Figure 1. Like the blind men and the elephant, you form mental models of the world through your experiences (Stebbins, CC0)

The third invisible layer of the Iceberg Model involves mental models. To see the impact of mental models on our views of the world, you might consider the following parable:

A group of blind men heard that an elephant had been brought to their town. None of them knew what an elephant was, so they decided to inspect it by touch to find out what it was like. The first one touched the trunk and said “it’s like a thick snake.” The second one reached the ear and thought it was a kind of fan. The third one, who placed his hand on the leg, found it to be like a tree trunk while the next one touching the side of the elephant said it was a wall. The fifth one who touched the tail described the elephant as a rope, while the final one who felt the tusk said it is hard and smooth like a spear. 

These men disputed for long, each having their own opinion, not knowing that while each was partly in the right, all of them were wrong.

Human beings use models to understand the world. A model is a structured way of thinking about how something works. In school, you may have seen models of an atom, the solar system or the water cycle, as in Figure 2 below. In the previous Module 1(c), when you drew diagrams of systems, you were creating models.

Models are usually simplified descriptions or illustrations. We use them to think more clearly about a process and to help others understand how things work. To be good, models must be simple and accurate. However, the more simplified a model becomes, the less accurate it is.

The blind men in the story at the beginning of this section formed mental models based on which part of the elephant they touched. Mental models are understandings that individuals have about themselves, other people and the world around them. Our mental models are formed from:

• experiences and observations;

• assumptions we hold about the way the world works;

• the values and perceptions of what is important, the beliefs we share with our communities; and

• the stories we have been told and the habits and rituals we have developed over time. 

Mental models are also sometimes called worldviews, or frames, a concept we will learn more about in Stage 2 of this curriculum.

All these experiences, observations, rituals, stories, values, beliefs and assumptions help people form simplified understandings of how the world works. These simplified understandings become a set of rules that frames people’s decisions and affect people’s behaviour. Psychologists call these mental models and the rules that come from them heuristics. An example of a heuristic that you might be familiar with is stereotyping.

Mental models are powerful. They affect how we view the world and our behaviour, and they also affect what information we pay attention to or ignore. Positive feedback loops can make our mental models more rigid over time, because we often select information from our experiences and observations that confirm what we already believe. This is called confirmation bias. 

Figure 3 is a model of how our mental models work when positive feedback loops reinforce decision-making (Argyris). In the diagram of single-loop learning, you can see how mental models form rules for decision-making. Based on those rules, we make decisions that affect the real world. We experience feedback from those decisions in the real world that continues to impact our future decisions.

The information feedback may be filtered, however. We may choose to pay attention to or accept information that already confirms the way we think about the world. We often ignore or reject information that does not work with our mental models. Thus, our decisions and behaviour may get stuck in a particular pattern or mental model. We are resistant to changing how we view the world, particularly when those in our community have the same mental models.

In the parable of the blind men, single loop learning would mean that each one, despite hearing the impressions of the others, did not let that information change their own understanding of what an elephant is.

Most people are not fully aware of their mental models. However, if we want to make positive change in the world, we have to make those invisible mental models visible. Once we see people’s assumptions, values, perceptions and understandings of how the world works, we can discuss and challenge them. Sometimes changing a situation, dealing with a problem or altering behaviour requires changing mental models. But people must first see their mental models and as changemakers, we must try to understand and reveal them.

There are a number of methods to make people’s mental models visible. Interviews, surveys, focus groups, observations, camera studies / collage studies / drawing studies, narration and mind maps are some of the most frequently used. Another strategy is a card sort, where words, pictures, or other prompts are placed onto cards that a stakeholder discusses or sorts. An example of a card sort with value words is included with the other tools below. You can make a copy of these and swap in other types of prompts if you wish. 

Have a look and see which ones you would like to try for your project!

Don’t forget to document your work. For information about documentation, see Module 1(e).

Ideas for documentation in this section include:

• Systems diagrams

• Interview transcripts

• Survey results in charts

• Focus group transcripts or summaries of results

• Observation notes, tables, sketches, etc.

• Camera study photographs from stakeholders with their comments

• Collages or drawings from stakeholders with their comments

• Narration transcripts from stakeholders

• Cornell notes

• Annotated bibliography

Argyris, Chris. “Teaching Smart People How to Learn.” Reflections: The SoL Journal, vol. 4, no. 2, 2002, pp. 4–15., doi:10.1162/152417302762251291.

Joooo. “Water Cycle-En.png.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, 20 Jan. 2019, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Water_Cycle-en.png.

Stebbins, Maurice, and Mary H. Coolidge. “Blind Men and an Elephant.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 July 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant#/media/File:Blind_men_and_elephant3.jpg.

Golden Treasury Readers: Primer, American Book Co. (New York), p. 89.

Turner, Lindsey. “Filter.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 6 Nov. 2007, https://tinyurl.com/yb25b3gw.

Images for examples in different contexts source information:

Samoilov, Yuri. “Coronavirus.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 20 Mar. 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ya2ngksd. CC BY 2.0

Webster, Tony. “Plastic Bottles - Waste.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 16 Sept. 2012, www.flickr.com/photos/87296837@N00/7992944072. CC BY 2.0

XoMEoX. “Tree.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 28 May 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y8bw46ns. CC BY 2.0