I am not going to talk about what I said I was going to talk about in my last blog until the next Systems Thinking Blog. A key element of systems thinking is understanding and updating mental models. This week Fox News set me off with their outdated mental models of the world, today’s reality, so I decided to talk mental models.
Our mental models (the way we see the world, our reality) are generalizations. The mental models all of us have in some form or another are out of date; not in synch with the current reality. There are good reasons that are mental models are not based in current reality:
- Many of our mental models of the world were formed in our families as kids and in school. In many cases our mental models have not changed (frozen) from that initial education.
- The pace of change has rapidly accelerated and our mental models haven’t kept up.
- There is so much information available and so much to digest; it is hard to assess what is important and real enough to update the mental models we have.
- People, like animals are used to dealing with the immediate or urgent, not the important and long term.
- People think linearly. The radically more complex world we live in today requires making key decisions based on shared understandings of relationships. It is not second nature to expect systems to surprise us, i.e., fail or collapse. We don’t expect them to oscillate. We don’t expect exponential reactions in systems. We tend to focus on the stock of a system as opposed to the flow and relationships (loops).
- We don’t question our mental models regularly. We don’t even share them easily for fear of being wrong, for fear of being challenged, for fear of having to change them.
- The last 50 years or more have been basically years of peace and prosperity with a focus on driving economic growth unconstrained by resource depletion, waste, pollution, and ecosystem services destruction or degradation cost, i.e., cost externalities to our economics.
“New insights fail to get put into practice because they conflict with deeply held internal images of how the world works images that limit us to familiar ways of thinking.” We are all familiar with the saying ‘think out of the box’. It really is thinking outside our mental models, outside or inside rules, from a different perspective, with less generalization, etc. As Peter Senge points out, mental models have been discussed since at least Plato with the story, The Emperor’s New Clothes, where only the child breaks out of the mental model that all the townspeople are bound by.
Mental models can be generalizations, complex theories, but most importantly they are active, shaping how we act. A Harvard assessment you can do online assesses personal bias. I remember several black friends being stunned when they found that when presented with a black male teenager, their score was negative. “ Mental models are powerful in what we do because they affect what we see. 2 people can see the same event and describe it differently, because they looked at different details and didn’t see others.” This is part of the reason why eye witness testimony is not that reliable. “The problem with mental models lies not in whether they are right or wrong—by definition, all models are simplifications. “The problem with mental models arises when the models are tacit—when they are below the level of awareness.”
Mental models largely remain unexamined by ourselves and not shared with others. Without examination, learning, and sharing our mental models, they remain the same. American Auto Manufacturers are a case in point. In a business environment mental models drive decision-making, behavior, and results. What you measure is what you get can easily be translated into what your mental models are will determine your measures and what you get.
Making reflection and surfacing your mental models is important to personal growth and mastery. In business, managing mental models is key role of leadership and management. “Those models if unexamined, limit an organization’s range of actions to what is familiar and comfortable. “ For businesses, to develop a capacity to work with mental models involves both learning new skills and implementing institutional innovations that help bring these skills into regular practice. Two key ways business is approaching this need to manage mental models is looking at ‘planning as learning’ and ‘internal boards’ that act as coaches versus bosses. For example, in addition to strategic planning, applying backcasting which says based on the current reality what do you want your future to look like and then defining the actions required to get there.
Mental models have a way of interfering with how we interact with people. If my perception of someone is that they are very sensitive, I am unlikely to give them constructive feedback. I prejudged their capability to accept the feedback and do what they want with it. When talking to that person imagine what you are thinking versus what you are saying. Another easy example is when most of us see teenagers hanging out, we assume they are up to no good. Just think how off track we can get working on real business problems, complex systems and issues, if we aren’t sharing our mental models and we are not questioning our mental models.
A couple of other key points we all know, but don’t appreciate enough, i.e., multiple mental models bring multiple perspectives to bear, groups add dynamics and knowledge beyond what one person alone can do. There is one contradiction to this. Most of us, the public, have a mental model that we are ‘only one person’, so we don’t believe we can influence decisions and direction. And yet, I read and read about thousands of ‘only one persons’ that make major contributions in their community, in their company, in their church, in local, state, and national government. Another endemic problem for us, the public, is that we don’t think we and our government will make the changes required to face our key social and environmental issues, particularly climate change. If we down deep don’t believe we can and will make the changes we won’t. Our mental model dictates we won’t.
Some tips for managing your mental models:
- Become a continuous learner and expand your knowledge base. If you are not reading, experiencing, surfing the web, trying new things, your mental models will remain frozen.
- Bring your mental models to the surface and question them.
- Listen to the other side with an open mind. You can still decide not to update your mental model, but at least you have heard the other sides. How often have you read the other side of an issue you have a passionate opinion about?
- Reflect. This isn’t something that is easy in today’s fast paced world. It is do or act now. However, your decisions and actions will be greatly enhanced by making time for reflection.
- Look to share your mental models with others so you can expand both yours and theirs. Don’t avoid topics that are rife with conflict. If is an irreconcilable difference between mental models, look for common ground, principles that can unite.
Helpful guidelines from Peter Senge*:
When advocating your view
- Make your own reasoning explicit, share it.
- Encourage others to share your view
- Encourage others to provide different views
- Actively inquire into others’ views that differ from yours
When inquiring into others’ views:
- State your assumptions and acknowledge that they are assumptions
- State the data upon which your assumptions are based
- Don’t bother asking questions unless you are genuinely interested in others’ responses, i.e., actively listen and understand before you go back to your view or model
When you arrive at an impasse:
- Ask what data or logic might change their views
- Ask if there is anyway you might together design an experiment that might provide new information
- Ask if there are common principles that could guide the decision-making on the details
When you or others are hesitant to express your views or to experiment with alternative ideas:
- Encourage them (or you) to think out loud about what may be making it difficult
- If there is mutual desire to do so , design with others way of overcoming these barriers
Helpful Guidelines from The Natural Step (The Natural Step: Seeding A Quiet Revolution by Dr. K. Robert):
- Search for overarching principles to resolve the issue and/or to get out of haggling details. Don’t simplify either view in your principles, but rather go for ‘simplicity without reduction’. If you go for simplicity or compromise, you get watered down results.
- Use ‘The Yes and Technique’, which acknowledges another’s point of view and then broadens the discussion. By starting with ‘yes’ (even facing antagonism), you are forced to acknowledge some aspects of what you hear. Then when you add the ‘and’, you expand the perspective and bring in other aspects needed to foster more comprehension of the problem at hand. You can then offer suggestions. By the way, this is NOT Yes, but.
- Use ‘The Asking Advice Technique’, but saying yes you are right. You know what we are trying to do. Do you have any suggestions of what be appropriate in this case or how we could move forward.
What mental models do you need to question? Let me know. I may need to as well.
What mental models do all of us need to question? I’d really like to know. You can imagine I have a list!
(Quotes and Credit to The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge)
By Debbie Deland, Director of The 10% Initiative. She works with Green Cities Florida, the Chamber of Commerce, and NetImpact.
