Managing With The Power of NLP - Neurolinguistic Programming A Model For Better Management

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_ Drawing on years of expert NLP
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NLP and shows you how to
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MANAGING
WITH THE
POWER OF NLP
neurolinguistic
programming; a model
for better management
David Molden
2nd edition
PEARSON
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First published 1996

Revised edition 2003
Second edition published in Great Britain 2007
© Pearson Professional Limited 1996

© Pearson Education Limited 2007
The right of David Molden to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN-10: 0-273-70791-4 ae
ISBN-13: 978-0-273-70791-2 1 WOVGibS
—— SE NRE ETE
ae
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Molden, David.
Managing with the power of NLP : neurolinguistic programming; a model for
better management / David Molden. -- 2nd ed.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-273-70791-2 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-273-70791-4 (alk. paper)
1. Neurolinguistic programming. 2. Executives—Psychology. |. Title.
BF637.N46M655 2006
658.4001 '9-dce22 2006051519
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about
the
author
David Molden is a director, coach and trainer with Quadrant 1

International, a vehicle for helping business people to aspire,
create, lead and succeed. David’s assignments include 1:1
coaching clients and a range of projects with large corporations,
small businesses, and entrepreneurs.
David gained valuable management experience in the IT sector
where he learned how to succeed through motivating individuals
and teams. He found the experience so personally rewarding that
he left his role as head of service, training and development with
Computacenter plc to invest in his own skills and reshape his
career to do what he enjoys most - getting the best out of people.
Today he works with business teams, CEOs and managers
across a variety of sectors and in many different countries. He is a
senior partner with the Oxford Taiji Gongfu Institute, a Tai Chi
instructor and a personal student of Grandmaster Gou Kongjie,
11th generation Chen style. He has authored a number of self-
help books published in seven languages internationally by
Pearson Education. He lives in Oxford, England, and enjoys
travelling, writing, music, tai chi and reading. He has a particular
interest in eastern wisdom and its applications in the modern
world.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
In 2023 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/managingwithbowe0000mold_k9k6
contents
Foreword
Preface
Key to margin symbols
Acknowledgements
Introduction
What skilis would you like to master?
Feedback
Choice
Generative development
Getting the most from this book
chapter one
HOW GOOD A MANAGER ARE YOU?
Your autopilot — is it working for or against you?
How do you respond to problems?
What do you believe you are managing? —
Owon
chapter two
FROM IDEAS TO ACTION 23
How well do you communicate? 26
Your map of reality 27
How the NLP model of communication works 28
Your information filters 29
How your physiology impacts your results 40
chapter three
CREATING DIRECTION 43
Getting from here to where you want to be 45
contents
Creating your direction 50

Making it happen 53
chapter four
SELF-MASTERY 59
The sixth strategy state 61
Metaprogrammes 68
Achieving self-mastery 76
Orange circle thinking 78
chapter five
POWER TO THE PEOPLE 87
People power 88
The business of empowerment 89
What kind of power do you have? 90
Generating power 94
Two important lessons on empowerment 96
A question of respect 97
Pacing and leading 99
Reframing 101
The empowering leader 102
chapter six
EXPLORING YOUR MIND 109
Insights to the way people think 110
How people interpret what you say dtd
Representation systems 112
The visual system 114
The auditory system ime
The kinaesthetic system 119
Internal dialogue 120
Submodalities 124
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS 129
Intention, purpose and outcome 130
How true is your language to your experience? 131
contents
What’s your chunk size? 132

Artfully vague language 135
Frame your thinking 146
Reframe your thinking 150
Learn to learn with metaphor 152
Is what you say congruent with what you do? 152
chapter eight
INFLUENCE AND PERSUASION 155
Are you a trusting person? 157
Like me — like you 197%
Rapport 158
Sensory information 158
Pacing 160
Leading 166
Anchoring 166
chapter nine
APPLYING NLP TO 13 EVERDAY CHALLENGES 175
NLP and stress management 176
NLP and time management 178
NLP and confidence 186
NLP and personal creativity 193
NLP and group creativity 205
NLP and procrastination 219
NLP and decision making 223
NLP and presenting to groups 226
NLP and motivation 233
NLP and meetings 236
NLP and project management 238
NLP and managing your friends 239
NLP and building effective teams 241
Concluding thoughts 251
Glossary of NLP terms 253
Index 264
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foreword
n the last 35 years or so, the idea of self-development has

moved from the far-out fringes of management and people
development to the centre stage. Part of this has been due to a
shift from “control” to “commitment” strategies in managing
organizations. When the dominant model of managing is one of
planning, motivating and controlling, those who encounter the
notion of people taking charge of their own learning can see little
point in it, dismissing it as being “unbusiness-like” or perhaps
“Californian”. However, managers and leaders in flat, lean,
decentralized structures find it harder to control, and perforce
must work through developing commitment — engaging people’s
hearts and minds, encouraging them to grow to their full capaci-
ties and potentials.
This shift has brought into being a wide and proliferating
range of methods for self-development. NLP is indeed from
California but has travelled well. Coming of age with the Beatles,
CND and Catch-22, I have always been wary of “programming”
approaches to human development. Because of their strength in
creating powerful techniques, they also offer the danger of
seeming complete, sufficient, without need of alternative. Yet
some of my best friends are trained as engineers, scientists or
information specialists, who love their stage models, cognitive
maps and social technologies — and they do manage to do some
good in the world. As Buddha noted, “It is better to do a little
good than to write difficult books.”
What comes through in this book is David Molden’s openness,
friendliness and enthusiasm for learning. NLP with its insights
into patterns of thinking, creativity and individual and group
“empowerment”, has been an influential part of his develop-
ment. Here you can see some of the results of that learning. It is
written very clearly and with clear commitment. It has useful
foreword
models and engaging activities for improving human communi-

cation. It is ecological, anti-authoritarian and for a learning
culture in organizations, what more are you looking for?
Mike Pedler
Revans Professorial Fellow at the Revans.Centre for
Action Learning and Research, Salford University
preface
ividly planted in my memory is the day I became a manager.

