Reading: 'Culture, Mental Models, and National Prosperity'

Stace Lindsay,  'Culture, Mental Models, and National Prosperity', "Culture Matters", 2000, Basic Books, New York
   "culture shapes individuals' thoughts"(p.282)
   "cultural values ... shape the way individuals think"(p.282)
   "Individuals will often accept intellectual arguments, understand their need to change, and express commitment to changing, but then resort to what is familiar.  This tendency to revert to the familiar is not a cultural trait per se, but it is indicative of some of the deeper challenges faced by those who wish to promote a different, more prosperous vision of the future."(p.283)
   "Culture is a broader, macro-level variable.  Mental models are a micro-level variable.  Mental models apply to individuals and groups of individuals---and are identifiable and changeable.  Culture reflects the aggregation of individual mental models and in turn influences the types of mental models that individuals have.  The two are linked in a perpetually evolving system.  The real point of leverage in creating change may well be helping to change mental models at the individual level, beginning with the way individuals think about wealth creation."(p.284)
   "Cultural change may inevitably follow, but the task is not to change culture.  The task is to create the conditions that give birth to competetitive companies, for these will be the engines of growth that support human progress."(p.291)
   "In order to create meaningful change, it is necessary to identify the individuals who will benefit from change."(p.292)
   "segment a nation not by institutional affiliation or geographic location but by belief system."(p.292)
   "the true divisions in the country were not a function of where people lived or what their vocation was, but of their fundamental beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes about wealth creation."(p.293)
   "Political, economic, demographic, or geographic segmentations do not enable a sufficient understanding of how people are thinking about their reality.  On the other hand, mental-model segmentation can highlight differences in attitudes and beliefs that inhibit the wealth-creation process."(p.293)