Mental Models and Change LO29370

From: Chris Macrae (wcbn007@easynet.co.uk)
Date: 10/23/02


Replying to LO29357 --

Fred, i'm a slow learner but have learnt that when Fred says he's asked a
dumb question, watch out because it's anything but...!

[Host's Note: Ahh... Slow... but not THAT slow! ..Rick]

I will need to reread your mail several times as there were lots of points
but perhaps I could add a yin and yang first

Apart from deliberate corruption, I believe today's biggest problem bar
none in big organizations today is that people do not understand the
common terms they use in conversation - and are either too embarrassed to
say so, or don't get the iterative space and quality time to reflect- the
decision then gets made without the system conversation ever happening. So
there's something vital about finding out whether a committee or decision
making process actually had a shared mental model embedded in the decision
that got made or if it was ultimately across purposes because it wasnt a
shared decision at all

I believe a positive -simpler - way of first exploring this term (Mental
Model) is Maps. We have a few that we all share as models like whenever we
use a map on a car journey. In a map you have the most wonderful thing.
Hugely condensed information standardised in a way that everyone comes to
it and uses it with the same meaning. Nobody feels threatened by it nor
are vested interests embedded in the best usable open maps. So I suppose
in the above where I ask whether a system process or compound set of
system processes has a shared mental model, I am asking did it have a map?
And I believe that could be a top ten OL question to keep askin (if you
were auditing whether a whole company's decisions were done in OL way)
-YES I would like to hear other top 10 contenders if that's another thread
to weave with you all

Back on this thread: If so why are these maps reported so infrequently as
they are the main way of understanding the analysis

I have become fanatical about the idea of Maps without fully knowing what
I am talking about. A while back I did ask if systems experts ever meet
-and train people - at a mapmaking convention - ie looking mainly at this
learning construct. I didnt see an answer so unless I missed it I guess
its' just another of my solo obsessions and thanks for putting up with
this typed in flight

cheers
chris wcbn007@easynet.co.uk
www.valuetrue.com

----- Original Message -----
>From: "Fred Nickols" <nickols@safe-t.net>
>
> Hmm. I fear I've asked another dumb question but I'll give it another
> shot.
>
> I didn't have any particular instance in mind when I posed the question.
> It simply occurred to me that we talk about mental models as though they
> are things that exist inside our heads when in fact we have no way of
> looking in there to see them. I suspect that, like lots of other things,
> "mental models" is a notion we've invented to account for certain
> observable events or patterns. I will give you an example of my own
> making:
[...snip by your host...]

-- 

"Chris Macrae" <wcbn007@easynet.co.uk>

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