What is NLP?WHAT IS NLP?
NLP can be equated to the owner’s manual for your mind. It delivers to you a set of tools that will put you in the drivers seat of your life. At the end of your practitioner training course you will have the tools to understand and direct your thoughts and emotions in an empowering way that will drastically improve the quality of your life.
Use NLP to:
* Create unstoppable career success
* Build wealth & happiness
* Create powerful passionate relationships
* Achieve the fitness and weight you desire
* Super charge your children’s learning & ability
* Live life on your terms free of anxiety
* Create the life of your dreams
* Help others create the life of their dreams
* Get rid of unwanted habits and behaviors
* Attract the person of your dreams
* And much, much, much more……..
A MODEL OF COMMUNICATION AND PERSONALITY
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) began as a model of how we communicate to ourselves and others. It was originally developed by Richard Bandler, John Grinder and others. This model explains how we process the information that comes into us from the outside. The belief is that “The map is not the territory.” And so the internal representations that we make about an outside event are not necessarily the event itself.
Typically, what happens is that there is an external event and we run that event through our internal processing. We make an Internal Representation (I/R) of that event. That I/R of the event combines with a physiology and creates a state. “State” refers to the internal emotional state of the individual – a happy state, a sad state, a motivated state, and so on. Our I/R includes our internal pictures, sounds and dialogue, and our feelings (for example, whether we feel motivated, challenged, pleased, excited, and so on). A given state is the result of the combination of an internal representation and a physiology. So what happens is that an event comes in through our sensory input channels which are:
- Visual-Including the sights we see or the way someone looks at us;
- Auditory-Including sounds, the words we hear and the way that people say those words to us (unless you specifically want variety in form);
- Kinesthetic Or external feelings- which include the touch of someone or something, the pressure, and texture;
- Olfactory-Which is smell; and
- Gustatory-Which is taste.
The external event comes in through out sensory input channels and it is filtered and we process the event. As we process the event, we delete, distort, and generalize the information that comes in, according to any number of several elements that filter our perception.
DELETION:
Deletion occurs when we selectively pay attention to certain aspects of our experience and not others. We then overlook or omit others. Without deletion, we would be faced with much too much information to handle with our conscious mind.
DISTORTION:
Distortion occurs when we make shifts in our experience of sensory data by making misrepresentations of reality. In Eastern philosophy there is a well-known story of distortion in the rope versus snake analogy. A man walking along the road sees what he believes to be a snake and yells “SNAKE.” However, upon arriving at that place he is relieved as he discovers that what he sees is really only a piece of rope.
Distortion also helps us in the process of motivating ourselves. The process of motivation occurs when we actually distort the material that has come into us that has been changed by one of our filtering systems.
GENERALIZATION:
The third process is generalization, where we draw global conclusions based on one or two experiences. At its best, generalization is one of the ways that we learn, by taking the information we have and drawing broad conclusions about the meaning of the effect of those conclusions.
Normally, the conscious mind can only handle 7 (plus or minus 2) items of information at any given time. Of course, many people can’t even handle this number, and I know people who are a “1 (Plus or minus 2).” How about you? Try this: Can you name more than 7 products in a given product category, say cigarettes? Most people will be able to name 2, maybe 3 products in a category of low interest and usually no more than 9 in a category of high interest. There is a reason for this. If we didn’t actively delete information all the time, we’d end up with much too much information coming in. In fact, you may have even heard that psychologists say that if we were simultaneously aware of all of the sensory information that was coming in, we’d go crazy. That’s why we filter the information.
So, the question is, when two people have the same stimulus, why don’t they have the same response? The answer is, because we delete, distort, and generalize the information from the outside.
We delete, distort and generalize the information that comes in from our senses based on one of five filters. The filters are, Meta Programs, belief systems, values, decisions, and memories.
META-PROGRAMS:
The first of these filters is Meta Programs. Knowing someone’s Meta Programs can actually help you clearly and closely predict people’s states, and therefore predict their actions. One important point about Meta Programs: they are not good or bad, they are just the way someone handles information.
VALUES:
The next filter is values. They are essentially an evaluation filter. They are how we decide whether our actions are good or bad, or right or wrong. And they are how we decide about how we feel about our actions. Values are arranged in a hierarchy with the most important one typically being at the top and lesser ones below that. We all have different models of world (an internal model about the world), and our values are the result of our model of the world. When we communicate with ourselves or someone else, if our model of the world conflicts with our values or their values, then there’s going to be a conflict. Richard Bandler says, “Values are those things we don’t live up to.”
Values are what people typically move toward or away from (see Meta Programs). They are our attractions or repulsion’s in life. They are essentially a deep, unconscious belief system about what’s important and what’s good or bad to us. Values change with context too. That is, you probably have certain values about what you want in a relationship and what you want in business. Your values about what you want in one and in the other may be quite different. And actually, if they’re not, it’s possible that you may have trouble with both. Since values are context related, they may also be state related, although values are definitely less related to state than are beliefs.
BELIEFS:
The next filter is beliefs. Beliefs are generalizations about how the world is. One of the important elements in modeling is to find a person’s beliefs about the particular behavior we are trying to model. Richard Bandler says “Beliefs are those things we can’t get around.” Beliefs are the presuppositions that we have about the way the world is that either create or deny personal power to us. So, beliefs are essentially our on/off switch for our ability to do anything in the world. In the process of working with someone’s beliefs, it’s important to elicit or find out what beliefs they have that cause them to do what they do. We also want to find out the disenabling beliefs, the ones that do not allow them to do what they want to do.
MEMORIES:
The fourth element is our memories. In fact, some psychologists believe that as we get older, our reactions in the present are reactions to gestalts (collections of memories which are organized in a certain way) of past memories, and that the present plays a very small part in our behavior.
DECISIONS:
The fifth element, and related to memories, is decisions that we’ve made in the past. Decisions may create beliefs, or may just affect our perceptions through time. The problem with many decisions is that they were made either unconsciously or at a very early age, and are forgotten.
These filters will determine our internal representation of an event that is occurring right now. It is our internal representation that puts us in a certain state, and creates a certain physiology. The state in which we find ourselves, will determine our behavior.
Remember that in this model the map, the I/R, is not the territory. Our every experience is something that we literally makeup inside our heads. We do not experience reality directly, since we are always deleting, distorting, and generalizing. Essentially, what we do experience is our experience of the territory and not the territory itself.
In a study of communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, the researchers determined that in communication, 7% of what we communicate is the result of the words that we say, or the content of our communication. 38% of our communication to others is a result of our verbal behavior, which includes tone of voice, timbre, tempo, and volume. 55% of our communication to others is a result of our nonverbal communication, our body posture, breathing, skin color and our movement. The match between our verbal and non-verbal communication indicates the level of congruency. (See Structure of Magic II).
NLP COMMUNICATION MODEL AN INTRODUCTION TO NLP
BASIC CONCEPTS IN NEURO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING
by Tad James, M.S., Ph.D., Certified NLP Master Trainer
Copyright © 1985, 1995, 1999
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is about noticing patterns. So, in NLP, we are not so much interested in content as in process. Often this is an interesting transition for us to make. The first step is to pay attention to the process of your interaction with others -- listen to the form, watch the form, feel the form, and not get involved in the content.
THE MODALITIES
Of course, the next question then, is how specifically do you “listen to the form, watch the form, feel the form, and not get involved in the content?” The modalities are one way of categorizing exactly what a person does inside their head as they think. They are a way or a model for what a person does in their head as they make up an Internal Representation (I/R). In the process of creating NLP, Bandler and Grinder discovered that by looking at someone's eyes, you could tell HOW they think. Not what they think, but HOW they think. You can tell what they're doing inside.
V C V R
A C A R
K A D
Eye Movements in a Normally Organized–Right Handed Person
(This is how they look when you're facing them.)
Based on observations by the original researchers, when people look up, they're visualizing. When they look horizontally to the left and right, they're either remembering or constructing sounds. When they look downward and to our left, they're accessing their feelings. And when they look downward and to our right, they're talking to themselves (Auditory Digital). The chart above is for a “normal” right handed person. Many left-handed people and some ambidextrous people will have eye movements that are reversed.
Vr
Visual Remembered
(Visual Recall) — Seeing images from the memory, recalling things you're have seen before.
QUESTION: “What color was the room you grew up in?” “What color is your bedroom now?” “What does your coat look like?”
Vc
Visual Constructed
(Visual Created) — Images of things that you have never seen before. When you are making it up in their head, you are using Visual Constructed.
QUESTION: “What would your room at home look like if it were blue?” “What would your dog look like if it had the head of an elephant?”
(In addition, some people access visually by defocusing their eyes. When this happens, the eyes will usually stay in the center.)
Ar
Auditory Remembered
(Auditory Recall) — Is when you remember sounds or voices that you've heard before or things that you've said to yourself before. When you ask someone, “What was the very last thing I said, they typically look in that direction.
QUESTION: “Can you remember the sound of your mother's voice?”
Ac
Auditory Constructed
(Auditory Created) — Is making up sounds that you've not heard before. For example
QUESTION: “What would I sound like if I had Donald Duck's voice?” “What would Swan Lake sound like if it were played on bagpipes?”
K
Kinesthetic
(Feelings, Sense of Touch) — You generally look in this direction when you're accessing your feelings.
QUESTION: “What does it feel like to touch that rug?”
Ad
Auditory Digital
(Talking to Yourself) — This is where your eyes move when you're having internal dialogue.
QUESTION: “Can you recite the Pledge of Allegiance?” “Do you have a favorite poem from school?” “Can you recite the 7 times tables?”
Typically, every time we access our brain, we move our eyes in that particular direction which facilitates our using that part of our neurology. The mind and body are absolutely interconnected, so each time we access our Visual Memory, for example, we move our eyes upward and to our left. (If you're watching someone access Visual Memory, you will see them move their eyes upward and to your right.)
Based on our model of communication, and how we make an internal representation, you'll remember that people rely on their 5 senses to make I/R’s about the world around them. Internally, we also generally come to depend on one representational system or modality more than another as we access information, and also use that information to create I/R’s. So, some people are using their Visual representational system more, some people use their Auditory representational system more, and some people use their Kinesthetic more than the others.
Usually an individual will prefer to use a certain modality or will use primarily a certain modality as their primary representational system. Let's go through, the three major modes of operation so you can notice what mode people are operating in, and begin to identify them. You can then begin to match the modes by using the predicates and physiology that match their representational system.
Visual
Typically, people who are in a visual mode stand, or sit, with their heads and/or bodies erect with their eyes up, and will be breathing from the top of their lungs. They often sit forward in the chair or on the edge of the chair. They tend to be more organized, neat, well-groomed and orderly. More deliberate. More appearance oriented, and sometimes quieter. Good spellers. Memorize by seeing pictures, and are less distracted by noise. Often have trouble remembering verbal instructions, and are bored by long verbal explanations because their minds tend to wander. They would rather read than be read to. A visual person will be interested in how someone looks at them, and will respond to being taken places, and being bought things. They will tend to use words like: see ‘ya later, I want to look at it, focus on it, watch it, be clear, foggy, picture that, notice, appears.
Auditory
Someone who is auditory will move their eyes sideways and also down to the right. They breathe from the middle of the chest. They typically talk to themselves, and are easily distracted by noise. They often move their lips when they say words. They can repeat things back to you easily. They may find math and writing more difficult and spoken language easier. They like music and learn by listening. They memorize by steps, procedures, and sequence. An auditory person is often interested in being told how they're doing, and responds to a certain set of words or tone of voice. They tend to use words and phrases like: listen, talk to, said, speak, hear, and sounds like, “Good to talk to you.”
