Always we begin again
There are many ways to understand how to proceed when facing a new possibility or challenge or when wanting or needing to do things differently. In “Switch” the newest Heath Brothers book, a distinction is made between the rational mind and the emotional mind. Arguing from neuroscience, among other disciplines, they offer a model for working with both dimensions to achieve change.
This distinction, the emotional and the rational is not new, and certainly given what they are working on and what the promise/offer of “Switch” is, this distinction is a useful one.
What I would add is that books like these, and mental models like these, require faith, interpretation and the reflection. The first step is faith in the model. The second step is out interpretation of the model through applying it. The third step is reflecting on the experience of the application. To support my claim one must accept that there in no way to evaluate a models outside of applying it and that applying a model is always a matter of interpreting it. So to further elaborate, the pattern is first, having faith that the model is worth using we, second, behave the ways(s) the model prescribes through its application/interpretation and third we evaluating what it has meant to have applied/interpreted this model be reflecting on our experience.
On Faith: If we believe neuroscience, being affiliated with Stanford, Duke and Harvard’s business schools, writing for Fast Company, having a prior book that was highly acclaimed or having a certain kind of look and feel for a book cover or our picture inside the dust jacket are indicators of expertise of the kind we trust, we have faith in Switch.
On Interpretation: If upon having this faith, we apply the principles and practices to our life, it requires us to make sense of them within our own cluster of models and so it requires that we interpret them; maybe in a literal way, maybe in a more nuanced way, however it is that we are applying them, it is through our rich accumulation of prior models, prior experiences, prior faith and their connection with our interpretation of this one, that our sensemaking gives us a frame for action.
On Reflection: Then, acting from our interpretation we take action and we gain experience. Then we reflect upon this (How did that work? Did this model turn our to be true, helpful, valid, smart, etc? What will I carry forward from this?) to re-make, revise or even re-inscribe what we found in model in the first place.
And then we begin the whole process again with additional elements. We may re-read a part of Switch. We made add the Heath Brother other book Made to Stick, another book or even something completely different from a TED talk, from INSEAD Knowledge or our favorite novel, movie or biography.
As is attributed to model of Saint Benedict the great monastic leader, “Always we begin again.”