(Written By: Jim Morris)

In our work, we spend a lot of time trying to understand what, exactly, makes people think the way they think.  For organizations to change and for leaders to be effective, this understanding is critical, and it’s incredibly imprecise. People can witness the same event – a speech or a presentation for example – and although they hear exactly the same words, each person’s interpretation of what was said and what was meant is invariably different.  Yet, in human behavior, there are some shared ways of thinking that arise in organizations, societies and in fact entire cultures. In our parlance, we call these shared opinions or beliefs “mental models”. Building shared mental models in organizations is one of a leader’s most important responsibilities, and one that is frequently overlooked and underrated.

Musician, conductor, singer and artist Bobby McFerrin proved this point at the World Science Conference in 2009 when he demonstrated the universally accepted, completely unspoken mental model most of share without even knowing it. It is, of all things, the traditional five note pentatonic scale.  Many of you may not even know you know the pentatonic scale, check this out…In Search of A Common Chorus .

See!  You DO know what the pentatonic scale is and you didn’t even know it, just like the audience in the video.  The question from the conference discussion is, were we born with that knowledge or did we acquire it? The answer is generally accepted as “a little of both” but in either case, the video is a brilliant example of how we each share a common mental model – or a common chorus, yet we may not even know it.

One of the most important jobs of a leader is to help people create and share common mental models.  In business-speak, we call this “creating alignment” and it is of course critical to understanding and executing on a plan. Not having alignment around core issues is expensive and risky for any organization, and how each of us goes about creating it is different.  Coersion doesn’t work – convincing someone to agree through force-of-will becomes a battle. Repetition doesn’t work; we usually become deaf to hearing the same message again and again. “Selling” alignment can work but unless people believe what they are aligning towards, pay only lasts a short while.  What does seem to work, and what the pentatonic scale example confirms, is that people align around a common mental model when it becomes intrinsic to their day-to-day worlds.  We knew what note to sing when Bobby McFerrin jumped up or down the imaginary keyboard not because he showed us – he didn’t – but because we know the pentatonic scale and knowing it has become intrinsic. How? Repeated exposure to the music that uses that scale. Pentatonic scales are very common and are found all over the world. The scale has its origins in Celtic folk music, Hungarian folk music, West African music, African-American spirituals, Gospel music, American folk music, Jazz, American blues and rock music.

When McFerrin moved, so did our voices, in unison, aligned around a common scale, and most of us did so without any conscious thought. Mental models that bring delight and spark creativity in us are especially easy to learn, so the metaphor could extend even further to as a calling of leadership. A good plan should bring out the best in people and when it does, alignment is easier to create.

How perfect.  Part of a leader’s job is creating a common chorus in their organizations.

(Written By: Jim Morris)

Whether the difference is one of personality, or culture, or gender, or age, or race, or ethnic background, nothing leads to breakdowns on teams more than an inability to deal with differences. Now more so than ever, generational difference (age) is prevail ant as a workplace issue. Recently, I had a taste of how our clients must feel on a daily basis as the clash of generations played itself out…my opportunity was spending 7 days with ten very smart, very confident, very busy 24-year-old millennials.

My own 24-year-old millennial son invited me to join he and his friends on a 7-day wilderness raft trip in Idaho. With over 100 miles of class II to IV rapids, the river’s whitewater challenges were formidable, but I discovered that being in the older minority with this group was harder than any of the river’s rapids.

What made the trip difficult for me was, quite frankly, because these young adults are so, well…different than me.  At 53, I’m in the back half of my career; most of my expedition mates are embarking on their first full time career position. I’m happily married, and have been parenting for almost 30 years; they were single, happy to be so, and childless.  I was hoping to get through the trip without making a fool of myself or breaking any major bones; they were saying things like “let’s take the hero route!” or seeing how high up a cliff they could jump off, into the water, without breaking something. Hoping to have some status in the group other than being so old, I harbored a secret desire to be asked to talk about my 30+years of river running experience.  Forget it, they had no frame of reference for 30 years of anything!

In these troubled times of unemployment, and uncertainty, most of ‘the kids” are meaningfully engaged in jobs and pursuits that were both interesting and varied. Those who are not employed are either prepping for the GRE and graduate school, or the final stages of interviewing for jobs.   Three of them work for non-profits as naturalists and educators.  Two work as researchers and analysts in the clean tech and energy efficiency arena.  Another two work as professional river guides so they could spend most of their time outdoors running rivers. One is applying to a masters program in business and social justice.  One is finishing a Ph.D. program in Chemistry at Yale.

In spite of how interesting they were, frankly, I found myself missing people whose backgrounds and history more closely resembled my own. For a few brief more years, I will be in the majority demographic in the work place, then my group’s dominance and privilege at work will be history.  How ill prepared I feel to take my place in the minority, and how excited these young people seem to assume their roles in our future.  The trip brought home a heightened awareness that I’d better get my head wrapped around letting go and learning to be a member of the crowd if I want to be relevant, included or noticed. What generated connection and camaraderie with this group was each person’s ability to adapt to the moment, not the ability to seize control of it. Each person’s value in this crowd lay in their ability to contribute to its flowing, dynamic, eclectic vibe. The color of my hair and my age didn’t isolate me from the group, I discovered.  Any loneliness I experienced was more the result of my own inflexibility in adapting to a new way of socializing and relating.

I am happy to report, at the very end of the trip, my frail, graying, 53 year old ego did get one strong affirmation. During our introductions to each other on the first night, we were asked to describe what animal we would pick to be if we had to , and said I wanted to be a grizzly whale because of their power and dominance (grizzly) and benevolent gentleness (whales).

By the end of the trip, the group had named themselves the “Grizzly Whales”.

Maybe I’ll fit in after all!