BRX Pro Tip: More Mental Models
Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips, Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, from time to time in our conversations with Business RadioX Pro Tips, we have talked about mental models, say more about that.
Lee Kantor: Mental models are super important to learn about. There’s so many out there and there’s a variety of which that, obviously, you heard. We talked recently about Occam’s Razor, that’s a mental model. And there’s lots of them.
Lee Kantor: I thought today we can share a couple more that are razor oriented, Hanlon’s Razor and Arena Razor. Hanlon’s Razor says, basically, don’t attribute any malice that’s happening to you. Don’t take that personally. It’s probably more likely it can be explained by stupidity. That’s kind of in a nutshell what Hanlon’s Razor is.
Lee Kantor: And what this does is it’s a tool, kind of, that helps you just have more empathy and it can improve your decision-making. Because a lot of times your first move is okay, something bad happened. This person is doing that because they got something out to get me, and it’s something aggressive or something that is personal like that. When in reality, a lot of the times something that has happened could be better explained by just someone making a mistake or doing something idiotic.
Lee Kantor: And I think if you can move your thinking away from they’re doing something mean to me to they made a mistake or they didn’t understand everything, that’s more empathetic, and I think that you’re going to be better served making that your assumption rather than anything mean spirited. Because a lot of times, this kind of jumping to conclusions based on emotional reactions, a lot of times it can really be a confirmation bias where you’re just kind of assuming, based on your own biases, their intentions, when you really don’t know what their intentions are.
Lee Kantor: So, the Arena Razor mental model says that when you’re faced with two different paths, choose the path that puts you in the arena. And the arena in this case represents situations where you’re going to take a risk, you’re going to face a challenge, you’re going to actively engage in some growth exercise rather than staying on the sidelines.
Lee Kantor: And what this does is this encourages you to be more courageous and take more action. And most people in life, sadly, err on the side of not being courageous and not taking action. So, this is kind of a reminder that when you’re faced with two different paths, pick the one where you might get punched in the face. You know, this is the one, take a chance, take some action.
Lee Kantor: And when you’re doing this and you’re stepping into those kind of environments where you have skin in the game, even though it is uncomfortable, even though it is intimidating, that’s where growth happens. Growth happens in the arena. Growth doesn’t happen in the stands. It happens when you’re kind of taking a risk and doing something that might be great or it might not, and you’ll learn something.
Lee Kantor: So, mental models like Hanlon’s Razor and the Arena Razor are there for leaders to kind of lean on to help them navigate life and make better decisions.