I was to take responsibility for hiring, firing and the perfor-
mance of people, some of whom I had recruited, others who
used to work for my predecessor, and then some who were my
mates and hadn’t got the promotion. I was also expected to be a
salesman and win contracts, to give customer presentations, to
represent my business unit at company conferences and to take
responsibility for a significant budget. After a very brief honey-
moon period I had it made very clear to me that my job was also
to fix a range of problems, some of which were having a major
impact on profitability.
Once the newness of the pay rise, the new company car and
other trappings of management wore thin, I eventually realized
what an enormous challenge I had taken on. It was up to me to
get other people to do a great job. At the time I had no training
and little experience of managing other people, and NLP hadn’t
yet made it to the UK.
Looking back on those early days, I realize how much easier it
would have been had NLP been available to me, rather than my
having to rely on my naivety and the few “how to manage” books
in the local bookshops. However, I was lucky enough to have a
very effective MD from whom I learned many lessons, and to
work with and observe a number of other directors, some of
whom I regarded as excellent and others, not so excellent.
After a couple of years as National Service and Training
Manager, I came across NLP and immediately saw how it could
benefit me in this role. I used it to step-up my game and began inte-
grating it into the company’s Leadership and Managing People
training courses. The results were astonishing. We noticed a real
difference between managers who had conventional training and
preface
those who had the NLP variety. The very observable results caused
courses to fill by word of mouth alone.
This book draws from my experience of training and coaching
thousands of managers over the years in applying NLP tools to
really supercharge their performance. Managers who attended
my courses have gone on to do extremely well and are in leading
positions in business. Some are now running their own compa-
nies; others are coaching managers and directors at the beginning
of their careers. One thing they all have in common is they have
learned how to deal with the everyday challenges of management
such as motivation, decision making, communicating, project
management, selection and recruitment, meetings, time manage-
ment, change management, finance, strategy, creativity, team
performance and influencing while staying free of the physical
stresses that often come with the role. You too can learn how to
use NLP for all these aspects of management and more. As the
business environment becomes ever more competitive, NLP has
an increasingly central role to play helping business managers
and leaders stay sharp, and stay on top.
Management has some really tough challenges, to say the least.
It also has a good degree of “nonsense” — like the meetings you
go to with no real purpose; the time wasted playing politics and
departmental silo mentality. NLP has lots of how-to tools to help
you deal with both the nonsense and the real challenges in
management today.
@ Some background information
'Bandler and Grinder, In 1976 Richard Bandler and John Grinder! sat together in a
Frogs into Princes,
Real People Press, cabin in the hills above Santa Cruz, California, and thought of a
1979: name for their groundbreaking research into human communi-
cation, learning and change. The term they arrived at was Neuro-
linguistic Programming, or NLP for short, a most apt and
descriptive name. I wonder whether they realized at that time
how much of a leap they had taken in what we generally under-
stand as personal development, as they merged insights drawn
preface
from people who were thinking and doing things very differently
from convention, including Gregory Bateson, Milton H.
Erickson, M.D., Virginia Satir and Fritz Perls. Whether or not
they did is not important; I am just grateful that it took place and
eventually found its way out of California to my doorstep here in
the UK.
This book is a bringing together of my own experiences of
using NLP in business, from my first NLP adventure in 1994 to
the present day. It is divided into key sections which slowly build
NLP knowledge, concepts and techniques so that you have a
good and thorough understanding of the subject. It is also
designed to allow you to dip in and out of sections for quick and
easy reference. If you have read the first edition, you will notice
some key changes here, namely the introduction of a new chapter
with a range of topics, for example, “NLP and procrastination”
to give you more practical applications, and the inclusion of
“Orange circle thinking” and “This not that”, new concepts and
techniques developed over recent years by the team at Quadrant
1 International.
Your decision to read this book means you are motivated to
seek new perspectives on learning, communication and personal
development. Perhaps you are curious to explore the differences
found in management thinking and behaviour. Perspective and
difference in thinking are at the root of all behaviour. How you
use your mind determines your results.
Whatever your motivation for picking up this book, if, like an
increasing number of business managers you want to develop
effective communication skills, if you want to accomplish greater
things with perceived ease and excellence, or simply if you want
to improve all your results, stay with me for the rest of the
journey to discover the power of NLP — a science of perspective
and difference.
David Molden
key to margin symbols
In the margins you will find various pieces of information.
NLP This signifies one of a number of NLP principles around

which NLP is built. You will find them invaluable in
helping you to organize your thinking for maximum
effect.
This indicates an emphasis of the main learning points

and is included to support your retention of the material.
This indicates where you will find an exercise in the

main body of the text.
Quotes to emphasize specific learning points.

acknowledgements
o the two pioneers and originators of NLP — Richard

Bandler and John Grinder — and to the many people
responsible for the wide variety of developments and appli-
cations. To my teachers Brad Waldron, Willie Monteiro, Wyatt
Woodsmall, Marvin Oka, Richard Diehl, Dave Marshall, Robert
Smith, and to all my students for investing their time in my per-
sonal development. To Robert Dilts for his work on neurologi-
cal levels, for his insights into belief structures and his modelling
of Walt Disney and Albert Einstein. To every other contributor
to the field of NLP, too many to mention by name, and to the
many clients of Quadrant 1 International who have been posi-
tively affected by our programmes.
A very special thank you to Brad Waldron, Mike O’Sullivan
and Ray Perkins for providing their own unique perspectives on
my ideas and material, and to Pat Hutchinson, my business
partner, for putting structure exactly where it’s needed; for being
such a creative driving force and for being an effective sounding
board and contributor to the development and shaping of our
ideas.
‘introduction
f you are inspired to look beyond conventional teaching

[nousfor new ways of developing management competence,
Neuro — what we
this book is written for you. It concentrates on you, the
do with our brains.
manager, and how you can change to develop greater degrees of
Linguistic — verbal
excellence rather than how you can change others. You are the
and non-verbal
role model for your people. You are the example of how to be in
language we use
the organization. If you are motivated to learn and develop your- to organize and
self, NLP will help you discover how to use or programme your communicate our
thinking and language to get the results you really want for your- thoughts.
self, your team and your organization. As a result of these Programming -
changes you will have a positive influence on other people, and the unique way
so they will change also. I will explain and give practical exam- each individual
ples of how NLP can be used by all managers from the fresh new puts it all together
youngbloods to the not so fresh but seasoned managers, and top to produce
behaviour.
corporate strategists. J will share with you my personal experi-
ences of using NLP to become a more effective manager, and
experiences of others in business from whom I have learned so
much. I will also be inviting you to work through some exercises
so that you can begin to practise NLP and experience results for
yourself.
This is a personal development book for managers. My inten-
tion has been to concentrate on the practical management appli-
cations of NLP, adding just enough supporting theory and jargon
for you to understand how it works. The first eight chapters
introduce you to concepts of managing and NLP, with some core
NLP exercises. Chapter 9 covers many of the key areas of a
manager’s performance with specific NLP tools for achieving
excellence in each area. As a developer, I have put NLP to work
both in and out of the classroom, and so throughout the book I
will be sharing with you applications from my own experience as
a manager and from my management training courses. First, I
introduction
will set the backdrop for Chapter 1 by sharing with you an early
personal experience of managing without the power of NLP.
NLP is a learning
technology.
What skills would you like to master?
I remember being given my first real management challenge —

