How What Why Model? 10 Coaching Practices to Try
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How What Why Model, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
About 2 minutes
Try it here: write what, how and why for one idea
Pick one idea you use, then write what it is, how it works, and why it matters, so you can see where the model holds and where it breaks.
Describe one idea: what it is, how it works, and why it matters.
Practices that may help
- Maintain a personal model catalog with examples
Keep a written inventory of your models, each illustrated with a real example from your own experience.
Mental Models: Charlie Munger’s Latticework Approach - Constantly distinguish the map from the territory
A model is a simplification — know precisely where yours breaks down.
Mental Models: Charlie Munger’s Latticework Approach - Elaboration Likelihood Model, Made Practical
The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) holds that persuasion travels one of two routes: the central route, where people carefully evaluate arguments and change their minds durably, and the peripheral route, where people use mental shortcuts (source attractiveness, social proof) and shift only temporarily. Which route dominates depends on motivation and cognitive capacity in the moment. The model is one of the most replicated frameworks in social psychology. - The Fogg Behavior Model, Made Practical
BJ Fogg’s model states that behavior happens when three elements converge at the same moment: sufficient motivation, sufficient ability, and a prompt. If a behavior isn’t happening, one of these three is the bottleneck — and diagnosing which one tells you exactly what to change. The model is practitioner-developed with strong theoretical grounding; large-scale RCT evidence is limited but the framework is widely used in product design and behavior change programs. - Trim model complexity
Prefer the simplest model of a situation that still fits all the evidence.
Occam’s Razor: Prefer the Simpler Explanation - The COM-B Model and Behavior Change Wheel
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever. - Apply several models to the same problem at once
When models from different fields point to the same answer, confidence rises; when they conflict, you learn something important.
Mental Models: Charlie Munger’s Latticework Approach - Diagnose which element — motivation, ability, or prompt — is the bottleneck
When a behavior isn’t happening, ask: Is the person motivated enough? Can they do it? Are they being prompted?
The Fogg Behavior Model, Made Practical - The GROW Model: Coaching Conversations That Actually Move People
The GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Will/Way Forward), popularized by John Whitmore’s Coaching for Performance, is the most widely used coaching conversation framework. It works by sequencing a conversation from goal clarity through honest reality assessment to option generation and commitment — resisting the coach’s instinct to jump straight to advice. Evidence is clinical rather than from controlled trials, though the underlying principles map onto well-supported psychological mechanisms. - Hold multiple maps simultaneously
For complex situations, develop two or three competing models and check which fits better.
The Map Is Not the Territory
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I read all these brilliant thinking tools and nod along, and then the moment I’m actually facing a hard problem not one of them comes to mind
- I trust my favorite framework so completely that I apply it everywhere without checking, and lately it’s been quietly steering me wrong
- My theory about why this keeps happening has grown so many moving parts that it explains every little quirk perfectly
- I’m stuck on a decision and I’ve only really looked at it one way, and I’m not sure how much to trust that one read
- I keep failing at the same thing and I’ve decided I’m just lazy or weak
Related concerns
- What How Why Model
Keep a written inventory of your models, each illustrated with a real example from your own experience.
Maintain a personal model catalog with examples
- Combe Model
A model is a simplification — know precisely where yours breaks down.
Constantly distinguish the map from the territory
- B Model
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever.
- Com B Model Theory
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever.
- Elm Model
Keep a written inventory of your models, each illustrated with a real example from your own experience.
- Parma Model
A model is a simplification — know precisely where yours breaks down.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.