Kinesthetic
They will typically be breathing from the bottom of their lungs, so you'll see their stomach go in and out as they breathe. Their posture is often more slumped over, and they often move and talk verrrry slooowly. They will typically access their feelings and emotions to “get a feel” for what they're doing. They respond to physical rewards, and touching. They also stand close to people and touch them. They are often physically oriented people (athletes). They may move a lot, and they memorize by doing, or walking through something. They use words like: feelings, get in touch, hold, grasp, and handle.
Those are the characteristics of the three major modes of operation. And so, the question is now, how do you use them to communicate with people? How do you communicate with someone who is primarily in one of those modes? This brings us to the subject of rapport.
RAPPORT
Think of it! If there's anything that you want to get, or if there's anything you need, then you will probably need someone's help in getting it. This is true whether you're a salesperson, a teacher or even a carpenter. No matter what you do, the ability to develop and maintain rapport with the large numbers of people of varying backgrounds will allow you to get what you want. Having rapport with someone will allow you to do anything. So, rapport is probably the most important skill on the planet.
The basis of rapport is that when people are like each other, they like each other. When people are not like each other, they don't like each other. When you like someone, you are willing to assist them in having whatever they want. Remember that 38% of all communication is tone of voice, and 55% is physiology. So, most communication is outside of our conscious awareness. A tremendous opportunity exists for communication outside of normal channels, and that's what rapport is all about.
For the sake of contrast please remember a time when you were accessing your feelings, in a feeling state, or calm and quiet. Was there a time when you were in this state, and perhaps you can recall being with another person who was in an excited (visual) mode. Do you remember the feelings in your body when that happened?
Or can you remember being in a really excited (Visual) mode, and talking to someone in a real slow (Kinesthetic) state. Remember how it drove you crazy waiting for the other person to catch up?
Please, remember that neither of these modes of operation is wrong, they're just how people operate. To be a master communicator, you will also need to keep in mind that you will communicate best with people, when you employ their primary modality.
Too often, however, communication takes place in a system where people are unconsciously mis-matching modalities. So the first major element of rapport is to match the modality the person is in.
If you're meeting with someone, for example, who is in high visual, and you're not quite there, sit up in your chair, breathe from the top of your lungs, and be excited. Or at least act in a way that matches what they're doing. On the other hand, if you're meeting with someone who is auditory, you want to slow down a bit, modulate your voice more, and “listen, really listen.” If you're meeting with someone who is kinesthetic, slow waaay dooown. And talk to them about feelings. Actually change your voice tone so that it matches theirs, and really “get a sense of it.”
On the next two pages are lists of predicates, and predicate phrases. Look at these now, and notice the words and phrases that people use in each major representational system. In each major representational system, people are using different words, different phrases that actually reveal what's going on inside their heads.
LIST OF PREDICATES
VISUAL AUDITORY KINESTHETIC UNSPECIFIED
see hear feel sense
look listen touch experience
view sound(s) grasp understand
appear make music get hold of think
show harmonize slip through learn
dawn tune in/out catch on process
reveal be all ears tap into decide
envision rings a bell make contact motivate
illuminate silence throw out consider
imagine be heard turn around change
clear resonate hard perceive
foggy deaf unfeeling insensitive
focused mellifluous concrete distinct
hazy dissonance scrape conceive
crystal question get a handle know
picture unhearing solid
LIST OF PREDICATE PHRASES
VISUAL AUDITORY KINESTHETIC
An eyeful Afterthought All washed up
Appears to me Blabbermouth Boils down to
Beyond a shadow of a doubt Clear as a bell Chip off the old block
Bird’s eye view Clearly expressed Come to grips with
Catch a glimpse of Call on Control yourself
Clear cut Describe in detail Cool/calm/collected
Dim view Earful Firm foundations
Flashed on Give an account of Get a handle on
Get a perspective on Give me your ear Get a load of this
Get a scope on Grant an audience Get in touch with
Hazy Idea Heard voices Get the drift of
Horse of a different color Hidden message Get your goat
In light of Hold your tongue Hand in hand
In person Idle talk Hang in there
In view of Inquire into Heated argument
Looks like Keynote speaker Hold it!
Make a scene Loud and clear Hold on!
Mental image Manner of speaking Hothead
Mental picture Pay attention to Keep your shirt on
Mind’s eye Power of speech Know-how
Naked eye Purrs like a kitten Lay cards on table
Paint a picture State your purpose Pain-in the neck
See to it Tattle-tale Pull some strings
Short sighted To tell the truth Sharp as a tack
Showing off Tongue-tied Slipped my mind
Sight for sore eyes Tuned in/tuned out Smooth operator
Staring off into space Unheard of So-so
Take a peek Utterly Start from scratch
Tunnel vision Voiced an opinion Stiff upper lip
Under your nose Well informed Stuffed shirt
Up front Within hearing Too much of a hassle
Well defined Word for word Topsy-turvy
Underhanded
The second element of rapport is physical mirroring of the individual's physiology. Actually physically copying their posture, facial expressions, hand gestures and movements, and their eye blinking will cause their body to say unconsciously to their mind, “Hey, (s)he's like me!” It's undeniable to the nervous system.
The third element is to match their voice: The tone, tempo, timbre (quality of the voice), and the volume. You can also match their key words. Perhaps they often say, “Actually.” You can use it in a sentence several times. Say it back to them.
The fourth element is to match their breathing. You can actually pace someone's breathing by breathing at exactly the same time as they do (matching the in and out breath). By matching their breathing, by pacing their breathing, you can then begin to lead them out of the representational system they're in, into another one.
The fifth element is to match the size of the pieces of information (chunk size or level of abstraction) they deal with. If someone usually deals in the big picture, they will probably be bored with the details. On the other hand someone who is into details will find that there's not enough information to deal with, if you only give them the big picture. So make sure that you are matching the content chunks that the person deals with.
The sixth element is to match their common experiences . This is what's usually called rapport. When people first meet, often their early relationship is about matching common experiences, common interests, background, and beliefs and values and their ideologies and common associations.
Those are the critical elements of rapport. Next, how do I establish rapport, and then how do I know when I'm in rapport?
To establish rapport, the process is to match and mirror completely, what the other person is doing. When I'm training people in rapport skills they often ask, “Well how can I do that, they'll think I'm making fun of them.” You do need to be subtle when doing matching and mirroring, but typically most people are in a trance when talking anyway. They're so caught up in what they're going to say next that they are rarely fully aware of what you're doing. And if they do, you can have a good laugh about it.
Calibration is one way of testing whether you're in rapport with someone. Simply, that means you need to develop your sensory acuity to such an extent that you can begin to see peoples reactions to your communication. Watch their eyes, the muscles around the eyes, the lower lip, the color of the face and hands, the breathing. These are all indicators of rapport.
In addition there are some indicators that happen in your own body that you can notice. As you begin to go into rapport, there's a certain, specific physiological feeling that begins to occur in the body. It happens in the area of the legs, and chest, and could almost be described as a feeling of nervousness or anticipation. The next thing that happens is that you can feel the color in your own face begin to change. It's a feeling of warmth in the face that rises up from the neck. As you notice this, you can also notice, within about one minute, the color in the other person's face increases. The change in color usually happens one minute after you notice the internal feelings. Usually within another minute or so, the person you're talking to will say something like, “...and (your name), my good friend here...” or “I feel like I've known you for years...” They may even use the word “rapport” or “trust” to describe what they're experiencing.
Even if you don't have an experience of these indicators of rapport, there's another way that you can tell. This process is pacing and leading the other person. After you've matched and mirrored a person for say, 5 or 10-minutes, you can then begin to lead them and to lead their behavior. Successful leading is another way you can tell if you're in rapport with someone.
Establishing rapport is also important in the case of interpersonal relationships, say with a member of the opposite sex. What you'd want to do first of all is to establish rapport with them. Get into rapport. Match and mirror them so that they begin to trust you, feel good about you, and have good internal representations about who you are. You may recall times that you've done the opposite, I certainly have. And I'm sure that the other person thought that I was a totally inept person (at best). At worst, there's no trust. Rapport is an important process in both business and in interpersonal relationships.
The following exercises are to assist you in developing your ability to gain rapport with other people:
Establish rapport with as many people as you can in the coming week. For example, practice when you go into a restaurant, establish rapport with the maitre d', and with your waiter or waitress.
Match and mirror someone near you in a restaurant, or wherever you are. Notice if you're able to establish rapport.
When you're going up to a counter to purchase something, practice establishing “instant” rapport (it's possible).
Watch people's physiology for a whole week. For example on Monday, watch color; Tuesday, watch lower lips, etc.
To master the skill of rapport, it's important to learn the ability to gain instant rapport with anyone. I was staying in Anchorage, Alaska once in the summer, and a series of events had put me in a situation where I needed to have a hotel room, and I had no prior reservation. I called several major “name brand” hotels in the phone book, and found them all booked. So when panic set in, I began to call blindly, and found a hotel that had space. When I got to the hotel, I discovered that it wasn't the kind of hotel that I really would stay in. In fact, I began to feel that staying there was NOT an exercise of my personal power. I decided that I needed a hotel room, and I needed it now!
So, I went back to a “brand name” hotel that I had already called and was told there was no room, that they were 150% booked. I went up to the front desk, and matched and mirrored the girl behind the font desk. As we started our conversation, I talked as I imagined she would talk. Almost immediately, I saw her facial color change. At that point, I knew I had established rapport. She said, “I'm going to do whatever it takes to get you a room.” She spend a half-hour “finding” me a room. She talked to the manager twice, and I had my room. Not only did I establish rapport, but two days later when a friend came in to pick me up at the hotel, she spent several minutes telling him what a wonderful person I was. And I had only talked to her for ten minutes!
If you practice these skills you will develop the ability to go into instant rapport with ANYBODY. I had just finished doing a training on rapport, and I was going to lunch with one of my students. We were going to a restaurant for lunch and roughly one 1/2-hour before an afternoon appointment. When we got to the restaurant, the girl behind the desk said, with her head looking down at the schedule, “It'll be at least 20 minutes.” And I said to myself, “Oops, it's time for rapport!” As I looked to my friend, I saw him matching and mirroring her, and decided to see what happened. When she looked up at him, she went into instant rapport and her facial color instantly changed, and she smiled and said, “Do you mind a table in nonsmoking?” We said, “No.” And she had us taken to our seats immediately!
Powerful stuff!
Here's one more exercise! This one involves two people. Person “A” begins to tell person “B” about a work experience or a personal experience. Person B matches and mirrors person A. Totally establish rapport. Both A and B notice matching and mismatching of eye cues, predicates, and other elements of rapport. Notice also the feelings of comfort and discomfort as they occur. Notice what's going on internally in your body as well as externally as you go through the exercise. Notice the feelings as you go into rapport. After about 3-5 minutes, you should notice the physiological feelings of rapport. Notice them. Also look then for the outward signs of rapport.
ACCESSING POSITIVE STATES
Based on the information so far, we are ready now, to discover how to put people into state. Actually, if you did the rapport exercise, you already know how to put people into state. The process of going into rapport with someone does indeed put them into. In fact, if you're pacing and leading the person, just your going into a state will put them into that state. (Remember, a state is made up of an I/R and a physiology.)
So the first step in putting people into state is to establish rapport. The second step is to put yourself into the state you want to establish in them.
The next step is to say, “Can you remember a time when you were?.. (the state you want them to access).” For example, “Can you remember a time when you made a decision easily and quickly, when you were totally decisive?.. (for decisiveness).” Or, “can you recall a time when you purchased something that you were very happy with?.. (for buying state).”
What will happen is that people will literally go inside and do a search of their memory to discover that particular time. If you have them do enough of that (such as happy buying state), they will connect (or link) you to that state.