setting up a regional service operation from scratch. The task
came with full membership of the fraternity known as manage-
ment. The times were exciting at Computacenter, working in the
young but fast-growing microcomputer industry, and I desper-
ately wanted to succeed and make my mark as a manager.
The first couple of weeks were a period of orientation to my
new environment, and then on Monday morning of the third
week I was suddenly struck by the stark reality of my situation.
What were my objectives? What was expected of me? What
responsibility and authority did I have? What had happened to
the excitement I had at the interview with my manager? The pro-
motion gave me such an overwhelming feeling of achievement
that I had blocked out any rational questions concerning the role
I had been given. It very soon became apparent, however, that
whatever plans there may have been for the business in that
region, making a success of it was all down to me!
It wasn’t long before I was displaying typical symptoms of
being unprepared for my role, including procrastination, distrac-
tion, lack of confidence in my decisions, poor use of time, shift-
ing priorities and of course stress. Somehow I managed to build
a brilliant team and I had some excellent role models to learn
from, and I eventually put a stop to my time wasting, found the
right track and began to really motor.
I later discovered that: my personal experience of being
inducted into management is not untypical from the experience
of many of my colleagues and peers in other companies. I never
found the “how to” guide of managing, and so my skills gradu-
ally evolved with experience. From my role models I learned
how to both manage and mismanage extremely well — thankfully
introduction
I decided not to follow all their examples. So what do you want

to stop doing? If you’re a young manager early into your career
perhaps you can relate to my story. If you are more my age, sea-
soned with experience gained over a number of years, it is likely
that the challenges before you will stem from the changing orga-
nizational environment where downsizing, de-layering, restruc-
turing and re-engineering are recognized as basic ingredients for
the future health and fitness of business. Whatever your experi-
ence of managing, you probably have some sense of what you
want to stop doing, and what you want to do instead.
Tom Peters’ in his book Thriving on Chaos suggests that 'Tom Peters, Thriving
on Chaos — Handbook
tomorrow’s winners will be those that are capable of dealing for a Management
proactively with the chaos that is the result of increasing compet- Revolution, Pan
Books, 1987.
itiveness. So if chaos is something we can thrive upon, the crucial
question is: what skills does a manager need to get results in this
chaotic environment? |
Conventional methods of learning are not coping with the
demands from today’s managers. Convention doesn’t have the
speed, flexibility and generative qualities needed for personal
Working
development amid the accelerating pace of the modern business
environments are
world. The challenge for today’s generation of managers is in
becoming more
developing the ability to learn at a superfast pace, to cut through complex with
ambiguity, and to make the working environment a place people increasing
want to be part of. Whatever your experience, status, intellect, diversity and
role or objectives, NLP provides the learning to develop your ambiguity.
fullest potential and realize success in management.

Managing is not so much about what to do as how to do. To
be effective as a manager in today’s fast-changing world of busi- Managers need the
ness requires effective learning strategies. Strategies are how you capability to
achieve your desired objectives, and NLP is one of the most effec- generate ever
tive how to technologies that exist in the area of human commu- more creative and
nication, learning and change today. You will discover precisely sophisticated
business solutions.
how, through an increasing self-awareness, you can develop a
generative learning ability in three core role dimensions — leader-
ship, communication and innovation. Increased self-awareness
leads to more control over your thinking and behaviour. This
2
introduction
generates the flexibility needed to build effective strategies — for

any management challenge. So, what skills would you like to
Increased self-
master?
awareness leads
to more control
over your thinking
and behaviour. Feedback
Many people believe that learning from feedback is an uncon-

scious process; that is, they don’t have to spend time thinking
Learning which
about feedback because learning happens as a natural and auto-
happens
automatically is matic process. And they are absolutely right. However, the learn-
not necessarily the ing which happens automatically is not necessarily the learning
learning you want. you want. Managers who continually firefight use feedback in
this way. They use feedback to maintain their system of firefight-
ing, taking them from one crisis to another. I have known some
brilliant firefighters in my time, and it is their automatic
responses to feedback which keep them operating in well-
developed grooves. Unfortunately, the only learning they
experience helps them to put out more fires in different ways —
with no prevention scheme in sight!
This is one way of dealing with feedback. Another way is to
think that feedback is a personal attack, become defensive and
The most useful
reject the feedback as someone else’s failure. The most useful
feedback is free of
judgement. feedback is free of judgement about its nature, intention,
emotion or any other type of contamination. Treat it as a scien-
tist would a laboratory experiment — describing precisely what
you see and what you hear. To say “he didn’t like my proposal —
he can’t appreciate the quality of what we are presenting to him”
is to contaminate vital feedback with likes/dislikes and judge-
ments about what can/can’t be appreciated. It is better to accept
the feedback, discover why the proposal wasn’t accepted and do
something positive about it.
introduction
Choice
We all make many choices throughout the course of a day. How

we choose and what we choose narrows down our options. At an
airport I can choose from a number of destinations. If I choose
New York, and midflight I hear a report of bad weather there, it’s
too bad — I’m on the plane to New York. Behavioural choice is
much like this, and the consequences of choosing inappropriately
must be accepted and lived with.
There is also a choice over how you exercise choice. Have you
ever got on the wrong bus or driven to the wrong destination out
of habit? This often happens when you make the same journey
regularly, but for once you need to go somewhere different.
Because you are preoccupied thinking about something else, you
choose the wrong bus or motorway exit. You can allow your
habits to make automatic choices for you, or you can put some
higher quality conscious thought behind them. Sometimes in
business, seemingly small choices about what you say at an inter-
view or a negotiation can have major consequences on you, the
business and its employees.
Generative development
This book is constructed around an all-embracing “generative

management development” model. The concept behind the
model is simple. You become self-aware by accepting feedback,
which you process within three core management dimensions —
leadership, communication and innovation (refer to Figure 1).
The term generative means that, unlike other types of learning,
when you have a strategy for continual learning then new skills
come out of your everyday experiences — so learning is generated
as an ongoing process, rather than something you reserve for the
classroom.
introduction
, Yi
¢N
NOV
‘ATI
ON »
a
M FIGURE 1 LEADERSHIP
Generative
management
development
model
You operate in the organization as a leader, communicator and

innovator. You get feedback from your efforts in each of these
three dimensions, which you can either ignore or learn from. If
you want to improve your operational effectiveness, you will
choose to take notice of your feedback so that you can make nec-
essary changes to your behaviour. Personal effectiveness is
improved by investing time in thinking about how to change
what you do and what you say (behaviour). For example, if a
meeting isn’t going the way you had intended it to go, what are
you learning about the way you have been interacting? Have
you been communicating clearly? Have you demonstrated
leadership? Were you curious enough to know more about the
situation? What can you do differently to improve things?
Managers who Managers who invest little time in this activity (you probably
invest little time in know some in your organization) rarely change what they do and
self-analysis rarely say — and their results often reflect this behavioural inflexibility.
change what they
So spending time noticing your feedback and making intelli-
do and say ...
gent choices in the three dimensions of leadership, communica-
... their results tion and innovation will improve self-awareness and enhance
often reflect this
personal development. In this way the model is generative, which
behavioural
means that you are constantly generating your own learning and
inflexibility.
development in all four key dimensions:
bo
introduction
Self-awareness
How well you know yourself; what makes you tick; creating
direction and setting outcomes for yourself; being a role model
and improving your capability to integrate new learning.
Leadership
How you organize yourself and the methods you use to motivate,
direct, develop and get the most from yourself and your team.
What behaviours are you role modelling for others? What are
others learning from your leadership?
Communication
How you connect with yourself and with others at both a mental
and emotional level.
Innovation
How you provide variety, create a platform for new ideas and
foster an environment of learning and innovation.
You operate, get feedback, and change behaviour according to

