Do You Understand Your Mental Models that Frame Your Decisions and Behaviours?

Improve your self-reflection and leadership by understanding your Mental Models.

Preamble…

Have you ever been told to sit in silence and do some self-reflection? What do you think about? Do you think about yourself and explore your actions and behaviours? Do you even remember what influenced or framed your behaviours or actions, or do you just make it up on the spot? Does your mind completely wander off into thinking about the history of mousetraps or your grocery list or ten things you forgot to do that you need to get done? Do you think about your last self-reflection and how nothing really changed? Or that you didn’t even know what or why you were trying to improve?

If you answered yes to the last four questions you are not alone! I believe that the reason we often don’t find self-reflection useful or are unable to engage with it meaningfully is because most people don’t ever define, know, or consider the explicit mental models they use that frames their thinking and behaviours. Now, I don’t mean the subconscious imprinted values that we live by, but the explicit cognitive mental models that we use to consider a situation or make decisions.

What do I mean by mental models?

Mental models are conceptual frameworks that we define intentionally use to influence our thinking processes, behaviours and decisions. I’ll provide one of my own examples — my leadership in relation to motivating a team to work together to develop a piece of work. When I consider this, I have developed a mental model that depicts how the team interacts with the piece of work and each other, and the other systems that influence the motivations and decisions of individuals within the team. This mental model forces me to consider the connection between the team and the piece of work, interactions between members of the team, and the individuals within the team and how they are motivated or influenced by other systems that are in their world. I make decisions based on a combination of these three things.

A second example for me is thinking about leadership. I consider leadership using two separate mental models (that I have not yet found one cohesive model for….and I am still defining this). The first is as a function that is unattached to a person or hierarchy and is just another organisational role that looks at the optimal architecture and vision for an organisation that inspires a shared purpose and motivation from people within it. The second focuses on my belief that we are tribal people and look to a godlike being or figure to follow and be inspired by. These two mental models can be conflictual but defines the way I think about all aspects of leadership.

It is probably easier for me to draw these models, but I hope you get the gist…

Self-Reflection Needs to be

When we reflect on our actions and behaviours and consider how we adapt or improve these it is important to ground this in our defined and explicit mental models. Otherwise, what often happens is that people reflect without learning anything, or they justify their decisions and behaviours by creating fluid and new mental models that seem to best explain the situation at that current time.

If we spend some time thinking about the mental model we will intentionally use to dictate our actions and decisions, we can assess whether that overarching mental model continues to be optimal and consider how we may shift this. It also provides us with a consistent framing and allows us to lead with intention. Shifting mental models can have ripple effects in our lives and understanding what they are and taking ownership of making any changes to them allows us to be more self-aware, better leaders in our work and personal lives.

So, take the time to think about the mental models you should adopt based on your understanding of the world. Use this as your starting point for self-reflection. See if it changes the way you consider behaviours and actions, the mental models of others and how this might interact with your own, and whether it helps a more genuine and honest reflection on your own decisions and behaviours.

Mish