The question may come up, what if they're resistant, or ask you, “Why are you asking me this stuff?” I had that happen once when I was signing up a new client. And I was asking him to recall all sorts of outrageous stuff. He said, “I can't believe I'm sitting here answering all your crazy questions!” I said, “I know! I can't believe it either! Why are you doing that?” He answered, “You know, I just feel like I'm very close to you.” Bandler and Grinder say, “There are no resistant patients, only resistant therapists.” So before you ask outrageous questions, establish rapport. Then you can do anything, and they'll forgive you.
One more thing you can do in advance is to set the frame about what you're going to do. Here are some nice frames to put around the process of putting someone into state:
“As we sit here talking about your business, I'm beginning to wonder if it would be appropriate to ask you now, to recall a time...”
“That reminds me, can you remember a time when you were totally decisive, now...”
“You know, I was wondering, can you recall a time when you made a business decision that was a big win for you, and made you lots of money?”
“And as I ask you so many questions, you may wonder what it would be like to be a client, and as you wonder, if you could just imagine being a client now, you'd probably find that it would be easier to make the right decision...”
“Your telling me about your business reminds me of a time when I (pause), well gee, I wonder if you can recall a time when you totally were satisfied with a purchase you just made.”
And they'll oblige you by going right into that state.
Remember that a state is made up of an internal representation and a physiology. So, your asking them to make an internal representation of a time when they were (for example) satisfied with something puts them right back into that state. And when you have access to a state, what you want to do then is to anchor it.
ANCHORING
So, when you have access to a state, the next step is to anchor it. And remember that a spontaneous state is usually more powerful than one that is induced. When ever you find a state that you can use (whether it's in you or someone else), you can anchor it.
What is an anchor? The concept of anchoring comes from Pavlov. You remember Pavlov's dogs? What Pavlov did with his dogs, was that he rang a bell, and showed the dogs a steak. Rang the bell and showed them a steak. Then he rang the bell, and the dogs salivated just as if they'd just seen a steak. Pavlov deduced his theory of stimulus-response from this experiment. The bell was actually an anchor. What he had done is to set up an anchor for the dogs.
An anchor occurs any time a person is in an intense state, and at the peak of that intense state or that experience a specific stimulus is consistently applied, the state and the specific stimulus become linked neurologically so that the state can be continually produced by setting off the stimulus.
There are four steps in anchoring:
1. The first step is to put the person in state. You can use a spontaneous state, or an induced state (“Can you remember a time...”). It's important that the state be fully associated. Which means that the person is in their body, looking through their own eyes (as opposed to looking at their body from outside it). It's also important that the state be intense and congruent.
Here is some specific language to get the person in an intense and congruent state. “Can you recall a time when you were totally X'd? Can you remember a specific time? As you go back to that time, can you step into your body and see what you saw through your own eyes, hear what you heard, and feel the feelings that you felt when you were totally X'd?”
People go into states at different rates, so it's important that you calibrate the state, or you can ask them to tell you when they are fully into the state, at the peak of the experience. You can have them nod, move their head, or finger, or foot or whatever.
2. The second step, when they're at the peak is to provide a specific stimulus. Provide a specific stimulus and apply it consistently. When they are at the peak of that experience, the anchor should actually be ending:
APPLICATION OF AN ANCHOR:
Notice that as the state begins to peak, the anchor should be applied. It should start slightly before, and end right at the peak or slightly before. An anchor should be applied for from 5 to 15 seconds, so using a physiological (kinesthetic) anchor you would hold the touch up to 15 seconds. What you may want to do, in order to get a very intense (positive) state when you're working with someone, is to literally “stack” anchors. So you can say,
“Can you recall a time when you were totally capable?”
“Can you recall a time when you were totally loved?”
“Can you recall a time when you were totally powerful?”
“Can you recall a time when you laughed hysterically?”
When you have access to that state, anchor it. Anchor all the states by touching the person in the same place in exactly the same way.
3. The next step is to change the person's state. Have them get out of the state they were in. Perhaps have them walk around. At least have them take a deep breath.
4. Set off the anchor by applying it in exactly the same way, and discover if they go back into state.
There are five keys to successful anchoring:
The first is the intensity of the response, or the congruity of the state. In anchoring, we're looking for a fully associated intense state. You may ask, “Are you seeing yourself or are you in your own body?” We want them to be in their own body (associated).
The second element is the timing of the anchor. The anchor should be applied just before the peak. If you hold it too long, then you may find that the person has gone beyond the first experience into a second, into another state, and the two states may be linked.
The stimulus should also be unique. The uniqueness of the stimulus is important because if you set up an anchor on an area of the body (assuming a kinesthetic anchor) that is touched a lot, such as a handshake, then the anchor will become weakened with time (diluted) because it will be set off by other people. So you will want to provide an anchor that is in a unique area of the body. Often an NLP professional will use an ear to set up an anchor or ask you to put a series of positive anchors in a fist.
How long an anchor lasts depends specifically upon how unique the location is. If it's not an intense state that you're anchoring, or if you haven't stacked it, then the anchor will wear off or dilute itself more quickly. If the location is not unique it can be fired off so many times that it won't work again, because it won't be linked to the specific state.
The last key is the replication of the stimulus. The way that you apply the anchor in setting it and in firing it off to test, need to be exactly the same every time. So if you're snapping your fingers or giving them a certain look, you need to do it the same way every time. That anchor needs to be fed back to the person in exactly the same way it was set.
The fifth key is the number of times. I.E.: How many times you stacked the anchor.
COLLAPSING ANCHORS
All human change (All? Yes, all.) is nothing more than an integration of resources or a collapsing of realities, one into the other. The particular process of collapsing anchors involves taking a negative state, and integrating or collapsing it into a positive state. Doing this gives the person we're dealing with more neurological choice. One of the major premises of NLP is to increase the choices a person has.
So, if we find for example that every time a certain salesperson goes out to make a sale that they become negative. It may be because they're recalling all the times they've failed. If the two are linked, we can collapse the association of sales and failure, with a winning attitude, and give the salesperson the choice of feeling good about selling, too. The process of collapsing anchors will free the salesperson from the necessity of having to access the negative state every time they go out and make a sales call.
The process of collapsing anchors is one of the more powerful process in NLP, and this technique can also be used for collapsing anchors by yourself, and it's also easy to use.
Ask the person to recall a series of positive experiences, and anchor each one. Stack the anchors. For example, when they couldn't lose, when they felt powerful, when they knew they could have it all, when they knew they could have whatever they wanted.
Have them put all the experiences, one at a time, into their right hand, while you are firing off the original anchor that you have set, with each experience.
Have them look at the right hand, and describe what those experiences look like. What do they say, or what do they sound like? What do they feel like? What is the shape, color, size, sound, smell. Make a fist, now, and hold on to all those positive experiences.
Now have them put the negative experience into the left hand. (f the negative experience is particularly strong, you can have the person put the negative experience into the left hand quickly without looking at it. If it's not very strong, have them describe it as they did with the positive.) You don't have to set an anchor for the negative experience other than the hand.
Go back to the right hand. Have them notice those experiences again. Ask them again about some of the SubModalities, the smell, the sound, the color, the brightness, and shape.
Now, holding the right hand over the left hand, have them pour the positive experiences from the right hand, including the feelings and the sounds, into the left hand. Have them make a “sshhhh” (or any) noise as they do it. And have them continue pouring until the contents of both hands are the same. When both hands look, sound, and feel the same, then they can stop.
Next, have them clap their hands together once, and then rub them together vigorously.
Finally, have them look again and make sure that both hands are the same. If not, go back to #1.
The negative experience in the left hand and the positive experience in the right hand will be linked in the neurology, so that the person will have more choice. The person can feel negative about the negative experience or they can feel positive about them. The negative will not have the hold over them that it had before. It's a very powerful process, by the way, and one that you can use on yourself or others to reduce the effect of negative experiences and to create new neurological choices.
One important caution in this process is that the NLP Practitioner should be sure that the positive anchors are stronger than the negative anchors. What you're doing is diluting the negativity with the positively, neurologically. So it's a neurological dilution of the negative experience. However, if the negative experience is stronger than the positive, then the positive experiences will be diluted into the negative, which is not what you want. Typically, an NLP professional will set a number of positive anchors before beginning this process, so that the negative experiences will be weaker than the positive ones. In addition, make sure that the person you're working with is dissociated from the negative experiences. Don't allow them to access the negative states too long, and make sure to get them out of the negative states.
STRATEGIES
The Mind–Body Connection to Behavior
by Tad James
(Revision of 29–Nov–99)
I often ask people in the seminars that we give, before beginning to teach strategies, “How many people used a strategy today?” I'm interested in how many people will raise their hand and how many won't, and usually only a few people raise their hands, because people typically are not aware of their pervasive use of strategies.
What is a Strategy?
A strategy is any internal and external set (order, syntax) of experiences which consistently produces a specific outcome. For example, when I go somewhere, I need to make a picture of where I'm going and how to get there in my mind. I gather information verbally until I have a clear picture of the entire route that I'm going to travel. When I have enough information, I then forget it and trust my Unconscious Mind. That's my strategy for driving somewhere, when I do it successfully. When I don't do it successfully, it's usually because I haven't gathered enough information. So, I don't have a clear picture, and then I may even take the wrong turn or get lost. Do you use a strategy when you go somewhere? Of course you do, although you may not have been aware of it until this moment. Think of it, what is your strategy? What do you do when you go somewhere?
We use internal processing strategies for everything we do. All of our apparent external behaviors are controlled by internal processing strategies. All of our overt behaviors! So that means that we use strategies for love, strategies for hate, strategies for learning, strategies for math, parenting, sports, communication, sales, marketing, wealth, poverty, happiness, death, sex, eating, disease, creativity, relaxation, attention and fun. There are strategies for everything.
We first develop a particular strategy when we are young. At an early age, perhaps you put a series of internal and external experiences together, and made (for example) a decision. Then, at some point when you knew it worked, you generalized the process that you used before in making the decision and said, either consciously or unconsciously, “OK, this is a good way to make a decision,” and you then probably used it over and over and over again.
Let's say, for example, you made a picture in your mind and talked to yourself or someone else about it, until you had enough information, and that was how you made the decision. If that syntax worked for you, then at some time you began to use it over and over again.
In our lives, we use strategies for everything that we do. And so the next question I often ask people, in the process of doing a seminar is, “So those of you that didn't use a strategy yet today, how did you get here?” “How did you get to the seminar?” “How did you decide what seat to sit in?” So, a strategy is essentially what it is that you do in your mind in the process of doing something.
Since NLP deals more with form and less with content, we're not so much interested in the content of the thought — just the form. You might say, “Well, I thought of this”, or “I thought about that” or “I thought of flowers” or whatever you did. Rather than the content, we’re more interested in the process information about what you did. Did you make a picture in your mind; did you have a certain set of words that you said to yourself? Did you think of somebody else's voice, or did you have a certain feeling or emotion? Our interest is more in the context, form and process of what you did, and less interested in the content.
NLP was created as a result of modeling. The creators of NLP devised a “modeling system” which was essentially to discover somebody's belief systems, physiology, and mental strategies. In the process of modeling, they would elicit a person's internal program, which they called “mental syntax” or “strategy.” In terms of modeling, then, one important element is the internal syntax or what they do inside their head when they do what they do — what strategy do they use?
Now, as an example, let's see how you might model a foreign language. If you were modeling a language, like French, you'd model three things. First, you'd model the vocabulary, actually learning the vocabulary. You'd learn “plume” means “pen.” Next you'd learn syntax. So, you'd learn how to say sentences in French, putting certain words in certain order. Regarding the order and sequence of words, “The dog bit Johnny” is substantially different from “Johnny bit the dog.” It has a completely different meaning, yet they're the same words. But they're in a different order. The difference in meaning is created by the syntax (order, sequence).
And also in modeling a language, you'd also model the mouth movements. You'd learn how to pronounce “plume” so you could say it with the correct accent.
