Day 7 (15m)
Leverage Points 3-1
#3: Goals: The purpose of the system
What is the goal of someone going to college? Is it to get a piece of paper? Escape from home? Get as many new experiences as possible? Prepare for a specific career? Learn as much as you can? Build lifelong friendships? How would the goals each student has change how they interact with the system? How about the college itself; what is its goal? To make scientific breakthroughs? To educate as many people as possible? To prepare students for a good job? To grow larger? Would not the goal fundamentally change how an administration would design their university?#2: Paradigms: The mind-set out of which the system – its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters – arises
Before you can change a paradigm, you have to recognize it. Paradigms are things that we hold to be inherently and unquestionably true. Consider the paradigm that things have owners: your clothes, your house, your dog. How would our economies and communities be different without the presumption of ownership? How would you define a "successful" person? That's one of your personal paradigms. How does that influence your goals and all the other leverage points?
The below clip talks about how an astrophysicist came to change his approach to interviews. As you listen, consider:
What was the initial goal of "Academic Neil"? How did that compare to the goals of the TV reporter?
What paradigm changed in Neil to allow him to better serve science and education?
Your greatest point of leverage to improve the dysfunctional systems in your life is to change the paradigms of the participants in the system.
What are a few specific goals or paradigms that could change to help with your problem? Why would changing these goals and paradigms fundamentally change the system?
#1: Transcending Paradigms
The last leverage point is an acknowledgement that if a system is aware enough to recognize its paradigms - and flexible enough to change them - it has the potential to overcome any problem. Hopefully, this course is a first step in evolving your personal paradigm on the "why" behind systemic problems and the "how" behind lasting solutions. Thank you for taking the time to complete this course.