Archive for the ‘Mental models’ Category

How can three people who were in the same place at the same time, the same people who saw and heard exactly the same, describing what happened and draw conclusions so different. The various participants focused attention on various aspects, assigned different meanings to the same things, related and linked these data interpretations and beliefs that they have finally expressed their interpretations as being a description of reality.

What everyone saw and interpreted rather than providing data that allow us to know reality, enable us to know what kind of monitors are each of these individuals, what their interests, concerns, what and how to assign meaning. That is, more than knowing the territory we are accessing the maps that attempt to describe.

Alfred Korszibsky coined the metaphor “the map is not the territory”, to account for the distance between the outside world, events that populate it and our own representation of it. What we see is the map not the territory, accessible only to external reality through the representation we make of it. And the means we use to map the territory, to “map” of reality, to assign meaning to our perceptions are our mental models.

We call the set of mental models, opinions, personal theories, values, paradigms, and beliefs deeply rooted distinctions we use to perceive, analyze and interpret all types of events and circumstances of our lives. These mental models have a decisive influence on how we observe and understand the world and how we position ourselves and act on it.

As a crystal that subtly distorts our vision, mental models and condition our perceptions are crucial in the process of assigning meaning to any type of message and encouragement that we received in the focus of our attention and the interpretation of any action or circumstance to observe. They shape what we see and what not, why select some data and we miss others, such as links and relate these data with existing information and what we do interpretation and evaluation of it.

But not only determine how to interpret the world but how to act on it. They shape our actions and influence our behavior, how we relate and bond with others and therefore in our job performance.

Every human being is linked to the outside world knows, learns, takes decisions and acts through their mental models. Each person lives in their own unique model of the world. And it is this model that will condition and determine the effectiveness of the action and interaction of people, both personal and professional level.

John Grinder and Richard Bandler (1), creators of NLP, say: “No two humans have exactly the same experiences. The model created to guide us in the world is based partly on our experiences. Each of us can then create a different kind of world we share and, therefore, able to live a somewhat different reality. “