Customer Reviews

Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future

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Since it was first published, this book has become a "must read" for those who are struggling to understand what is happening and, more to the point, what will probably be happening in the global marketplace. Drucker has suggested that one of the greatest challenges for any organization is to manage the consequences and implications of a future which has already occurred. I agree. However, I also agree with Barker that it is possible to recognize what he calls a "paradigm shift": a major change of the rules and regulations that establish or define boundaries, a change which suggests that new behavior will be required within those redefined boundaries.

One of the most important concepts in the book is what Barker calls "paradigm pliancy": "the purposeful seeking out of new ways of doing things. It is an active behavior in which you challenge your paradigms [ie the status quo, assumptions and premises] by asking the Paradigm Shift Question: What do I believe is impossible to do in my field, but if it could be done, would fundamentally change my business?" Have you asked this question? Do you realize that one or more of your competitors may have already asked that question?

Although the book's subtitle is "The Business of Discovering the Future", the fact remains that (back to Drucker) the challenge is to identity and then measure the degree of probability of various contingencies...many of which may have already occurred or are now in process.

Barker asserts that every organization must anticipate and then innovate to achieve excellence in an age during which change is the only constant. He suggests that there are five components to "strategic exploration": Understanding influences which shape our perceptions, divergent thinking which enables us to consider more than "one right answer", convergent thinking which enables us to integrate data while prioritizing choices, mapping which reveals pathways from the present to the future, and finally, imaging which (with words or drawings or models) documents what is learned during the process of exploration.

This is a business "classic" which will continue to be relevant so long as leaders of organizations remain hostage to assumptions and premises which are either already obsolete now or will soon become so. What about yours?

Barker did a major service when he took Kuhn's work (about stalled thinking in science) and extended it into general social situations, across the disciplines. Think of this book as the popularized version of Kuhn. Without popularizers, most important concepts would never have achieved wide appreciation. Darwin is a prime example of someone whose name we might not know today except for popularizers.

If you have never heard of a paradigm, this book is a good introduction to the subject. Basically, a paradigm is a thought process that simplifies our thinking incorrectly. After we become familiar with the paradigm, we have to develop a new and better paradigm to deal with the issues that the paradigm does not sufficiently address.

The book focuses on how to anticipate changes in paradigms, who to look to for such new paradigms, and how to take advantage of this anticipation.

Of particular value is the section where Barker shares many examples of stalled thinking. These are brilliantly conceived, and make it easier for you to appreciate what a stall is.

My hat is off to Barker, and I am honored to have referenced his excellent contributions in The 2,000 Percent Solution.

If you are committed to overcoming stalled thinking to achieve exponential success, this book is a prerequisite.

For years I wondered why it is often very difficult to convince even highly-intelligent of a new fact or idea, no matter how much evidence there may be supporting the new concept. Then I read this book and learned that even intelligent people often find it difficult to even hear or see evidence for anything which lies outside their current mindset -- or "paradigm." Even great scientists and astute business men time and again fail to see or hear compelling evidence for new concepts that lie outside their current paradigm -- and, thus, significant ideas and opportunities are lost to them. However, in the present time of rapid change, we simply cannot continue to be held back by our old paradigms. This book is essential reading for those who wish to be able to cope with the rapidly-changing present and future.

This is actually the paperback version of "Future Edge: Discovering the New Paradigms of Success," by the same author. In fact, both books are sort of brief updates of the author's earlier book, entitled "Discovering the Business of Paradigms," written in the mid-80s.

Drawing essentially from the pioneering work of Thomas Kuhn, who wrote the classic, The Theory of Scientific Revolutions, in the 70's, this author has very artfully expounded the concept of paradigm shifting in the world of business, in contrast to the world of science. From a strategic exploration viewpoint, this is an excellent guide book.

Understanding - and mastering - your paradigms is one important thing for making progress in life and in business, but I personaly feel that the real essence of this book is succinctly captured by the author in the five strategic exploration tools outlined in the book. The five tools are intended to help you to enhance your anticipation skills. They are the real gems of the book. [Bear in mind that the author is a process futurist, unlike most other futurists who write books & who are primarily content futurists. The five specific tools mentioned in the book are the exact process tools to aid & enhance your strategic exploration. Do not get carried away by the content part of the book pertaining to some perceived trends illustrated by the author.]

In addition, the author defines the concept of paradigm very well & also elaborates at length on its key characteristics & effects, with illuminating examples.

He highlights the importance of paradigm shift & anticipation. I particularly enjoyed exploring the two specific thought-provoking questions posed by the author:

(1) What do I believe is impossible to do in my field, but, if it could be done, would fundamentally change my business?

