I am sure some of us are familiar with the tale of a glass that has water in it. Some people would say it is half filled while others say it is half empty. Our response depends on our mind-set, perspective, outlook, point of view or mental model. They all mean the same thing. I will stick with the phrase ‘mental model’.
Mental models can be defined as deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures and images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action. It is a framework for the cognitive processes of our mind. In other words, it determines how we think and act. We may not be aware of the effect these models have on our perception and behaviour, yet they have the power to move us forward or hold us back. Why do good new ideas rarely get put into practice? Often because they conflict with deep-seated internal images of how the world works. People of creative minds have often brought forth ideas that are brilliant, however, when they think about the lack of stability in electrical power, lack of security in the country and a host of other challenges they fail to put the ideas into action. These mental models limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting, much to our detriment. That's why managing mental models-discovering them, testing their validity, and improving them can be a breakthrough concept for enterprising individuals, learning organizations and our country. Mental models govern how we make sense of the world and how we take action in it. An easy example is the generalization "people are untrustworthy." Such a sentiment shapes how we act and how we perceive the acts of others.
Mental models are generally Incomplete, constantly evolving, not accurate representation (contain errors and uncertainty measures), provide a simple representation of a complex phenomena and can be represented by a set of if-then-else rules. They limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting.
A lot of people often make statements like “if we were not in Nigeria, we would be able to achieve this”. When statements like this are made repeatedly they give a literal picture of our mind sets and achieving anything would be difficult. Another popular example of poor mental models we use during elections is “our vote never counts so why go out to vote in the first place” or “we all know that Rtd General Banks would rig the election, voting is therefore a waist of time”. When the time for election comes, we don’t vote at all since we know Rtd General Banks would win because in our minds we have given him power by thinking he would win and therefore he does win and then we say “we knew he would win anyway”. To buttress this point, the Punch newspaper of Sunday 2 November 2008 reported that negative feelings about a campaign can discourage voters by making them less likely to vote instead of voting for someone who will likely lose.
Another scenario is the one in which mental models help people to avoid the real issues for example if a friend dies at an early age we say it’s the will of God and we don’t bother to find out why because it would look like we were questioning God’s actions. It is not wrong to believe in God but has it crossed the mind to find out what went wrong. Why did he die? Did he not get prompt medical attention? What were the circumstances surrounding the death? People will not probe simply because they have the mind set that anything that happens is an act of God.
A lot of the happenings in our country today are the results of the mental models we have guided our lives by. We have to unearth our internal pictures of the world, to bring them to the surface and hold them rigorously to scrutiny. We need to change these mind sets if we want a change in our society. If we think the same way, we do the same things and occurrences that happen will not change. The discipline of mental models also includes the ability to carry on ‘learningful’ conversations that balance inquiry and advocacy, where people expose their own thinking effectively and make that thinking open to the influence of others. In this way, each person reaches out to another and the whole society.
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