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How People Think: Human Information Processing
By Bob Bostrom and Vikki Clawson
The Model
The primary role of a leader or facilitator is helping the group/team achieve its outcomes by
making the best possible use of their collective resources. The facilitator accomplishes this by
sustaining a process that maximizes collaborations, enhances individual participation, and
encourages ownership of or “buy in” to the group outputs. This often requires the facilitator to
get the group members to think and respond differently. In terms of human information
processing, you might say a facilitator does not just present people with inputs, they actually
influence people’s internal computations or the way people think.
How do facilitators or leaders influence his or her own or someone else’s thinking? Before this
question can be answered, we need a model of how people think. We will use a model of human
information processing to explain how to understand and influence your own and others’
thinking processes. We call this the How People Think or Human Information Processing
Model.
The model is illustrated in Figure 1. We all take in information through our senses (INPUT) and
this information is PROCESSED by our brains resulting in behavior (OUTPUT), our response to
the situation. We all have the same brain circuits and sensory systems, yet we may respond very
differently to same input information. We have all experienced situations where people have
very different reactions to same situations. How do we explain these differences? The model
indicates this is due to different internal processing. Different processing can result from people
accessing different reference experiences from their personal history memory and/or utilizing
different processing patterns.
How then do leaders or facilitators get someone to look at things differently? Since no one can
really change an individual’s personal history, this implies that the facilitator can impact a
person’s thinking by influencing his or her internal processing patterns. Our How People Think
Model in Figure 1 depicts three major internal processing patterns: framing, emotions, and
perceptual positions. These three major patterns are defined next.
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FRAMES: Framing and Reframing Pattern
FRAMING refers to how we make meaning out of something. A frame is a mental pattern or
template that enables us to make sense of something.
We are all familiar with the expression, "frame of reference." If two people have the same mental
map or frame of reference, they will more likely put the same meaning on an event or fact, and
this similarity will be reflected in their outputs or behavior. But if one person's frame of
reference is different, the meaning that person makes will be different, resulting in different
behavior.
If a person has no frame of reference for something, no meaning can be made. The inputs just
will not compute.
When we make meaning out of something, we select and arrange the way we see reality. In
accordance with the frame we are using, we select what inputs to pay attention to, and what
outputs are useful or relevant to produce. We always use some frame when we think! For
example, think of the common frame of reference that the glass of water is half-empty or the
glass is half-full. If we frame the glass (or the world) as half-empty, we are seeing the world
through the “emptiness” frame or filter. From this perspective, we will create meaning and
behaviors that are very different than if we see the glass (or world) as half-full.
A common frame you see in business situations is the problem vs. outcome frame. Outcomeoriented thinkers see or frame a situation in terms of wants, possibilities, and opportunities.
Problem-oriented thinkers, on the other hand, tend to frame the situation in terms of limitations,
obstacles or problems. Which frame to you focus on, problem or outcome? Which do you think
is more useful perspective? Framing is a choice you have!
The meaning that any event has, therefore, depends upon the "frame" in which we perceive lt.
When we change the frame, we change the meaning. This is called REFRAMING, changing the
frame in which a person perceives events in order to change the meaning. When the meaning
changes, the person's responses and behaviors also change.
Reframing is not new. Many fables and fairy tales include behaviors or events that change their
meaning when the frames around them change. The different-looking chick seems to be an ugly
duckling, but he turns out to be a swan--more beautiful than the ducks he has been comparing
himself to. Reindeer Rudolf's funny-looking red nose becomes useful for guiding Santa's sleigh
on a foggy night.
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Reframing also appears in almost every joke. What seems to be one thing, suddenly shifts and
becomes something else.
"What do Alexander the Great and Smokey the Bear have in common?" (Answer: They
have the same middle name).
Reframing is also the pivotal element in the creative process. It is the ability to put a
commonplace event in a new frame that is useful or enjoyable. A friend of physicist Donald
Glaser pointed to a glass of beer and jokingly said, "Why don't you use that to catch your
subatomic particles?" Glaser looked at the bubbles forming in the beer, and went back to his lab
to invent the "bubble chamber," similar to the Wilson cloud chamber, for detecting the paths of
particles in high-energy physics experiments. Reframing as part of the creative process can
provide the ability to simultaneously associate an event in two very separate and different
contexts/frames.
Frames are probably the single most efficient and powerful way that a leader can influence their
own or others’ thinking. One of the major ways to do this is through questions. For example,
think of a problem you have in your life. Now answer the question, what do want instead of this
problem? Notice that the question refocuses your brain from the problem to an outcome, what
you want instead. This simple question is a powerful reframe. A question, or all of
communication for that matter, is about understanding and utilizing frames.
Most effective leaders understand that the frames people use largely determine what actions they
will take. Furthermore, leaders also realize that some frames are more useful than others, (e.g.
outcome frame).
Therefore, effective leaders:

