Mental Models
Like a pane of glass framing and subtly distorting our vision, mental models determine what we see.
Peter Senge (1994, p. 235)
Mental models, or mind-sets, are our values, beliefs and a series of assumptions about how the world works. Unconsciously, we create a story about other people, institutions, and the world which drives our behavior. While everyone has them, in fact, we need them to make sense of the complex world in which we live, all mental models are flawed to some extent. Usually our mental models are invisible to us. A coach attempts to bring them to the surface, explore them, see the effects of the mental model on the client's life, and find ways to create new mental models that serve us better. Some aspects of our mental models may hold us back, or hold others back. Many of us could benefit from reframing negative thinking into empowering thoughts, or from modifying our picture of who we think we are.
This is a useful juncture to distinguish between coaching and therapy: a therapist will explore the origins of those mental models while a coach is less interested in where they came from (although we acknowledge their origins) and more interested in considering the effect of operating from within them and then in changing them. We help a client make these mental models visible, we look to see if there's anything problematic in how they're working, and we explore how to change, replace, or demolish them.
River and Rut Stories
Robert Hargrove offers another way to think about mental models: We all tell stories about our lives, he explains; stories are our interpretations of what happens. Some are very helpful—he calls these “river stories,” but others limit and define our way of being as well as how we think about and interact with others—he calls those “rut stories” (Hargrove, 2003, p. 87).
A river story reflects a commitment to learn and grow. For example, “My first year of teaching was brutal but I was so ready for the second year.” A river story doesn't limit us. A rut story, however, uses defensive reasoning to protect one's self. Daniela's rut story, “my teachers don't respect me” was a classic example. A rut story is constricting, cuts us off from other people and usually leaves us feeling somewhat powerless.
This is an extremely useful framework for a coach. It is our role to listen for and then surface, test, and revise rut stories: they usually reflect a mental model that is getting in the way of our success. Intervening in a rut story is a confrontational coaching act; we work to bring awareness to the story and its unintended consequences. And then we help our client transform it into a river story.
So what can we do when we hear a rut story? This is a confrontational approach:
First, interrupt the story: “Wait a minute. I hear you telling a rut story.” Or “I hear you making some assumptions about this situation. Could we explore that?” We don't make the client wrong for his rut story; we just name it.
Then we invite the client to look at the effect on himself and others of holding this story. We ask questions exploring the possibilities and limitations of working from such stories. “I hear your story that your teachers don't trust you. If those are their feelings, what can you do? What actions are available to you? What might happen if you do those? What might be the effect on students if you took those actions?”
Next we ask the client to step back and observe the facts; we guide them down the Ladder of Inference to data sets. We ask, “What are other ways to view what happened? Did you notice anything else? Is there any data you might not be considering?”
Finally, we propose creating a river story: “How you see yourself or what happened is one possible interpretation. What are other possible interpretations that might be more inspiring, empowering, or accurate?” We help our clients generate alterative interpretations, but we don't provide them with a better belief system. That's not our job. They need to own the river story they create.
Daniela changed her story from, “My teachers don't respect me,” to “Some of my teachers need me to show up in a different way as a leader.” This allowed her to feel confident and hopeful, and she realized there was a wider array of actions that she could take in order to reach her goals.
Classic Rut Stories
Many of the classic rut stories identified by Hargrove are prevalent in schools. Hargrove identifies a number of classic rut stories (Hargrove, 2003, pp. 98–99). It's useful to name and discuss them with teachers and principals. Read these three rut stories and see if they sound familiar:
The “victim story”: When someone is stuck in this story, she gives away all her power to others or the situation and is unable to create what she wants. (This was Daniela's classic story.)
The “tranquilizing story”: When someone doesn't achieve a result he wants, or does something to get himself in trouble, he comes up with a set of reasons and excuses. This makes him feel better about himself. “I did my best, but we didn't have a copy machine for the first half of the year; I had a cold for almost the entire winter; and I got a tough group of kids.” While a client might achieve a superficial numbing, the coach can support the person to process the feelings of guilt, shame, and sadness.
The “why bother?” story sounds like, “I don't have the time;” “There's no money;” “I don't have the authority.” It is what we hear when someone is feeling that she's unable to create what she wants because her possibilities and choices are limited. This is often a cover-up for wanting to stay in a comfort zone or not wanting to take responsibility. Below the surface is an attitude of resignation.
A coach's job is to help clients see their situations and actions in ways that allow them to make other choices if they want. As long as they are willing, we help clients see that they are the authors of their stories and they can create new ones—the way they interpret something that happens can be energizing and empowering, or it can be self-destructive. We look for ways to help people get unstuck from their stories and develop a new perspective of themselves, others, and their circumstances.
