“Hey! You know how you and I are good decision makers … and everyone else has a problem?”

I’ve used this line for more than a decade to explain why many people don’t want to know about improving their own decision making and are much more interested in helping others see their point of view.

My friend and colleague Alicia McKay – a prolific thinker and writer – echoes this mindset in her blog What if you’re a character in someone else’s story?. She writes:

In The Slap (a book and Netflix series), everyone is convinced they’re the reasonable one. They can all justify who they are, what they think, and why they’re right. But everyone misses vital pieces of the puzzle.

Wonderfully relatable, right? We’ve all been at least a little obstinate when finding ourselves in disagreement with others.

So what to do about it?

McKay writes about testing your opinions. I have a different method: my Meta Mental Model, which is a methodology for helping boards and executive teams make big decisions about the future.

The methodology asks each team member to take on a persona then to mash their ‘mental models’ (their opinions on the future) of the world together to form a Meta Mental Model and come to agreement about the best decisions they can make now to place their organisation in the best possible situation as the future unfolds. In short, it’s a flexible strategy that maximises the upside and minimises the downside for as much of the future a Meta Mental Model depicts.

While you and your team have been doing some version of this over the past weeks of uncertainty, this methodology can take your team’s thinking and analysis to another level.

Not sure that is very likely? 🤔 Get in touch and hear me out. I’m prepared to back your decision making on this! Or simply grab a copy of Team Think: How Teams Make Great Decisions for some extra support during these uncertain times.