About the “Mental Model for Success” Program:

 

Mental models are deeply held beliefs, images, and assumptions we hold to be true about our ourselves, our organizations, the world, and how we fit in.  These images affect our work and outcomes.  When we see our organization and our purpose in new ways, we can re-define who we are and what we’re up to.  This new self-image changes our role in the world.  We develop different internal practices which produce different external results.

​

How This Program Can Help an Organization Make Positive Changes:

​

There are two skills central to understanding mental models and how they affect the success of an organization: Reflection - slowing down our thinking processes to become aware of what our mental models are and how they determine our thoughts, behavior, and results. Inquiry - openly sharing our images and inquiring about embedded assumptions.  This program teaches these skills to participants and teaches how to apply them to designing a new organizational mental model.

​

Who Should Participate:   

 

• People who know that a new organizational concept is needed in order to survive and prosper in our changing world

• Leaders who have that unsettling (and exciting) inkling that big changes are coming; 

• Those who seek new ways to lead and manage in these unprecedented times; and

• Visionaries who aren’t afraid to take quantum leaps.

​

People Who Complete This Program Will:

 

• Learn the two skills for understanding  mental models;

• Benefit from the depth of reflective dialogue;

• Discover what needs to stay and what needs to be redesigned within their organizational culture; 

• Learn what it would take to shift their internal images, communicate their new self-concept, and gain workforce alignment.

• Develop strategies for making organizational image shifts.

​

Objectives of the “Mental Model for Success” Program

 

• To gain awareness of the underlying mental models that drive the organization;

• Learn ways to reinvent the organizational concept;

• Provide program participants with practical and applicable ways to shape their new self-image; and

• Help people communicate and integrate their new mental model within the workplace and to external partners, markets, and constituents.

​

Program Segments:

​

• Setting the Context – To assure program participants that we’re not going to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water, we will address the concerns people have about changing their organization, the way things are done, and their purpose for existence.  
   

• Skill and Awareness Building  – The skills for understanding mental models are taught and practiced in dialogue format.  We engage in a 7-step exercise to discover the underlying mental models within the organization.
   

• Exploring Possibilities – Once people have a good understanding of the organization’s operating images, we go through a process to categorize the critical factors needed for success in the unknown future.
   

• Creating a Path Forward – When multiple options have been identified, the participants select their new mental model for success and decide which specific, measurable, and timely actions will be instituted.  We’ll outline a plan to help ensure implementation effectiveness.
   

• Gaining Alignment – Most well intended change initiatives fail because inertia takes over. The final segment of this program entails generating a commitment to follow-through and identifying fail-safe actions to avert the potential demise of the new mental model for success.

 

Time Frame:

 

One-day in-house program 

​

Materials and Documentation:  

 

Participants will receive handouts that include information on mental models and image shifts.  The identified options, the new mental model, the action plan, and the follow-up plan will be documented and sent to program participants.