Concept presentation about Mental Models Card Game. The game was invented by Tiimiakatemia Creativity Program LÄN back in 2006. Monkey Business took over the development in 2010 and intends to publish it as a card game as well as an open source project.

1. Mental Models Game
Idea (cc-by-sa) LÄN 1 & Monkey Business
Instructions (cc-by-sa) byVille Keränen
Illustrations (c) by Juha-Matti Kinnunen
ville@banana.fi / @VilleMonkey
3rd of May 2013

2. This is what the mental models game in action might look like.

3. Once upon a time, there was an introvert but creative guy, with strong opinions. He found
himself in trouble. He was sometimes afraid to express what he thought was right, and how he
thought world works. He said yes, even if he thought no. He said it's ok, even though it wasn't.
As inside him, he still thought otherwise. He was a bit shy, too. So you can imagine, working
with him was not easy. During his education, he gained a reputation being impossible to lead.
I suppose he isn't the only one like that.Working together is not easy. Communication makes
team work tick. And usually not. According to Wiio, communication fails unless it succeeds by
chance. I think it's because we have different associations and mindsets about the way things
work.We could call these ideas that affect the way we work mental models. Like Peter Senge
and friends do.
Mental Model Game helps you to understand your own and your team mates way of working.
If you know what your friend means by for example word "soon" you will know what to
expect. Usually it takes a lot of time to learn that unless you consciously think and talk about
these issues.And that's why you should play the mental models game.You will learn how you
and your team mates think.
That makes all the difference.
Story

4. History
• Mental Models Game was first
developed by Tiimiakatemia’s Creativity
Program LÄN back in Spring 2006.
• It was inspired by Peter Senge’s seminal
book The Fifth Discipline.
• Afterwards Monkey Business took over
the development in 2010.
• Game is now released as open source
project with CC-BY-SA license

5. Why this game?
• The idea of the game is to
understand better about your own as
well as your co-workers’ mental
models.
• Understanding the mental models
will help you work better and more
efficiently together, and also make
your work more fun and fluid.
• The winner is the one who learns.

6. When to play?
• The mental models game will help the
players to get to know and understand
each other better thus it works
especially in the beginning of learning
processes.
• It can also be played at later stages in
order to get the people on the same
level and learn from each other on a
certain topic e.g sales, marketing or
coaching.

7. What are Mental Models?
What are Mental Models
made of?
Values
Assumptions
Beliefs
Premises
Common sense
Previous Experiences
Ideas
Concepts
Symbols Language
Images
Representations
Meaning
Smells
“Mental models are deeply held
internal images of how the world
works, images that limit us to
familiar ways of thinking and
acting. Very often, we are not
consciously aware of our mental
models or the effects they have
on our behavior.”
- Peter Senge
There is a great presentation on
Mental Models in Slideshare by
Amy Rae and Joanna Beltowska.

8. How to get the game?
• You can order a deck with all the materials from
Monkey Business via email ville@banana.fi for
the price of 60€ (inclusive of mailing
worldwide).
• You can play the game starting with 3 persons,
and it can scale up easily to 20 or 25 people.
• Also, it is possible to scale the game to suit
hundreds of people with the help of technology.
• If you need help in the facilitation, please
contact me via ville@banana.fi for help.

9. What you need?
• You need a game leader to facilitate
the game.
• First you pick a deck of questions
from a preferred theme, or you can
start by creating questions of your
own for what you need empty cards
and pens.
• Secondly, you need an egg timer.

10. Game Leader
• Game Leader facilitates the game
and takes care of the time.
• Game leader hosts the session and
holds the space for meaningful
conversations to take place.
• Game Leader also decides when it
is time to add more questions into
the game.

11. Rules
• One conversation at a time
• Listen with open mind to others
and yourself
• Respect the time and the game
leader
• Think of your results as a
prototype - no need to do perfect
but something that we can learn
from and build upon

12. Each Turn
1. Pick a Question Card from the Deck
2. Pick a Work Method Card
3. Pick a Presentation Mode Card
4. Have a dialogue for 5 minutes
5. Present your mental models to the
rest of the group according to the
presentation mode chosen

13. More Questions
• Between every 2 to 4 turns you
should add more questions to the
game.To do that give every player
empty question cards and pens and
invite them to write down a question
that they would like to talk about
today.
• Not all of the questions will be gone
through but they are valuable data for
the game host and owner to look into
afterwards.

14. Question Cards
• Every question should include the
word mental model in them. For
example:
• What is your mental model
about good leadership?
• What mental models support co-
creation?
• Where does my mental model
about sales come from?

15. Work Method Cards
• There are four different
working methods:
• Personal Reflection,
• in Couples,
• in 3-5 person groups
• in 7-10 person groups.

16. Presentation Modes
• There are six different
modes for presenting
your ideas:
• Pantomime
• Riddle
• Play
• Dialogue
• Drawing
• Poems

17. Do you want to play?
Please get in touch.
Ville Keränen
Monkey and Banana Coop
ville@banana.fi
+358 40 731 2084
twitter.com/VilleMonkey
www.banana.fi