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If you want explore your own future...read this book! 2005-06-14
This is the author's first pioneering book, which he wrote after leaving the teaching world to embark on a career as a strategy consultant/process futurist in the early 80's. This was also one of the very first few books that propelled me into the world of strategic exploration.
Drawing essentially from the scholarly 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 shift & pliancy 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. 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, as well as enlightening comparison/contrast of paradigm pliancy vs> paradigm paralysis.
He highlights the importance of paradigm shift, pliancy & 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 challenging 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 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!
[The updated versions of this book include the hardcover 'Future Edge: Discovering the New Paradigms of Success,' & the paperback 'Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future.' Also, video versions are available from www.atsmedia.com.]
Paradigms predictions of the 90s 2005-02-26
12. Solar/Hydrogen/fission: These three elements combine in patterns in the trend toward energy conservationism. All three elements cost more than conventional energy production methods. I think the author missed the energy paradigm and should have listed coal, wind power and geothermal as emerge sources of energy.
13. Time Taxes: The process requires Senior citizens to go to schools in their area and do various jobs, in exchange they are paid by have their property tax reduces allowing them to keep their homes. High property taxes against the Seniors demonstrates a stronger trend towards socialized redistribution of wealth and threatens their constitutional rights of life, liberty, and property.
14. The buffalo commons: Frank and Deborah Popper predicts "large chunks of the rural west will be abandoned and eventually drift into public or quasi-public holdings." The land will be accumulated and returned to its natural state; the Buffalo commons is a pattern shift in the agricultural community as hundreds of thousands of Buffalo thundering across the plains.
15. Education K through competence: Many of the graduating high school students can to read, write, or compute. The value of their high school diploma, in real world competition is zero. The K-competence movement attempts to reverse the trend by measuring student performance levels and retaining students until they achieve the competence level desired. I think the trend seems less jobs for graduating high school seniors and more outsourcing too third world countries with higher K scores.
16. Magical, mystical polymers: Plastics that carry electricity better than electricity (IBM polymer-nanotechnology-lithograph technology for circuit design); arranged molecules in parallel orientation (Paul Smith - plastics ten times the strength of steel); build bridges, buildings, and cars out of plastic. I think the most exciting idea the author suggests is using polymers as a material coating for chips to make electrical connections between the transistors.
17. Nature's wisdom: animals may know what plants to eat to cure certain diseases. Animal intelligence is more than language skills.
18. Negawatts: Amory Lovins began in paradigm shift back into the 1970s. Lovins started with the assumption that in the United States electrical energy consumption could be reduced by 70 percent with no less quality of life. Lovins points out fact about energy savings through energy efficiency by improvements in lighting systems and efficient motors.
19. New building materials: The problem: Too many people are living homeless or in structures that don't get adequate shelter. Robert Gross, former NASA engineer has designed a machine that can make adobe block from a mixture of mud and machine to squeeze out the water using a high-pressure hydraulic ram. Each block is twelve by ten by four inches and weights about thirty pounds. The cost is about 1/20th of any other building material on the market today. Wolf Hilbertz discovered how to grow structures beneath the sea using steel mesh and low levels of electricity. The resulting material is like limestone and can withstand more than four thousand pounds of pressure per inch and does not weaken when dried.
20. Gaia (The earth is alive and her name is Gaia) Robert Loveland found himself asking questions about the earth like "What are the key measures one could take that would prove, irrefutably, that there was life on earth". Loveland discovered many indicators of life, such as: the chemical imbalance of the atmosphere and an extremely stable level of temperature; the richness of life at every level; a mechanism that seemed to create an ideal condition for life (oxygen production systems, CO2 absorbing systems, and salt capturing systems). Loveland concluded that all living organism where collective integrated into a larger organism called the biosphere.
This new paradim is forcing biologists and geologist to fundamentally readdress perceptions of the planet.
21. Loans to the third world power: The poor of the world are credit ready. The loans are small and periodic. Some loans involve more than one person and rely on peer pressure to achieve the 99 percent repayment on the loan.
