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Ray Jorgensen, Ph. D. "Aspiration:A Leadership Capability" 1:28:08 minutes |
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| Mental Models--a book excerpt |
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Mental Models are our personal understandings of the world according to us; these models contain the attitudes, beliefs and assumptions that shape our daily actions. They govern our ideas of how things should work, how things are, and how things should or could be. These convictions form the basis of our personal and organizational thinking structure. Examples of mental models are: "All men are created equal' or 'We simply have an unlimited supply of resources and can throw away our waste". Mental models are often very hard to surface (which is what we do when we practice suspending certainty) because they are incomplete and constantly evolving, can contain errors and contradictions, are sometimes buried deep in our subconscious, and are overly simplified explanations of a complex world. The discipline of working with mental models starts with turning the mirror inward, learning to unearth our internal pictures of the world, to bring them to the surface and hold them rigorously to scrutiny. It also includes the ability to carry on learning conversations that balance inquiry and advocacy, where people expose their own thinking effectively and make that thinking open to the influence of others. When someone is speaking with certainty, they are not just giving their opinion, they are providing you insight into the way they view the world. And if you can shift how someone thinks by shifting their mental models, then you will change the way they act. So we see that ultimately, leaders nurture quality relationships through quality conversations. Learning takes place in quality conversations. As learning takes place, thinking shifts. And as thinking shifts, behavior shifts. |
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