Hunter Unshackled Leadership

Building Businesses Based on Faith, Trust, Possibility and Abundance
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9745111-1-5
Verlag: Hunter Alliance Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 250 Seiten

Companies get stuck because they think about their issues in a way that is incompatible with the results they want. This book shifts the thinking of managment teams so it is consistent with their vision of the future. It liberates the leadership group from the conventional way of thinking that obstructs breakthrough outcomes and extraordinary performance.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hunter, Scott

Leseproben

Step 1: Wake up to the fact that
there is an existing paradigm Chapter 1 – The Power of Paradigms In his book Powers of the Mind, Adam Smith defines a paradigm as a shared set of assumptions or beliefs. What an enlightening definition! An assumption is information we take for granted. If we take a set of beliefs for granted and all share that set of beliefs, we have a paradigm. The fact that people thought the earth was flat in the 1400s is a perfect example. Since everyone took this “fact” for granted, it became the dominant paradigm of the day. Smith adds, “A paradigm is the way we perceive the world; like water to the fish. A paradigm explains the world to us and helps us to predict its behavior. When we are in the middle of a paradigm, it is hard to imagine any other paradigm.” Smith’s analogy of a paradigm being like “water to the fish” is interesting because he’s suggesting that a fish doesn’t know it’s swimming in water. In order for a fish to know that an environment other than water exists, it would need to come out of the water. Unless that happens, the fish is as blind to the fact that it is swimming in water as the bird is to the fact that it is flying in air. The closing sentence in Smith’s definition adds the final touch to our fish/bird analogy. When you are in the middle of a paradigm, and that paradigm is all you know, it’s hard to imagine any other way to think! Another Look In his book An Incomplete Guide to the Future, Willis Harmon defines a paradigm as “the basic way of perceiving, thinking, valuing and doing associated with a particular vision of reality.” He adds, “A dominant paradigm is seldom, if ever, stated explicitly; it exists as unquestioned; it is a tacit understanding that is transmitted through culture and to succeeding generations through direct experience rather than being taught.” Harmon extends Smith’s definition by his statement that a paradigm is the way we think given our vision of reality. Because we can’t imagine life in any other way, no one questions the paradigm. It just is. Armed with those definitions, it is clear that at all times we live in a paradigm that impacts our everyday lives. We need to understand this for several reasons. The paradigm we live in is invisible yet it’s as present as the air we breathe. Because it shapes our thinking, values and actions, it literally uses our lives. It tells us what we can and cannot think, what we can and cannot do and what we will and will not believe. For example, let’s take the fifteenth century idea that the earth was flat. It’s not that people in the 1400s believed the earth was flat. To them, the earth was flat. It’s doubtful that one person said to another, “I believe the earth is flat. What do you believe?” The belief just was. What don’t you do when the earth is flat? Sail close to the edge! Therefore people in those days didn’t. Here’s an example from the early 1950s which also shows how a paradigm shapes our thinking. Back then, conventional wisdom said, “It’s impossible for a human being to run a four-minute mile. You try to run that fast, your heart will explode.” Wow! What don’t you do when a task is impossible? Try! Was it impossible? Of course not. However, if you think it’s impossible or that your heart will explode if you try, that thought, true or not, shapes your actions. When Roger Bannister finally ran a mile in under four minutes, it didn’t take long for dozens of others to do the same. Today, the accomplishment is commonplace. My favorite example of the power of a paradigm comes from the watch manufacturing industry. In 1963, Switzerland manufactured 85% of the world’s watches. Five years later, that same country manufactured just 15% of the world’s watches. Over 30,000 Swiss workers lost their jobs. What happened? The quartz crystal digital watch came along. Many people mistakenly think the Japanese invented the digital watch because that’s where it was first manufactured. In reality, a group of Swiss engineers invented it. When the engineers presented their invention to higher-ups in the Swiss watch industry, the executives treated it as a toy and failed to take it seriously. Why? To them, the new device didn’t fit within their paradigm. What happened? That year, like every other year, Switzerland hosted a watch show. People came from all over the world to see the latest watches. The Swiss inventors displayed their “toy” without any thought that it could be taken seriously. However, when attendees from Texas Instruments and Seiko saw the “toy,” they saw much more. They took the proverbial ball and ran with it. The rest is history. Thirty thousand people lost their jobs and a country lost a big chunk of its industry, all because of the power of a paradigm. What Does This Mean? A paradigm acts as an information filter that determines what we perceive as reality. What may be perfectly obvious to people with one paradigm may be completely invisible to people with a different paradigm. Finally, and most important, our paradigm determines what we can and cannot accomplish. For example, if you take a piece of land measuring one hundred yards, mark off lines every ten yards, put goal posts at opposite ends, and then give everyone baseball gloves and bats, they will find it difficult to play baseball because the field isn’t set up for that game. So it is in life. It’s important to understand that we live in a particular paradigm. It’s neither good nor bad, neither right nor wrong. It is what it is. Yet the paradigm you and I live in today has as much impact on us as the 1400s paradigm had on the people who lived then. The current paradigm makes us be and act in a particular way. Like water to a fish, we can’t even see it! Let me ask you a question: Are you clear that you have many beliefs? By the way, a belief is a thought you repeat to yourself over and over because you think it’s the truth. Have you ever asked yourself: how come I believe what I believe? Probably not. To drive home the point, you didn’t even decide to believe almost everything you believe! You were born into a paradigm that had an already existing set of beliefs and you bought into virtually every one of them without any thought as to their validity or usefulness. If that’s not bad enough, the vast majority of what society trained you to believe either isn’t the truth or isn’t very useful, which is why for so many leaders, life is like looking for downtown Chicago with a street map of Detroit. It is why ninety percent of all businesses that start each year fail within the first ten years. It is why leaders often feel like they have shackles on as they attempt to lead their organizations into the future. So neither you nor I are responsible for our world being the way it is. It was that way when we arrived and, just like everyone else, we were trained to operate in it. As we will discuss more fully as we proceed, the existing paradigm, the one we live in here and now, is not set up to create enthusiastic, confident, optimistic, appreciative and happy people working together on behalf of a future they have all committed themselves to. On the contrary, it’s designed to create pettiness, gossip, competition, conflict, arguments and righteousness. How do I know that? Because that’s precisely what we all too frequently have! If we keep operating in the existing paradigm as we have in the past, we’ll keep getting more of what we already have. Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again while thinking we’ll get a different result. My preferred version of that is: insanity is being the same person we’ve always been while thinking we’ll get a different result. When you think about it, we’re all a little insane, aren’t we? Consider this story. A man was walking down a dark street late one evening. As he approached a lamppost, he saw a second man frantically searching for something on the ground. Not seeing anything, the first man said to the second, “Excuse me sir, did you lose something?” The second man replied, “Yes, I lost my keys.” The first man joined the search. After a time he said, “I don’t see anything. Are you sure you lost them here?” The second man replied, “Actually, no. I think I lost them down the street.” Bewildered, the first man asked, “Well then, why are you looking here?” The second man answered, “Because this is where the light is!” The same thing happens in life. Even though we don’t find the joy, aliveness, fun and team spirit we want at work, we keep looking for it in the same place we’ve always looked. John Stuart Mill, the 19th century philosopher and political economist, said, “When society requires to be rebuilt, there is no use in attempting to rebuild it on the old plan. No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.” That’s what you need to do as you lead your organization into the future: Initiate a great change in the fundamental constitution of your thinking. Anything less is like putting a bandage on a broken arm. It might look good but it won’t get the job...