Modeling mental strategies in NLP allows us to take a strategy from one place and move it to another place. Now, if I'm dealing with content, then it's hard to move content from one place to another. But if I'm dealing with process, if I'm dealing with the “how to” regarding processing information then I can discover somebody's internal program and I can install it in someone else.
Another purpose for discovering someone’s strategy is that you might want to assist them to change their strategy. We talked about this in a seminar that I did recently where a participant had a buying strategy of “see it”, “feel good about it” and “buy it.” So, “I see something I want and I get a feeling right away, and I buy it”, is pretty efficient for making quick decisions, especially if you're an airline pilot. She felt, however, that it was not really effective for buying because she'd see a lot of things she liked and she bought them. So, she decided she wanted to change the strategy.
Most strategies that people have can be easily adopted or modified, according to whatever our outcome is. And that's why in NLP one of the presuppositions is that people have all the resources they need. For example, if someone is very decisive at home and they have trouble making decisions at work, one of the things we can do is move their “home” decision–making strategy to work.
Strategy: Definition
The definition of a strategy is a specific syntax of external and internal experience which consistently produces a specific behavioral outcome, or to put it in plain English, a strategy is something that somebody does in their brain and nervous system that produces a specific result. It's what somebody does in their head when they do what they do.
An analogy that seems to work really well in describing strategies is the analogy of baking a cake. In the process of baking a cake, you get all the ingredients together, get a bowl, and you put the ingredients into a bowl in a certain order. It's important to take all the ingredients and put them in a bowl in a certain order. In a recipe, there's a certain order or sequence of when the elements should go into the recipe. And so, if you put the elements of the cake into the bowl in the wrong order, or even in the oven before you put them into the bowl, you'll get a substantially different outcome.
A strategy is a specific order and sequence of internal and external processes or internal and external experiences that consistently produce a specific outcome. If you reverse the strategy, that is, if you reverse the order and sequence of the strategy, the outcome that you get may be substantially different.
How do you discover someone's strategy for doing a specific thing? Just ask! That’s right, just ask, and when you do, listen to their predicates, watch their eyes (eye patterns), and make note of the order and sequence of the modalities as they are presented to you.
What are the elements that can go into a strategy? There are only six, fortunately. That makes it easy! There are only six things that people can do in their mind — what a surprise. You thought you could do a lot more than six things, didn't you? There are only six things that you can do, though. The six are pictures, sounds, feelings, tastes, smells, and you can talk to yourself. And you can do each of those things either internally or externally.
If you're making note of the syntax of the elements in a person's strategy, we've developed a shorthand notation process for strategies. And they're shown below:
V =
Visual
e =
External
A =
Auditory
i =
Internal
K =
Kinesthetic (feelings)
t =
Tonal (At)
O =
Olfactory
d =
Digital
G =
Gustatory
The strategy notation system that we use corresponds directly to the eye patterns chart that you remember (see page PAGEREF _Ref349983799 1). As you listen and watch the person you're eliciting the strategy from, note first the major modalities — [V], [At], [K], [O], [G], [Ad]. Also make note of whether they are internal or external. For example, seeing a picture in your head is Visual Internal (or Vi), looking at a car to see if you like it is Visual External (or Ve), and may include a comparison to a remembered or created car (Vr or Vc). Talking to the salesperson, and gathering information about the purchase to find if it meets your criteria is Auditory digital (or Ad), and External. Or feeling a rug to discover if you like the feel is Kinesthetic external (or Ke), while feeling good about the purchase is Kinesthetic internal (or Ki).
If you want to you can also include the distinction of whether each step is internal or external. We make a superscript, “e” for external and “i” for internal. And when dealing with auditory, you want to make the differentiation between auditory digital [Ad] or auditory tonal [At]. Digital includes lists, criteria — whether it “makes sense”, whereas tonal is more concerned with whether it “sounds right”. The difference between Digital and Tonal is whether the meaning of the words is important or whether the tonality is important. Make a subscript of “t” for tonal or “d” for digital.
You will want to note the elements in the order they occur. And, it's OK to ask again and again until you have a strategy that you can be confident about. Make several tests. Ask again if you need to so you get it right, and you are sure that the building blocks are in their correct order.
The T.O.T.E. Model
Bandler, Grinder, Dilts and others in the book, Neuro–linguistic Programming, Volume I, refer to a model of strategies called the T.O.T.E. Model. T.O.T.E. stands for test, operate, test, and exit.
The notion of strategies was originally proposed by Miller, Galanter and Pribram in the book called Plans and the Structure of Behavior, 1965. The T.O.T.E. model was intended to explain how people process information and create complex behaviors. It was an attempt to explain behavior which was more complex than that produced by simple stimulus–response.
As the theory goes, a strategy or T.O.T.E. begins with a certain test (see diagram below). It's a test that actually starts or fires off the strategy. It's the starting point. As you look at the diagram below, follow along beginning with the word “T.O.T.E.”, where it says “input” (this is where the information comes from for the strategy), and to the right of that, you see the first test.
TEST OPERATE TEST EXIT
Input
Test:
Here's how it works: A trigger is set off, and information is gathered, which becomes part of the first test, and the strategy begins. It operates for a while and it tests again, to see if it's complete. If it's not complete, it goes back to a certain point, and then comes back to the test again. It continues this loop until it gets a positive outcome, then it exits.
The first test establishes the strategy’s test criteria that are carried forward to the next test. So, the first test starts the strategy and it establishes criteria for the next test.
As an example, let's look at how you know to be motivated. What's the one thing — the trigger that gets you motivated? (The first test can also be called the trigger because it's what sets you off.) Is there usually one thing (like something you see, or hear)? Remember a time when you were especially motivated. What set you off? Do you remember the trigger? If not, pick another time. Do you remember the trigger, now? Was it something you saw, something you heard or the touch of something or someone? It's really important in the process of eliciting, utilizing, designing or creating new strategies to discover a specific trigger that will get the person into the strategy. For example, if you design the world's greatest new strategy for a person that doesn't have an appropriate trigger, it won't ever get set off. So it's important to discover the trigger that sets off the strategy.
Operate:
Next is the operation. The operation accesses and gathers the data required by the strategy. The operation of a strategy, TEST–OPERATE, is going to access certain data. The data that is going to be accessed in the operation section is threefold. What do you think they should be?
The first kind of data accessed is external (remember the notations that we covered earlier?) visual external, auditory external, and kinesthetic external — any external process in the process in the Operate part of the strategy will be gathering data.
The data accessed could also be internal. And if it's internal, there are two possibilities. The two data could be either Remembering data or Creating data — Memories or constructed data. So the three types are external, which is gathering, and internal which could be remembered or created.
Test:
Then there's the next test. We've gone through TEST–OPERATE–TEST ... we're at that point now. The second test is a comparison. It's always going to be a comparison that allows you to know that the strategy is complete. It's a comparison of the new data to the criteria established at the first test. So the first test will establish the criteria. The second test will compare all the known data to the criteria established in the first test. And, typically, the test will occur with a comparison in the same representational system (V, A, K, O or G). Now, at that point, if there is a “plus”, which means that the test is successful, there will be a match between gathered data and the criteria, and we'll have an exit at that point. If there is no match at that point, then we'll usually go back and continue the strategy.
Exit:
Finally, the exit is going to be a decision point or a choice point, and it's a representation of the test where the strategy will either exit at that point, or loop back and get more data.
To summarize, the functional properties of strategies are the TEST, OPERATE, TEST, and EXIT. The first test is a trigger. The trigger feeds information forward to the second test, which compares the data to the output of the process of operation, and which (the operation) is gathering or accessing data or creating data. And then, when the test is successful, the strategy is, at that point, complete.
All our outward behavior is a result of these neurological processing patterns. All overt behavior is controlled by these sequences of internal and external neurological representations. If a specific pattern occurs, then a specific behavior is generated. If the neurological pattern does not occur, then the behavior does not occur.
A typical neurological pattern is the result of either one of two basic processes:
Synesthesia patterns (which occur in much the same way that anchors do in that their associations are connected together in a chain where there are representational system overlaps), or
Strategies. And a Synesthesia pattern is somewhat like a very short fast strategy with only two components.
Synesthesia Patterns
A Synesthesia pattern, goes something like this: “... it's kind of like I want to see how I feel about that”. Linguistically, you can spot a Synesthesia pattern when somebody says, “Well, I've got to see if it sounds right.” “I’m trying to think about how to feel.” A Synesthesia pattern also occurs when you touch something with your eyes closed and then make a picture of it automatically.
A Synesthesia pattern occurs when two modality accessing (like Visual–Kinesthetic) are closely linked, with one of them possibly outside the awareness. Some typically occurring Synesthesia patterns are see–feel (mentioned above); another is, in school, if the teacher spoke to you with a harsh tone, you'd feel bad, and so now every time somebody speaks to you with that tone of voice, you feel bad, even though they don't mean anything by that tone of voice; or an accident — let's say you saw an accident, you see blood, and you feel nauseous; or feel angry and blame someone. Has that ever happened to you? Or in therapy, for example, client says, with his eyes going up and to his right, “Gee”, and then down to the right, “I don't know why I feel this way.” As you observe the client across from you saying, “Gee, I don't know why I feel this way,” you also see that he's making pictures, constructing pictures, probably of bad things that could happen and then he's jumping to a feeling about it. That's a Synesthesia pattern! In this case, the pictures may also be outside of his awareness. That's a Synesthesia pattern.
Strategy Elicitation
Now, let's talk about strategy elicitation: There are two ways to elicit strategies. One way is formal, the other is informal. And, if you just ask someone informally, “How do you do that,” why they’ll tell you. More often than not, they’ll also tell you in a way that includes the modalities that they use in processing that information. They will tell you their strategy.
Many strategies will come out spontaneously and naturally during a conversation and won’t have to be elicited formally. Informal strategy elicitation can be as simple as someone saying to you, “Gee, every time I see that particular sight, I get motivated.” And you say, “So, how do you know to get motivated. What is it about that sight?” The fact is that people do internally what they're talking about. So they will demonstrate verbally and non–verbally the strategies used to access and make sense of those experiences. So, for example, as someone talks about a past decision, they will ordinarily also run through the strategy steps. They will actually go right through the steps in the strategy — like an instant replay. Have you ever watched a sports show on TV and saw an instant replay? Just like that.
Strategies can also be elicited formally with a formal script, and your formal notation. It makes it a little easier when you have the person's cooperation, and in the early stages of learning strategy elicitation it may be a little easier to just read the script. In formal elicitation, you can go over and over the steps of the strategy until you get it. My suggestion is to learn how to do both formal and informal elicitation so that you can do both as needed. If you're a doing formal elicitation, just follow this outline:
TEXT FOR FORMAL STRATEGY ELICITATION
Can you recall a time when you were totally X'd?
Can you recall a specific time?
As you go back to that time now ...
What was the very first thing that caused you to be totally X'd?
Was it something you saw (or the way someone looked at you?),
Was it something you heard (or someone's tone of voice?), or
Was it the touch of someone or something?
What was the very first thing that caused you to be totally X'd?
After you (saw, heard, felt) that, what was the very next thing that happened as you were totally X'd?
Did you picture something in your mind?
Say something to yourself, or
Have a certain feeling or emotion?
What was the next thing that happened as you were totally X'd.
After you (list previous), did you know that you totally X'd, or...
(Continue until complete.)
A Formal Elicitation — Demonstration
Let's do that now. Bill, can we talk? How are you doing? “Great”. Can you recall a time when you were particularly motivated?
“Yes”.
Can you recall a time when you were totally motivated?
Thinking ... “Yes”.
Can you recall a specific time? (He nods.)
As you go back to that time now ...
What was the very first thing that happened that caused you to be totally motivated? (without pausing) Was it something you saw or the way someone looked at you? Was it something you heard or someone's tone of voice? Or, was it the touch of someone or something? What was the very first thing that caused you to be totally motivated?
