Learning Beyond the Paradigm LO4020

Michael McMaster (Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk)
Sat, 2 Dec 1995 15:12:20 +0000

Replying to LO3976 -- was "Organizational Thinking"
[Subject line changed by your host; this seems to be a new thread... We
seem to understand better how to learn *within* our paradigm. How do we
learn beyond the limits of our paradigm? -- Your host]

Andrew asks for "how to deal with information that falls outside of"
a scientific paradigm. The question is more general - ie. How to
deal with information that falls outside of your existing paradigms
whatever they are?

To offer a beginning in that matter.

At first, information that falls outside of one's own existing
paradigms isn't information. It isn't even data. It's noise.

So the first thing is to pay attention to noise. To monitor it. To
begin to get curious, interested, engaged with what occurs as noise.
This is not an easy task. The term means that there is no meaning
within one's existing structures of meaning.

Once one is curious, then noise becomes data. What then opens up is
the possibility of developing theories or hypotheses to experiment
with. In other words, one creates design principles which will
produce patterns (or fail to) from the data and the process of
mapping new territory has begun.

After these two bits of hard work begin to produce some interesting
information, then the work is relatively compelling and will likely
continue. It's the first two steps that are difficult.

--
Michael McMaster
Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk