If you’re like me, you’ve been peeling bananas from the top, down ever since you can remember … right? It’s the way you were taught to do it by your parents, it’s the way your family, friends and strangers do it, and you’ve probably never given consideration to doing it any other way … until now. Check out the video, below!

So what does all of this have to do with improving performance in a business? Prior to watching the video you were most likely stuck in the stem-side first paradigm. The word paradigm comes from Greek, and means a model, theory, perception, assumption, or frame of reference. Think of it as a persistent thought pattern. In business, major breakthroughs are achieved by breaking with old ways of thinking (paradigm shift). One way to accomplish that is to turn a company upside down by asking “what if” questions. Here are a few questions to get you started:

• What if the company’s value proposition is all backwards … all wrong? Try writing as many things that are wrong about it as you can think of. Listing the wrong things will get your brain moving into spaces that may generate fresh ideas.

• What if the corporate values and corporate culture are misaligned with the long range corporate goals?

• What if our hiring and recruiting systems and processes are outdated and not relevant to today’s recruits?

Each of us sees the world through our own paradigms and mental models. The problem is we get so used to our paradigms that we forget we are interpreting everything through them all the time. When you watched the video, your old assumption of how to peel a banana was being challenged. In business, senior management needs to challenge the validity of their assumptions regarding the company, its competitors and its customers on a regular basis. In doing so, you will broaden your senior manager’s thinking (worldview) and establish an organizational culture of curiosity, trust and profitability.