Jewish Life Digital Edition October 2015 | Page 43

the inner journey never really stops. That is why
our brains keep changing right through life.
After much searching, I came to the insight that the inner journey is more fun,
the landscapes of the mind more interesting, that intrapersonal intelligence (as understood by Howard Gardner, a Harvard
University professor best known for his
theory of multiple intelligences) is the
highest form of wisdom. Most importantly,
the inner journey is the accumulation of a
latticework of diverse mental models, each
coalescing to form a dynamic mind-set. The
mind-set of each of us is critical to our interpretation of the stream of situations
that affect our responses, our behaviour.
It’s the inner journey where all human
change takes place and it can be a difficult
process. My search continued for a mental
model that best describes change. After a
few detours and dead ends, I found it in the
works of Manfred Kets DeVries, a Hollander working at INSEAD, a business school on
the outskirts of Paris. Kets De Vries is an
interesting man as he has a doctorate in
business administration and trained as a
psychoanalyst in Canada for six years. He
understands the dynamics of both the
business world and the inner world of people, and works on changing culture in global Fortune 500 companies. In his book, The
Leadership Mystique, he describes five stages to transformational change.
Firstly, there needs to be an emotional
response that causes dissonance, an uncomfortable feeling and thought process.
Knowledge is power, but knowledge does
not change. You can know all about the
dangers of smoking cigarettes, but the
habit continues nonetheless. Fear of a horrible death and gruesome pictures of cancer of the mouth are far more persuasive.
The second stage is for a crisis to occur
or a tipping point to be reached. Coughing up blood or an ominous sign on a
chest X-ray pushes some to stop smoking.
A frustrated spouse leaving home, a final
warning at work, and self-destructive
thinking in a depressed person are common examples of crisis or tipping point.
Some institutions and companies can be
so fixed in mind-set that a really big crisis

needs to play out. But often it’s too late
by then.
Thirdly, a clear, sincere public