“It was something I saw”.
Good. After you saw what you saw, what was the very next thing that happened as you were totally motivated? Did you picture something in your mind? Did you say something to yourself, or have a certain feeling or emotion? What was the next thing that happened as you were totally motivated?
“I made a picture in my mind”.
Great. After you made a picture in your mind, did you know that you were totally motivated or did you say something to yourself, or have a certain feeling or emotion?
“I said something to myself”.
Good, after you made a picture in your mind, and said something to yourself, did you know that you were totally motivated or did you say something to yourself, or have a certain feeling or emotion? What was the next thing that happened as you were totally motivated?
“Well, I was just motivated, that's all.”
Good, so you felt motivated?
“Yes, that's right.”
Now, we know that Bill's motivation strategy is:
Now, we can also elicit the SubModalities of each of the major parts of this strategy, and I am not going to do a complete elicitation of SubModalities now. When you are doing it, you may want to get out our chart of possible SubModalities. So, Bill, what was it about what you saw that caused you to be motivated?
“What do you mean?”
In what you saw, what was the important thing that made it motivating to you? Was the color important?
“No, not really.”
Was the size?
“Yes, well, if it had been smaller, I'm sure I wouldn't have been as motivated.”
So size was important. Was how close you were to it important?
“I don't think so. Just so I could see.”
Now when you made the picture inside that you made when you were motivated, was that picture a memory or did you make it up in your head?
“I made–up a picture of me doing something new.”
Was that picture near or far?
“It was really close–up.”
And could you see yourself in the picture or were you looking through your own eyes?
“I was looking through my own eyes.”
And what did you say to yourself?
“I said, 'Wow'.”
Thank–you, Bill.
“Thank–you.”
After you've mastered formal strategy elicitation, you can move on to informal elicitation. You could elicit someone's decision making strategy just by saying, “Hey, I love your shirt, how did you decide to buy it?” and then just listen and watch. Listen to the predicates, and watch the eye patterns and the other nonverbal cues. Since strategies can be elicited either informally or formally, if you do nothing else except just talk to the person, they will tell you exactly how they do whatever they do, and all you have to do is just watch them and listen to them.
In business many times, its a little easier to discover somebody's strategy without doing it formally, so we're going to also cover several ways of doing strategy elicitation without being particularly formal or overt about it.
Strategy Elicitation From Eye Patterns
The next type of strategy elicitation is elicitation from eye patterns. You could just walk up to somebody and you could go, “Wow, I really love your watch! How did you decide to buy it?” and what they will do is, they'll move their eyes in a certain direction as they remember it.
V C V R
A C A R
K A D
Eye Movements — Normal Right Handed Person
Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1
(This is how they look when you're facing them.)
When eliciting strategies from eye patterns it’s important to make sure that you are learning the eye patterns for “others”, not for “self”. I’ve seen people struggle for years trying to figure out what they are doing themselves. So this is for others.
The first thing to remember is that not every eye movement you see is a strategy. Some people are going to process the information you just asked them before they begin accessing their strategy. They may, for example, repeat to themselves exactly what you said, “Oh, he just said 'beautiful watch', how did I get it? And then they'll run their strategy for you with their eyes. Some people will immediately understand what you said and jump directly into the strategy, moving their eyes in a certain direction as they access their strategies. Most people will move their eyes in a recognizable pattern as they access their strategy or as they replay the information in their head. The question is, do they move their eyes so that you can see them adequately? And that's where your sensory acuity becomes very, very important. That's where your sensory acuity makes a major difference. My suggestion is that you make sure that you've gotten really well–grounded in the eye patterns, and that you learn them very well. Having done that, you can just relax and let the information come to you. Just watch their eye patterns and then note them on a piece of paper — one of the things I do is carry a little piece of paper with me, and write down the order and sequence of their eye patterns as I get them, so I'll remember them — and note them, using the notation form above.
I suggest that as with any strategy elicitation, you also test the strategy elicitation from eye patterns wherever possible, questioning them over and over again, until you're sure you've got it. It's OK to check several times because the major question in the elicitation of strategies from eye patterns is, “Where does the accessing of the information end and the strategy begin?” So you may have to elicit the same strategy in a couple of different situations, or a couple of different contexts in order to discover how did they do it.
Strategies from eye patterns are probably one of the most powerful things that you can learn in NLP, and in a later chapter we'll put it all together when we show how to utilize those strategies in designing embedded commands. Let's elicit some strategies, now ... below, we’ve included transcripts of actual strategy elicitations:
Elicitation Demonstration 2
So, we could sit across from our good buddy Dave here, and say, “Love your car, Dave. Where'd you get your car?” And Dave says, “I got it at the Plymouth dealer” and he holds eye contact with us, right? So Dave's one of those guys whose got a “look–to–talk” rule. And so, then what do we do? We change our eyes, we shift our eyes away from Dave, and we say, “So, what did you do, you walked into the car lot and the car jumped out at you and you bought it.” And Dave says, “No, not really” and accesses kinesthetic. (Hold on a second, Dave.) We don't have a whole lot of information there yet, do we? (OK, go ahead. ⎯ Dave moves his eyes...)
So, we've got Dave's whole strategy right there. We have got Dave's whole strategy in the eye patterns. And we can notate it as:
We could also ask Landon (age 7). Landon, how do you know when a toy is a good toy? (Landon responds without moving his eyes.) He was actually looking at me. You have to tell them, too. How do you know — let me ask you the question again — How do you know when a toy is a good toy? (“When I play with it a lot”.)
So, what he said was, “When I play with it a lot.” and what he did was moved his eyes in certain directions. And so the first thing he did was he moved his eyes up and to the left, and then he moved his eyes down and to the right, which is kinesthetic. So, Landon, let me ask you again, how do you know when a toy is a good toy? Look at his eyes.
Now, what he did in this case was he moved his eyes down and to the right, which was auditory digital, so he was repeating back the question, “How do I know when the toy is a good toy?” He moves his eyes up and to the left so he creates playing with the toy in his mind and he checks out his feelings and sees if he feels right. (Is that right Landon? So, you play with it a lot, and then you see how it feels, yeah?)
And when I said that, he just moved his eyes down and to the left ⎯ kinesthetic.
When you're eliciting strategies from eye patterns, you may find that you get a visual construct or a visual recall and it's actually a visual external. Typically when you see a visual–recall right at the beginning, it's a visual–external. Or it may be a visual constructed, and so the question will be, how are they constructing it? You may also find that they move their eyes back and forth in visual like this:
In this case, note it as Vc/Vr. Vc/Vr indicates a comparison. First, a constructed image, and then it's compared to a memory (or vice−versa). This eye pattern simply means that there's a comparison that begins the strategy. In either case, it’s not absolutely necessary to make the distinction between internal and external when you are only constructing embedded commands, so when I am just putting together embedded commands, I don’t note it.
Now, let's elicit a strategy from Craig's eye patterns only. “Craig, (dahling...) I love your watch. Did you buy that yourself? (No.) I love your shirt, Craig. Where'd you get it? Were you by yourself for your decision? (No.) Craig, I love your car. Did you buy that yourself? (No.)
Now, why did I say, “Did you buy that yourself”? I wanted to know if Craig made the decision by himself, or if somebody else assisted him on it, because a decision made with somebody else can be different. (Craig says that he did buy a dishwasher himself.)
So, Craig, I love your dishwasher, where'd you get it? (Sears.)
Now, notice that Craig moves his eyes up and to the left, then to the right, and then he moved them down and to the right and then to the left (as you look at him). Then he's done.
We've seen him do it twice. Each time I ask him to get back into the strategy, he does the same thing. So, if he does it several times in a row, you can be pretty sure that's his strategy. So, where'd you get it, Craig? So... what... you walked into Sears and it jumped out at you?
OK, now this time he did go over and access kinesthetic.
What you want to do is you want to throw him off — so, you ask him, “Did it jump out at you”, “Did it just pop up”, or “When you got that watch, did it...” But you don't want to use something that leads them into a specific modality. So, you don't want to say something like, “Oh, did it shine brightly, so that's what you wanted?” No, because that's going to lead them too much. Or “Did it call your name?” — that's going to lead him into auditory tonal. Or, “Did it have a better feeling?” You don't want to lead them, however, what you do want to say is something that throws them off that allows them to think freely and also breaks eye contact.
Remember, there is a fine line between elicitation and installation, so when you elicit strategies, make sure not to lead. Be non–directive.
So, let's go back to the very beginning. Craig, you walked into Sears and what happened?
What we see is: visual construct, visual recall, auditory digital, kinesthetic. OK, so you're walking into Sears and you ask for their dishwashers ... (and, by the way, walking into Sears and asking for the dishwashers is not part of the strategy. We're not there at the trigger point of the strategy yet, based on what he's telling us...) So, what did you do? (“Went over and looked at it.”) So, you walked into Sears and asked where the dishwasher was. You asked the salesperson questions about the dishwasher you wanted to buy.
Now what we're doing here, is we're checking to make sure we got the eye patterns ⎯ making sure we recognized and organized them correctly. So, you walked into Sears, asked where the dishwashers were, walked over to the dishwashers. (“Yeah, and then I picked out a dishwasher.”) Aha. Now, he didn't give us that verbally before, did he? He said, “I picked out a dishwasher”. So you saw a dishwasher that you wanted. (“Uh huh.”) How did I know that? I saw his eye patterns, right? So you saw a dishwasher you wanted, then what did you do? (“I got a salesperson to see if it had a certain criteria that I had.”) Whoa! Is that auditory digital, or what? So, he runs through his list of criteria.
OK, Craig, so we're going to go back, here we go back again, you ready? So, we're going to go back again, and as you go right back to that time, you walk into Sears. Now, why am I saying this again? To get him right back into the moment. You're walking into Sears and you say, “Hey, where are the dishwashers?” And they're over there. You walk over to where the dishwashers are and what? (“I saw the ones on sale.”)
OK. Now we've got more criteria, don't we? “Saw one that was on sale.” Now, was that a major criteria for you? (“Yes, it was.”) Ah, OK, so you just gave us another criteria. That's why we want to loop, and keep on testing.
You walked over to where the dishwashers were and you saw one on sale, and you liked it. What was it that you saw about that dishwasher that caused you to know that was the dishwasher you wanted to get? (“I wanted a portable that could be permanently affixed, and after talking to the salesperson, I found out that this one could be permanently affixed.”) OK, now what we've got here are criteria. We don't necessarily have the decision-making strategy yet, by the way. But we have criteria that are probably part of the motivation strategy. Now whether he got them later or not, is not really important. If we're selling him something, we do know that sale prices are criteria for him, especially on the dishwasher.
So you saw the dishwasher. But what was it about what you saw that caused you to know if that was the dishwasher? (“A sign on the top that said the price I was within the price range that I was looking for. Also, the color dishwasher was red. A criteria of our kitchen — that it would match with the kitchen.”)
Very good. We have some visual sub–modalities. So now the color. Now he's given us Ad criteria before. So, let me ask you a question, did you check the color first, or did you check the price first? (“I checked the price first.”) You did check the price first? (“Because usually they have all the colors...”) So, you checked the price first because you knew you could have any color you wanted. (“Yeah, well, at Sears”.) OK, so you saw the dishwasher you wanted and you checked out a bunch of criteria. Now at that point when you checked out a bunch of criteria, you talked to the salesperson, got the criteria. Did you then — now he just moved his eyes over to kinesthetic — he just finished the eye pattern for us. Thank–you Craig!
