The Power of Extraordinary Thinking: Distinctive Mind Patterns to Transform Your Career and Life Description

This book will enable you to understand:

How outdated mental models can keep you stagnant;

When it's time to switch mental models;

How to create a new set of mental models;

How to continually improve mental models so that they never become outdated;

The scientific basis for mental models.

We are often "prisoners" of our daily work and life and our routine behaviors, locked into our existing mental models. This book will open the door to wisdom that will allow you to do more than you ever thought possible.

--Steve Forbes, Chairman and CEO of Forbes, Inc. and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine

I have always been perplexed by Japan's chronic stagnation, and couldn't find a good explanation or solution. This book opened my eyes and taught me to go back to my roots, to examine my inner mental patterns from time to time, and to construct new ones and start thinking from a new perspective.

--Kenichi Ohmae, a world-renowned strategic management and economic guru

Are you experiencing difficulties when you have to make a shift? Is your business stagnating? Is your business slow to grow? Are you falling behind in the innovation race? Are you experiencing obstacles in implementing a diet and exercise program? Are you overwhelmed by the amount of information out there? You may need to shift your mindset, and shifting your mindset can help you think differently and move past obstacles to achieve transformation in your personal life, career, and society, and this book will show you how to do just that!

Foreword:

At first glance, mental models may seem abstract and meaningless. But the truth is that they are not as dismissive as illusions in the optics, the puzzles we play every day, or academic curiosity - it's all in our heads. Our mental patterns influence the quality and direction of our lives. They suggest profit and loss and even life and death.

The debate over U.S. intelligence in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks showed how difficult it is to be wise in today's complex environment. Congressional analyses focus on who should know what and when - on information - rather than on the more critical mental models that determine how that information is perceived. As in many cases in our current information age, it was not primarily a lack of data that led to the disaster. Prior to that attack, there was a wealth of data suggesting that an attack using aircraft as a throwing weapon was likely: there was even information identifying the members who organized the plot. Even though more specific information could have been gathered and ****ed up between different departments, this disaster can only be partially attributed to data collection. The incident was not a failure of intelligence per se; at least in part, the failure was more a result of the failure to successfully make sense of that intelligence.

Vital information was filtered by people's pre-existing mental models associated with terrorism and hijackings. For example: young male staff members who belong to the middle class, who are good looking and who are interested in life, are not usually thought of as youthful fanatics who would drop suicide bombs, so when these apparently peaceful looking males begin to attend flight school or ask questions about flying at low altitudes to fertilize and spread medicine on crops, the possibility that they are involved in a terrorist incident is ignored. This hijacking also reflects the role that inherent ways of thinking play. In a typical hijacking, the airplane and crew are taken hostage and flown to some remote area demanded by the hijackers, and the pilots are told that it is best not to resist for the safety of the crew and passengers. In the case of the September 11 attacks, critical information was filtered through this mental model, making it difficult to find out what was really going on: by the time it was known, it was too late.

The events of Sept. 11 are also a powerful demonstration of the power of shifting mental models. When the passengers on the fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, received the news of the attack on the World Trade Center delivered to them by friends or family members via cell phones, some of them immediately realized that this was not a typical hijacking. They understood that their plane would be used as a weapon to be dropped on another target. Within minutes, they changed their mental models so that they would act heroically to stop the hijackers. As it turned out, this last plane failed to hit its target and instead crashed into a field in western Pennsylvania. Had the passengers on this plane not understood what was about to happen and failed to prevent it, it would have led to an even more tragic disaster. Scenarios similar to the hijacking that had occurred earlier that day were presented to the passengers and crew of Flight 93, and in an instant they developed a different mental model that quickly understood what was going to happen and acted on that realization. It was these shifts that made all the difference.

