Re: How to Bring Out Mental Models?

MargMcI@aol.com
Sat, 14 Jan 1995 20:10:08 -0500

I would like to expand Rick Karash's question a little regarding how to
bring out people's mental models.

As a general management consultant, I have found that my work is always at
the edge of people's mental models. If they could see them, they often
wouldn't need a consultant. Many times, the value of the consultant is
precisely in her/his ability to reveal existing and new mental models in a
way that the client sees opportunity not threat. Revealing blindness can be
a dangerous thing! As we all know, clients can get defensive and get even
more invested in their paradigm.

So the first step in bringing out people's mental models is making the
distinction of "interpretation" (mental model) and the distinction of
inquiry. Then, people are more willing to look at their interpretation in a
mood of inquiry.

I am not, however, always consistent or successful with this and I can get
trapped in my own mental models. That is the basis of my interest in
expanding Rick's question. My question is how to reveal people's mental
models in a way that people engage rather than defend or attack. And in a
way that I am open to seeing my mental models in a mood of partnership and
inquiry with the client.

Margaret McIntyre
MargMcI@aol.com
Atlanta, GA

-----
Host's Note:

I like Margaret's expansion of the question.

-- Rick Karash, rkarash@world.std.com, host for learning-org