Changing Mindsets
| Site: | Saylor Academy |
| Course: | BUS603: Managing People |
| Book: | Changing Mindsets |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Saturday, May 18, 2024, 12:54 AM |
Description
Developing a new mental mindset takes both individual and institutional change. Reading this article will help you understand mental models.
Changing Mindsets
We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are.
The frames our minds create define - and confine - what we perceive to be possible. Every problem, every dilemma, every dead end we find ourselves facing in life, only appears unsolvable inside a particular frame or point of view.
Source: Barney Jordaan, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-98884-9_4#Sec13
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Mental Models
Senge defines it as "deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures and images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action". For Van Boven and Thompson mental models are:
cognitive representations of the causal relationships within a system that allow people to understand, predict, and solve problems within that system. Mental models are based on people's experiences and expectations. They can guide behaviour in different situations, organise thoughts about a problem, and influence the interpretation of information.
Mental models affect our thinking and help us make sense of our world. They are simplified internal representations of reality that allow us to interact with the world. They enable thought and action, but also constrain them. They form the basis of reasoning, decision making, and behaviour. Without mental models of the world, decision-making would be difficult, if not impossible. Without shared mental models, it would be impossible in many cases for people to solve collective action problems, create institutions, feel a sense of belonging and solidarity, or even understand one another.
Changing Mindsets
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
We have the power to choose the assumptions we make. Each choice has consequences for how we feel and what we do, the decisions we make, and how we act in the situations we confront in seeking to make organisations more effective and successful.
Mental models affect where we direct our attention and what information we rely on. If they are out of sync with reality they may substantially limit the type and amount of information decision makers use, greatly affecting decision outcomes. This is because we may ignore information that violates our current assumptions and automatically fill in missing information based on what our mental models suggest is likely to be true. Mental models enable thought and action, yet also constrain them. Mental models have to be highly dynamic to adapt to continually changing circumstances and to evolve over time through learning, yet abandoning established mental models and adopting different ones can be very difficult. As Koestler states:
Of all forms of mental activity, the most difficult to induce … is the art of handling the same bundle of data as before, by placing them in a new system of relations with one another by giving them a different framework, all of which virtually means putting on a different kind of thinking-cap for the moment. It is easy to teach anybody a new fact … but it needs light from heaven above to enable a teacher to break the old framework in which the student is accustomed to seeing.
Policy interventions may be able to trigger a change in mental models, but may also have the opposite effect. It has been found, for example, that only under certain circumstances will affirmative action policies lead to a positive change in attitudes: "If negative stereotypes shape perceptions strongly enough, interaction may simply reinforce the negative stereotypes, undermining the hoped-for effects of the policy".
The formation of a mental model in a person's mind is the result of both biology, i.e., an ability inherent to the human mind, and learning. The discipline starts with self-reflection, learning to discover our own internal pictures of the world, and then to bring them to the surface and scrutinise them rigourously. It also includes the ability to carry on what Senge calls "learningful conversations" where people expose their own thinking effectively and make that thinking open to the influence of others.
Results from a survey conducted by McKinsey & Company found that the most effective initiatives to change mindsets and behaviours are: role modelling; fostering understanding and conviction; reinforcing changes through formal mechanisms; and developing talent and skills.
The process of how initiatives are designed is critical too: involving input from a range of company stakeholders is more likely to lead to successful transformations:
People must be exposed to their implicit mental models and examine them before we can change them. Changing what people do is easier than changing what they think since mindsets and assumptions are often deeply embedded beyond conscious thought. Yet changing the way people think about situations is, in fact, the most powerful and useful way to ultimately change behaviour and thereby affect organisational results.
Embedding a New Mindset
Developing a new collaborative mental model alone is not enough, however. Institutions and mental models are closely related and sometimes a change in a mental model also requires institutional change. Barker suggests that when adopting a new paradigm, all aspects of the system must change in accordance with the new paradigm. Paradigm shifting, therefore, does not become fully operable until all parts of the system are changed and aligned with the new paradigm.
Furthermore, if leaders and their organisations are to develop a different mental model to facilitate a collaborative, high trust environment, it will be necessary for people to go beyond merely learning new skills: it requires the development of new orientations, a change in corporate culture, vision and values. Moving the organisation in the right direction also entails working to transcend the sorts of internal politics and game playing that dominate traditional organisations. It means fostering openness and seeking to distribute business responsibly far more widely while retaining coordination and control.