Mental models

Another System Thinking trope that gets my dander up. Not because it's ill intentioned but because so many well-intentioned people do it.    In discussions on systems thinking we often hear, "well, it's all about the context." Or, "what about the environment."   Recently, our lab posted this post (and poster).  

Before the tweet below, I didn't know what a fronted adverbial was.

This blog was written by Austin Reid as a project for PADM 5449 at Cornell University.  The following three-part poster series is designed to serve as a teaching aid in preschool settings to assist children in understanding feelings and how to process them. This poster series can also be used as a teaching aid for children between the ages of three and five in other settings including daycare, summer camp or Sunday school. The first poster provides children with an opportunity to think about how they are feeling and explain why. Children will point to the face that most accurately mirrors how they are feeling and they can also learn from others how they are feeling. This check-in can also be done as a one-on-one exercise between a guardian and a child.  

This blog has been partially adapted from A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition. When you picture things that think, a slime mold probably wouldn't be the first organism to jump to mind. However, research has shown that you don't necessarily need a brain to think; in other words, non-neural organisms can think. Previously, we discussed how chemotaxis is an inherently DSRP-based process which allows bacteria and cells to make distinctions, build systems, recognize relationships, and take perspectives. As research has shown, slime molds can do DSRP too. 

There are moments in life when we instinctively know that our life is changing and that a corollary transformation of ourselves is underway. I am sure that every parent remembers with great clarity the moment that the totality of becoming a parent hit them. Never is there such a crystallization of absolute joy and heart stopping fear. The enormity of the responsibility of parenthood weighs on us before a child arrives in our home. Yet, we embrace the joy, face that fear, and take the responsibility head on to do what our instincts tell us to do as biological beings raising our young.

"I am empowered to create unique, memorable and personal experiences for our guests." 

This post is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of Flock Not Clock. 

This post is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of Flock Not Clock. 

Over the years, different variables/symbols have been used for the same equation. In some cases for good reason, and in other cases solely because, like an English sentence, a mathematical sentence can be read and written in different ways toward the same effect. For example, take the following four equations:

Staff: I'm curious to hear more about the slider,  "People As A Means Versus Ends." And when I look at how you've drawn it up (see the map here), it seems to me that this slider has to do with how a person interacts with other people. Can you explain a little bit more about what the basics of the slider?

The term cognitive slider was coined by Derek Cabrera to communicate “a relatively small, nourishing or ‘meaty’ mental model” for use in increasing one’s prosocial or emotional intelligence. This blog is part of a set of blogs under the tag "sliders." Be sure to check out the tag to read them as a group and learn how sliders are at play and can help us in our everyday lives. Over the years, I’ve worked with many students and folks who are new to the workforce. I must say, working with a team of young, passionate professionals who still believe they can change the world for the better (and likely will) is one of the best parts of my job. 

  Dr. Cabrera's "Dinner Table Story" has become so requested that a reenactment was added to CRL's STML500 Certificate in Systems Thinking. 

Distinctions are universal. They are commonly thought to be uniquely human and to exist only as concepts.

This post is an excerpt from Flock Not Clock: Chapter 1.  Flawed Mental Model 4: Utilize Fourth (in the traditional model), flow charts, org charts, and plans only work when we have enough human power, so we’re going to need some human resources. 

This post is an excerpt from Flock Not Clock: Chapter 1.   Flawed Mental Model 3: Control Next (in the traditional model), we need a control structure. We need processes because we need to make sure that we understand every single step of a process that has not happened yet and that will constantly be changing.

This post is an excerpt from Flock Not Clock: Chapter 1.  Flawed Mental Model 2: Command Second, we need a command structure. 

This post is an excerpt from Flock Not Clock: Chapter 1.     Our more complex problems come about when how we think our organization works is out of alignment with how it actually works.

The corporation, as we know it today, arose out of World War II. With the United States transitioning into an actual industrial economy, the workforce became categorized into white- and blue-collar jobs.

Excerpt from the book: Systems Thinking Made Simple, Chapter 2 The British mathematician George E.P. Box said, "All mental models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do

We're committed to increasing public understanding of science about systems thinking. We strive to make the basic science of systems thinking accessible without loss of fidelity. One of the many

The term cognitive slider was coined by Derek Cabrera to communicate “a relatively small, nourishing or ‘meaty’ mental model” for use in increasing one’s prosocial or emotional intelligence. This

I'm going to soapbox for a moment. I get a little uncomfortable when people make sweeping generalizations, especially when they are born of a binary way of thinking. When Simon

One of the things I find in our efforts to promote public understanding of science and systems thinking is that people have a hard time realizing the ubiquity, pervasiveness

Many now conclude that knowledge alone doesn't influence behavior. While that may be true, there's some subtlety that needs to be unpacked, lest we underestimate the importance of knowledge for

The internet is full of memes. Here's one that's an entertaining idea embedded in a pop-culture image. Meme: "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture".[1]

I'm motivated to write this blog by a recent discussion thread on Systems Thinking Daily about mental models. Of particular interest is how can we be more aware of our

Image credit: M.C. Escher.1 There is an often cited, well-worn debate around *epistemology versus ontology* in systems thinking. It is in ways reminiscent of the *nature versus nurture*