Changing Your Mental Models

The best description of mental models that I've come across, comes from The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge:

"Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalisations, or even pictures or images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action.  Very often we are not consciously aware of our mental models or the effects they have on our behaviour."

So mental models are the 'spectacles' that shape our view of the situations that we encounter in our day-to-day experiences of life.  Mental models provide an explanation as to why different people can view the same situation in completely different ways and why the well-worn expression "perception is reality" is pertinent.  For example, a family wakes up on a winter's morning to see a thick blanket of snow everywhere from an unexpected overnight snowstorm.  Dad might suffer from panic thinking about how he has to clear the snow from the driveway to get his car out of the garage, the anticipated slow journey to the railway station and the possible disruption on the railways affecting his journey to work.  The kids, on the other hand, will treat the conditions with happiness, hoping that their school will be closed, but whatever, they will spend as much time as possible tobogganing and generally messing about in the wintry paradise.  There are two completely different views of the same situation based on individualistic mental models.

Is it possible to change mental models?  Well in the previous example, it is quite possible that when the kids reach adulthood they might have the same pressures as their father and so a wintry, snowy morning could turn from excitement to a hindrance, but very often models don't change easily.  Here's a real example from my own life.  I have always pictured the months of the year positioned around a clock face.  After all, there are twelve hours on a clock face and twelve months in a year, so it's a good fit, isn't it?  You would expect 1 o'clock to be January, 2 o'clock to be February........11 o'clock to be November, 12 o'clock to be December.  However, my mental model of the months of the year is different from the expected.  12 o'clock is January, 6 o'clock is August.  February through to July are evenly spaced between 2 o'clock to 5 o'clock.  September through to December are evenly spaced between 7 o'clock and 11 o'clock.  I believe my adoption of this model dates back to my early years at primary school and because I know it is an illogical model, I have tried to change it.  I even produced a sketch of a clock face with the months of the year in their correct positions - January 1, February 2, etc - and placed it on my desk so I would look at it everyday, but it hasn't worked!  The old model keeps coming back in my mind.  I think there might be a 'rationale' for the origins of my model.  There are three school terms - September to December, January to March, April to July.  The hottest month in the UK where I went to school, is August.  The coldest month is January.  So the hottest month is 'due South' on the clock face and the coldest month is 'due North'.  It is a shorter journey on the clock from summer to winter, than from winter to summer, which probably reflects how the passage of time felt to me in my youth.  So there we have it, a mental model that certainly doesn't make sense to me now, even if it did when I was a child, but I can't seem to change it easily.

What worries me about my personal experiment is that whereas that particular mental model is harmless, because it doesn't affect my relationship with others, there are many mental models that we all have, which when in conflict with others, can be harmful.  Religious and political views are two obvious examples.  The resolutions of conflicts affecting society depend on changing mental models. Let's take the example of climate change.  There are those who believe mankind's emission of carbon dioxide is producing global warming and therefore climate change.  There are others who do not believe that is the case.  I happen to be in the former category and I have a mental model against which I judge any arguments that are given for and against my view of what we're doing wrong.  It's no surprise that I have not been swayed by any climate change deniers.

So how do we make progress when we all have different 'pictures' of reality?  Maybe a first step is to recognise that we all have different realities and therefore we have a mental database of opinions, but not facts.  If our opinion is at odds with someone else's opinion then we should explore ways to gain consensus, but realise that to achieve a 'hearts and minds' consensus, mental models have to change.  There is no point reluctantly agreeing.

Finally and returning to my clock of the months of the year, I have accepted the premise that my current model doesn't make sense even though I am experiencing difficulty changing it, but I will keep trying.  That said, I am in good company because in the words of Albert Einstein:

"To break a mental model is harder than splitting an atom."

No wonder it's difficult!