Mental Models

What are Mental Models?

In the words of Peter Senge:
Mental models are deeply held internal images of how the world works, images that limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting. Very often, we are not consciously aware of our mental models or the effects they have on our behavior

Shell and Bharat Petroleum

Shell
In Shell company the Group Planning was the main reason behind the change of mental models of the person who were the decision makers of different operating companies worldwide. They forced the critical decision makers of the company to identify all the assumption that had to be true in order for the managers future to occur. This made them to rethink on the assumptions which they had just merely made.

Bharat Petroleum
Bharat petroleum did not have a planning committee to help the managers. The managers were also given more power and authority to carry out their duties. Bharat Petroleum made a variety of networks to keep connecting people and had a climate where they interacted a lot which helped to tackle their problems by discussing them with other managers which led them to think from other prospective.

Tools And Skills

Most of the approaches used by the companies have focused in two categories Skills of Reflection and Inquiry skills. Skills of Reflection concerns slowing down our own thinking process so that we can become more aware of how we form our mental models and the way they influence their actions. Inquiry skills concerns how we operate in face to face interaction with others.

Reflective Practice
It is very important for the professionals to know how to interact face to face so that the key issues are surfaced because without which the mental models of the decision makers wont change and would limit the company s growth.

Techniques
y Espoused theory Vs Theory-In-Use y Leaps of Abstraction y Left hand column y Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy

Espoused theory Vs Theory-In-Use

It is basically when we preach something else but their actions speaks otherwise. To remove this we can ask another person to help you identify this because as the old saying goes The Eye Cannot See an Eye

Leaps of Abstraction
Forming conclusions about someone else by making generalization facts. This can be removed by first asking yourself that what you think and if there is evidence to it or not or is it just a generalization. Then actually trying to find out if it is so or not by facts.

Left hand column

This is a powerful technique for beginning to see how our mental models operate in particular situations. It reveals ways that we manipulate situations to avoid dealing with how we actually think and feel, and thereby prevent a counterproductive situation from improving.

Balancing Inquiry and Advocacy

Many managers rise in an organization by sticking to their views and don t listen to anyone and are very stubborn. But when they reach higher positions problems arises where their own knowledge and thinking may not be enough then should start listening to others and still not lose their skill to for argument this is how their views changes.

THE END