Get 20% off any STSI course with code CAL20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera explore a simple idea with big implications: your calendar is a mental model.

What you schedule—and what you leave off—reveals something about how you organize your priorities, time, work, and life. Derek and Laura discuss how calendars, to-do lists, meetings, and deadlines can become useful tools, but can also create busyness, unnecessary pressure, and systems that quietly dictate our behavior.

They also explore the difference between progress and productivity, intrinsic versus external motivation, unrealistic daily expectations, and why constantly judging yourself by what you accomplished can become its own trap. Instead, they argue for examining whether the systems around you actually support the life and outcomes you want.

From calendars and classrooms to workplace systems and everyday routines, the episode shows how we embed mental models into the structures around us—and how those structures then shape our behavior. If your schedule feels like it is running your life, this episode offers a systems thinking lens for redesigning it.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code BRAIN20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera deconstruct a familiar phrase: “That’s just the way it is.”

They explore the difference between accepting reality and surrendering to an outdated mental model. Sometimes “that’s the way it is” means acknowledging a real constraint. Other times, it means accepting a pattern, policy, culture, or way of working simply because it has existed for a long time.

The conversation examines how individual and collective mental models shape behavior, why successful old patterns can become difficult to challenge, and how organizations can uncover the thinking that sits underneath entrenched processes. They also explain why changing culture is ultimately about changing shared mental models—not simply trying to force different behavior.

If you hear “that’s just the way it is” in your team, organization, family, or even your own thinking, Derek and Laura argue that it should be a signal to stop, define what “it” actually is, and ask whether you are dealing with an unchangeable reality—or a mental model that can be rebuilt.

Get 20% off any STSI course with code IQ20 — become a systems thinker today!

In this episode, Drs. Derek and Laura Cabrera challenge the way we think about intelligence.

They argue that most people do not have an intelligence problem—they have a problem with the structure of their thinking. Rather than defining “smart” by IQ, credentials, memorized information, or expertise, they explore intelligence as the ability to adapt to reality, reorganize information, solve novel problems, and respond to feedback.

The conversation explores the difference between information and organization, why expertise can sometimes create blind spots, how simple questions can uncover flawed assumptions, and why teams need shared mental models before they can work effectively together. Derek and Laura also explain how DSRP helps people see the underlying structure of problems instead of simply accumulating more information.

If you have ever believed that intelligence is something you either have or you don’t, this episode offers a different framework: being smart is about practice, adaptivity, structure, and your willingness to let reality change your mind.