Discipline #2 of 5 – Mental Models
In many organisations new insights fail to get put into practice because they conflict with deeply held internal images of how their world works. As a result of such mental models, they are limited to familiar ways of acting and thinking.
Mental models are powerful when you are unaware of them. Because you are unaware of them, you don’t examine them. And because you don’t examine them you don’t change them. It is very difficult to get to grips with something that has you in its grip.
Chris Argyris writes about the “defensive routines” that insulate our mental models from examination. As a result we develop “skilled incompetence” – a beautiful contradiction in terms to describe our ability to protect ourselves from the pain and threat posed by learning.
The first step in understanding mental models is to see everything as an assumption. There are no “truths”.
This requires a capacity for reflective practice – to think about what you are thinking while you are doing. Be curious about any gap between thinking and doing. It might feel like doubt. Share your question. Expose what you would not normally say. Make it the subject of a conversation. This gap is where innovation comes from.
In conjunction with reflective skills, skills of inquiry are important. Inquiry skills concern how you engage with others, especially in dealing with situations that are complex and marked by conflict. A key skill is to integrate your ability to advocate for something with your ability to inquire into it.
Today “linear thinking” dominates most mental models and decision-making. Learning organisations craft their decisions based on shared understandings of interrelationships and patterns of change.
Discipline #1 of Learning Organisations – Personal Mastery
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