The Power of a Paradigm

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People embody many of the fundamental principles of human

effectiveness. These habits are basic; they are primary. They represent the internalization of correct principles upon which enduring happiness and success are based.

But before we can really understand these Seven Habits TM, we need to understand our own

"paradigms" and how to make a "A Paradigm Shift TM."

Both the The Character Ethic The Personality Ethic are examples of social paradigms. The word

paradigm comes from the Greek. It was originally a scientific term, and is more commonly used today

to mean a model, theory, perception, assumption, or frame of reference. In the more general sense, it's the way we "see" the world -- not in terms of our visual sense of sight, but in terms of perceiving, understanding, and interpreting.

For our purposes, a simple way to understand paradigms is to see them as maps. We all know that

"the map is not the territory." A map is simply an explanation of certain aspects of the territory. That's exactly what a paradigm is. It is a theory, an explanation, or model of something else.

Suppose you wanted to arrive at a specific location in central Chicago. A street map of the city

would be a great help to you in reaching your destination. But suppose you were given the wrong

map. Through a printing error, the map labeled "Chicago" was actually a map of Detroit. Can you imagine the frustration, the ineffectiveness of trying to reach your destination?

You might work on your behavior -- you could try harder, be more diligent, double your speed.

But your efforts would only succeed in getting you to the wrong place faster.

THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE Brought to you by FlyHeart You might work on your attitude -- you could think more positively. You still wouldn't get to the

right place, but perhaps you wouldn't care. Your attitude would be so positive, you'd be happy

wherever you were.

The point is, you'd still be lost. The fundamental problem has nothing to do with your behavior or

your attitude. It has everything to do with having a wrong map.

If you have the right map of Chicago, then diligence becomes important, and when you encounter

frustrating obstacles along the way, then attitude can make a real difference. But the first and most

important requirement is the accuracy of the map.

Each of us has many, many maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories: maps

of the way things are, or realities, and maps of the way things should be, or values. We interpret

everything we experience through these mental maps. We seldom question their accuracy; we're

usually even unaware that we have them. We simply assume that the way we see things is the way

they really are or the way they should be.

And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of those assumptions. The way we see things is the

source of the way we think and the way we act.

Before going any further, I invite you to have an intellectual and emotional experience. Take a few

seconds and just look at the picture on the following page

Now look at the picture below and carefully describe what you see

Do you see a woman? How old would you say she is? What does she look like? What is she wearing?

In what kind of roles do you see her?

You probably would describe the woman in the second picture to be about 25 years old -- very

lovely, rather fashionable with a petite nose and demure presence. If you were a single man you

might like to take her out. If you were in retailing, you might hire her as a fashion model.

But what if I were to tell you that you're wrong? What if I said this picture is of a woman in her 60s

or 70s who looks sad, has a huge nose, and certainly is no model. She's someone you probably would

help cross the street.

Who's right? Look at the picture again. Can you see the old woman? If you can't, keep trying.

Can you see her big hook nose? Her shawl?

If you and I were talking face to face, we could discuss the picture. You could describe what you

see to me, and I could talk to you about what I see. We could continue to communicate until you

clearly showed me what you see in the picture and I clearly showed you what I see.

Because we can't do that, turn to page 45 and study the picture there and then look at this picture

again. Can you see the old woman now? It's important that you see her before you continue reading.

I first encountered this exercise many years ago at the Harvard Business School. The instructor was

using it to demonstrate clearly and eloquently that two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet

both be right. It's not logical; it's psychological.

He brought into the room a stack of large cards, half of which had the image of the young woman

you saw on page 25, and the other half of which had the old woman on page 45.

He passed them out to the class, the picture of the young woman to one side of the room and the

picture of the old woman to the other. He asked us to look at the cards, concentrate on them for about 10 seconds and then pass them back in. He then projected upon the screen the picture you saw on

page 26 combining both images and asked the class to describe what they saw. Almost every person

in that class who had first seen the young woman's image on a card saw the young woman in the

picture. And almost every person in that class who had first seen the old woman's image on a card

saw an old woman in the picture.

THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE Brought to you by FlyHeart The professor then asked one student to explain what he saw to a student on the opposite side of the

room. As they talked back and forth, communication problems flared up.

"What do you mean, 'old lady'? She couldn't be more than 20 or 22 years old!

"Oh, come on. You have to be joking. She's 70 -- could be pushing 80!"

"What's the matter with you? Are you blind? This lady is young, good looking. I'd like to take

her out. She's lovely."

"Lovely? She's an old hag.

The arguments went back and forth, each person sure of, and adamant in, his or her position. All

of this occurred in spite of one exceedingly important advantage the students had -- most of them knew

early in the demonstration that another point of view did, in fact, exist -- something many of us would

never admit. Nevertheless, at first, only a few students really tried to see this picture from another

frame of reference.

After a period of futile communication, one student went up to the screen and pointed to a line on

the drawing. "There is the young woman's necklace." The other one said, "No, that is the old woman's mouth." Gradually, they began to calmly discuss specific points of difference, and finally one student, and then another, experienced sudden recognition when the images of both came into focus. Through

continued calm, respectful, and specific communication, each of us in the room was finally able to see

the other point of view. But when we looked away and then back, most of us would immediately see

the image we had been conditioned to see in the 10-second period of time.

I frequently use this perception demonstration in working with people and organizations because it

yields so many deep insights into both personal and interpersonal effectiveness. It shows, first of all, how powerfully conditioning affects our perceptions, our paradigms. If 10 seconds can have that kind

of impact on the way we see things, what about the conditioning of a lifetime? The influences in our

lives -- family, school, church, work environment, friends, associates, and current social paradigms such as the personality ethic -- all have made their silent unconscious impact on us and help shape our frame

of reference, our paradigms, our maps.

