Martin Training Associates

Innovation:
Paradigm Busting Workshop

Workshop Description

A paradigm is a system of thought which governs how we perceive a segment of reality. In other words, it is a filter through which we view the world. Our paradigms are typically subconscious and so we don’t see them. They just feel like “the way it is” or “the truth”. That makes them difficult to identify and deconstruct. In addition, we form attachments to them and build structures around them that create resistant to seeing and then shifting them.

This one-day workshop follows the Breakthrough Thinking workshop. (They can be done at the same time, or at different times, but participants must take Breakthrough Thinking first.) The skills learned in breakthrough thinking are expanded upon and then applied to the understanding and deconstruction of paradigms.

Participants will be introduced to the world of paradigms, and how they shape the way we think. They will examine the part that paradigms play in creating inventions or reinventions. Most of the workshop will be taken up with the deconstruction of a case study paradigm so that participants learn how to identify the unsolved problems, the component parts (boundaries, concepts, rules and assumptions) of any paradigm, challenge paradigm assumptions,, etc. Participants can then take their paradigm busting skills back to the work place and apply them to the paradigms that are blocking their abilities to create innovations needed by the organization.

Rationale for Training

Deconstruction of a paradigm is fundamentally straight-forward but it’s very difficult to actually do. It requires you to step outside your own thought process and examine it in a way that is unfamiliar to most people. In addition, most people have unconscious resistance to revealing and examining elements of the paradigm that they have become attached to – that threaten them if they were to change it in some way. This workshop provides a way for participants to practice paradigm busting on a “safe” paradigm that holds little or no emotional charge (at least not for them). This enables them to build their paradigm busting muscle in a safe, and guided environment.

Target Audience

Anyone interested in busting existing paradigms.

Workshop Length

One day.

Goals

  1. Understand the importance of paradigms in creating innovations
  2. Develop the skills of a “Paradigm Buster”

Objectives

  1. Understand the difference between a pattern and a paradigm
  2. Understand the importance of paradigms in creating innovations
  3. Learn to deconstruct an existing paradigm:
    • Learn to identify the problems not solved by the existing paradigm
    • Learn to identify supporting technologies
    • Understand the role the existing paradigm plays in the larger paradigm
    • Learn to identify the boundaries, concepts, rules and assumptions of the paradigm
  4. Learn how to challenge assumptions of the paradigm
  5. Learn how to find the pivotal assumptions

Materials Required

  • PowerPoint Presentation on Paradigm Busting with copies of slides for each participant included in Participant Manual
  • Case Study, exercise sheets and handouts