I talked him through it, and at any point I can get him to re–access the eye patterns again. He just accessed kinesthetic. So I'm going to ask him just to be sure. Craig, at that point, when you finished talking to the guy, did you know that was what you wanted to buy, or did you have a good feeling about it, and then you knew? (“Actually, I knew it was what I wanted to buy, but I accessed my feelings because it was a shared appliance, something I wanted to make sure that everyone else was going to use. So I accessed my feelings ... I knew that I accessed.) So, it was OK with you, but you wanted to check your feelings out to make sure everybody was OK with it? (“Right”...)
Now, so we've got that particular strategy we know that that was how he made that decision. The question is, will a kinesthetic exit generalize to all his other decisions? My guess is that it will.
So, now we run just a little test so that we can be absolutely certain. That kinesthetic exit is just a guess on my part. It only comes from having elicited a lot of strategies, you know, along the way. But, let's test another strategy of Craig's. Craig, do you remember when you bought your last lawn–mower?
(“Yes.”)
When we asked him that, he flashed back and forth, visual construct / visual recall. He constructed his last lawn–mower. Or he constructed what he thought it ought to be and then he went over to visual recall and remembered it. And that wasn't the strategy yet. So, Craig, what happened when you bought your last lawn–mower? (“It was sitting in the office and remembered the box and remembered we had gotten one on a trade, and then I could probably get a half–price deal on it.”) So, do we have a sale coming up as another criteria? Yes, I think we do! Well, he saw the box, knew he could get it at a good price — criteria. And, at that point, did you have a feeling about it, and knew that that was what you wanted to do? (“Well I knew that it was a good lawn–mower...”)
He just got to the end of his strategy and when he said that, he accessed his kinesthetic again. It's apparent that he gets enough criteria till it hits his kinesthetic plus button and then he's done. And you saw that, right? Good. That's his strategy — his decision making strategy, which is part of the buying strategy, is see something (Visual external), and that it meets your criteria (Auditory digital), and you feel good about it. So, I think we could say that this is his strategy.
In this strategy, if you get an Ad + (meaning it meets his criteria), it's followed by a positive K. If not, you loop back to visual external. Because, if it doesn't meet your criteria, you're back into looking some more. Now, is that true? I'm just hallucinating now, wildly, I might add. You're the one whose strategy it is. (“Yes”)
In the case of the lawn–mower, he made a picture in his mind. So you made a picture, or you recalled a picture, and that's what I mentioned earlier. In the case of the dishwasher, he went to Sears and saw the dishwasher. In this case, he didn't see the lawn–mower, but he either created or recalled that the lawn–mower was in the crate. Now we can make some really fine distinctions here and we can test it, right?
So, as you go right back to that time, and you go right back to the office — and he's flashing his back and forth between construct and recall and then he ran his whole strategy just then for us.
And it was recall, wasn't it? So, you recalled, your eye pattern said it was recall. So you recalled the — is that right? (“Yes”) Craig recalled the picture of the lawn–mower in the box and said, “Hey, I know I can get this on sale” — criteria, criteria, and then he felt good about it. So Craig does operate on his feelings. He comes out of that with a K plus. So what I would say is that there was a visual–external or a visual recall, and what I usually write is visual recall.
Now, when I'm doing strategies from eye patterns for the purpose of doing embedded commands, I only note the eye patterns that I see, because I'm only going to create a sentence with predicates for this strategy. AND, if I'm only doing this from eye patterns for the purpose of creating embedded commands, I don't question with the depth I am now. If I'm actually doing a formal elicitation, I will note Visual external, and question much more closely.
OK, so then we go — visual recall, auditory digital, kinesthetic, and the loop back is from auditory digital back to visual. And if, for example, Craig, you had made a picture of the lawn–mower and gone to your boss, and he said, “Well, there's no way that I'm going to sell that to you for half price, you're going to have to pay full list.” What would you have done then? OK, so you would have gone to their client and so, what he got was a K minus. So he's got to go look for more lawnmowers.
We've done two strategy elicitation’s, both so far, of decision making strategies, and note that features, criteria, being on sale — all of that information is auditory digital — criteria. It “makes sense”.
Extended questioning when eliciting strategies from eye patterns can help you gain greater precision in strategy elicitation. It's effective, and you may, at times, need to get a little more information in order to fill in the SubModalities or discover more criteria.
Now, the next step before utilization, by the way, which we should do right now, is to go back and to elicit the sub–modalities of Craig's strategies to make sure that we have the submodalities of each major piece of the strategy.
Craig, as you go back to Sears and the dishwasher, what was it about what you saw that caused you to know that it looked right? (By the way, the major tests are Visual ⎯ Looks Right, Auditory Tonal ⎯ Sounds Right, Auditory Digital ⎯ Makes Sense, Kinesthetic ⎯ Feels Right.) Craig, earlier, you mentioned the color. (“Yeah, the color matched the... really, the color was not important because I was at Sears and I knew I could get the color I wanted.”) And you saw the right color. (“And the right color happened... actually the one that was delivered to my house was the one on the showroom floor.”) And it was the right color. Good. Was there anything other than color? Was it shape? Was it the way... was there anything else about the way it looked? (“No”)
OK, let's go to lawn–mower. When you imagined the lawn–mower, what was important about the way the lawn–mower looked? Did color have anything to do with it by any chance? (“No, it was in a box. Well, it was red, but I don't really think...”) What color was your dishwasher? (“Green, like the refrigerator.”) OK, so there's no commonality this time, but sometimes when elicit the SubModalities, you will find similarities in the strategy.
Now, let's get over to the auditory digital section of the strategy with Craig, because Craig is probably more AD than your average street person. I don't know why, but... OK, Craig, so let's talk about the criteria.
On sale is a major criterion. What other criteria are there? In the terms of the dishwasher, there was size. (“Now”) Ah, so can you have it there now? And what about the lawn–mower? Was having it right away important? Supposing your boss had said, “Yeah, I'll sell you the lawn–mower at half price, but you need to wait two weeks, because we want to do a display.” You had to have a lawn−mower ⎯ OK. So you bought it. What we've got is two major criteria. One is sale price and one is “I've got to have it right now”. Not unusual, by the way. So a major criterion for Craig is “now”. What other criteria do you have as you think about it? As you go back to the lawn–mower, for example? What other criteria are there that existed? ... Easy. Easy. OK, easy to do. If the dishwasher was hard to do, would you have not done it? (“I would have weighed that against having someone else do it in terms of price...”) Did you buy the dishwasher alone? (“Yes”) So, if the dishwasher was hard to use, you would have ... gotten another. (“Yes”)
We've got Craig's whole strategy here—easy, on sale, you can have it now — his major criteria. And by the way it's very easy to use that to feed back to Craig ... and Craig, here it is (holding up a pen), when you see how you can use this, you will probably know it makes sense, and it’s here, so you know you don't have to wait, so you can feel good about it. Look at him, he's ready to go.
All right. So we’ve covered elicitation from eye patterns and we checked it several times. Now, if you can't read the eye patterns, you can use the script which we covered earlier. In actually eliciting someone's strategy formally there are ten steps:
THE STEPS IN A STRATEGY ELICITATION
1. Make sure you're in Rapport with the person.
2. Set the Frame.
3. Get into the Specific State you're eliciting.
4. Follow the Outline (below).
5. Make Sure that the person is in a Fully Associated, Intense, Congruent State.
6. Anchor the State.
7. Make sure the state you elicited is intense [if not, select another state, or check your own state] .
8. At each step, fire the anchor to assist them in accessing.
9. Elicit Modalities until complete.
10. Then go back and elicit the sub–modalities.
THE STEPS IN A STRATEGY ELICITATION
The first step is to get in a rapport. That's very important in any process. We've discussed that in a previous chapter.
The second step is to set the frame. What you want to do is to set a softening frame. The softening frame in this case might be, “You know as we sit here talking about your business, I'm really motivated to ask you some questions that will allow me to serve you better. So I hope you don’t mind if I ask you...”
Then you want to get into the state you're eliciting. So, in this case, if I was dealing with somebody, I'd want to know their decision–making strategy prior to the time I had to ask them for a decision, so I could present information to them in a way that allowed them to decide easily. So I would get into a decisive state—a state when I made a decision. Hopefully you're in rapport with them, and that will lead them into the state and make it easier for them to access their own decision–making state.
Next, go through the formal elicitation text.
The next step: After you've said, “Can you remember a time...” You can do this concurrently with anchoring, if you want. Just make sure the person from whom you're eliciting the strategy, is in a fully associated intense congruent state. That is, that they are actually associated in the memory of the event. (Associated means that they are looking through their own eyes, and are not seeing themselves in the memory.)
Step number 6 is to anchor the state. (See Anchoring)
Step 7 is just a check — Make sure that the state you elicited is intense. Now, that means it is a good state. Meaning that you can fire the anchor (step number 8),and get the same state again.
Fire the anchor. (Which is also useful if a guy says, “Gee, I'm having trouble making a decision,” and you're in the process of enrolling him to be a client of yours, then you can just fire that anchor and he'll go back into decisive state. He won't have any trouble making a decision.) Then in the process of eliciting strategies, you can fire the anchor at each step to assist them in accessing.
Then you elicit all the modalities until you're complete, and go back and check it like we did with Craig, and
Then go back and elicit the SubModalities.
And, those are the ten steps in formal strategy elicitation.
Additional Ideas in Eliciting Strategies
In case you run out of ways to get into a strategy elicitation, here are some other things that you can say:
“Has there ever been a time when you were really motivated to do something?” (Motivation)
“What is it like when you're exceptionally creative?” Or, “Has there ever been a situation in which you were exceptionally creative?” (Creativity)
“Can you tell me about a time when you were best able to do 'x'?”
(a Skill)
“What is it like to “x”?
“Can you, 'x'?” or “How do you 'x'?” or “Have you ever 'x'ed?”
“Would you know if you could 'x'?”
“What happens to you as you 'x'?
Any of the above can be used to begin a formal strategy elicitation, or even an informal one for that matter.
Strategy Utilization
Now that you know how to elicit strategies, the next step is utilization.
Once you've discovered what someone's strategies are, the next thing to do is to utilize or use that person's strategies in feeding information back to them in a way that it becomes irresistible to them. For example, you might want to utilize someone's strategy in the process of assisting them to be motivated in a certain way, or causing them to want to do what you suggest, or in the process of selling them something.
Once elicited, you can then use the strategy as a framework for the information you want to feed to that person, and in using the strategy that way will present a structure of information to the person so that the information becomes irresistible to them or irresistible to their neurology, regardless of the content of that information.
It's a very simple matter to feed the information back to a person inside of their strategy, meaning you put the information contextually in the form of the strategy that they just gave you, and feed it back to them using predicates. For example, if a person's strategy was visual, auditory digital, and kinesthetic, and if in the auditory digital they were comparing criteria, you could say to them, “Have you seen our proposal yet, so that you can see that it meets your criteria and feel good about it?” They would feel good about what you said, and probably wouldn't be aware of why. More importantly, they would also feel good about your proposal!
Let's say that you elicited a strategy that was visual external (submodalities–big picture), auditory digital, in the auditory digital part they said, “Is this okay?”, and in kinesthetic (feels solid, grounded). When it was okay, the person would say, “Yes, this is the one.” What you would say to this person is, “I think you should take a good look at this so you can see how it will fit into the whole picture. I'm sure you will find that it will answer all the questions we've been asking ourselves, and you'll really be able to say 'yes', this is the one”, and feel, as I do, that this is the most solid grounded choice available.
The way you present information to someone makes a big difference if you present it in the order and sequence that they process information (inside their strategy), or if you put it in an order or sequence that is different (outside their strategy).
Embedded Commands
Obviously, you will want to discover someone's strategies and then fit your communication into that order and sequence directly. We were recently teaching someone how to do embedded commands. (And essentially, by doing embedded commands inside of someone's strategy, what you're doing is making the embedded commands even more irresistible then they already were.) As I was showing her an example of using embedded commands and strategies, I used a “standard” sequence visual – auditory digital – kinesthetic (which was not her strategy). As we talked, she was having trouble understanding. Then, I put it inside her strategy (which was auditory digital – visual – kinesthetic), and she immediately understood.
