Considering the exceptions: How should leaders think about experience?

Prior research suggests that leaders produce their best and most impactful solutions to organizational problems when they use relatively simple mental models. A critical question which remains, however, is how do leaders work with experience and mental models vis-à-vis elaboration when solving problems? To address this question, 361 undergraduates were asked to work on an educational leadership task where they viewed simple or complex mental models, prototypic or non-prototypic experiential cases, and were asked to elaborate on either the cases, mental model, or both in conjunction. It was found that viewing non-prototypic cases resulted in visionary speeches of the greatest affective impact and that original plans were most likely to emerge when leaders viewed simple mental models, non-prototypic cases, and were asked to elaborate on the cases via the mental model framework. The implications of these observations for understanding leader problem-solving are discussed