The Kuhn Cycle

The Kuhn Cycle, which was developed by Thomas Kuhn and described in his 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, explains how things change.  This resource, The Kuhn Cycle, provides an excellent explanation of how that cycle works. Paraphrasing from that resource:

Systems evolve. Paradigms change. Mental maps for understanding something change.  Sometimes changes are incremental or sustaining; other times changes are disruptive which lead to paradigm shifts or paradigm changes.

A "paradigm" is a comprehensive model of understanding that provides an area of knowledge or "field's" members with viewpoints and rules on how to look at the field's problems and how to solve those problems. Kuhn points out, "Paradigms gain their status because they are more successful than their competitors in solving a few problems that the group of practitioners has come to recognize as acute."

That current paradigm is considered "normal" or "Normal Science".

Kuhn's big idea was that paradigms don't tend to change in small gradual steps but rather paradigms change the most by occasional large explosions or revolutions brought on by new thought and new knowledge.  Saying this in another way, as the Innovator's Dilemma points out there are incremental or sustaining innovations and there are disruptive innovations.

A paradigm follows some model.  That model is "normal science".  A model enables a community of stakeholders within a field trying to achieve a specific goal or objective or a range of goals/objectives to agree on important details related to capturing meaning or representing a shared understanding of and knowledge in some system of interest.  A model establishes "best practices" and "good practices" and even "emergent practices" and "novel practices" within an area of knowledge or field.

As I said, the model allows a field's members to solve problems of interest. When issues, problems, or phenomenon appear the model cannot handle; the model begins to drift away from Normal Science. That step in the cycle is Model Drift.

When a model or paradigm no longer works to help the community of stakeholders in a field to make rational decisions, a Model Crisis occurs.  The members of the field foundation for solving their central problems (i.e. the model) has been shattered by discovery of too many anomalies their central theory the model is supposed to explain but cannot explain.

The Model Revolution step begins when one or more competing new models emerge from the model crisis. This step is a revolution because the old model is usually so entrenched into the mental habits and even the lifestyles of those using it that a new way of thinking is incomprehensible and/or unacceptable, at least at first. The Model Revolution step could also be called "The Search for a New Model That Works" step.

A "paradigm shift" or "Paradigm Change" step occurs in the Kuhn Cycle when some new paradigm or new model is taught to newcomers to the field, as well as to those already in the field. When the new paradigm becomes the generally accepted guide (i.e. becomes best practices), a paradigm shift or change occurs in the field.

This is a graphic of The Kuhn Cycle:

Accounting has a long history, going back 7,000 years and is based on medieval traditions. Normal science documented by Luca Pacioli in 1494 in his Summa de arithmetica. (Here is a translation of Ancient double-entry bookkeeping).  Double-entry bookkeeping is a mathematical model.

Prior to about the 1950s, accounting, reporting, auditing, and analysis were all done on paper.  But with the introduction of the computer, those paper-based processes where computerized.  So let me repeat what I just said to be clear; those paper-based processes were computerized.

Technologies such as structured information, artificial intelligence, digital distributed ledgers (i.e. blockchain) offers new paradigm to approach the tasks and processes, the work, of accountancy.  The same technologies that have made the volume of information, the pace of information, and the complexity of information overwhelming can be used to solve those issues.

What if financial statements were model-driven rather than presentation oriented like they are today? What if accounting and audit working papers where like little databases rather than presentation oriented documents. What if there were a new type of electronic spreadsheet for professional accountants?

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