the results you want. Throughout the book you will be intro-
duced to various NLP techniques that will help you to increase
the quality and quantity of uncontaminated feedback, develop
generative thought processes and increase your operational flex-
ibility in each of these four dimensions.
Getting the most from this book
Can you remember the first time you tried to ride a bicycle? How
Q)
Chaos often breeds
awkward it seemed to be attempting to balance on two thin life, when order
breeds habit.
wheels while moving your feet in a circular motion. Being aware HENRY B. ADAMS
of how your feet needed to be connecting with the pedals and (1838-1918)
American historian
getting the right balance to steer the bike in the right direction
both at the same time wasn’t easy, was it? Then you tried it a
S
introduction
second time, and then a third until eventually, after many bruised
knees, you finally mastered the metal beast and began to innovate
with new ways of being on a bike — ever done no hands?
This is a good example of how we learn. The first time you try
something completely new you can feel awkward. To make any
progress you have to overcome this initial barrier to learning and
practice by making adjustments in accordance with the feedback
you are getting. Eventually you lose the awkwardness and
become comfortable doing the new thing. With further practice
and more feedback you get to the stage where you can ride your
bike with ease and grace without thinking consciously about it.
This is the approach you need for the practical exercises in this
book, which will present you with many new ways of thinking
and being. Practise and you will reap the benefits.
Throughout the book you will be presented with opportunities
to practise NLP techniques. If some appear odd or peculiar to
you, that is a sign of approaching something new — outside of
your existing knowledge of learning. Stay with the material,
explore it and remain curious to discover more. As you continue
through the book you may notice that your own perception of
learning is changing and that generating a greater self-awareness
is becoming even more natural to you.
HOW GOOD A
MANAGER ARE YOU?
= Your autopilot — is it working for or against you?
& How do you respond to problems?
a What do you believe you are managing?

MANAGING WITH THE POWER OF NLP
Your autopilot — is it working for or

against you?
S ow much time do you spend in self-reflection? If you are

The chains of habit like most other people, chances are you do it frequently,
are too weak to be felt
either as a judgement about what you did or said, or some
until they are too
strong to be broken. opinion about how you look and feel. It is so easy to disconnect
Dr. SAMUEL
from your present situation and generate thoughts about yourself
JOHNSON
(1709-84) and others in past, current, future and imaginary events. This is
British poet
often referred to as being “preoccupied”, where your focus of
attention becomes directed inward. How many times, while trav-
elling home from work, have you caught yourself running a
movie in your mind of some incident earlier in the day — and
upon arriving home you're unable to recall the journey?
This review activity is carried out by the conscious part of your
Your unconscious mind while it is disconnected from the external world around
mind is an you, and your unconscious mind, or your autopilot, takes over
autopilot for your
processing the input signals from your five senses. If you have
body functions and
never driven a car, can you imagine working all the controls
your habits while
your conscious without thinking about it and driving safely? If you are a
mind controls the relatively new driver, you may not yet have developed your
parts of your coordination of the car’s controls to the extent that driving safely
neurology needed requires little of your conscious attention. This will develop over
to read and time. If you are an experienced driver, you will know what it
interpret the words
is like to have arrived at your destination not remembering
you are looking at
anything about driving there.
right now.
This latter example is an excellent demonstration of the
unconscious mind being on autopilot and taking over control of
habitual behaviours while your conscious mind carries out some
inner processing.
From this example we can extract three learning points.
We are very adept
at repeating a 1 Weare very adept at repeating a process once we have learned
process once we how to do it. This is how habits are formed and maintained
have learned how
(firefighting managers are particularly skilled in this area).
to do it.
chapter one
2 Once we have learned a new habit, it can be difficult to break

out of, especially as we have to consciously think about the
habit in order to avoid doing it. Have you ever tried driving an
automatic car for the first time and found yourself fumbling
for the clutch and gearstick? This is one reason why people
find it so hard to quit smoking, stick to a diet or change the
way they relate to people at work.
3 Change very often requires “unlearning” some unwanted habit-
ual behaviours before learning more useful ones. Car drivers
become dangerous through the habits they develop — like
driving too close to the car in front. Learning to become a safe
driver starts with unlearning these dangerous habits before
moving on to learn new ones, like advanced anticipation skills.
So, is your autopilot working for you or against you? To

answer this question, a little self-analysis will help you to learn
Thinking in
precisely how you communicate with yourself and how you pro-
negatives — what
gramme your autopilot to learn new habits. Let’s begin by taking
can’t be done or
a look at the way you respond to problems. what isn’t possible
— acts on the
unconscious as a
How do you respond to problems? limiting and
disempowering
influence.
Listen to the people around you talking about the problems they
face and you will notice two distinct ways of describing prob-
lems. Some people will simply tell you “there is a problem here”
while others will tell you what they think the solution ought to Take the ¢ out of
can’t! Instead,
be, for example, a problem of stock shortage might be expressed
think what can be
as “we need to stock up on these”. It may seem unimportant, but
done and what is
think of the possible consequences of reacting to each one. The possible.
first is open to wider thinking and allows others to get involved
in finding out more about the situation. This is more likely to
lead to an effective answer than just assuming low stock means
you need to stock up. How do you respond to problems? Here’s
a question for you to contemplate: Can you fit a square peg into
a round hole? What kind of answers would you expect?
1 No — it can’t be done.
This is the response of a
defeatist. It reacts to the sit-
uation and information as
presented, and concludes
with the word can’t. It is a
disempowering word that
communicates a message of
inflexibility and self-doubt
to your unconscious mind
and which programmes you to focus on the impossible rather
than the possible. The word is also untrue in many contexts
where it is used. How do you know it can’t be done?
A more truthful response would be I haven’t found a way of
doing that. In a commercial environment customers are not inter-
ested in what you can’t do for them — they want to know what
you can do, and yes, sometimes they will ask for what seems like
the impossible. It is often when you are exploring the seemingly
impossible that new and more creative alternatives emerge.
2 Give me a big enough mallet and I'll try. This is the response
of a reactionary. It may demonstrate determination but directs
energy into one reactive solution. There is a great danger that the
peg, hole and mallet will all become damaged in the process.
3 Yes — if I reshape the square peg so that it fits. This is a

complex response. In order for the peg to fit I must learn how to
reshape square pegs so that they fit round holes. It is complex
because the consequences are often redesigns to systems,
processes and procedures or restructures that are often inappro-
priate or unworkable. It is also reactionary as it is reacting to the
situation and information as presented without question.
4 What would be the purpose for the fit and how did a square
peg ever come to be offered to a round hole in the first place?
This is a curious response. It seeks to identify the intention
behind the question, looking for more information outside of the
chapter one
frame presented. The result is a clearer picture of the situation