pay attention to the frames being used by themselves, and by others,

create useful frames for self and others, and

change frames (reframe) when it is useful.
Beliefs and Criteria
As part of our discussion on frames/framing, it is important to consider beliefs and criteria. The
How People Think Model in Figure 1 illustrates that beliefs and criteria directly impact how
people establish and select their frames of reference.
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Beliefs are what we think is true or possible in the world; the generalizations that we make about
life across contexts that govern how we frame situations.
Examples of Beliefs:
"There isn't enough for everybody."
"There is plenty for everyone."
“I know everything”
Resulting Frame:
Scarcity
Abundance
Arrogance
While beliefs are less easy to manipulate than frames are, we must also take them into account.
Human beings have little energy for doing things they don't believe in--if they will do them at
all. Rather than violating a person's beliefs, effective leaders notice, utilize and reformulate
beliefs that people already have.
Beliefs are powerful. They are usually the invisible factors that guide and influence our framing
process or how we make meaning in the world. Thus, they impact directly how we behave in the
world often without our understanding. The more awareness we have of our beliefs, the more
understanding, choices and integrity. As a facilitator it is important to be aware of one’s own
beliefs and their impact upon ourselves and others, and to be able to recognize and utilize the
power of others’ beliefs. (For more information on beliefs of effective facilitation, see “Guiding
Beliefs and Assumptions of Effective Facilitation by Bostrom & Clawson).
CRITERIA
Criteria are the standards by which we evaluate our experience and the world around us. They
are concepts around which we organize our experience. A criterion is usually expressed in a
single word: challenge, fairness, freedom, costs, learning, respect, growth, money, fun,
satisfaction, useful, effective and so forth.
When you asked someone, "What is important about work?" and they respond "It must be
challenging and provide me with good learning and promotion opportunities, "they are revealing
to us their criteria. This person would evaluate any job or work project in terms of challenge,
learning and promotion. These criterion names also link together sets of experiences or behaviors
that defines what challenge, learning and promotion mean to this person. These defining
behaviors lets you know that a criterion has been, is being, or will be fulfilled. It is important to
note that although people may use the same criterion name, e.g. challenge; it may mean
something very different to each person. Their defining behaviors may be very different. In other
words, each person’s definition for his or her criterion is unique and personal.
Criteria are continually being used to evaluate and make meaning out of the world, i. e. establish
frames. For example, criteria are the basis for making decisions, so everyone will use their
criteria as their justification in making decisions. A person might say, "That's interesting," or
"That wouldn't be useful," or "Tell me how this is in any way effective. " Whenever someone
objects to anything, they do so based on one of their personal criteria and whenever a person
decides to accept anything, they do so based on their own personal criteria.
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It is very important to learn how to discover, utilize and change people's criteria. Getting people
to clarify their criterion definitions or apply different criteria in a situation will allow them to
think differently in that situation. For example, in brainstorming we delay evaluation (i.e. ask
people to suspend application of criteria) which allows for a richer set of solutions to be
generated.
Utilizing criteria is particularly important in getting people committed and motivated. To spark
the motivation of any person, use that person's criteria as the justification when providing
information or asking for action. If a person has criteria of "satisfaction and challenge, " and you
want to get that person to become motivated to do a task, describe the task as "satisfying and
challenging. " Or, you can ask the person to find a way to make the task “satisfying and
challenging” for him or her. Using a person' s criteria anywhere in a sentence will spark them. Of
course, the task better meet their definition of "satisfaction and challenge" or the motivation will
be short lived.
The following types of questions to help a facilitator identify someone's criteria:
*What is important about (the situation, person, thing etc)_____?
*How is that important to you?
*How do you know you have the “best” (situation, person, thing etc)?
*What do you pay attention to when _____?
*What do you want?
*What would that get you or do for you?
Additionally, after identifying specific criteria the questions below will help the
facilitator understand what the criteria means.
