. This is the Paradigm Effect. One paradigm blinds
you, deafens you to other possibilities and other paradigms. Old paradigms
block ability to view new paradigms. New paradigms must get through filters of
old. Paradigms can trap us into seeing the world in only one way; and how wrong
experts can be because of that entrapment. Paradigms give a particular
perspective and perspective determines ones vision. What is obvious to one is
not to another. Paradigm enhancing innovations are easy to see, but paradigm
shifting innovations blind us because they don't follow our paradigm. It just
means we must trust others or put our paradigms aside so we can see theirs.

Key Characteristics of Paradigms:

1.

Paradigms are common in that they give the practitioner the vision. One
change in one rule does not make for a paradigm shift.

2.

Paradigms are functional they are necessary, they are the rules. Mixing of
paradigms gives us diversity which lets us deal with the complexity around
us.

3.

The Paradigm effect reverses the commonsense relationship between

seeing and believing reverses the idea of "I'll believe it when I see it." The
"ah ha" factor, constructivism.

4.

There is almost always more than one right answer allows for more
perspectives. Two people see the same thing two different ways.

5.

Paradigms too strongly held can lead to Paradigm paralysis, a terminal

disease of certainty as one simply rests on ones successes or laurels.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Nothing is impossible.

6.

Paradigm pliancy is the best strategy in turbulent times, means you should
always seek to solve the impossible. If the old paradigm does not work
make a new one. When your paradigm is challenged ask for further
explanation.

7.

Human beings can choose to change their paradigms, which means we

must be quiet and listen.

Managers, Leaders, and Paradigms

1. Managers must demonstrate paradigm pliancy if they are going to

expect to practice it. Managers must allow and be willing to hear
from their employees who step outside the box to solve a problem. If
managers beat down ideas then nothing will get solved.
2. Managers must facilitate and encourage cross talk means people of
diverse backgrounds from diverse opinions sit together and talk.
Especially people from different paradigm can be particularly good
at helping get past another person's paradigm.
3. By listening to all those screwy ideas, managers gain a special
leverage for innovation because many screwy ideas may produce
one good idea. Managers are in a unique position because they hear
all the ideas and can make connections.

To leaders:
A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself. You
manage within a paradigm, you lead between paradigms. Managers
employ paradigm enhancement. This means you make the rules better.
Leader-manager

The manager administers; the leader innovates.

The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range

perspective.
The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the

horizon.
The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.

Many times paradigm shifts are driven by people who take the leader's role
when no one else will. Visionaries are not necessarily leaders. Most leaders are
not visionaries. Some are visionaries, some are leaders, some are managers,
and some are followers. Few are all four. This is why teams are crucial.
About Paradigms:

Our perceptions of the world are strongly influenced by them.

Because we become so good at using our present paradigms, we resist

changing them.
It is the outsider who usually creates new paradigms.
Practitioners of the old paradigms who choose to change to the new
paradigm early must do so as an act of faith.

Those who change to a successful new paradigm gain a new way of seeing
the world and new approaches for solving problems as a result of the shift

to the new rules.

A new paradigm puts everyone back to zero, so practitioners of the old
paradigm, who may have had great advantage, lose much or all of their

leverage.
In turbulent times practice paradigm pliancy.

To accept paradigms you must have an act of faith. Turbulence is caused by

failure of old paradigms. How to recognize change:
1. The established paradigm begins to be less effective.
2. The affected community senses the situation, begins to lose trust in
old rules.
3. Turbulence grows as trust wanes.
4. Creators or identifiers of new paradigms step forward.
5. Turbulence increases as paradigm conflicts become apparent.
6. Affected community is extremely upset and demands clear
solutions.
7. One of the suggested new paradigms demonstrates ability to solve a
small set of significant problems that the old paradigm couldn't.

8. Some of the affected community accepts the new paradigm as an

act of faith.
9. With stronger support and funding, the new paradigm gains
momentum.
10.

Turbulence begins to wane as the new paradigm starts to solve

problems and the community sees a new way to deal with the world.

Certainly during turbulence many paradigms will crop up, the key is the snatch
the right ones. It is a risk to accept a new paradigm. Trial Balloon day is a day
when people come up with ideas without ridicule. Be open because folks will be
doing things and saying things without time to explain. Take stock of your
paradigms. List other people's paradigm, those with whom you disagree, then
figure out how to find consensus.