When old ways of working or patterns of behavior aren’t effective, consider making a radical change.
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Thinking outside the box. Making a paradigm shift. Looking at the problem in a brand-new way. Taking a fresh approach. These expressions all refer to changing how we look at a difficult problem to solve it in a more effective manner.
People naturally get stuck in their established ways of thinking. It’s all we know at any given time. But sometimes that's not sufficient. Instead of continuing to pursue the current strategy that doesn’t work, we must shake up our thinking, sometimes radically.
Thinking Inside the Box, Literally
I observed some notable examples of paradigm shifts when I was in graduate school in organic chemistry. My PhD thesis advisor, Stan, was particularly adept at approaching problems with a fresh perspective.
As just one example, our research group used an electronic interface box with numerous dials and switches on the front panel to collect data from experiments and transfer it to a computer for analysis. One day, Stan asked me and my lab mate to consider what capabilities a next-generation interface box should have. We carefully drew a diagram of a new front panel with even more switches and dials that provided a broader range of options. When we gave Stan our diagram, he said, “Okay,” and smiled his little knowing smile.
A few months later, Stan showed us the new interface box. It had absolutely nothing on the front panel! No dials, knobs, switches, lights, or meters—just bare metal. The interface was controlled by software on the computer. Instead of the limited options we could build into the hardware with knobs and switches, the new box had a nearly limitless range of capabilities.
This was a classic paradigm shift in thinking: moving from the design restrictions of hardware into the vast flexibility that software control permits. It had never dawned on my lab mate and me to make such a profound change.
Experiences like this demonstrate the narrowness of thought to which even intelligent and educated people are subject. We are both enabled and constrained by our knowledge, experience, and creativity. Sometimes we need an outside perspective to suggest a strikingly different way to do something. The trick is to cultivate your self-awareness so you consider truly novel strategies when necessary. Stan’s guidance on some similar examples helped me attune my thinking to consider paradigm shifts.
A Personal Motivation for Change
Sometimes a paradigm shift jumps right out at you, as in “necessity is the mother of invention.” When I was ready to leave the University of Illinois and find a job, I had to schedule campus interviews with recruiters from potential employers. Historically, students had signed up for the interviews they wanted in what amounted to a footrace, every week for months.
Very early on Monday mornings, all the students would line up outside a gymnasium where that week’s corporate recruiters sat at tables. When the doors opened, you would race to the table for the company you were most interested in and sign up for an interview time slot. Then you’d run to the end of the line for your second-favorite company, and so on, until all the slots were filled.
This seemed ridiculous to me. I didn’t think the next forty years of my career should be determined by how early I was willing to get up on one particular day each week to wait in line. I proposed a new approach.
With the cooperation of a receptive placement office manager, I wrote a software application for interview scheduling. Students could use this app to indicate their priority preferences for the companies with which they wanted to interview in a given week. The app used a lottery approach to assign students to their first-priority companies, then to their second-priority companies, and so on. If you didn’t get an interview at your first-choice company because they ran out of time slots, you went to the head of the line for your second choice.
This strategy seemed much fairer to me. It caused far less frustration among the students who were scrambling for jobs. The chemistry department’s placement office used this app for years. Plus, it worked out well for me. I had a personal motivation to look for a better way than racing from line to line first thing in the morning.
Worth A Thousand Words
Early in my subsequent career as a software engineer, I took a course titled “Structured Analysis and Design.” The premise of the course was that there is great value in drawing certain kinds of diagrams—visual models—of proposed software systems before you start coding. I immediately incorporated modeling into my software development work. This course substantially changed how I approached software; that’s a paradigm shift.
As my career evolved, I began concentrating in the area of software requirements. Every project has requirements, which describe the capabilities and characteristics of the product you’re building. I quickly discovered that modeling is a powerful tool when exploring requirements. Drawing pictures is a great way to communicate, to supplement—but not replace—the natural-language text that people traditionally use to record requirements. Written requirements provide the details, but models provide numerous complementary views of a system’s processes, data, and events.
In my experience, though, few business analysts routinely practice modeling. It seems to be too radical a change for many of them to adopt comfortably. When I present a training class on requirements, I’m always delighted to see students’ eyes light up when they realize how much modeling would help them.
Incremental improvement approaches often get the job done. You learn a little something new and explore a modest extension to your current work. But also look for opportunities to radically change how you work, to solve a thorny problem your current strategies can’t handle.
Look for a creative colleague to kick ideas around with. One of you might say, “Here’s a wild idea. What if we tried ...?” The suggestion might sound absurd or impossible at first. But it just might solve your problem in a better way.
Paradigm Shifts at Home
The notion of a paradigm shift doesn’t just apply in the workplace. Perhaps you and your family are trapped in some old practices or negative behaviors. Maybe the whole crowd has convened at the shore the first week of August for decades. But as the years pass, family members become less enthusiastic about coming. Family customs and rituals are fun and comfortable, but there’s a fine line between a ritual and a rut. It’s a big planet; perhaps the family would like to check out some other part of it next year.
Or perhaps the same conflicts arise among family members over and over. Can you identify and address the root causes of the conflict? Can you decide to just turn over a new leaf, forgetting past offenses and looking to the future? Maybe some new ideas about relationships, responsibilities, and problem-solving strategies would be more constructive than harboring persistent resentments over long-past deeds.
Breaking out of a historical mold stretches people’s comfort level, but that can be an eye-opening and enriching experience. Look for opportunities to visit a new area, try some novel experience, or eat something you wouldn’t ordinarily touch. For instance, supermarkets are filled with thousands of products I’ve never tried. I recently decided to take home something new each time I go shopping. I don’t enjoy every new product, but it’s a fun shift in my behavior.
When old ways of thinking don’t work well, try something new and different, maybe even off the wall. You might like the results.
Author: Karl Wiegers
This article is adapted from Pearls from Sand: How Small Encounters Lead to Powerful Lessons by Karl Wiegers. Karl is the author of numerous other books, including Software Requirements (with Joy Beatty), Software Requirements Essentials (with Candase Hokanson), The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things, Software Development Pearls, and Successful Business Analysis Consulting.