The first time I said, “You will probably see in a moment that this makes sense to you, and you can feel good about learning it.” No response. So, I pointed that out to her, and said “Well, I think that you will probably discover this makes sense to you as soon as you can see that it feels right.” And she went, “Oh, yeah, now I understand.” The idea is, then, to feed back the information to them inside their strategy.
With some familiarity about embedded commands the next thing I like to is to enclose the entire sentence with a beginning and ending temporal predicate. A temporal predicate is a predicate or a word that deals with time. What are some words that deal with time? Well, when, when are you going to, later, now, soon... tonight.
We could say (assuming a visual construct / visual recall – auditory digital – kinesthetic strategy), “I'm wondering (hypnotic language pattern) how soon... “ (which is a temporal predicate) “I'm wondering how soon you will have the opportunity to look at our proposal and recall, seeing that it meets your criteria for feeling good about it tonight, won't you (hypnotic language pattern). And so that becomes a very, very powerful form of embedded command.
The magic number seems to be three presuppositions in a single sentence, which immediately gets you beyond the conscious mind. When you get to the magic number 3 in a given sentence, if you put three presuppositions inside the sentence... actually this sentence had 6.
\
Given the above strategy, here's the sentence: I'm wondering how soon [1] (assuming they haven't even agreed to look at the proposal yet) you'll have the opportunity to look at our proposal [2], and recall seeing that it meets your criteria [3], so you can feel good about it [4] tonight [5], won't you [tag question–6]. Here's how it works:
So, what we have is a hypnotic language pattern followed by a temporal predicate at the beginning, and at the end, that collapses all 3 of the embedded commands together into one highly irresistible sentence. You can construct them any way you want by putting temporal predicates at the beginning and the end and putting the embedded commands in the middle.
How do you learn how to do that? You discover their strategy, then (if you need to) write it out on a piece of paper as you construct the embedded commands. Then put the hypnotic language and the temporal predicates at the beginning and end and say it. You see, in the previous sentence there's also a command to feel good about the proposal tonight as opposed to some other night, which presupposes again that they're going to look at it tonight, whereas we began by asking them how soon, we now have ended up by suggesting that its going to be tonight.
Now, while you were in the process of eliciting someone's strategies you may also have set some anchors.
When we do training for retail salespeople, we suggest they use anchoring in addition to strategy elicitation, and embedded commands. When somebody walks in to talk to a salesman on the floor that we're instructing how to sell, one of the things that we suggest is that the salesperson ask the client, “Have you ever purchased a computer (let's say it's a computer salesman), that really works well and you felt really good about?” And when the client or the prospective customer remembers that, they're going to access that entire strategy of buying that computer, aren't they? They're going through and access that state. When the salesperson asked the customer if they'd ever had a computer that they felt good about and really worked well for them, they'll have to go back and access a time if they did. If they did, it's going to access a state of having a computer that worked well for them, which you can anchor. Then you say, “How did you know it was time to purchase the computer?”, which elicits the decision–making strategy.
You say to them, “Have you ever bought a computer you felt really good about?” They're either going to say yes or no. So if they say yes, or even if they say no, anchor that state! Assuming they said yes, you've also got one or more anchors placed with them at the time of eliciting the strategy. When you go to close, you can do the close inside their strategy, and feed back the information to them in exactly the same way as they process the information, you can also fire the anchors. So, with a positive anchor set, assuming an auditory digital strategy, you can say something like, “I'm sure as you look at our computer you'll see that it meets all your criteria for computers, and that you can decide that you want to do it (firing the anchor), don't you? That's a visual auditory digital strategy. Okay?
And, if you get a negative response to the question, “Have you ever bought a computer you felt really good about,” anchor it, too. You can always use it to attach to an objection that they may have in the future.
Strategy Design
The next element in strategies, is strategy design. Now, you'd want to design a new strategy for a person if the strategy they have is particularly inefficient or did not process data well for them. For example, a client might have a visual kinesthetic buying decision–making strategy. That is, they see it, want it, buy it. “They want it” is a feeling. And they might be in a situation where, “Hey, I'm buying too much.”
You can assist them by adding another point to that particular strategy. There are some things you should know. When designing strategies there are some things that are very important:
The person must have a well defined representation of the outcome. It must be a well designed outcome. We need to know what kind of outcome we want as a result of changing the strategy. And so, we go through the Keys to an Outcome and the Meta Model and design a very well defined representation of the outcome. Ask, “for what purpose...” why they want the change.
Second, the strategy should use all three of the major representational systems, that is, visual, auditory and kinesthetic.
The third thing is there should be no two–point loops. A two–point loop becomes a Synesthesia (like a V–K Synesthesia). And a Synesthesia loops around too quickly, and is harder to get out of. If you're in a Synesthesia where you're going around in a circle, V–K, V–K, V–K, it's really hard to break out of that kind of loop. Whereas, if it's a three–point loop, there's more time in between the going back and picking it up and going around again, and if they have some auditory digital they can say, “... hey, it's time to get out of here.”
Which leads us to point number four, that is, after so many steps the strategy should have an external check. What we don't want to do is, what I've seen so many times, people who have strategies, of course unconsciously designed, where they literally go and they end up in this auditory digital feedback loop where they're just evaluating criteria, gathering more information, they continue to get stuck in this Ad loop, where they talk themselves right into and out of a decision. They go Visual – Auditory Digital, should I make a decision? No ...gather more information ... talk yourself out ... they end up in a very tight digital loop where they're just not making a decision. So the point is to have a three point loop.
Now, there are three more points about the functionality of the strategy you're going to design. In the process of designing a strategy, there are three more points that are really important:
First of all the strategy should have a test, and part of the test should be a comparison of the present state, and the desired state. Remember we said at the beginning of this chapter, that typically there's a trigger or a test that feeds information forward to the next test. The information that's in the feed forward part sets up certain criteria.
In the comparison, the strategy should have a test which is the comparison of the present state to the desired state. That will give you either a minus (go back and continue the strategy), or a plus (exit successfully).
The second element on the functionality of strategies is that the strategy should have a feedback step, that is a representation resulting from the plus or minus, that is the congruence or incongruence of the test comparison, so that a strategy when installed should have a plus and a minus place where it goes back and loops back or where it exits.
Finally the strategy should have an operation. This comes right out of the test exit. The strategy should have an operation that is a chain of representational and/or motor activities for the purpose of altering the present state in order to bring it closer to the desired state, that is, it should have a series of steps, in other words, an operation should have a series of steps or a chain of representational systems or internal/external advance.
Just a couple of more observations about strategies, now. First of all the strategy with the fewest steps is probably better than the strategy with the most steps. In other words, if you designed a 23–point strategy for someone, and you're going in and install it, forget it. What's a lot better is to give them as few steps as possible to allow them to achieve their outcome. So based on what our criteria is, in terms of structural well–formed strategies, the criteria would be somewhere between three and having as few steps as possible.
Another point is that having a choice is better than having no choice. So you're going to install a strategy, make sure you're giving the person a choice, rather than no choice.
You should take into account the Direction Meta Program. It's important to take into account whether the person moves Toward or Away From in the design of the strategy.
Strategy Installation
Finally, installation is a matter of rehearsal, swish patterns, and chaining anchors installed to recall each step of the new strategy. For example, to change a strategy, anchor each element of the strategy:
Anchor:
Vr
Ad
K
Then, assuming you want to add in the Vc element, anchor that.
Vc
Then chain it in to the strategy, via anchoring as:
Vr
Vc
Ad
K
So you end up with
NLP GLOSSARY
Accessing Cues External signs that give us information about what we do inside. The signs include breathing, gestures, posture, and eye patterns.
'As-If’' Frame This is “acting as if” something were true. I.E.: Pretending that you are competent at something that you are not, like tennis. The idea is that the pretense will increase your capability.
Analogue (As opposed to Digital) Analogue distinctions have discrete variations, as in an analogue watch.
Anchoring The NLP Technique whereby a stimulus is linked to a response. An Anchor can be intentional or naturally occurring. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468205826 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Associated It deals with your relationship to an experience. In a memory, for example, you are associated when you are looking through your own eyes, and experiencing the auditory and kinesthetics at the same time.
Auditory Hearing.
Backtrack To go back and summarize or review what was previously covered, as in a meeting.
Behavior Any external verifiable activity we engage in.
Beliefs Generalizations we make about the world and our opinions about it.
Calibration Usually involves the comparison between two different sets of non-verbal cues (external verifiable behavior). It allows us to distinguish another's state through non-verbal cues.
Chunking As in thinking – moving up or down a logical level. Chunking up is moving up to a higher, more abstract level that includes the lower level. Chunking down is moving to a level, which is more specific. (See Hierarchy of Ideas, page PAGEREF _Ref468205865 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Complex Equivalence This occurs when two statements are considered to mean the same thing, E.G.: “She doesn’t look at me, and that means she doesn’t like me.” (See Meta Model, page PAGEREF _Ref468205912 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Congruence When the behavior (external verifiable) matches the words the person says.
Conscious That of which we are currently aware.
Contrastive Analysis This is a SubModality process of analyzing two sets of SubModalities to discover the Drivers, I.E.: What makes them different. For example the difference between Ice Cream (which the client likes) and Yogurt (which the client does not like) are based on SubModality distinctions. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468275496 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Content Reframe (Also called a Meaning Reframe) Giving another meaning to a statement by recovering more content, which changes the focus, is a Content Reframe. You could ask yourself, “What else could this mean?” or “What is something you had not noticed?” (See Meaning Reframe, page PAGEREF _Ref468205958 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Context Reframing Giving another meaning to a statement changing the context. You could ask yourself, “What is another context in which this behavior would be more appropriate?” (See Context Reframing, page PAGEREF _Ref468205958 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Criteria The NLP word for values – what is important to you. (See Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality, 1988.)
Crossover Mirroring Matching a person's external behavior with a different movement, E.G.: Moving your finger to match the client’s breathing.
Deep Structure The unconscious basis for the surface structure of a statement. Much of the deep structure is out of awareness.
Deletion One of the three major processes (including distortion and generalization) on which the Meta Model is based. Deletion occurs when we leave out a portion of our experience. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468206832 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Digital Digital (As opposed to Analogue) Digital distinctions have distinct variations of meaning as in a Digital watch, or an “On/Off” switch.
Dissociated It deals with your relationship to an experience. In a memory, for example, you are dissociated when you are not looking through your own eyes, and you see your body in the picture.
Distortion One of the three major processes (including deletion and generalization) on which the Meta Model is based. Distortion occurs when something is mistaken for that which it is not. In India there is a metaphor which explains this: A man sees a piece of rope in the road and thinks it is a dangerous snake, so he warns the village, but there is no snake. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468206832 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Downtime Downtime occurs whenever we go inside. It can occur when we go internal for a piece of information or when we get in touch with feelings. (See Up Time.)
Drivers In SubModalities, drivers are the difference that makes the difference. Discovered through the process of Contrastive Analysis, Drivers are the critical SubModalities, and when changed tend to carry the other SubModalities with them.
Ecology In NLP, Ecology is the study of consequences. We are interested in the results of any change that occurs. It is often useful to look at the ecology in making any change as to the consequences for self, family (or business), society and planet.
Elicitation Inducing a state in a client, or gathering information by asking questions or observing the client’s behavior.
Eye Accessing Cues Movements of the eyes in certain directions which indicate visual, auditory or kinesthetic thinking. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468205765 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Epistemology The study of knowledge or how we know what we know.
First Position This is one of the Perceptual Positions. First Position is when you are in touch with only your own inner Model of the World.