with which to aid a decision making process. This response chal-
lenges the question, i.e. it does not presuppose that the objective
is to fit a square peg into a round hole, and looks for more infor-
mation with which to make an appropriate decision. It’s not that
everything should be challenged, but by not challenging there is
a possibility that your business will get stuck in outmoded ways
of operating.
Some years ago, a friend of mine working for a competitor
organization was approached by a director with a plan for devel-
oping a central IT support facility to cover the UK. My friend
was delighted at having been given this strategically important
project to manage and he accepted all the presuppositions that
came with it, including this one — that UK analysts wanted a
centralized support facility. Unbeknown to him this was a square
peg in a round hole situation.
Three years later the support facility was in a totally confused
mess. It had a reputation for poor service, the management team
was disunited over the basic purpose and direction for the
department, and it was losing money. There had been many
changes to systems and investment in new technology to try and Challenging
make it work. The UK analysts who were the clients of the presuppositions
service had never been consulted, and they could see little benefit helps to make
in the investment. They preferred local support groups because sense of seemingly
ambiguous
they liked to network with their peers. This situation could pos-
situations.
sibly have been avoided if the presuppositions contained in the
original brief had been challenged. The support group was even-
tually broken up and dissolved.
The curiosity response needs flexibility of thinking. You have
to be open to discovering something new or different about the
situation. Being flexible doesn’t mean you avoid issues. It means
having an attitude of mind that produces desired results regard-
less of the present situation, its complexities, its ambiguities, its
"Ashby W. Ross,
pace, its expectations, its culture and its presuppositions. In Introduction to
cybernetics, Chapman
systems theory’! — which has much in common with NLP’s & Hall Ltd, London,
holistic approach to learning and change — there is a principle 1956.
NLP called the law of requisite variety which states that “in order to
“In order to successfully adapt and survive, a member of a system needs a
successfully adapt certain amount of flexibility, and that flexibility has to be pro-
and survive, a portional to the potential variation or uncertainty in the rest of
member of a the system”. For managers this means never being content with
system needs a
one solution, rather challenging presuppositions, looking at
certain amount of
influences in the wider system of the organization, and generat-
flexibility, and that
flexibility has to be
ing as many alternative courses of action as you need to create
proportional to the new effective possibilities.
potential variation Whenever you are faced with a challenge, you will have four
or the uncertainty basic choices of response:
in the rest of the
system.” 1 Defeat
2 Reaction
3 Complexity
4 Curiosity
The flexible manager will begin with option 4 as a default.
NLP
What do you believe you are managing?
You have all the
resources you
NLP suggests that you have all the resources you need to succeed
need to succeed.
and that when you feel stuck, it’s because you have created barri-
ers to your inner resources such as confidence, focus, determina-
tion and motivation. You have already learned how habits of
thinking and language can create limitations. You will focus on
what you believe is important. You will manage what you believe
you are there to manage. Your personal values will influence
your actions, and how you see yourself will determine how suc-
cessful you will be. Your beliefs, your values and your sense of
higher purpose as a manager act upon each other and create your
behaviour. How this works can be explained using a simple
*Bateson, G., Steps to model.
an ecology of mind,
Ballantine Books,
There are five levels of learning, communication and change”
New York, 1972. that are key to developing your flexibility of thinking and
chapter one
behaviour. The five levels are:
1 Identity of role
2 Values and beliefs
3 Capabilities
4 Behaviour
5 Environment
Figure 1.1 shows these levels within a contextual frame. The

context, or situation you are in, will influence each of these
levels, so for example you may base your behaviour on one set of
values and beliefs when at work, and on a different set at home;
what you value as a parent may be very different to what you
value as a manager.
@ identity - who?
People who make career moves start by unconsciously reframing

their identity. They often don’t think of it in this way at all -
people rarely wake up in the morning and say “I’ve decided to
change my identity,” but that’s what actually happens at an
Fe
eee
CONTEXT
1 Identity
how you think of yourself shapes your ...
2 Values and beliefs

what is important to you
and what you believe in influences your ...
3 Capabilities
your knowledge and skills direct your ...
4 Behaviour
what you do and say determines your RESULTS in the ...
5 Environment
in which you choose to operate
M FIGURE 1.1
Levels of learning,
CONTEXT communication
and change
unconscious level. Take a few moments to think about your pro-

fessional identity and complete this statement: “I am ... .” The
words you use to describe yourself are labels for your identity.
Companies like their labels to describe employee roles. Labels
put meaning to things and so by their very nature influence how
we think about them; project leader, head of finance, personnel
officer, etc. One retail company we have been working with has
chosen to call all its employees at every level “colleagues” to help
The words you use move away from an old status-centred and hierarchical culture.
to describe and Their business cards only tell you which part of the business they
think about your
represent, not the role they perform.
roles can greatly
influence what you
Identity labels greatly influence your autopilot and it is here, at
do to fulfil each the level of identity, that you can make significant changes to
role. your performance.
EXERCISE 1 VE identify with your role
The objective is for you to think of the labels you currently apply to your profes-
sional roles and consider whether there may be more appropriate labels that will
help you to be more flexible and successful in those roles.
On the left-hand side of Table 1 write one label per line for each of your pro-
fessional roles. Then for each label in turn, run a movie in your mind of a specific
time when you were performing this role. Become fully connected with this situ-
ation and make the movie vivid by fully concentrating on it ... make it a bright,
colourful, moving 3-D picture ... add surround sound so that you can hear the
words of the conversations you are having ... and when you are fully connected
with the experience, ... notice what you say and do, and if you notice parts of your
movie that cause you to feel uncomfortable, ask yourself: what’s going on here?
And then ask yourself these questions: How could | have been even more flexi-
ble in my approach to this situation? What could | change in order to improve my
results here?
For example, imagine you are the manager in charge of a helpdesk and you
identify one of your role labels as an “information organizer”. As you connect
with a typical day, you may focus on collecting and filing information logged from
your customers using time that could perhaps be better utilized to reduce
the customer's dependency on your service. A more useful role label might be
chapter one
“educator”. This exercise will generate some different labels for each of your
roles. Write these labels on the right-hand side of Table 1 opposite the con-
ventional role labels. Have a go at this exercise now. It may cause you to think
differently about how you perceive your various roles.
TABLE 1
a Conventional
nventi role labels Morer use ful role labels Identity
: labels
How did you get on? Did you generate some labels that are
perhaps more useful than the conventional labels? Have you
widened or narrowed the scope of your professional identity?
What you have just done is to generate some identity labels that
perhaps suggest different or alternative behavioural choices for
what you could do to be more flexible. Later in the book there
are exercises to give you the how of increasing behavioural flexi-
bility. Do any of the following labels appear in the table you have
just completed: questioner, analyst, innovator, compass (giving
direction to others), developer, researcher, information gatherer,
shepherd, nurse, grandfather, disseminator? Some of these labels
are metaphorical. Identity metaphors can be very effective ways
Identity metaphors of adding meaning to your roles.
can be very I knew a manager who thought of herself as a lion tamer
effective ways of because that is how she felt about her main role of sales training
adding meaning to
manager in an aggressively competitive business. Her delegates
your roles.
needed to unlearn many negative behaviours that were irrelevant
in a new marketplace. It was only after they realized the conse-
quences of their usual approach to customers that they could
begin to learn new consultative selling techniques — they had to
be tamed first.
A service manager was so focused on procedures that she alien-
ated and demotivated all her staff by constantly monitoring their
timekeeping to the minute! She identified very strongly with pro-
cedures but had little identity as a people developer, enabler and
strategist. All her key people eventually left to join other parts of
the organization.
A support centre manager identified with administration to
such an extent that he hadn’t recognized the importance of pro-
viding direction for his supervisors. Needless to say, the results
were quite catastrophic for the whole department because the
manager hadn’t identified with a role that would give people
direction in their work.
chapter one
Values and beliefs — why?
Values and beliefs determine why you do anything. They deter- Values are things
mine purpose and support or limit your capabilities. Values are that are important
things that are important to you, and there are two types of values to you.
— means values and end values. It is important for me to exercise