Mind Patterns Our most persistent and perhaps most limiting illusion is that we believe that the world we see is the real world, and seldom question our own mind patterns of seeing the world unless we are forced to do so. One day the Internet looks infinitely attractive, it's perfect, grand and beautiful; another day it turns out to be something overblown, sinister and seemingly worthless. The picture below doesn't change much on its own, yet in one moment we see an attractive young woman, only to change our opinion the next minute. What's going on here? The painting itself doesn't change, but at first glance we see an attractive young woman, and then a deflated old woman. This is called a gestalt flip. The lines and data remain the same, but the effect of the drawing changes dramatically. What has changed? It is not the picture itself, but our mental activity. What we see in front of us does not change, but what we see behind it does. The same landscape produces different "perceptions".

We use the term "mental model" (or "mental set") to describe the brain processes by which we make sense of the world. In recent decades, advances in science and technology have made it possible to observe the brain directly. This was the starting point for changes in philosophy and neuroscience. We can now monitor the activity of our brains while we think or observe, rather than just thinking about our thought processes as we did in the past. This kind of research has produced a huge amount of experimental data. In response to the incredible complexity of the brain, a range of neuroscientific theories have sprung up to explain what goes on in our minds. In business and other organizations, the interplay of these mental models becomes even more complex. Each person brings his or her own mental model to a group decision or negotiation, and each of these mental models brings its own biases, such as the belief that "thinking as a team" limits flexibility and reduces options.

As we led change at Wharton and at Citigroup, helping other presidents transform their organizations, we began to realize how important these mental models were to the process of change. We wrote this book to explore the significance of mental models in transforming our business activities, our personal lives, and our society. This book is not intended to be a specific explication of a particular piece of evidence from neuroscience, but it does recognize that there is a complex internal structure in the brain determined by genes and experience*** alike.

The way we make sense of the world depends more on our inner world and relatively little on the outer world. The internal world, made up of neurons, neurochemistry and electrical activity, has an incredibly complex structure and is active in a way that is difficult for us to specify, in what we call a "mental model". This pattern that exists within our brains is our understanding and representation of ourselves and our environment. (The appendix at the back of the book has a more detailed explanation of developments in neuroscience that have influenced the ideas reflected in this book.) Mental models are broader than technological innovations and business models. Mental models represent the way we see the world, and these mental models or mental stereotypes can sometimes be reflected in technological or business innovations, but not every small innovation represents a new mental model. For example, the hot trend in the beverage market toward diet soft drinks is a huge innovation, but it only reflects very small changes in mental models. Our mental models are much deeper, often too deep for us to notice.

As a central component of our perception and thinking, mental models often appear in activities related to decision-making, organizational learning, and creative thinking. In particular, Ian Mitroff has explored the impact of mental models on creative business thinking in several of his books, including The Unbounded Mind, co-authored with Harold Linstone. These authors scrutinize the importance of questioning key assumptions, especially when moving from "old thinking" to the new "unbounded systemic thinking". Peter Senge, in The Fifth Discipline and other books, explores how mental models can constrain and facilitate organizational learning. John Seely Brown examines the importance of "anti-learning" in a changing world, and J. Edward Russo and Paul J. H. Schoemaker in Decision Traps. Decision Traps, emphasized the impact of frame of mind and overconfidence on decision making. They have recently emphasized this in Winning Decisions. Russell Ackoff, in Creating the Corporate Future and several other books, has emphasized the need to question the underlying paradigm through an "idealized design" in the process of achieving a plan. This design starts with a desired outcome and goes back to setting and achieving goals and steps to achieve that outcome. Of course, there are more rigorous academic reflections on this topic, such as Decision Sciences*** by Paul Kleindorfer, Howard Kunreuther and Paul Schoemaker and Chris Argyris***. and Chris Argyris' research on organizational learning. Many other books and articles refer to mental models to varying degrees.

Why are we writing a book on this topic when so many books and articles have been published on it? First, research in neuroscience has led to scientific support for feelings that used to be available only intuitively. This research has made mental models richer and more plausible, especially when the inherent non-visibility of mental models is taken into account. Second, the book looks at the impact of mental models in a broader context, exploring not only how they affect organizational decision-making or learning, but also the ways in which they work and what they mean in terms of personal, organizational, and social change.

