What are your mental models?

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Whats your mental model? Read on to catch the point in my nerding around the topic of “super effectiveness”! 

What follows is a short story, anecdote and food for thought for anyone interested in leadership and company culture when developing as a human being and growing as a company.

I am currently writing on my book, “How To Talk Together Offline – Real Conversations! and I spent this weekend in Amsterdam working with a litterateur coach and adviser. We came to talking about the famous artist Vincent van Gogh, and how he is remembered as this poor, lonely artist.

After our conversation I found out that the myth of Van Gogh is flat out wrong. Neither was he lonely, or especially poor, to the contrary actually!

But in some way it has suited history to romanticize the lonely, genius artist and they’ve built a myth around this and other artist. History has a tendency to super simplify events no people and actually makes us quite superficial in our handling of complex topics like leadership and culture.

My point being: We are often surrounded by myths and inspiration, we grow up exposed to certain heroic leaders and it affects how our own standards of leadership grow, often not aware that our inspiration and people we compare with often are outliers, outliers which history writers and fans have framed into role models.

What I am challenging is this: what do you think has impacted your mental models in regards to your leadership style and ambition? What has become your “hard held truths” about what you, your company is or can do?

And your team, I would think they are great and competent bunch of people, but what are they to you when you’re not thinking about it? Programmers? Change makers? Employees? What does your language and how you speak about your company reveal about your mental models?

 

I ask these questions because we are really keen on learning how you view your company?Seriously, examine your thoughts. Why? Because the awareness of our unawareness ultimately defines the quality of our actions.

Do you view your company as an idea? A fun journey? As a regular company like the old school companies? As a net contributor to society? As a future corner stone of Norwegian/European corporate world?

Until we meet, be curious on your mental models of your selves.