regularly (means value) because I value my health (end value).
Your end values in a professional context will be the reasons why
you do what you do — the satisfaction intrinsic to the job. If you
are not getting any job satisfaction, then you will not be feeding
your values and you are likely to be suffering from stress. Means
values feed end values, and they are very powerful — providing Means values feed
you with the motivation to get things done. For example: end values, and
they are very
e | enjoy fussing with small details in student materials for my powerful —
courses because (this means) quality will be assured. providing you with
e | demand high quality from myself and my team because (by the motivation to
this means) our department will have a professional image. get things done.
e It’s important to maintain a professional image because (by this
means) we will get higher and more prestigious responsibilities
to challenge us.
e Being provided with greater challenge (means that) develop-
ment opportunities will be created for me and my team.
| END VALUE = development
Ricardo Semler,’ owner of Semco S/A, a Brazilian manufacturing 3Semler, R., Maverick,
Warner Books Inc.,
company, introduced radical new business processes, reduced New York, 1995.
hierarchy to three levels and began to trust employees to take the
right decisions without having to check with management. In
conventional terms the company had little control and virtually
no discipline. During the period of change some middle man-
agers left the company because they could no longer identify
with the new roles they were being asked to perform. After all,
they had originally been employed as decision makers, problem
solvers and people managers, and these roles were no longer
reserved for “managers” by the new order in Semco.
Values also change as your life situations change. If you sud-

denly need more money to maintain a standard of living, then
this might become a higher-level value. If your relationships with
loved ones become difficult, you may begin to divert your atten-
tion and energy to re-establishing harmony in the family. In most
cases, job-related values will decrease in importance when there
are major deficits at the more basic levels of human need such as
remuneration and belonging. Beliefs support and reinforce your
Beliefs support and values — they are like the glue that holds them together. Your
reinforce your beliefs have little to do with any reality other than your own, and
values — they are your senses are extremely efficient at filtering out information
like the glue that that might contradict a belief and at discovering information that
holds them
might support a belief.
together. Your
Beliefs are more opinion than fact. Here’s a popular scenario
beliefs have little
to do with any to demonstrate the power of belief:
reality other than
o le thatthere is life on other planets with the tech-
your own.
NLP There are believers and disbelievers in this idea. The interesting
Whatever you thing to notice is that if you were to gather a dozen from each
believe, it’s true camp on a hilltop to witness a reported UFO sighting, the disbe-
for you. lievers would probably come up with all kinds of descriptions
that support the UFO being an Earth construction or some illu-
sion, while the believers would be more willing to explore the
possibility of it really being a UFO. The beliefs held by each
group influence their information processing in different ways
and will support their values in some way. NLP supports the
principle that whatever you believe, it’s true for you.
A senior manager believed his judgement was unquestionable.
After all, he was paid a lot of money to make important deci-
sions. For months he struggled to motivate one of his team, and
no matter what he tried, performance was never satisfactory. It
was after some professional coaching he realized the problem
with his poor performing team member was due to putting him
chapter one
in a job he was unsuited for — a decision only he was responsible

for. After this experience he changed his belief about his judge-
ment and as a consequence began to involve other people more
when making important decisions. When you change a belief,
you change your results.
One frequent request we get from clients is to develop more
confidence, and this has now become a common feature in many
The critical
of our personal development courses. The critical elements
elements involved
involved in developing confidence are belief and identity. Here’s in developing
an example of this in the area of managing meetings. confidence are
belief and identity.
: tinga meetir e
: rspecialists, alin ::
on municate with these
formance and therefore
strong enough, those
ly to pick up low-confidence :
é and voice tonality. This, in
ommunicate with Yom
Beliefs can change with experience. If you do well at this

meeting, the experience may help to diminish any limiting belief
you have about your ability to communicate effectively.
Unfortunately, for many people, this experience takes a long
time to gather, and some people never realize their true potential
at all. Limiting beliefs create unresourceful states of mind and
body. If you are lacking confidence you are not in the best “state”
to deal with the situation. Unresourceful states require energy to Unresourceful
sustain them — energy that is best applied to the external states require
energy to sustain
problem, not the internal dilemma happening in your mind!
them — energy that
Confidence plays an important part in the acquisition of skills.
is best applied to
When your sense of identity and your beliefs support each other the external
in a positive way, you will be in a more confident state to learn problem, not the
and develop new capabilities. internal dilemma
happening in your
@
I spent some time in a workshop with a friend who works as an

independent consultant. The purpose of the workshop was to
explore the dynamics of a number of components of personality
and to analyse how they were constructed. My friend built the
following profile of himself:
Identity
A combination of Mother Teresa and Christopher Columbus (a
helper of great integrity and a desire for leading others to new
pathways of learning and adventure).
End values
e To be recognized as a mentor to other people
e To be at the leading edge of personal development
e To improve my own capabilities
e To sustain a certain quality of life for my family
Means values
e To analyse and understand others’ problems
e To understand more about myself
e To be highly active in many networks
e To make lots of new friends
e To be honest with myself and others
e To discover new development techniques and ideas
e To maintain a respectable level of income
Beliefs
e Everyone needs a mentor
e Mentors must invest time developing themselves
e Removing limitations is easy
e People like me because I listen to them
e There are parts of me that I don’t yet understand
e All progress is made through experience and personal
development
This person is a highly capable and successful personal

development consultant and executive coach. People praise his
chapter one
capabilities, compassion, understanding and companionship. His

