Lessons In Excellence : Power Of Impossible Thinking

07 April 2007

Anuradha Sengupta: Jerry, you are very categorical that these mental models have a direct impact, have direct profit and loss, life and death impact. In fact you believe that the 9/11 hijacking has changed the way the mindset or the mental model in which people will now react to hijacking.

Yoram Wind: Lets take the example. The first two planes that hit the World Trade Centre, the passengers in these planes basically behaved based on the current mental model in respect to hijacking that is — do nothing, just be quiet, obey the hijackers and eventually the authorities will negotiate and everything will be ok. The third plane, the flight which eventually crashed in Pennsylvania, the passengers received information as to what happened in New York.

So the passengers and crew — we don't know exactly what happened on the flight — but we know that once they realised what happened in New York with the first two planes, they changed their mental models and acted. They did something that brought the plane down. Since then I am absolutely certain that any new hijacking that will happen, people will not behave based on their old mental model but their new one. That is an extreme situation where you have such life and death situation that led people to change behaviour. But in business you have all the time a situation of changing mental models is leading to new form of behaviour.

Anuradha Sengupta: Ranjan, here we have an example of an extreme case and a very extraordinary situation which compelled people to change their mental model. But in ordinary life why do you think these mental models are invisible or we tend to forget that they exist?

Ranjan Kapoor: I think as I mentioned earlier, it is because of the blind spot you develop and you are going along a trodden path, your comfort levels are high. Unless and until something negative happens in that space, you are likely to travel on that trodden path. And more or less we have come out of an easy sort of situation as a country. We haven't faced global challenges. We have been fairly closed in and only recently we have been beginning to face those challenges. We were License Raj — blocked growth rate of one to three per cent… sort of happy, discontent but not revolutionary in our approach to things. Now we are changing. We are part of the global set-up.

Anuradha Sengupta: Jerry, what would you attribute as being the main reasons why we are not aware of these mental models and we sort of — they are unconsciously guiding so much of our actions or most of our actions?