It also shows that these paradigms are the source of our attitudes and behaviors. We cannot act

with integrity outside of them. We simply cannot maintain wholeness if we talk and walk differently

than we see. If you were among the 90 percent who typically see the young woman in the composite

picture when conditioned to do so, you undoubtedly found it difficult to think in terms of having to

help her cross the street. Both your attitude about her and your behavior toward her had to be

congruent with the way you saw her.

This brings into focus one of the basic flaws of the personality ethic. To try to change outward

attitudes and behaviors does very little good in the long run if we fail to examine the basic paradigms

from which those attitudes and behaviors flow.

This perception demonstration also shows how powerfully our paradigms affect the way we interact

with other people. As clearly and objectively as we think we see things, we begin to realize that others see them differently from their own apparently equally clear and objective point of view. "Where we stand depends on where we sit."

Each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case.

We see the world, not as it is, but as we are -- or, as we are conditioned to see it. When we open our mouths to describe what we see, we in effect describe ourselves, our perceptions, our paradigms.

When other people disagree with us, we immediately think something is wrong with them. But, as the

demonstration shows, sincere, clearheaded people see things differently, each looking through the

unique lens of experience.

This does not mean that there are no facts. In the demonstration, two individuals who initially

have been influenced by different conditioning pictures look at the third picture together. They are

THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE Brought to you by FlyHeart now both looking at the same identical facts -- black lines and white spaces -- and they would both

acknowledge these as facts. But each person's interpretation of these facts represents prior experiences, and the facts have no meaning whatsoever apart from the interpretation.

The more aware we are of our basic paradigms, maps, or assumptions, and the extent to which we

have been influenced by our experience, the more we can take responsibility for those paradigms,

examine them, test them against reality, listen to others and be open to their perceptions, thereby

getting a larger picture and a far more objective view.

The Power of a Paradigm Shift

Perhaps the most important insight to be gained from the perception demonstration is in the area of

paradigm shifting, what we might call the "Aha!" experience when someone finally "sees" the composite picture in another way. The more bound a person is by the initial perception, the more powerful the

"Aha!" experience is. It's as though a light were suddenly turned on inside.

The term Paradigm Shift was introduced by Thomas Kuhn in his highly influential landmark book,

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn shows how almost every significant breakthrough in the

field of scientific endeavor is first a break with tradition, with old ways of thinking, with old paradigms.

For Ptolemy, the great Egyptian astronomer, the earth was the center of the universe. But

Copernicus created a Paradigm Shift, and a great deal of resistance and persecution as well, by placing

the sun at the center. Suddenly, everything took on a different interpretation.

The Newtonian model of physics was a clockwork paradigm and is still the basis of modern

engineering. But it was partial, incomplete. The scientific world was revolutionized by the

Einsteinian paradigm, the relativity paradigm, which had much higher predictive and explanatory

value.

Until the germ theory was developed, a high percentage of women and children died during

childbirth, and one could understand why. In military skirmishes, more men were dying from small

wounds and diseases than from the major traumas on the front lines. But as soon as the germ theory

was developed, a whole new paradigm, a better, improved way of understanding what was happening

made dramatic, significant medical improvement possible.

The United States today is the fruit of a Paradigm Shift. The traditional concept of government for

centuries had been a monarchy, the divine right of kings. Then a different paradigm was developed --

government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And a constitutional democracy was

born, unleashing tremendous human energy and ingenuity, and creating a standard of living, of

freedom and liberty, of influence and hope unequaled in the history of the world.

Not all Paradigm Shifts are in positive directions. As we have observed, the shift from the

character ethic to the personality ethic has drawn us away from the very roots that nourish true success

and happiness.

But whether they shift us in positive or negative directions, whether they are instantaneous or

developmental, Paradigm Shifts move us from one way of seeing the world to another. And those

shifts create powerful change. Our paradigms, correct or incorrect, are the sources of our attitudes and behaviors, and ultimately our relationships with others.

I remember a mini-Paradigm Shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York.

People were sitting quietly -- some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their

eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene.

Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and

rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.

The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The

children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people's papers. It was very

THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE Brought to you by FlyHeart disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing.

It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive to let his

children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience and restraint, I turned to him and said, "Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn't control them a little more?"

The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said

softly, "Oh, you're right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital

where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think, and I guess they don't know

how to handle it either."

Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? My paradigm shifted. Suddenly I saw things

differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently. My irritation vanished. I didn't have to worry

about controlling my attitude or my behavior; my heart was filled with the man's pain. Feelings of

sympathy and compassion flowed freely. "Your wife just died? Oh, I'm so sorry. Can you tell me

about it? What can I do to help?" Everything changed in an instant.

Many people experience a similar fundamental shift in thinking when they face a life-threatening

crisis and suddenly see their priorities in a different light, or when they suddenly step into a new role, such as that of husband or wife, parent or grandparent, manager or leader.

We could spend weeks, months, even years laboring with the personality ethic trying to change our

attitudes and behaviors and not even begin to approach the phenomenon of change that occurs

spontaneously when we see things differently.

It becomes obvious that if we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, we can perhaps

appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. But if we want to make significant, quantum

change, we need to work on our basic paradigms.

In the words of Thoreau, "For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root." We can only achieve quantum improvements in our lives as we quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior and get to work on the root, the paradigms from which our attitudes and

behaviors flow.

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1046