Senge: Chapter 10

THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE

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What are Mental Models?
The mental constructs that dictate
the decisions that we take
the actions that we engage in
The Second of Five Disciplines
Who remembers the other four?

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Whats the Problem?
Many of the best ideas never get put into practice
Why???
Because they conflict with deeply held internal
images of how the world works
These images limit us to familiar ways of thinking
and acting
We keep making the same mistakes over and over
again--were not learning

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The discipline of Mental Models
(MMs) Involves
Surfacing these models
Testing these models
Improving our internal pictures of how the world
works
PROMISES TO BE A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH FOR
BUILDING LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS

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Why are MMs so powerful in
affecting what we do?
They affect what we see
They become the cognitive lense through which we view
the world
Two people with different MMs can see the same
situation and describe it differently
Big three auto-makers believed Americans bought cars
on the basis of styling
Today outdated MMs dominate the service industries,
which still provide mediocre quality in the name of
controlling costs

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So the Problem arises when our
mental model is wrongRIGHT?
WRONG!!!
The problem with mental models is that they are tacit
(implied but not spoken)--below the level of
awareness
We dont realize that our behavior is being dictated by
a certain mental model that we have bought into
deeply

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 A Digression and Break
(deviate from subject)
Good Exercise
Good way to break up a boring session on mental
models
Find an opponent
The contestant who can defeat his
opponent the most times in one
minute wins.

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An Industrial Goods Manufacturer
Was losing market share
Production managers held inventories as low as
possible
Result was long lead times, long delivery times even
though production capacity was adequate
A team of MIT system dynamicists were brought in

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 What did the models show?
Low inventories meant long lead times
Why not carry some inventory
They did this for a while and it worked
The firms market share picked up
But the new policies were not taken to heart
Four years later when another recession occurred, the
firm went back to their original low inventories and
began losing market share again

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Why did they do this?
The inertia (inactivity) of deeply entrenched
(established firmly) mental models can overwhelm
even the best systemic insights

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Shell--one of the first firms to
investigate MMs
Is broken up into over a hundred companies
Must continually challenge the leaders of these firms
to scrutinize (examine closely) their MMs

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Overcoming the basic diseases of
the hierarchy
For hierarchical organizations the dogma is manage,
organize, control
For learning organizations, the dogma is vision, values,
and MMs
Healthy firms are ones that bring people together to
develop the best possible MMs for facing any situation
at hand
Assignment: make an example

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 The Experience at HANOVER
Hanover--an insurance carrier (a property and
casualty insurance firm)
Hanover hired consultant Chris Argyris. He brought
in his ACTION SCIENCE
Argyris: Because we insulate our mental
models from examination, we develop SKILLED
INCOMPETENCE..
Recall a conflict with a client--what did you say--
what did you think, what did you not say

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 Left-Hand Column Analysis
The left-hand column details what you were thinking
The right-hand column details what was actually said
Sample case: Jim is an R&D project manager. Jim
assumes his supervisor Todd feels harshly about him.
Jim just had a conversation with Todd. Jim writes out
the conversation with Todd in the right-hand column
and his thoughts at the time in the left.

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Were two months late and I
dont think he knew. I was
hoping we could catch up
I need to make it clear that Im
willing to take responsibility
for this, but I dont want to
volunteer for more work
He never offers this help in the
planning stages, when I could
really use it. Its too late now
to bring that up.
The changes he keeps making
are the real reason were late.
He must have another one.
Its a shame I cant tell him
that hes the cause of the
delays. If I can hold him off
two more weeks, I think well
be ready.
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TODD: Jim, Id like to come
down there next week. Were
a few weeks behind, and I
think we might all benefit
from a meeting at your office.
ME: Ive been very concerned
about these deadlines. As you
know, weve had some tough
luck here, and were working
around the clock. But of
course, well squeeze in a
meeting at your convenience.
TODD: Well, its occurred to
me that we could use better
coordination. There are some
ways I could help.
ME: Well, Im happy to talk
through any changes you have
in mind.
TODD: I dont have anything
specific in mind
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 What can you do with this?
You can learn a lot about how your responses
could have been better, more to the point.
You can also ask yourself what has really led me
to think and feel this way?
What was my intention? What was I trying to
accomplish?
Did I achieve the results I intended?
Did my comments contribute to the difficulties

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When we examine our mental
models
Each of us has contributed to a conflict through our
own thinking
We made sweeping generalizations about others that
determined what we said and how we behaved
We are led to see subtle patterns of reasoning which
determines our behavior and how these continually
got us into trouble