business is successful. His identity, values and beliefs all com-
plement one another, and his behaviour is totally congruent with
his thinking.
Throughout the book you will have the opportunity to
practise accessing resourceful states for various situations and
trying out different values and beliefs to support and develop
your identity. You may wish to modify identity labels as you
progress through the book. You will also be introduced to some
excellent techniques for making personal change happen a lot
quicker than you may think is possible.
Identify your values and beliefs sak EXERCISE 2
Here’s an exercise to get you thinking about your own values and beliefs. Put
down your answers as they occur. Don’t concern yourself with whether a value
is end or means, or whether a response is a value or belief. It is not always imme-
diately clear.
Answer each question in turn. The purpose of question 1 is to elicit a means
value. The purpose of question 2 is to elicit higher-level values that could be
means or end values. If you run out of responses to this question, you have prob-
ably reached an end value. Think of at least three different answers for question
2. The purpose of question 3 is to elicit the beliefs that support your values. Think
of three or four beliefs that support each set of values. If you’re not sure whether
something is a belief, a means value or end value, that’s OK — just put down your
thoughts anyway.
Get a first draft down as quickly as you can; then review what you have written
and consider the potency of each value and each belief.
Q1. What is it you value about your job that if it were taken away, your job
satisfaction would decrease significantly?
Q2 And what does this value get for you?
Q3 What must you believe in order to value the items above?
AP 2s, 40 So) Wud Sle facade
Avalpobitce a
> 0 Ais, Lan ye
eT ee meee Se
A
chapter one
This may be the first time you have ever questioned your reason
and purpose for doing what you do. My intention at this stage is
Question your
to present you with a basic knowledge of how you can develop
values and beliefs
behavioural flexibility. now and again. Are
You may be content to reshape square pegs, or to wield heavy they enabling you
mallets. However, I encourage you to question your values and to be more flexible,
beliefs now and again. Are they enabling you to be more flexible, capable and
capable and successful? successful?
@ Capability - how?
Capability can be defined as how you apply knowledge and

behaviour to achieve a goal. In most organizations you will find
that the term most commonly used to talk about capability and
behaviour is skill. However, if you want to learn how a skill
becomes a skill, take a look at capability.
As an example, consider a manager who has been asked to lead
an important negotiation. Assume he has a specific goal which he
wants to achieve. Over time he will have learned a large number
of words that make up his vocabulary, and he may have learned
a specific structure or format for negotiating either from a
company procedure document, a book, a film, from a training
course or by observing someone else. This is knowledge. The
capability is in how the knowledge is put to use, and this how is
dependent upon the distinctions he makes around the meeting
activity. What is he noticing and paying attention to? What is the
range of his behaviour when responding?
The distinctions he makes will generate his behaviour — what
he says and does in response to each interaction. Does he con-
tinue listening and watching, or begin talking? Which words does
he choose when it’s his turn to speak? Who should he address?
What should his body language be saying?
Capability is also influenced by all the levels of learning above
it — identity, values and beliefs. If the manager in our example
does not identify strongly with the role of negotiator, he may be
ineffective. His values and beliefs will influence the goal he sets
for himself. He might believe the negotiation is a lost cause or that

it will be tough. His expectations and goals will be set in response
to his beliefs, which will influence the value he awards the act of
negotiating, as either a high-value activity or a low-value activity.
The end result of all these influences will manifest in the
distinctions he will make. Fine distinctions and clear goals result
from high task value, empowering beliefs and a strong role
identity. Coarse distinctions and fuzzy goals result from low task
value, limiting beliefs and a weak role identity.
If you are gathering feedback, making fine distinctions and
modifying your behaviour, you will be able to operate in any sit-
uation. Here’s an example to demonstrate the point. A newly
appointed manager attended a training course entitled “effective
meetings”. On the course he learned about agendas, minutes,
keeping to the point, maintaining direction, keeping people
focused on the issues, managing digressions and using visual aids.
He did some exercises and role plays to practise the behaviours
that were being taught.
When he began to use these new behaviours in meetings at
work, he hit a major problem. The culture in the company at that
time could be described in part as being very exciting and
dynamic with a great deal of social dialogue and interaction
mixed with business. At the time it was a very young and fast-
growing company. Meetings with senior managers and directors
often consisted of a half hour exchanging stories about car inci-
dents, office romances and other social escapades. There was
usually little time left for discussion of business, and decisions
were often made quickly from gut feel and experience.
At a divisional meeting, what reaction do you think he got to
the structured response he learned on his course: “We seem to be
digressing — perhaps a restatement of the meeting objectives
might help to keep us focused on our objectives”?
It didn’t go down too well. In fact it damaged the rapport he
had built up with some of the managers there. He had missed the
fact that it was important for people to spend time talking about
social interests — gossiping really! Armed with the right stories, he
chapter one
eventually learned to get almost anything approved — all he

needed to do was spend as much time as was necessary in office
Relying on pre-
chatter mode to result in a decision being made. Relying on pre-
taught contextual
taught contextual structures limits flexibility. structures limits
Every situation is different because people are different and flexibility.
situations change. Flexibility allows you to align your behaviour
to your goals, to reappraise the relevance of goals and to change
according to the feedback you are receiving — this will increase
your capability to be successful, regardless of the context.
@ Behaviour — what?
Behaviour is what you do and say and it is relatively easy to learn.

Unfortunately some people learn behaviours that hinder rather
than help them achieve their goals. We learn a great many of our
behaviours from the significant role models around us. If you are
lucky, you will have a good role model as your manager.
Some people have poor role models from which to learn. |
knew a general manager who many described as authoritarian
and dictatorial because of the way he imposed his opinions and
decisions onto others. His voice was pitched in a way that
emphasized urgency and the words came out rather rapidly and
sometimes were a little confusing. All decisions had to be made
now and there was never enough time for rational discussion. I
found it quite uncanny to observe two of his closest managers
displaying those very same characteristics with a high degree of
precision and accuracy. Have you considered the behaviours you
are displaying for the people who are role modelling you?
@ Environment — where? when?
Environment is heavily influenced by all the other levels. If you

have a value and belief system that supports being self-sufficient
and spending lots of time by yourself, you will make decisions
based on the avoidance of groups and crowds. This will influence
the external situations which will be presented to you.
Managers who consider themselves, above all else, to be

administrators generally have to work hard at being people man-
agers because they often prefer to be alone in their office, check-
ing and designing administration systems rather than interacting
with people. If an office-bound administrator decided to improve
his or her people management skills, that person would find it
helpful to change to a working environment where they could
interact with people more directly and more often. Your environ-
ment determines what information is available for you to take in
through each of your five senses — sight, hearing, touch, smell
and taste.
The five levels influence each other. If you make a change at
one level, all levels below it will also change, although levels
above may or may not. Making a change to your identity, for
example, will effect change at the four levels below. Changing
your environment may or may not bring about change at higher
levels.
A high street retail chain invested heavily in a new look and
feel to their stores. As a result of the refurbishment the company
chiefs had hoped for an increase in sales, but there was hardly
any change at all. They realized that the key to increased sales
required not just a store facelift but a change in the way staff
worked, and their attitude and behaviour towards customers. A
national programme of training aimed at identity and belief
levels. was implemented and eventually the desired change began
to happen.
Frequently I meet managers who are struggling to maintain
performance levels because they have not yet identified with the
roles that are key to being successful. The youngblood who
thinks of himself as a problem solver and decision maker will
never be a developer and coach until his thinking at the identity
level changes. The seasoned manager who thinks of herself as a
repository of experience about what can and can’t be done in the
organization will struggle to develop creative ideas until her
thinking at the level of identity changes. The corporate strategist
who thinks he has to come up with all the ideas will find it
chapter one
difficult to get others to buy into them until his thinking at the
level of identity changes.
If what you are doing isn’t working, you can improve things by
making changes to one or more of the five levels of learning,
communication and change. Throughout the book, and particu-
larly in Chapter 9, you will find exercises and activities to help
you make the changes that will help you to grow as a manager
and as an individual.
y
—
ott
oie ‘ag a
FROM IDEAS
TO ACTION
= How well do you communicate?
= Your map of reality
m How the NLP model of communication works
= Your information filters
= How your physiology impacts your results