Frame A frame sets a context, which is a way we can make a distinction about something, as in As-If Frame, Backtrack Frame, Outcome Frame.
Future Pace Mentally rehearsing a future result to install a recovery strategy so that the desired outcome occurs.
Generalization One of the three major processes (including distortion and deletion) on which the Meta Model is based. Generalization occurs when one specific experience represents a whole class of experiences. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468206832 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Gustatory Taste.
Incongruence When the behavior (external verifiable) does not match the words the person says.
Intent The outcome of a behavior.
Internal Representations The content of our thinking which includes Pictures, Sounds, Feelings, Tastes, Smells, and Self Talk.
Kinesthetic This sense includes feelings, and sensations.
Law of Requisite Variety The Law of Requisite Variety states that “In a given physical system, that part of the system with the greatest flexibility of behavior will control the system.”
Leading After pacing (matching or mirroring) a client’s behavior, leading involves changing your behavior so that the other person follows your behaviors.
Lead System This is where we go to access information. The Lead System is discovered by watching Eye Accessing Cues.
Logical Level The level of specificity or abstraction. (E.G.: Money is a lower logical level than Prosperity.)
Logical Type The category of information. (E.G.: Ducks are a different logical type from Cars.)
Mapping Across Following Contrastive Analysis, Mapping Across is the SubModality process of actually changing the set of SubModalities of a certain Internal Representation to change its meaning. E.G.: Mapping the SubModalities of Ice Cream (which the client likes) over to those of Yogurt (which the client does not like) should cause the client to dislike Ice Cream. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468275496 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Matching Deliberately imitating portions of another's behavior for the purpose of increasing rapport. (E.G.: If we both raise our right hand, then I am matching you.)
Meaning Reframe (Sometimes called a Content Reframe) Giving another meaning to a statement by recovering more content, which changes the focus, You could ask yourself, “What else could this mean?” or “What is something you had not noticed in this context which will change the meaning of this?” (See Meaning Reframe, page PAGEREF _Ref468205958 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Meta Model Meta Model means “Over” Model. A model of language, derived from Virginia Satir that allows us to recognize deletions, generalizations and distortions in our language, and gives us questions to clarify imprecise language. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468206832 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Meta Programs These are unconscious, content-free programs we run which filter our experiences. Toward & Away From, and Matching & Mismatching are examples of Meta Programs. (See Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality, 1988; see also, our NLP Master Practitioner Training Collection.)
Metaphor A story (analogy or figure of speech) told with a purpose, which allows us to bypass the conscious resistance of the client and to have the client make connections at a deeper level.
Milton Model The Milton Model has the opposite intent of the Meta Model (Trance), and is derived from the language patterns of Milton Erickson. The Milton Model is a series of abstract language patterns which are ambiguous so as to match our client’s experience and assist her in accessing unconscious resources.
Mirroring Matching portions of another person's behavior, as in a mirror. (E.G.: If you raise your right hand, and I raise my left, then I am mirroring you.)
Mismatching This generally relates to contradictory behavior or words, and is one of the Meta Programs.
Modal Operator Modal Operator of Necessity relates to words, which form the rules in our lives (should, must, have to, etc.). Modal Operator of Possibility relates to words that denote that which is considered possible (can, cannot, etc.).
Model In NLP, a Model is a description of a concept or a behavior, which includes the Strategies, Filter Patterns and Physiology so as to be able to be adopted easily.
Modeling Modeling is the process by which all of NLP was created. In Modeling we elicit the Strategies, Filter Patterns (Beliefs and Values) and Physiology that allow someone to produce a certain behavior. Then we codify these in a series of steps designed to make the behavior easy to reproduce.
Model of the World A person's values, beliefs and attitudes that relate to and create his or her own world.
Neuro Linguistic Programming NLP is the study of excellence, which describes how our thinking produces our behavior, and allows us to model the excellence and to reproduce that behavior.
Nominalization A process word which has been turned into a noun, often by adding “tion”. (See Meta Model, Page PAGEREF _Ref468207824 Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Olfactory The sense of smell.
Outcome Desired result.
Overlap Using a preferred representational system to allow us to gain access to another, E.G.: “Imagine walking (preferred rep system) along the beach and hearing the birds. Now, look down at the sand and feel the cool wet sand beneath your feet.”
Pacing Pacing is matching or mirroring another person’s external behavior so as to gain rapport.
Parts Parts are a portion of the unconscious mind, which often have conflicting beliefs and values. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468288720 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Parts Integration An NLP technique, which allows us to integrate parts at the unconscious level by assisting each one to traverse logical levels (by chunking up) and to go beyond the boundaries of each to find a higher level of wholeness. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468288720 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Perceptual Position Describes our point of view in a specific situation: First Position is our own point of view. Second Position is usually someone else's point of view. Third position is the point of view of a dissociated observer.
Phonological Ambiguity This occurs when there are two words, which sound the same but have different meanings. (See Milton Model, page PAGEREF _Ref468275658 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Preferred Rep System This is the representational system that someone most often uses to think, and to organize his or her experiences.
Presuppositions Presuppositions literally means assumptions. In natural language the presuppositions are what is assumed by the sentence. They are useful in “hearing between the lines” and also for communicating to someone using assumptions that will have to be accepted by the listener so that the communication makes sense. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468288807 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Presuppositions of NLP Assumptions or convenient beliefs, which are not necessarily “true,” but which if accepted and believed will change our thinking and improve our results as an NLP Practitioner. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468288832 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Primary Rep System This is how we represent our internal processing, esternally. (It is discovered by listening to Predicates and looking at Physiology.)
Punctuation Ambiguity Ambiguity, which is created by changing the punctuation of a sentence by pausing in the wrong place, or by running-on two sentences. (See Milton Model, page PAGEREF _Ref468275658 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Quotes This is a Linguistic Pattern in which your message is expressed as if by someone else. (See also Extended Quotes and Milton Model, page PAGEREF _Ref468275658 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Rapport The process of Matching or Mirroring someone so that they accept, uncritically, the suggestions you give them. (Originally in Hypnosis ‘Rapport’ had a different meaning, which was, a state where the subject in Hypnosis sees, hears only the Hypnotherapist.) This is not the meaning in NLP where it relates to establishing trust and rapport between two people.
Reframing The process of changing the frame or context of a statement to give it another meaning. In selling this process is called, “Answering Objections.”
Representation A thought in the mind which can be comprised of Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Olfactory (smell), Gustatory (taste), and Auditory Digital (Self Talk).
Representational System One of the six things you can do in your mind: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Olfactory (smell), Gustatory (taste), and Auditory Digital (Self Talk).
Resources Resources are the means to create change within oneself or to accomplish an outcome. Resources may include certain states, adopting specific physiology, new strategies, beliefs, values or attitudes, even specific behavior.
Resourceful State This refers to any state where a person has positive, helpful emotions and strategies available to him or her. Obviously the state implies a successful outcome
Second Position Relating to a Perceptual Position: Second Position describes our point of view in a specific situation. Second Position is usually someone else's point of view. (First Position is our own point of view, Third position is the point of view of a dissociated observer.)
Sensory Acuity This relates to observational skills. Having Sensory Acuity means that we can notice things about our client’s physiology that most people would not notice. (See page PAGEREF _Ref468288938 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Sensory-Based Description Is describing someone’s verifiable external behavior in a way that does not include any evaluations, but in a way that just relates the specific physiology. E.G.: “She is happy,” is (in NLP terminology) an hallucination. A sensory based description would be, her lips are curved upward at the end, and her face is symmetrical.
State Relates to our internal emotional condition. I.E.: A happy state, a sad state, a motivated state, etc. In NLP we believe that the state determines our results, and so we are careful to be in states of excellence.
Strategy A specific sequence of internal and external representations that leads to a particular outcome.
SubModalities These are distinctions (or subsets) that are part of each representational system that encode and give meaning to our experiences. E.G.: A picture may be in Black & White or Color, may be a Movie or a Still, may be focused or defocused – these are visual SubModalities.
Surface Structure This is a linguistic term meaning the structure of our communication, which generally leaves out the completeness of the Deep Structure. The process is Deletion, Generalization and Distortion. (See also Deep Structure.)
Synesthesia A two-step strategy, where the two steps are linked together with one usually out of awareness, as in “I want to see how I feel.”
Syntactic Ambiguity Where it is impossible to tell from the syntax of a sentence the meaning of a certain word. Often created by adding “ing” to a verb, as in “Hypnotizing Hypnotists can be easy.”
Third Position Relating to a Perceptual Position: Third Position describes our point of view in a specific situation. Third position is the point of view of a dissociated observer. (First Position is our own point of view, Second Position is usually someone else's point of view.)
Time Line Our Time Line is the way we store our memories of the past, the present and the future.
Time Line Therapy™ A specific process created by Tad James, which allows the client to release negative emotions, eliminate limiting decisions and to create a positive future for himself. (See Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality, 1988.)
Trance Any altered state. In Hypnosis it is usually characterized by inward one-pointed focus.
Unconscious That of which you are not conscious, or which is out of awareness.
Unconscious Mind The part of your mind that you are not conscious of … right now.
Universal Quantifiers Words that are universal generalizations and have no referential index. Includes words such as “all”, “every”, and “never” See Meta Model page PAGEREF _Ref468279193 \h Error! Bookmark not defined., and Milton Model, page PAGEREF _Ref468279208 \h Error! Bookmark not defined..)
Uptime A state where the attention is focused on the outside (as opposed to Downtime where attention is focused inward).
Values High-level generalizations that describe that which is important to you – in NLP sometimes called criteria. (See Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality, 1988.)
Vestibular System Having to do with the sense of balance.
Visual Having to do with the sense of sight.
Visual Squash (Now called Parts Integration.) An NLP technique which allows us to integrate parts at the unconscious level by assisting each one to traverse logical levels (by chunking up) and to go beyond the boundaries of each to find a higher level of wholeness.
Well Formedness Along with the Keys to an Achievable Outcome (see page PAGEREF _Ref468279587 \h Error! Bookmark not defined.), the Well Formedness Conditions (see page PAGEREF _Ref468279616 \h Error! Bookmark not defined.) allow us to specify outcomes that are more achievable, because the language conforms to certain rules.
THE HISTORY OF NLP
Hypnotic
Meta Language Eye Time Line
Model Patterns Patterns Strategies Reframing SubModalities Therapy™
Synesthesia Embedded Change
Patterns Commands Personal
History Language
Rep Systems Trance Induction Patterns
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The FasTrak NLP Practitioner Certification® Training Manual …. Vers 6.5 9/06
Copyright © 1987-2006, Tad James, & The Tad James Co
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I'm wondering...
how soon ...
you'll have the opportunity to
look at our proposal and
recall seeing that it
meets your criteria so
you can feel good about it
tonight,
won't you?
Hypnotic
Temporal
Embedded
Commands
Inside
Strategy
Temporal
Hypnotic
VR
AD
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VC/VR
AD
K
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Gordon
Metaphors
1975
1980
Sleight of Mouth Polya, J.S. Mill
Meta Programs Richard & Leslie
Debate about personal power and its place in therapy
Fritz Perls
Gestalt Therapy
1985
1988
Virginia Satir
Family Therapy
Applications of NLP
Roots of NLP
Dilts
1979
Bateson & Haley
Ecology
1982
Tranceformations
Magic in Action
Reframing
Using Your Brain for a Change
NLP Volume I
Patterns I & II
The Structure of Magic I & II
Frogs Into Princes
Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality
Bandler Computers, Gestalt
Grinder Linguistics
James & Woodsmall
Watzlawick
Linguistics
1950’s
Pavlov
Behavioral Psychology
Galanter
TOTE Model
Miller 7+ 2
Korzybski
General Semantics 1933
Milton Erickson Hypnosis
THE FASTRAK NLP PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATION TRAINING