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How Your Brain’s Model of the World is Limiting Your Success
22 March 2016
To manage the vast amount of information in the external world, your brain constructs its own working
model. And that model doesn't always serve us best. Learn how to usefully challenge our perspective.
I’m always writing about how amazing our brains are.
And one of its most amazing capabilities is to be able to
manage the vast amount of information that we are
constantly receiving from the external world.
To make sense of it all, our brains create an internal
working model of the world. And we work to that model
every day, reflected in our language (spoken and
thought), in our behaviours and in our results.
But of course, it’s not reality (meaning: the “reality”
everyone else is working to). Because each of us has
created that working model for ourselves; and we’ve done
it by applying 3 processes: deletion, distortion and
generalisation.
And not only does our brain apply these filters to
incoming information to create the model; our brain
applies them again when it plays the model back to “us”.
So we filter everything. Twice.
Having an internal model enables us to survive in the
world; but it can also keep us from our potential.
To address those limitations, it’s helpful to understand a
little about the mental processes at work, as reflected in
our language. And that then gives us the opportunity to
challenge and enrich our model – and so function more
effectively in the world.
Deletion
It would be impossible for us to focus on every stimulus
around us. So our brain is constantly tuning into some
elements, whilst filtering-out others. It’s an attention
economy.
We delete elements of our experience primarily in 4 ways:
1. We leave things out: “I’m frustrated.”
2. We imply comparisons: “It’s better to do it this way.”
3. We make vague references: “They don’t listen.”
4. We are vague about verbs: “I communicate badly.”
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To challenge your deletions: get to what’s been left out.
Get specific with your questions:
“You’re frustrated about what, precisely?”
“It’s better than what?”
“Who, specifically, is not listening to you?”
“How, specifically, do you communicate badly?”
Distortion
In simplifying our model of the world, we inevitably
distort reality. Sometimes that process can be negative: we
jump to conclusions without all the information. Other
times, the process can be positive: we envision things that
haven’t happened yet, like goals, discoveries and
inventions.
Here are 5 common examples of negative distortions:
1. Implying cause and effect: “She makes it impossible.”
2. Mind reading: “He thinks I don’t respect him.”
3. Equating two different experiences: “I failed my
exam – I’m useless.”
4. Expressing opinion as fact: “It’s not right for new
employees to lead teams.”
5. Nominalisation (turning verbs into nouns): “There’s
no communication.”
To challenge your distortions: resist the temptation to
think our perspective on the world is accurate and the
only one that’s valid. And instead, remind ourselves that
our view is partial and distorted. Again, get specific with
your challenging questions:
“How, specifically, does she make it impossible?”
“How do you know he thinks that?”
“How does failing your exam make you useless?”
“Not right, according to whom?”
“What’s not being communicated?”
Generalisation
Every experience and thought gets broadly the same
treatment from our brains: lightning-quick comparison
with previous experiences. From there, the follow-on
process of generalisation can sometimes be helpful: it can
allow us to learn something quickly. But it can also be
unhelpful: as when we use one experience to represent an
entire category of experiences.
3 common forms of generalisation include:
Universal quantification: always, never, everybody,
nobody.
Modal operators of necessity and possibility: must,
mustn’t, should, shouldn’t, can, can’t.
Presuppositions: when an implication is required to
make sense of a statement.
To challenge your generalisations: start by noticing and
examining the generalisation to expose (and challenge)
the underlying belief. And from there, find new and
liberating choices.
“Never? Not even once?”
“What would happen if you could do that?”
“How do you know they don’t listen to you?”
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The benefits of an enriched mental model
Understanding the ways in which we all create our
models of reality is very useful when working with others:
in eliciting quality information; and in helping them to
clarify their thinking.
But there are also considerable benefits when we apply
these challenges to ourselves and our own model:
We become more effective communicators: by
expressing ourselves with precision and great clarity,
resulting in increased influence and impact.
We are clearer in our thinking: as our use of clear
and specific language improves the way we encode
our experiences.
We no longer uphold limiting beliefs and
behaviours: when our more constructive internal
dialogue ultimately leads to positive changes and
new results.
Practise usefully challenging your own deletions,
distortions and generalisation to enrich your internal
coding of experience. And open yourself up to new
perspective and potential.
Dan Beverly is a leadership and performance coach helping high-calibre, high-
performing professional women embrace the pivotal career moments.
His mission is to inspire possibility in others: to help us excel in careers without
compromise; and to leave us feeling energised and uplifted by a new future.
Go online to book your complimentary “Session Zero” with Dan – and start
capitalising on your pivotal career moments today.
http://danbeverly.com/session-zero
