The Captain*

A battleship had been at sea on its routine maneuvers yet under heavy weather for days. The captain, who was worried about the deteriorating weather conditions, often stayed on the bridge to keep an eye on all activities. One night, the lookout on the bridge suddenly shouted, “Captain! A light, bearing on the starboard bow.”

“Is it stationary or moving astern?” the captain asked.

The lookout replied that it was stationary. This meant the battleship was on a dangerous collision course with the other ship. The captain immediately ordered his radioman to signal to the ship: “We are on a collision course. I advise you to change course 20 degrees east.”

Back came a response from the other ship: “You must change course 20 degrees west.”

Agitated by the arrogance of the response, the captain asked his radioman to shoot out another message: “I am a captain – you’re ordered to change course 20 degrees east.”

Back came the second response: “I am a second-class seaman – you must change course 20 degrees west.”

The captain was furious by this time! He shouted to the radioman to send back a final message: “I am a battleship. Change course 20 degrees east right now!”

Back came the response: “I am a lighthouse.” (The captain changed course.)

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Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts

Paradigm is a word that means “a pattern or model” and is usually a “generally accepted perspective” that a group or society would share. As used here in describing CBT*, paradigm represents a belief system, an individual’s “default” view of the world, one constructed from and a result of that person’s prior learning and past history. The default modifier is used here to emphasize the fact that we can change our paradigm!

Paradigms are natural and inevitable, and they are very useful to us in many ways.  However, sometimes our paradigms become so distorted or so far removed from reality that they can actually become quite dangerous, not to mention dysfunctional.  We can say a “paradigm shift” occurs when our paradigms change, allowing us to see the world in a new light (the pun only incidental). Sometimes this happens suddenly, and sometimes very gradually. 

With CBT, it would not be inappropriate to say the goal is to achieve a paradigm shift…

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*From The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey, 1989.