Finally, while those articles have explored our mental models, they have failed to explore how they influence our thinking and actions and lead to serious mistakes and lost opportunities.

This is a subject we need to continue to study. This book is a primer on the subject and will explore how these insights can be applied to personal life and business.

What we see is what we think Whether we are considering a business move or making a personal decision, what we "see" is not just what we see (see the box: "The Difference Between What We See and What We Feel"). What we "see" is what we think. We usually believe what we see with our eyes or perceive through our other senses. But research shows that we rarely utilize the information we perceive from the outside world, and much of it is discarded. Although we go through a process of viewing the external world, the constant flow of information from these images in fact evokes nothing more than other experiences in our internal world. This is not to say that the external world does not exist (although philosophers have argued this point), only that we ignore most of it. The Difference Between What You See and What You Feel There is a difference between the ability to become wise and the ability to see things. Mike May, a skillful skier, was blind from the age of three and only regained some of his sight after surgery when he was 46. In his diary, he describes the experience of seeing the world for the first time since regaining his sight.

On his first air trip after regaining his sight, he could not recognize what he was seeing when he looked out the window. The white lines that cut through the brown and green land were mountains, he thought. He explained his condition to the passenger sitting next to him and asked, "Can you help me recognize what I'm seeing?" The lady sitting next to him told him that the white line was mist, and then told him where the canyons, fields, and roads were. When he looked at the night sky, he thought the stars were "white spots, so many white spots". He came to recognize them as stars.

His recovery of sight was just the beginning of his learning to make sense of this new visual information.

The vast majority of what we see actually originates in our minds.

The "phantom limbs" felt by people who have lost their own limbs in accidents and surgeries are a good example of the mind's ability to create "reality". The real limb no longer exists, but these people can still feel it. In a famous experiment, Dr. Ramachandran of the Salk Research Center touched a patient's face with Q-Tips (cotton swabs), which evoked a response in which the patient felt that his lost hand had been touched, because in our brains, images of hands and faces are displayed in neighboring brain regions. When the hand was lost in the accident, neurons in the corresponding brain area moved to the brain area corresponding to the face to receive sensory input. In this way the patient's brain felt the non-existent hand being stroked. The person's feeling of the hand's touch is completely real. As Dr. Ramachandran pointed out in a series of reports on the BBC, our brains are "model-building machines" that construct a "fictional reality" of the external world and then respond accordingly.

Although most of us have never experienced an "illusionary limb," we have all had the experience of believing in something and then suddenly realizing we were wrong. Just as in magic, we are often led to believe that something is happening when in fact something very different is happening. Many of the great plays and mystery novels and our own experiences contain such distortions. We are often surprised and marveled at the rapid shifts in the way we understand the world.

The Importance of Mental Models Mental models affect every aspect of our personal lives, our professional careers, and the wider social sphere; see below for some examples.

Personal life - health. We are bombarded daily with new medical research and other information. Certain studies have found that certain foods or exercises are beneficial or harmful to our bodies. Some of these reports are contradictory, and even certain studies published in highly respected medical journals are later debunked or made to feel less convincing than they were first touted in the media. We also receive information about other potential disease threats, such as AIDS, mad cow disease, West Nile virus and SARS. How should we assess these threats and take appropriate action? We are also confronted with more fundamental questions about how we approach health. For example, we can adopt the European and American traditions of treating disease after it occurs, or we can prevent it through diet, supplements and exercise, or we can use a combination of both. We can believe in self-healing, homeopathy, osteopathy or naturopathy.

How we make decisions in this area depends on how we view the world. If we choose to lose weight through dieting, we can feel hesitant in the face of a myriad of dieting options. The way we understand some of these situations has important implications for our longevity and quality of life. How can we understand these choices? How can we become better at evaluating these choices and making decisions that benefit our personal health? Companies - Growth. Many companies have built their strategies based on their traditional growth models.

