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Mental Models Personal mastery needs a personal vision that comes from within us. Vision is applied imagination.

Albert Einstein said Imagination is more important than knowledge. Vision is the future and is infinite. Personal mastery is to raise our level of consciousness. When u have vision and raise your consciousness you will raise the consciousness of the world. As you drive deeper and deeper into your consciousness, you will make the discovery that your needs are not just for your own personal satisfaction and prestige, but for enriching the lives of all those around you. You will start thinking about the needs of others just as u you have been thinking about your own. With the expansion of consciousness comes a flood of loving energy that transforms your life and the world around you. Great examples for people who thought about the betterment of the people around them are the famous entrepreneurs like Jamshed Tata, Dirubai Ambani, Steve Jobs, etc. They had a vision in mind. Vision represents the destiny and personal mastery is a discipline and a process by which we continually focus and refocus on what we truly want- on our visions. Great leaders and entrepreneurs like JM Tata, Dirubai Ambani, Steve Jobs, Indra Nooyi are a force for change and have compelled the group to innovate and depart from routine in order to explore opportunities. Leadership Is about realizing change. Hence the prerequisite of leadership is the ability to create and articulate a better future for the company. As great leaders you need to search for new paths, engage in vigorous exchange with an array of people both insde and outside the organization and make sure they understand and realize the desired future. Great visions also come from within- from your self-confidence, competence, conscience, imagination, intuition and instincts. Vision is not just a matter of style; it implies substance. Vision is all about strategic acumen, change and positioning knowhow. Great visionary behavior entails doing three things well: Sensing opportunity and threats in the environment Setting Strategic Direction Inspiring constituent

There are gaps between our visions and reality. These gaps make our visions fanciful and unrealistic, our efforts desperate and we tend to give up our visions-these are emotional tensions. On the other hand, these gaps can energize us to actions, to improvement and to invest our best talents and effort-this is called as creative tension. When there are variations you try to take actions to bring reality to align with your vision. Great leaders do not lower visions; they hold on to them. Truly creative people use the gap between vision and reality to generate creative energy for change. The discipline of personal mastery entails at 3 imperatives: It teaches us not to shrink back from seeing the world as it is, even if it makes it uncomfortable. It mandates that we do not lower our vision, even if it seems like an impossible vision. It teaches us to make a choice. Choosing is a courageous act.

Best leaders keep on striving for the vision or standards they set on themselves. People achieve extraordinary results with extraordinary visions. Mastery of creative tension transforms the way we

view failure. Failure is simply a shortfall, an evidence of the gap between our vision and reality. Failure then becomes an opportunity for learning. Mastery of creative tension brings out our capacity for perseverance and patience. It leads to fundamental shift in our whole posture towards reality. Principle of creative tension is the central principle of personal mastery, integrating all elements of the discipline. The first choice in pursuing self mastery is to be true to your own vision, followed by your commitment to truth. All of this produces a sustained sense of energy, passion and enthusiasm that produce substantial tangible results. With personal mastery we can progressively cultivate a way of thinking that makes us more competent and confident to realize our vision. Success conscious leaders have tremendous will power to do the things they want to do despite all the trials. People with high levels of self-mastery perform extraordinary complex task with grace and ease. For example, sportsmen (Michael Phelps), great sculptors (Michael Angelo), architects and painters (Leonardo Da Vinci), musicians (Beethoven); all these heroes developed their skills through years of diligent and drilling training. They performed with marvelous effortlessness and grace. The theory that supports this is that of the subconscious. Their persistent self-mastery with the accumulation of drills, skills, and habits got engraved on their subconscious. Self-mastery is best nurtured by silence and meditation, by heart and intuition, by imagination and commitment, - these help to quit the conscious mind and focus on and nurture through the subconscious. Mental models are the images, assumptions, and stories that we carry in our minds of ourselves, other people, institutions and every aspect of the word. We are all bound by them; they are active; they shape how we act. We make sense of the world around us and take action through our mental models. Some basic properties of our mental model include: We are our own mental models. Mental models determine what we see. Mental models shape how we act. All mental models are simplifications of the reality around us. We have no authorized mental models.

Gardner believes that our mental models determine not only how we make sense of the world, but also how we take actions. Mental models at a corporate level involve two types of skills: Skill of reflection Skill of enquiry

Skills of reflection concern the showing down ur own thinking processes so that they can become more aware of how we form our mental models and ways to influence our actions. Skills of enquiry concern how we operate in face to face interactions with others, especially in dealing with complex and conflicting issues. The core discipline of mental models includes four skill levels: Reflective Theoretic skills, Recognizing leaps of abstraction, balancing Inquiry and Advocancy.

When there is inquiry and advocacy, creative win-win outcomes are more likely to emerge. Balancing enquiry and advocacy is a learning discipline that takes time to master. It implies that a person is prepared to change his veteran mental models and his willingness to expose the limitations for the purpose of learning. The three important facets of developing and testing corporate mental models: Develop tools that promote personal awareness and reflective skills. Develop a culture that promotes inquiry and challenges our thinking. Develop infrastructure that try to institutionalize regular practice with mental models.

All three facets are important as long as they thrive in commitment, connectedness, openness, merit and flexibility to change. The healthy corporation systematize ways to bring people together to develop the best possible mental models for facing any crisis or economic turbulences. Learn to challenge your own mental models continually and consistently. Learn from people involved in it. Learn to maintain high standards of openness, transparency, merit, cooperation, and commitment that we can live our core values and vision to the full. Mental models differ across the nations, races and continents. Western mind thinks in individual terms of the primacy of the individual before that of the social. The oriental mind set is the opposite, placing the social before the individual, respecting social and community rights and claims before those of the individual. The two approaches combined can have a profound impact on revising, refining and expanding our mental models. Working with our mental models is a discipline that offers the highest leverage for change. It is not a mere intellectual exercise. It empowers us to navigate through changing times. Using the skills of inquiry and reflection will help to revise, change or enhance our mental models on a regular basis, especially with others in trusted teams. One thing is to open and refine the mental models, and another thing is to practice and live them, and even institutionalize their practice in corporations. Institutionalizing mental models is a practice to think and rethink about our assumptions and generalization and thereby accelerate learning as a whole. Long term success of strategic planning and corporation depends on the process whereby the management teams change their mental models. A shared vision is a force in peoples heart, an impressive power, inspired by an idea. It creates a sense of purpose which binds people together and propels them to fulfill their deepest aspirations. The more lofty the target, the more better the shared vision.

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