Why is creating corporate paradigm shifts important?
While brilliance, innovation and expectancy are three main factors of success in a marketing environment – paradigm shifts is the key to innovation in the workplace. Hence the need for creating corporate paradigm shifts.
For any organisation or department to maintain its innovative edge, it must constantly evaluate and refine its operations.
The effective workplace leader will value the information that is provided from statistical process controls, continuous improvement methods and benchmarking. They will inspire their people to value the constant pursuit of excellence.
Innovation is another factor
It is about adding value to something that currently exists in the workplace or creating something totally new. The innovative organisation and department will not only have “Innovation and Creativity” in their vision and mission statements, they will also live, breathe and walk the talk when it comes to implementing a creative idea into innovative reality.
It has often been said that you become what you think; the same can be applied to corporate thinking especially in a busy organisation or department. By focusing your team’s attention on the opportunities that technology is providing, they will start to look at the advantages of emerging technologies, therefore reducing the natural fear and resistance to change and innovation.
As an innovative leader, you will always look towards the “corporate horizon” to gather relevant and meaningful information so that you will be in the right place at the right time with the right innovative product.
This leads to the importance of paradigms in the workplace. Put simply they are a set of written or unwritten rules that establishes or defines boundaries. These paradigms act as “internal filters” that tell you how to behave inside the boundaries in order to be successful.
Examples of barriers to creating corporate paradigms and innovation
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
Ken Olson, President of Digital Equipment Corp (1977)
You may recognise some of these killer phrases that stifle innovation in your workplace, which are also paradigms at play:
A good idea but…
All right in theory but…
Be practical…
Costs too much…
It is not budgeted for…
We’ve done it this way for a long time and it works…
Too hard to implement…
“640K (of memory) ought to be enough for anybody.”
Bill Gates, (1981)
Characteristics of creating corporate paradigms
Paradigms are extremely common in the workplace, when used correctly they can be quite functional. Remember that the paradigm effect reverses the commonsense relationship between seeing and believing.
It is important that leaders and their teams value the fact that there is almost always more than one right answer. You would probably have observed that strongly held paradigms can lead to paradigm paralysis that will ebb the creative intelligence of your workplace.
As a leader of innovation, it is important to demonstrate paradigm pliancy (seeking new ways to do things) as this is the best strategy for to implement change and innovation. Take a moment to reflect, in the past 12 – 18 months, has your organisation or department been through any changes in structure, technology, processes or people?
You probably would have observed many colleagues who did not want to change, did not want to adapt, did not want to let go of the old to embrace the new. In short, they were clearly demonstrating non-“pliancy”.
Pliancy means flexibility, adaptability and being open-minded. Human beings can choose to change their paradigms. However, I have found that some personalities are more open and accepting of their environment than others.
For instance, have you ever noticed that the more technical an organisation or person, the more they value logic and reasoning? This often translates to a resistance to change because if it doesn’t logically make sense, it doesn’t logically fit into a box or mental mindset.
Results of creating corporate paradigms
It is fascinating to imagine that the perceptions of the world are strongly influenced by an individual’s paradigms. The same could be said about your workplace.
Consider for a moment, if we feel good using our current paradigms we naturally resist changing them – at a subconscious level. Outsiders are usually the ones creating the new paradigms. Think about the latest staff member who just started in your department, did they come in with a different mindset?
More importantly, as a workplace leader, have you created a working environment that nurtures and encourages creativity and innovation?
Can paradigms be harmful to success?
All too often well intentioned workplace initiatives can establish unintentional self-limiting beliefs. These initiatives could include day-to-day activities such as:
Management by Objectives
Total Quality Management
Various forms of Measurements
To change to a new paradigm early takes an act of faith, usually because there is no supportive evidence or factual proof of the paradigm path you are about to embark.
You will notice that those people who change to new paradigms will start to see the world and their working environment with fresh eyes. They will start to solve problems as a result of shifting to new rules.
However, it is important to remember that with new paradigms everyone and everything goes back to zero, so practitioners of the old paradigm lose much or all leverage.
The role of the leader / manager when it comes to creating corporate paradigm shifts
As an organisation or department that values innovation, it is important that your management team demonstrates paradigm pliancy if you are going to expect others to practice it. To do this, the highly effective leader will facilitate and encourage cross talk across functional work areas.
Consider selecting early adopters of innovation to be on your team as they will be the ones following you to a place that you may not naturally go to yourself.
“The quality of your thinking will determine the quality of your future.”
Greg Kinnaird, (2017)
As a leader, your greatest challenge and enemy could be with yourself and your own paradigms.
Introducing a paradigm shift requires changing to a new set of rules. Every paradigm will, in the process of finding new solutions, uncover problems it cannot solve. These unsolvable problems provide the catalyst for triggering a paradigm shift.
Paradigm shifters appear in various forms and descriptions. They could be:
A young person fresh out of training
An older person shifting fields
The non-compliant Maverick
The creative meddler
In Japan, the term for continuous improvement is Kaizen. Kaizen is the ability to make small improvements in process and products every day.
Indeed, small incremental changes can create huge shifts within any workplace that has paradigm paralysis. Every day find a way to get .01% improvement in what you do or make.
To conclude, ponder on these paradigm points:
If you have paradigm paralysis you will be hearing nothing but threats.
If you have paradigm pliancy, you will be hearing nothing but opportunity!
Managers will find by simply listening to creative ideas, they will start to gain support and commitment to leverage innovation in an already busy workplace.