Companies like McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks have made their growth journey in the domestic market and then sustained it by finding overseas markets or new distribution channels. Others have grown through mergers and acquisitions. The price of growth, however, can be the dilution of the company's brand value - if you can buy Starbucks coffee at a gas station or supermarket, the brand may be something else entirely. However, the promise to investors makes the company addicted to growth. How should a company pioneer a healthy growth strategy? Enhance the brand (reduce churn, maximize customer lifetime value, take market share, enter new markets, add new distribution channels, etc.), extend the brand into new products/markets, or create a new brand (a new growth engine)? What other models has the company used to build and sustain the company's successful business? Can you apply them to your business activities? Social - diverse and positive actions. Mental models also play a very important role in the debate about social challenges. For example, what is the best way to correct or compensate for the unequal treatment of minorities and certain groups (e.g., women) who have historically been discriminated against? In the United States, there is a model in the Affirmative Action Program that provides a formal structure for granting compensation for historical discrimination. As President Lyndon Johnson said in a speech at Harvard University, "You can't free a man after you've held him in chains for years ...... and then say to him, 'You're free to compete with other people! ' and feel that you have done justice." But opponents of this strategy have a different paradigm - they believe that programs such as affirmative action programs themselves emphasize and perpetuate the very racism they oppose. President George W. Bush told the University of Michigan that affirmative action programs are "divisive, unfair, and impossible to reconcile with the U.S. Constitution." The choice of these models has profound implications for law and society, as well as for individuals. The different perceptions have been reflected in a series of high-profile court cases.

In each of these examples, mental models play a crucial role in how we think and act. Our mental models determine what we know about the world and also facilitate or inhibit the actions we might take. We will explore some specific dilemmas about personal life, business activity, and society in Chapter 11.

Thinking the Impossible How do we think outside the box? The next section provides an overview of this process (see the resource box: "Transformational Choices").

The Choice to Shift Recognizing the power and limitations of mental models Understanding how mental models determine the world you perceive Recognizing how mental models can limit or expand your range of activities Keeping your mental models realistic Knowing when to change horses Recognizing that paradigm shifts are two-way streets Seeing new ways of looking at things Bringing things closer together versus pulling them farther apart: deriving value from complex information Committing yourself to experimenting with the new paradigm Overcoming barriers that inhibit change Dismantling old rules Finding *** similarities and eliminating adaptive separations Changing your world Cultivating and refining intuition Changing your actions To begin with, we need to identify the importance of mental models and the ways in which they create opportunities and produce limitations. This will be discussed in Part One. We should then look for ways to make our mental models relevant, deciding when it is time to shift to a new model (while putting the old model into the model library), where to look for our ways of seeing and thinking, how to engage and transcend a complex situation, and how to conduct ongoing experiments. This will be discussed in Part II. Even if we are willing to change our thinking, we need to identify the barriers that keep us trapped in old mental patterns, and these constraining influences include both the basic make-up and activities of our lives and the slowly changing mental patterns around us. In Part III, we explore the barriers to change and ways to overcome them. Finally, we argue that mental patterns are applied in order to act more swiftly, so in the final part of the book, we look at how quickly grasping mental patterns through intuition can change our world.

AUTHOR BIO

Jerry Winder, Chair of the Marketing Department at the Wharton School, Founder and Director of the Wharton Fellows Program and the Wharton SEI Center for Advanced Management Studies, is a globally acclaimed marketing expert. He is the author of more than 20 books, including Convergence Marketing and Driving Change. He has won many prestigious marketing awards and has served as a consultant to many Fortune 500 companies, multinational corporations and government agencies.

Colin Crook is a Senior Fellow at the Wharton School, a member of the Advisory Board of Rein Capital, a member of the Editorial Board of Emergence, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Engineering, and a former Head of Technology at Citigroup. He has served on many national academic and advisory boards, and as a consultant to governments and numerous corporations around the world.