*What does (criterion) mean?
*What do you need to see, hear, and feel to know that this criterion is being fulfilled?
How would you describe this criterion?
Emotions: Second Major Pattern
The second major internal process pattern of our How People Think Model is emotions or
internal states. Quickly complete the brief exercise below which demonstrates the power
of this processing pattern called emotions.
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Exercise
Remember a time when you were really suspicious – a time when you were apprehensive,
not quite sure about the situation or person. Remember what the suspicious felt like?
What did you see and hear? Step into “suspicious” and be there again! Now think about
people you work with or are in class with. Imagine working or playing along side of
them throughout the day.
Break State – Look at the ceiling, think about something else.
Now, remember a time when you were really curious? A time when you had a great
sense of wonder and questioned everything. Remember what “curious” felt like; what
did you hear and see when you were curious? Now step in and be really curious again.
Now think about same workpeople or classmates and “wonder” what it might be like to
get to know them and work with them.
How were the two experiences different? Did you behave differently? Usually in the
“suspicious” state people are more closed, protect themselves more, and provide less
information than when they are in the “curious” state. This little exercise demonstrates
the impact of emotions and how emotions can create different responses or behaviors to
the same context.
Besides framing, the ability to create emotions is another powerful process operating
inside each of us. Emotions provide the energy, motivation and commitment to action.
Our cognitive framing process, on the other hand, provides the focus, vision, and context.
The above exercise demonstrates that we can and do create our own internal states. We
created two very different emotions in just a matter of a few minutes! Emotional states
do impact our ability to make decisions or choices. Emotions can strongly and directly
influence the context, i.e., whether you worked or played with this group with either great
suspicion or curiosity would affect your experience and vice versa. (This is the reason
for the double arrows between framing and emotions in Figure1.)
Frames can interact with and impact our internal states. For example, if you came to a
conference as a participant vs. a speaker or as someone looking for a job. Each frame of
reference would impact your behavior as well as invoke different emotional states. A
participant might be curious about what is to be learned; a speaker or job seeker might be
anxious about doing a good job. Thus both these processes -- emotions and framing -are operating simultaneously and influencing each other simultaneously.
Positive (+) and negative (-) emotion both have a positive intentionally or message. If
emotion gets in the way or is inappropriate for the frame/context i.e. being “hysterical”
when you need to make a presentation in 5 minutes - then it’s important to draw out the
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intentionality of the state and find another way to feel that might be more useful in that
context while providing the same (+) intent. Hysteria isn’t useful here although its intent
might be to keep that person “wired” and on their toes. Curiosity or confidence might
also provide the energy to keep you on your toes and be more useful in that context.
Emotions are truly wonderful things! They are the energy of life! They provide the
facilitator and the group with ongoing feedback about what is going on with individuals
and the group on the inside. They can guide the facilitator and the group toward choices
about where they want to go at that moment.
For example, the facilitator or the group might choose to suppress an emotional state and
experience if it is not useful at the time. However, you must be careful when suppressing
emotions. They are internal messages with critical information about what is going on.
It is many times better to let them surface, pull out their message and intent and then
move on.
The ability to notice, access, and utilize emotions is an essential skill for leaders or
facilitators. Paying “attention” to your own and “others” underlying emotional/internal
states can provide the facilitator with valuable information.
Building positive emotional states is the key to maintaining resourcefulness within the
facilitator and the group. The facilitator can access the emotions that are “needed” in a
situation by generating internally the kinds of experiences or behaviors that are wanted.
The key to accessing one’s own internal states is to discover how you naturally go about
changing your feeling and/or how others change their emotional states in ways that might
work well for you too. Listed below are a wide range of ways to adjust your experience
and behavior in order to access or change emotions.
Examples: Ways to Access Emotional States

