put in the detailed footnote info here cue for a same document link here cue for a different document link here3. Paradigm Pioneer
Paradigm Pioneering is an approach to process development. As Noel Barker points out in his book Paradigms[] it is a process for teasing out the operating rule-set of a new paradigm so that such a paradigm can be implemented profitably. Barker claims that certain people do this task intuitively, because of the way they think[].My own process is very similar to that which Barker describes. For me, it is an iterative and recursive process in which something akin to the marketing research flow model is utilized, primarily using the "pilot project" rather than the "formal research" process when more detailed information is required.
The decision or action step described in step six of that flow model is one in which the information gained, regardless of on which step the problem resolved, is turned back to myself repeatedly until a full (or at least operational) rule-set is developed and the paradigm is successfully implemented.
The information usually comes back to assist in either a community animation operation, or a ditch pushing one.
Less often, the iterations come back to assist in my Tool Development or my Photography operations.
Least often of all, the iterations come back to assist in my Info-chase operation.
It would be interesting to find out the gift-mixes of the people who can do this sort of work. My Guess is that my own gift mix would be at least one option:
- Encourager who learns from patterns and quickly forms general "chunked" groupings of ideas from any set of data, adjusting the groupings on the fly.
- Giver-Financier who runs scenarios constantly on just about everything, and sees "cause and effect" as and essential dynamic of life.
- Administrator who relates to structure and system well, and who is aware of the needs of administrators who will have to implement the results of his / her labor.
My guess is that the
Perceivers are the ones who come up with the new paradigms in the first place. The White Bear Media Project is an excellent example of Paradigm Pioneering, in which we were trying to tease out the rule set necessary to respond to the question"
- "What sort of institution would be necessary in order to support First nations Students if we were to take seriously their cultural preference for "autodidactic learning" in order to harness that latent energy for the purpose of raising their experience of success in post secondary education?"
Another example of such a paradigm pioneering effort was my Quest for the missing piece(s) in renewing the Protestant Christian Church so that there was a bridging of the vertical and horizontal emphasis of the two wings of the Protestant Church.
If Barker is correct, and not everybody can do "paradigm Pioneering", then this is a task which only needs to be done in both community development work as well as in Institutional Church Work by certain people.