Leadership Requires Creating New Work Paradigms for the Future!
What is a paradigm?
A paradigm is a widely accepted example, belief, concept or set of rules.
Uncertain times require a shift to new paradigms. Paradigms are generated by a perspective which means that we need to shift our thinking to shift our perspective to change the paradigm. This allows us to look at the world through a different lens.
“Paradigms can block creative solutions to problems” - Joel Barker
We’re hearing in our coaching work with leaders either 1:1, and in our group courses, it’s time to create new models and think differently in order to be ready for the future of work. We encourage leaders to do this by helping them see things differently. Leaders today need to take a hard look at the current reality by sharing and working through present-day scenarios while creating a vision of the future regarding strategy, culture, and structure.
As a result, there a need for creating new paradigms in response to the fact that change isn’t standing still. Our post-pandemic world has accelerated change considerably and has created megatrends for the future of work.
What does this mean for leadership? If you’re a leader you, take a look at these six main themes for the Future of Work. (According to GetSmarter, a 2U Inc. brand)
To manage all six of these moving parts requires having the ability to see things differently, it’s important to acknowledge that everyone has their individual perceptual filter which may block the view and shut down the ability to see other perceptual filters.
PERSPECTIVES:
How can leaders understand how others might be perceiving the issue? The leader fully explores their own perspective. The next step is to ask them to think how others involved may be looking at the situation. Our goal is to move from a self-centric viewpoint to one where the thoughts, opinions, and feelings of others are central. In specific scenarios, you may have heard “how” someone acted. The next step is to follow up now with “why” they acted that way. Ask the following questions:
What about your behavior might have triggered that reaction?
How do you think they saw the situation? Differently than you?
Do they give you clues about what would work for them?
As we help leaders prepare for this rapidly accelerating change world and be prepared for what the future of work may hold, leaders need to move the needle of their perspective to one that is more centric or as we like to call it, a “plaid” point of view.
Our tool of choice is the Birkman Method which presents a Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow perspective. Leaders need to move to the “plaid” center as shown in the following chart and embrace all four perspectives. The diagonal opposite is a great way to expand the perspective – if you lean more towards the Blue quadrant, you may tend to overlook the importance of a Red operations approach. Green may enjoy the storytelling style but may overlook important metrics and analytics the Yellow provides. Red’s blind spot may be stepping back to explore the strategy and future vision of the Blue quadrant. Yellow could collaborate with Green to add the story to the metrics.
What can you do to shift to a “plaid” perspective?
Establish a rehearsal strategy to practice integrating each of these perspectives into your daily leadership plan.
If you have your Birkman report, you can create your “script”. Schedule a touch-base call for help with creating the “script.
If you haven’t completed the Birkman questionnaire, give us a call and set up a complimentary 30-minute session where we can provide you with additional information and hook you up with the Birkman link.
Leave a comment and let us know which perspective you tend to operate from, and which one may be a blind spot.