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Before You Break Something Else, Consider These Three Mental Models
CRACK — You couldn’t help yourself, could you? That’s the sound of a legacy product or programme breaking.
[Sound effects are optional — unless you work at a glasshouse, or a restaurant…or maybe a cafe, you know with the cups…you get the idea]
OUCH — That’s the sound of toes being stepped on. Looks like you didn't consider these mental models before you started.
[No toes — real or metaphorical — were hurt in the depiction of this article’s introduction. Any similarities to an authentic scenario of blundering change are coincidental.]
In this article, we’ll cover three mental models that can improve your change process and help you think about disruption, change and innovation in a different way.
The Janus Effect is a model to see things differently depending on which perspective we take, Chesterton’s fence is a way to think about reform and what already exists, and the Ship of Theseus illustrates that nothing lasts forever. Or does it?
Add these mental models to your expanding cognitive toolkit!
Chesterton’s Fence
Have you ever come across something in your school or team and questioned why it even exists that way?
