Saturday, 15 March 2014

Avoid Changing the Paradigm

Paradigm changes are rare - and when they occur, they can be very disruptive and threatening to those with a significant (financial or emotional) investment in the status quo.

They are also unexpected - almost by definition.  'Normal' thinking tends to be analytical and constructive - and we tend to get what we expect to get.  Whoever comes up with paradigm-changing thought arrives somewhere he/she never expected to reach.

Change is a spectrum - with paradigm change at one end and the status quo at the other.   Just 'short' of paradigm change is 'disruptive innovation' - often creating 'winners' and 'losers' by changing some important factor of a process or a whole industry.

If you want to avoid the signifiant disruptive threat that comes at this end of the spectrum, you'd better secure continuous innovation - to give you controlled, stepwise - though still radical - change.

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