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 Hanover & Argyriss Colleague
Lee Bolman
Bolman further exposed Hanovers managers to
the ideas and practices of action science
Be a good inquirer
Balance inquiry with advocacy
Understand that all we ever have are
assumptions, never truths, that we always
see the world through our mental models
and that the mental models are always
incomplete and in Western culture, non-
systemic

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Hanover Bottom Line Results
Over a 15 year period, Hanover got better and better at
its margins and market share
Its average return was 21.8% where the industry
average was 15.9 percent
Today, Hanover continues to build a foundation of
basic skills in reflection, surfacing and public
examination of mental models

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Hanovers Strategy
Recognize leaps of abstraction
Jumps from observation to generalization
Exposing the left-hand column
Balance inquiry and advocacy
Facing up to distinctions between espoused theories
(what we say) and theories in use (what we do as
determined by our MMs)

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The Discipline of Mental Models
Bring key assumptions about important business
issues to the surface
Who remembers the Goldratt mechanism for doing just
this?
Without surfacing these assumptions, an
organizations range of actions are limited to what is
familiar and comfortable
Develop face-to-face learning skills

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The Discipline of MMs, Continued
Both sides of the discipline--business skills and
interpersonal issues--are crucial
Without interpersonal skills, learning is still
fundamentally adaptive, not generative
Generative learning requires managers with reflection
and inquiry skills, not just consultants and planners

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 Planning as Learning and Internal
Boards: Managing Mental models
Throughout an Organization
Firms need to put in place mechanisms that make the
practices of reflection and surfacing mental models
unavoidable
How? By recasting traditional planning as learning
and establishing internal boards of directors to bring
senior management and local management together
How? By using SCENARIOS in the case of Shell

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More ways to surface mental
models
Use tools for mapping mental models--Shell. These
include systems thinking tools like the archetypes, as
well as the computer simulation capabilities of a tool
like VENSIM
Microworlds and numerous other soft systems tools
are also used

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What is the common denominator
of these tools?
They work to expose assumptions about important
business issues
The basic idea is to institutionalize managing mental
models through the planning process

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Hanover also uses internal boards
Composed of two to four senior managers and local
general managers
Senior managers are not allowed to impose their
mental models on local managers
Hanover developed a Credo on Mental Models

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 Hanovers Credo
The effectiveness of a leader is related to the continual
improvement of the leaders mental models
Dont impose a favored mental model on people
Self-concluding decisions result in deeper convictions
and more effective implementation
Better mental models enable owners to adjust to change
in environment or circumstance
Internal board members rarely need to make direct
decisions

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Hanovers Credo, Continued
Multiple mental models bring multiple
perspectives
Groups add dynamics and knowledge beyond what
one person can do alone
The goal is not congruency (conformity)among
the group
When the process works it leads to congruency
The leaders worth is measured by their
contribution to others MMs
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 Reflection and Inquiry Skills:
Managing Mental Models at
Personal and Interpersonal Levels
Reflection skills concern becoming more aware of
how we form our mental models and the ways they
influence our actions
Inquiry skills concern how we operate in face-to-
face interactions with others

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Reflection Skills
Recognize leaps of abstraction
Millers 7 plus/minus 2 rule
Untested models of customer behavior are often leaps
of abstraction
To surface leaps of abstraction, ask What do I believe
about how the world works?
Then ask, Is this generalization inaccurate or
misleading?

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 Short Term Memory
Saul McLeod published 2009
Short-term memory (STM) is the second stage of the multi-store
memory model proposed by the Atkinson-Shiffrin. The duration
of STM seems to be between 15 and 30 seconds, and the capacity
about 7 items.
Short term memory has three key aspects:
1. limited capacity (only about 7 items can be stored at a time)

2. limited duration (storage is very fragile and information can

be lost with distraction or passage of time)
3. encoding (primarily acoustic, even translating visual
information into sounds).

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Reflection Skills
Where possible test the generalizations directly

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Inquiry skills
Use left-hand, right-hand column analysis
In conflicts, avoid the systems archetype of escalation

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Mental Models and The Fifth
Discipline: Systems Thinking
The two disciplines go hand-in-hand
ST without MM is like an airplane without wing flaps

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Copyright C 2000 by James R.
Burns
All rights reserved world-wide. CLEAR Project
Steering Committee members have a right to use these
slides in their presentations. However, they do not
have the right to remove this copyright or to remove
the prepared by. footnote that appears at the
bottom of each slide.

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