This kind of change takes time. As we build our awareness of the stories we've told for decades, and as we reframe our stories over and over, our brain literally changes: neurons and synapses find new ways to wire together. We coaches have our rut stories too. One that I had to transform was, “Adults resist change”; which was not useful if I wanted to help adults learn. I worked to replace that with, “Adults seek change; they want to be supported and guided through change; they are eager to learn.” I'm a much more effective coach when this is my driving narrative.
Another essential tool for deconstructing mental models and rut stories is Chris Argyris's Ladder of Inference, which I introduced in Chapter Three. The Ladder of Inference is the term for the cognitive pathway that people travel up when they form beliefs that can lead to fixed mental models. It is invaluable in deconstructing mental models.
Webs of Belief
Our mental models are sometimes invisible to us. We might notice that we feel “stuck” in an area of our life, but not quite sure how to get out of bad habits or negative trains of thoughts. Drath and Van Veslor (2006) use the term webs of belief to describe the interconnected threads of beliefs that are mutually reinforcing and that guide our actions. These threads form a mind-set—an overall habitual way of understanding and approaching the world around us—and they become our river or rut stories. After a while, we don't even notice them—they are so deeply embedded in the way that we think. I appreciate this metaphor and sometimes, when I hear a client sharing a rut story, I visualize her stuck in this web like a trapped insect that's been paralyzed by a spider's venom. She's lying there, comfortable perhaps, unaware of the danger.
A confrontational approach can take apart these webs. However, coaches need to prepare to deal with the emotions that surface. As clients become aware of their mental models (which often affect their personal lives as well) they can experience a range of feelings: anger, shame, sadness, embarrassment. A coach may need to take a cathartic approach for the client to process and release thes
e feelings before the client can move onto building a new mental model.
Furthermore, when the threads of belief collapse, clients can experience major anxiety—it can feel as if the ground beneath their feet is giving way. After an intense confrontational conversation with a veteran principal, she said, “I feel like I'm tumbling down the rabbit hole like Alice. Nothing makes any sense anymore.” As coaches, it is our responsibility to help our client build another web so that the client has somewhere to go. We can't just destroy their web. The Ladder of Inference can help guide a client into new mental models as we expand their data set. We also need to encourage clients to try new ways of thinking, to don them like a new outfit and see how they feel. Creating new mental models is a process and a practice. The webs can quickly crumble, but the rebuilding can be slow.
Tips for Shifting Mental Models
Listen for stories.
Interrupt rut stories. Ask the client, “What are the unintended consequences of this story?”
Step back and observe facts. Ask the client, “What are other ways to view what happened?”
Create a river story.
Directive (Authoritative) Coaching
When a coach recognizes a fixed mental model, a rut story, or a paralyzing web of belief, a directive (or authoritative) coaching stance can be very effective. From this stance, a coach pushes a client in her learning. In order for us to be successful, however, we need to be artful and skilled—pushing is delicate business. Within masterful coaches, Robert Hargrove identifies a “potent combination of toughness and compassion” (Hargrove, 2003, p. 18). This is what we'll need to access when we take an authoritative stance in coaching.
Heron's framework names three directive approaches: confrontational, instructive, and prescriptive. Each is distinct in how it's delivered, and can have different effects on shifting a client's behavior, beliefs, and being. As with the facilitative coaching stances, we often move back and forth between approaches in response to how a client engages. Let's start by taking a close look at confrontational coaching.
The Confrontational Approach
Administrators: this is a highly effective strategy for principals to explore with teachers.
A confrontational approach can raise awareness, challenge the client's assumptions, or stimulate awareness of behavior, beliefs, or being. It can also help a client see the consequences of an action or boost the client's confidence by affirming success.
This term—confrontation—makes many of us uncomfortable. Confrontation is often seen as a negative thing and it seems very uncoachlike. I think of it as an interrupting stance to use when I need to mediate a behavior, mind frame, belief, or way of being; it's a way to generate a little cognitive dissonance. Coaches are often positioned ideally to use this strategy. We get to know a client very well, we see him in many different contexts, we've heard his stories, we care about him and he trusts us. It is our responsibility to our client, as well as to the larger change efforts to interrupt behavior, beliefs, or being which are not leading to transformation.
Most of the examples given about interrupting rut stories, deconstructing mental models, or moving down the Ladder of Inference are confrontational strategies.
Confrontational coaching questions sound like the following:
Would you be willing to explore your reasoning about this?
Would you be open to examining the assumptions behind your reasoning?
