Ideation Workshop - Mental Models for Pattern Interruption

Thoughts/ideas/projects can be snuffed out by criticism before they have a chance to begin. They can also become tangled by overthinking, or unhelpful perspectives and limiting beliefs.

Mental models can help to provide a structure through which an idea can transform and take on a new shape and offer a different perspective.

For example

1. Double-edged sword – a metaphor for a situation, action, or tool that brings both significant benefits and equal, often unexpected, disadvantages. Do you have a startup idea that is only being seen in one light, and could use a prompt to challenge an assumption or to provide an alternate view point?
2. Enantiodromia – a term in Jungian analysis describes the tendency of things to turn into their opposite when taken to extremes. Do you have a rule for your creativity that you are perhaps holding onto too tightly that is creating unexpected and seemingly opposite consequences?
3. Indra’s Net – originally from Hinduism and Buddhism, this net describes an interdependence matrix. Have you acted in isolation, but found reverberating consequences? (other similar models include recursion, infinity mirror, ouroboros)

These mental models capitalize on the power of analogy and metaphor. By running your thought through one of these frameworks, you’re essentially running it through a simulation. This simulation provides a new perspective. There are infinite mental models you can use.

The point is to literally pattern interrupt your existing model or to provide scaffolding on which a new idea can start to take root.

How the workshop is structured

In this workshop, we will pull from potentially dozens of mental models.

• Sometimes we begin with a random draw to interrupt the narrative you’ve been running
• Sometimes we select a model intentionally and test it.

Participants will take turns in the hot seat. Observers will be able to learn by watching until it’s their turn. If the group wants, we can also break out into pairs and share back.

How to prepare
Bring an idea you’ve been chewing on for some time, or a thought you want to explore. It doesn’t have to be big or complex. You can also show up and just see what emerges!

Limited seating, please RSVP.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher The Hitchingham Group