Lesson 12
Mental Models
When different people in the same role keep producing the same result, look at the seat before the person, and at the map in each head that sets the rules.
Same seat, same result
The village hall committee is looking for its third treasurer in four years. The first was a retired bank manager, the second a young accountant. Both seemed ideal, and both produced the year’s accounts late, apologised and stepped down. The committee is now looking for someone “more organised”.
When several different people in the same role produce the same result, the role itself is worth a look before the next person: what reaches the seat, when it arrives, what the person in it can see and what they get thanked or blamed for. Same seat, same result.
That doesn’t make people interchangeable or excuse anyone: people still make choices and are responsible for them. The structure explains the repeat, not every act. Our habit of blaming the person and overlooking the situation has a name of its own, covered in Cognitive Bias’s lesson on the fundamental attribution error.