(2) Who, outside my field, might be interested in my unsolved problems?

By thinking about & answering these two questions on your own, & against your own background, you will begin to understand the essence of the author's proposition. This will be the beginning of your own paradigm shift, as it has happened in my own life design for the second half.

I would recommend readers to buy and read this book jointly with Wayne Burkan's Wide-Angle Vision. Wayne Burkan has been a collaborator of Joel Barker, and he introduces some more new and practical ideas to the paradigm phenomenon.

Better still, view also and learn more from the videos (in which both authors are the lead facilitators), The Paradigm Prism and The Implications Wheel, which bring the whole paradigm concept to life and which showcase some more real-world business examples.

If you want to explore your future, read this book! As the author puts it, before you can create your future, you must first explore it. You must create and shape your future, otherwise some one else will!

This is one of the very few books that have impacted my life design in the second half.

Barker writes this basic guide to paradigms and shifting in plain English and uses lots of examples. Being a pradigm pioneer is a useful concept. Barker states that managers work within a paradigm, leaders lead between paradigms. There is a section on looking into the future which he calls the "art of strategic exploration". There may be a lack of "how-to" suggestions, but then, they would probably not get you into a new "how-to", which is why you would read the book.

Joel Barker does a nice job of explaining paradigm shifts and how to look for and anticipate the shifts. As he says, "You cannot know who is going to bring you your future. You cannot qualify them in advance by looking at degrees or experience, or gender, or race. You can only listen." And what do you listen for? You listen for people messing with the rules, because that is the earliest sign of significant change.

I found the book very interesting until about half way through. After that, it seemed the author had explained the bulk of his theory and had to add stuffing to complete the book. However, I do recommend this as reading to anyone interested in futurist studies. The book is very easy reading and can be read from cover to cover in about 1-4 hours for even the moderate reader.

Very few books actually change your life. But this one will. Of the many hundreds of business books I've read over the past 20 years, few have had the impact on me as this one by futurist, Joel Barker. The very concept of "paradigms" is, in and of itself, mind-altering as it creates an awareness that enables us to see the world through new eyes. This book is a classic from which you will gain new insights every time you re-read it (which I, personally, have done at least 5 times over the past 10 years since I first discovered it.) Those who ignore the concepts contained in this book will sooner or later find themselves going "back to zero." (I also highly recommend the video version as well!)

One of the most influencial books I have ever read. This blew me away with pratical new ways to look at situations. - DaveDavidson.com

Paradigmatically speaking, paradigms are everywhere in Joel Arthur Barker's pageantry to all things paradigm. In the end, I'm not really sure what this book does for you? It seems that Barker keeps the language annoyingly ultra-simplistic while trying to present the paradigm philosophy by repeating the word paradigm as much as can be linguistically saturated in the holdings of 211 pages.

Barker's concept that the most difficult problems in business are waiting for someone to come around and break all the rules and infuse new life into an organization and rewrite the procedural bible. And as soon as that is running smooth, a new paradigm is up for the offing. Along the way Barker even comes up with his own paradigm for the paragraph with these scant gems (mind you they are complete paragraphs)--

"It won't work that way next time around."

and the ever-succinct--

"The answer--Switzerland."

While he is busy rewriting the rules of English composition, Barker takes the time to hail the Japanese TQM revolution economic miracle and the eventual dominance of paradigm breaking e-publishing. The Asian market turned out to be not necessarily infallible and I can't remember the last time I wanted to read an entire book on a computer screen or LED screen. But such is the hazards of a futurist, that your future predictions can be steam-rolled ten years down the line by armchair pundits gazing through 20-20 hindsight binocs. It's not fair, but a warning is out there Barker's book is dated.

The ideas are good and well enough...don't turn a blind eye to innovation, seek out the voice in the wilderness, listen to outsiders, quality, quality, quality. But there are timeless books like Robert Pirsig's, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," that do much the same but cry out with skill and art through the lens of a story. Barker's work is thinnish, wanting for the meat and potatoes and grist of a bright idea worded well.

Paradigms are around us everywhere. They are difficult to recognize because we become used to the things that we believe are the standards.

In the current world, where "the only thing that is constant, is change" being able to spot a paradigm change in order to adapt and take advantage of it before the competition, it what can make you a real asset for your company. This book tries to teach us how to identify paradigms through many real life examples from the corporate world.

Sound confusing and subjective, and it is, but is just evolution. Adapt to changes in order to survive. But what if you don't want just to survive, but to be successful,... well then you have to be the one breaking the rules. For that, you have to learn the business of discovering the future, and that is what this book is about.