22. Fractals and Chaos Mathematics: A new form of mathematics. The author incorrectly identified the new math as fractals and chaos. Stephan Wolfram, the inventor of Mathematica and it based on discovers from a programming technique called cellular automation. Wolfram published a book called "A new Kind of Science", some two decades in the making, and claims to be redefining the foundations of virtually every branch of science. Wolfram noticed pattern in the cellular automation and started to wonder if nature follow rules that created similar recognizable patterns. Wolfram advocates that instead of looking for a complex equation that explains everything, they instead should be looking for a cellular automation that corresponds to what they are observing.
23. Personalized production: A move to deliver customer satisfaction by personal production.
24. Masters and patrons: Bill Weimer abstracted from European history seeing two groups to learn from masters and patrons. The masters of the modern age are the works, engineers, scientist, and salespeople. Good patrons optimize the output of the masters. The masters and patrons are form a coequal partnership. Patrons get the Masters the resources from which the masterpieces are created.
Paradigms: Who, What, Where, When and Why 2003-04-14
Have you ever had an unconscious thought that could possibly change the world? Well, this is one book you won't want to miss. Barker's knowledge about paradigms will definitely assist with transforming your, "big ideas" from thoughts to reality. "Future Edge" can take any organization through a successful reformation. For instance, being an administrator in a rather large urban school district with magnet schools being the "heart" of racial integration, paradigm shifts are an on-going necessity. Barker's book has truly answered the five "W's" of paradigms.
WHO: The "Paradigm Shifters" have the big idea, however, the "Paradigm Pioneers" are the individuals who have the courage, faith and "intuitive judgment" to ensure a successful paradigm shift. Segregated schools are simply not right, and as pioneers, integrating our school is a vision that is "not an act of the head, but an act of the heart."
WHAT: What "set of rules or boundaries," or simply stated by Barker, paradigms, are in need of a facelift in your organization? Federal mandates stated that busing can no longer be the means of integration, however, our schools must reflect our world today; diverse. This mandated created a sense of urgency (Kotter) in the change process.
WHERE: "To not quest for excellence might be considered sacrilege." Raising the expectation of what success is in your organization will inevitably create a need for a paradigm shift. Current enrollment is 92% African-American, 2% Hispanic, and 6% Caucasian. Yes, this is 130% better then years previous, yet it should not be considered as integrated. The where is most likely within your organization as well!
WHEN: "Paradigm Paralysis" is what an organization will face if there is no "paradigm pioneer" to lead the conscious thought to real life. "A leader is a person you would follow to a place you wouldn't go yourself."
WHY: In conclusion, if you read this review and are highly curious as to the paradigm shift that must take place to integrate the school that I work in, then Barker has definitely fulfilled his mission of taking an individual through the process of "Discovering the New Paradigms of Success."
Helpful framework but lots of missed forecasts  2003-01-02
To its credit, ten years after this book was first published, it remains a commendable work of business futurism. One significant exception to this assessment comes from the poor record of Barker's identification of existing and coming trends for the 1990s. By now, we can see the weakness of "gambling instead of taxes", "national health care" (surely the result of Barker himself falling into a paradigm trap), "solar, hydrogen, fission" (at least ten years too early), "time taxes", "virtual reality", and others that didn't make it very far. Barker, however, is not a prophet but a guide to a more expansive way of thinking about the present and the future. Barker brings philosopher Thomas Kuhn's work on paradigms into focus with clear applications to business and any form of strategic thinking. Definitely merits a quick read by anyone interested in thinking more effectively about the future.
If you want to explore your future, read this book! 2000-04-06
Actually, this book is a sort of brief update of the author's earlier book, entitled Discovering the Business of Paradigms, & published 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 shift & pliancy 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. 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, as well as enlightening comparison/contrast of paradigm pliancy vs. paradigm paralysis.
He highlights the importance of paradigm shift, pliancy & 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 challenging questions on your own, & against your own background, you will begin to understand & appreciate 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 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!
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