Past memory
-
“Remember a time when….”

A Fantasy
-
“Imagine having…”

Adjusting your body
(moving into a particular
position)
-
Change body posture to
resemble the physical stance
of the emotion you want

Redirect Attention
-
Shift attention

Change Time Frame
-
“Pretend it’s ten years
down the road…” or it is
already done
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


Change Intensity
-
Strong feelings or minor
Feelings

Change Tempo
-
Increase or decrease noise
level or pace slow to fast

Change Involvement
-
Pay attention vs. ignore

Focus on Outcome
-
Outcome-directed Thinking
Change Frame of Reference (Reframing)

Problem perspective to outcome
perspective
-
What do what instead? (of problem)

Look for different meaning
or context
-
other meanings?
context useful?

Change criteria
-
what else is important?

Change perspective
-
As If someone else, etc.
MUSIC – Play music that triggers emotional state: “your song” or “our song”
How to Utilize Negative Emotional States Constructively – Knowing how to utilize negative
emotion constructively is an important skill for facilitation. The steps listed below can be a
useful sequence for using negative emotions effectively.
Step 1)
 Recognize and acknowledge the (-) state
Step 2)
 Appreciate and respect it as signal
Step 3)
 Be curious - Find out what the emotion's “intent” or message is.
Step 4)
 Once the intent or message is discovered, think about what actions
need to be taken to satisfy or deal with intend.
Emotions can have a powerful impact on both individual and group behavior, since they directly
influence our framing process. The ability to recognize, access and utilize the energy created by
internal states within an individual or group is an important skill for high performing facilitators.
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Perceptual Positions: THIRD MAJOR PATTERN
The third major processing pattern in our How People Think Model is called perceptual
positions. Human beings have the ability to look at the world from a number of different
perspectives or positions: self, other, observer. Self is seeing, hearing, and feeling for one’s own
perspective. Other is seeing, hearing, and feeling from someone else’s perspective, or “walking
in their shoes”. Observer position is seeing, hearing, and feeling from an outside or detached
observer perspective.
At any one time, the mind has the ability to process the world from one of the fundamental
points of view. All three positions are equally important and can provide unique information and
insight. The difference one sees when looking at the world from each of these perspectives
provides a richness of information that enhances one’s choices. Excellent communicators and
facilitators have the ability to move freely between these perspectives, gather the information
each position supplies and behave/respond in a way that effectively utilizes these multiple
perspectives.
Recent research in successful learning organizations has shown that excellent leaders have the
ability to switch perceptual positions and help others shift perspectives. Successful leaders
especially stress the importance of being able to “step into someone else’s shoes.”
For more information about perceptual positions see “The Power and Richness of Different
Leadership Perspectives” by Bob Bostrom and Vikki Clawson.
Representations
Finally, in discussing how people think we also need to consider how the information (frames,
criteria, beliefs) and the energy (emotions) we take in, create get “represented” in our brains.
When we take in and process information, we do so by primarily by visualizing the information,
hearing it, or feeling it. The sense of smell and taste are used mainly for storing and retrieving
information.
In other words, one way to describe thinking is in terms of whether a person is seeing pictures,
talking to himself or herself or focusing on feelings. The information (the content) we are
processing is coded or represented in pictures, words or feelings. This manipulation of form
(representations) is critical to many of our creative and decision making processes.
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The three primary senses used to take in, code, and cognitively process information in our brains
are called REPRESENTATIONAL SYSTEMS or REP SYSTEMS. The major rep systems are:
VISUAL (pictures, colors, brightness, etc.)
AUDITORY (words, music, tone, tempo, etc.)
KINESTHETIC (feelings, but also all physical sensations)
Everyone uses all the rep systems - but most of us have a preferred system(s), or one that we use
most consciously at any given moment. For example, when I think about a recent meeting with
my boss, I might talk to myself about the results. I could also remember the look I saw on the
boss' face, and a feeling of satisfaction. Perhaps I am most conscious of my self-talk, while the
pictures I saw or the feelings I had could be outside my awareness.
Whether I am conscious of them or not, the internal pictures I have from that meeting, the
dialogue I have with myself about it, and my feelings about it will affect how I deal with my boss
in the future. So too, my boss' internal pictures, dialogue and feelings will be critical to his or
her behavior toward me.
Internal pictures can be of two types, constructed or remembered. Remembered pictures are past
experiences present when you recall something such as the last ca you drove. Constructed
pictures are pictures you have made up, i.e. experiences you have never experienced before such
as putting the last car you drove on top of the space shuttle. The ability to create and manipulate
constructed pictures has been linked to creative ability.
In other words, getting people to construct and manipulate pictures in their minds can enhance
their creativity. For example, a furniture designer who utilizes remembered pictures would tend
to always come up with similar designs. Getting him to construct and manipulate pictures will
help him think differently and thus come up with new and unique designs. Similarly, facilitators
can always rely on the same results if they are accessing pictures of what worked in the past,
instead of constructing new and different images of successful interactions.
Albert Einstein was one of the best examples of using constructed pictures in a creative way. He
could imagine (build pictures) himself riding a light beam. He, therefore, experienced the theory
of relativity long before he captured it in mathematical terms.
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Once an internal picture is created varying any of the following dimensions of the picture will
help people take a different perspective or frame.
*Brightness
*Color/black and white
*Clarity
*Distance
*Size
*Focus
*Split screen or multiple pictures
*Movement (slide/movie)
Developing different perspectives/pictures will help people develop more creative solutions. We
can do similar manipulations in the other two rep systems: auditory and kinesthetic.
We are always influencing our own or others’ thinking processes. In order to do this well, you
need a model of how people think. In this paper, we have presented a simple model that will
help you maximize your own or others’ brain resources. Put the model to good work!
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