Consulting Journal: Words - 'Paradigm' and 'mindset'

Words: 'Paradigm' and 'mindset'

by David Blakey

My paradigm can be your mindset. Find out what these words imply as well as what they mean.

[Monday 22 October 2001]

Consultants use the words "mindset" and "paradigm" when they are speaking. If you refer to a "mindset", for example, you are talking about a habit of thinking. If you mention a "paradigm", you are talking about a pattern of behaviour, or a set of rules for working.

Mindsets

Usually, when we are speaking, we use "soft" words for things that we like. We may talk with approval of a habit of thought as "a way of thinking" or "an approach". It is usually when we dislike a habit of thought that we call it "a mindset". Here are two examples.

Your approach in building business cases is to consider all elements of the business.

You have a mindset that is focused on single functions.

The speaker in the first instance seems to approve of the client's "approach", while the speaker in the second seems to disapprove of the client's "mindset".

When these consultants prepare written reports for their clients, you might still read "Your approach ... " but you are unlikely to read "You have a mindset ... ". The mention of a mindset implies that the client is doing something wrong. It might even imply that the client is mentally impaired, or, at least, not very bright. This is not what consultants write about their clients. It is acceptable for consultants to tell their clients home truths in private meetings. It is not acceptable to do it in written documents, that may be widely distributed or even released into the public domain. So consultants rarely write about things that their clients do wrong as if these things are wrong: they write that these things could be improved or enhanced or enriched. As a result, a written report is unlikely to mention the client's "mindset".

I am not saying that this approach - of consultants talking in one way and writing in another - is right or wrong. I am saying that it must be recognized as a fact of life.

Paradigms

The situation is a little different with the word "paradigm". Strictly speaking, a paradigm is simply a basis for working. Sometimes it is called a framework. A paradigm is a pattern or example. One paradigm for a tiger is "cat", and the same paradigm can be applied to lions, panthers and to domestic cats. Given our shared view of the paradigm "cat", we can test other animals to determine if they conform to that paradigm. Cheetahs do; foxes do not. The "cat" paradigm will not include a description of stripes or spots; it will, however, contain basic descriptive elements about body shape, food, methods of acquiring food, grooming, ears and paws.

In business, "paradigm" has the same meaning. It is a basic pattern for a business process, activity or task. So, process manufacturing has a paradigm; financial reporting has a paradigm; marketing has a paradigm. Whatever it is that a company makes and however it makes it, its process manufacturing will have certain qualities that are shared with all other process manufacturing. The paradigm is not the same as the dictionary definition. If it were, then the paradigm for a cat would simply be that it was a member of the genus Felis. Any business process, activity or task has characteristics beyond its dictionary definition. These characteristics are basic assumptions. They are fundamental qualities.

When we say that a paradigm is flawed, therefore, we are not talking about the way that the business process is implemented. We mean that one of the process's basic assumptions is wrong. Some fundamental quality of the client's view of the process is flawed.

I have seen faults in the paradigms of a client's chart of accounts, for example, when the chart itself has been designed to record the reason for a transaction in addition to recording the nature of a transaction. This fundamental error was carried forward - to borrow a phrase - into the entire way that business viewed its financial recording and reporting systems, with the result that they had custom-built systems for them both. If their paradigm of financial recording had been correct, they could probably have purchased off-the-shelf systems with little customization or possibly no customization at all. The fault, however, was not with the financial systems themselves - although they were always blamed for problems - but with the original pattern on which these systems had been built.

Like "mindset", "paradigm" is usually only used in a critical sense, when the client's basic models are "flawed" and need to be "shifted". Unlike "mindset", it gets used beyond its original meaning of a model or pattern to include any assumption. Unlike "mindset" also, it does appear in written reports from consultants. Too often, however, the use of "paradigm" in reports is the wrong one, so that any of the client's assumptions that is wrong becomes a paradigm. Telling a client to "shift your paradigm" may be softer than "change your assumptions", but it is incorrect if those assumptions are not basic qualities or characteristics of the business process model.

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