I'd like to ask you about ___. Is that OK?
What's another way you might… ?
What would it look like if… ?
What do you think would happen if… ?
How was… different from (or similar to)… ?
What sort of an effect do you think… ?
I'm noticing (some aspect of your behavior)… what do you think is going on?
What criteria do you use to… ?
When have you done something like… before?
How did you decide… (or come to that conclusion)?
What might you see happening in your classroom if… ?
Tips for Using a Confrontational Approach
Listen for rut stories and interrupt them.
Guide clients down the Ladder of Inference; present data that they're not noticing.
Identify mental models that are fixed and constricting.
Rebuild models and mind-sets, and create river stories.
The Informative Approach
I once coached a new area superintendent who had a long series of decisions to make. We'd just started working together and I was standing firmly on my facilitative coaching stone, asking open-ended, probing questions to elicit reflection. She brushed these off for a few minutes and then, with blatant exasperation, she put down her pen, looked me in the eyes and said, “Just tell me what to do.” I was grateful that she was able to let me know what she needed.
I shifted my feet onto the directive stone, and although I didn't tell her what to do (that's a very risky stance for a coach to take), I did get far more concrete in my questioning. I invited her into decision-making by proposing a solution and then asking what she thought would be the implications of taking those actions. “OK,” I said, “what if you told your principals that they had to complete a professional portfolio this year. How about that?” She shook her head. “That's too far out of their comfort zone. But that raises a good question—how do I know what they learned this year?” This leader needed to come to her own conclusions and she had plenty of ideas to tap on; however, I needed to be more instructive in order to get her there.
The informative stance (and the prescriptive, which follows this one) is the approach that new teachers often want a coach to take. “Just tell me what to do!” they ask, with justified need as they recognize the limitations to their knowledge bank about teaching. In this approach, a coach imparts knowledge and information. We provide curriculum, lesson plans, templates for agendas, books, and so on. We supply missing facts, (“Report cards are due a week before the date on the calendar”); tell clients where they can get extra help (“Ms. Sanchez is a fantastic math teacher; try to observe her”); and explain events that the client might not understand (“Last year the union negotiated… and so now…”). In an informative approach, a coach can be a “thinking partner.”
Most coaches play this role at some point with most clients. Hopefully, coaches are experts in their fields and have deep resource banks to draw from. We should know about best practices and should share them. However, there are dangers lurking in this stance and we must proceed with caution. Because our clients—especially new teachers and leaders—have such great need, and because a coach is usually a kind, caring person who wants to help, it is easy for this role to be the only one that a coach plays and for our clients to become dependent on us playing this role. The problem is that when we use an informative and prescriptive approach exclusively we may not build someone else's capacity. If we find our clients wanting us to engage in this way, it can be helpful to use a gradual release model to support the development of their autonomy.
Informative coaching stems sound like these:
There's a useful book on that topic by…
An effective strategy to teach ___ is…
You can contact ___ in ___ department for that resource…
Your principal will be in touch about that.
Tips for Using an Informative Approach
Be sure to coach within the client's ZPD.
Release responsibility gradually, but as soon as possible.
Offer a selection of resources and guide the client to make decisions.
The Prescriptive Approach
Once, on a classroom walkthrough with a struggling principal, I observed a teacher punishing students in a way that was unethical and offensive and possibly illegal. The principal was upset by what she'd seen, but she was reluctant to confront the teacher. At this point, standing outside the teacher's door, I did not ask probing or reflective questions. I said, “You have to
meet with her immediately, insist that she stop doing that, and document her actions with a formal letter of concern.” There are times like this when a coach hears or sees something that merits a response which is very directive.
From a prescriptive stance, a coach gives directions, recommendations, or advice; we direct behavior—not beliefs or being. This is another stance to take very rarely and with caution, but it is appropriate when the client lacks confidence, is unable to direct her own learning yet, or if there are legal, safety, or ethical guidelines which are not being followed.
Sometimes from this stance we might need to give advice. Robert Hargrove offers some useful tips for giving advice, suggesting that it must be caring, candid, practical, wise, and well-timed—given only when a client is open to hearing it. Hargrove reminds us to ask for permission to give advice and recommends that if we hear a lot of “yes, but” comments or if a client debates everything we say, we need to stop giving advice. Our client can no longer hear us (Hargrove, 2003, p. 75). Chapter 12 expands on how to give feedback.
Prescriptive coaching sounds like the following:
would like you to discuss this issue with your supervisor.
You need to know that the school's policy is _____.
Have you talked to ____ about that yet? Last week you said you planned on doing so.
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