At,
I would like to use a piece of our exchange to underline the problems
involved in helping the individuals in a group identify their "taken for
granted," the mental models they now have that may need to be modified or
abandoned if learning is to happen.
I begin by assuming that it is important that At and all see that At's
"seven essentialities" needs to be seen as a "mental model" and not as
unyielding and unchanging "truth."
At's model is for him a "paradigm," a frame through which he looks at the
world.
If learning often involves abandoning a mental model on which one has
relied on for years, which may have taken years to build, can we not
predict that At will not abandon his model easily? Would it not be painful
and unsettling for him to be asked to do so? Would he not resist with all
of the intellectual energy he has, using all of his skills of language and
analysis to retain that model?
Here is one belief about At's mental model that he expresses clearly:
>No. It is possible for me to fragment them into more than seven
>essentialities. It is also possible for me to group them into less than
>seven essentialities. All these possibilities are real. I have disovered
>these seven essentialities by hunting for corresponding patterns between
>mathematics as an exemplar of abstract creativity and chemsitry as an
>exemplar of material creativity. They reflect the position of mathematics
>and chemistry after many centuries of research in both. They are permanent
>in terms of the past, but definitely not in terms of the future.
Suppose one reminds At that often the new "paradigm" requires abandoning
the past paradigm as having little or no explanatory value, as we
abandoned the "phlogiston" theory in chemistry.
At has put years and love into creating his seven essentialities, his
mental model.
So have most of us devoted years to constructing our frames, our models,
our personal convictions.
It is all very well to talk easily of personal mastery , and of helping
others change mental models.
Whether my models involve the belief that organizations are alive, or that
life rests on seven essentialities, I find it hard to admit that my own
beliefs are also mental models that rest on foundations that are as shaky
as those I think need to be changed: because they are not mine.
If personal mastery means giving up chocolate, or learning a new computer
program, I can commit myself to learning.
If it means changing my mental model and looking at the possibility that
there are not seven essentialities, or whatever the model is on which I
ground my life...
Easier said than done.
Cheers.
Steve Eskow
--"Dr. Steve Eskow" <dreskow@magicnet.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>