ave you noticed how some managers seem to have ideas

which they turn into the right kind of action to get desired
results? Other managers have plenty of ideas which rarely
get to see the light of day. If you want to learn how to put ideas
into action, go and shadow a chief executive for a week or so.
The very nature of their job is to execute, and you will find they
have a sense of urgency to get actions into their calendar.
Alternatively, learn about the patterns of your own thinking and
understand the process that leads from idea to action. You will
Q find the process has five stages:
Man does not see the 1 engaging in a situation

real world. The real
world is hidden from 2 navigating existing experience
him by the wall of 3 generating ideas
imagination.
GEORGE GURDJIEFF 4 making decisions
(1874-1949)
Russian mystic and
5 taking action
author
So many seemingly brilliant ideas never develop to their expected
potential because they get stuck somewhere between situation
and action. Whole industries have emerged to solve these types
of problem. The number of organizations employing consultants
to install quality programmes, action teams, re-engineering
know-how, and a host of other similar methodologies in the
name of “improvement” is a testament to the fact that the
average company employee seems to need help to navigate expe-
rience, generate ideas and make decisions. When you look for
what is responsible for ideas getting stuck, you discover a mine-
field of limiting beliefs, false perceptions, conflicting values and
navigate negative emotions.
experience
So what if we could act at work without this minefield?
Imagine a workplace staffed by Star Trek’s Mr. Spock and his
fellow Vulcans. Can you imagine what life would be like? They
would identify a problem and simply apply logic to reach a solu-
tion. If this were reality — logic without emotions — life would be
very accurate and precise but unbearably tedious and boring.
It would also be missing creativity as this is a product of the
emotional part of being human.
chapter two
FROM IDEAS TO ACTION
Yet the very same attributes that add spice to our lives are also
responsible for much of the disharmony we experience. The
processes that produce creative ideas and generate emotional
states are a fundamental part of our complex system of com-
munication. To further explain how these attributes affect the
generation of ideas, I will now draw from the science of magic.
The principle by which magicians are able to astound you with
the disappearing coin trick is based upon perception and sleight
of hand. First of all, the magician shows you the coin moving
from one hand to the other rather quickly. When you have
followed his movements doing this a couple of times, you have
begun to form a habit of observation based upon expectations.
The third time, the magician does something slightly different
and even more quickly with the result that you miss it completely
because you were watching for something else you had been set
up for. There is no magic, only magicians and people’s percep- There is no magic,
tions, and if your perceptions lead to ineffective decisions, you only magicians
and people’s
may well be disappointed with your results.
perceptions.
The feeling of being tricked or manipulated may be a passing
one when caused by a harmless magician; but how do you deal
with it when it happens at work? If you allow garbage to enter
your mind, then you will put garbage back out. Making decisions
based on what you think is happening is a recipe for disappoint- Perception makes
ment. If you want your ideas and decisions to be soundly formed, magic work.
then it will pay to become curious about the way people make
assumptions, form incorrect perceptions, jump to the wrong con-
clusions and misinterpret the simplest of messages.
In Chapter 1 you were introduced to some important aspects
of communicating with yourself at the level of identity, values
and beliefs. In this chapter you will learn more about the process
of human communication and how you respond to what you see
and hear from other people.
How well do you communicate?
The key determining factor of your success can be put down to

the way you communicate with others and with yourself, at each
stage between situation and action. Figure 2.1 shows an informa-
tion processor connected to a communication system consisting
of an encoder, a transmitter, a receiver and a decoder to add
meaning to information being received. This is a simplified
version of a human communication system and can be used to
begin to understand where it often goes wrong.
information
processing
D
E
Cc
O
D
pg
E
M FIGURE 2.1 R
How communication EXTERNA - TERRITORY
works
Signals from the external territory are collected by the receiver,

and passed to the decoder. The decoder will only be able to
decode information that conforms to the code it is programmed
with — anything else it will filter out. The decoded information is
then sent for processing. Processed information is sent to the
encoder to be coded into signals that recipients will identify as
information. The code is sent to the transmitter for output to the
external territory. This, in essence, is how any communication
system works, and it is subject to the universal rule of communi-
SYSTEM cation — GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out). One of the main con-
straints of this, or any system, is that it is only able to decode
signals which it has been programmed to recognize — a standard
garbage out
telephone is unable to transmit information contained on a sheet
chapter two
of paper because it is designed to recognize sound. You need an

additional decoder such as a fax machine or a personal computer,
Our perceptual
scanner and modem to achieve this. This simple example is useful
filters programme
in helping to understand the human system of communication — our encoders and
our perceptual filters programme our encoders and decoders. decoders.
Your map of reality
If you were to consider all the information bombarding your

senses at any one moment, you could identify up to two million
individual pieces. Research and tests have shown that we are only
able to consciously pay attention to seven plus or minus two bits of
information.’ In order to make sense of the world (the territory), ‘Miller, G. (1956),
The magic number
you filter out a great deal of information you consider unneces- seven plus or minus
sary. Can you imagine what a police officer and an architect might two: Some limits on
our capacity for
each notice and pay attention to as they walked down a busy city processing
information,
street? I doubt they would have the same experience even if they
Psychological Review,
were walking together as friends. The information you take in, 63, 81-97.
after it has been filtered, forms your own individual map of reality,
or model of the world, which does not necessarily represent the 1:
territory from which you gathered the information. A road map is not
A road map is not the same as the territory. It is but one snap- the same as the
shot in time and does not represent reality. Road maps exclude territory. It is but
one snapshot in
things like road works, weather and people. A territory is always
time and does not
much more detailed than any map created to represent it. Our
represent reality.
personal map contains our assumptions, perceptions, beliefs and
values. We use this map to guide our behaviour, so it is important
to understand when and how we are filtering information. Have
you ever sat in a seminar taking notes, only to find that you
missed what the speaker was saying? In this example the
speaker’s words are deleted by your filters as conscious attention
is directed to writing. Figure 2.2 is a simplified version of the
NLP communication model which I will use to help you discover
more about how you communicate, generate ideas, make
decisions and produce behaviour (or actions).
Internal Map | | Filters

pictures 17, values
sounds y beliefs
feelings ¢«——— language
smells | | memory
tastes |__| time coding
self-talk |__| metaprogrammes |
|<poa-za2m
poyeeleayaa| —»| BEHAVIOUR
RESULTS
M FIGURE 2.2
The NLP model of
communication
I will explain how the model works with some practical

examples and then give you a powerful and highly effective NLP
technique — the Swish pattern. At this stage we are still working
at increasing your awareness of how you turn your ideas into
actions. Once you have this firmly under your grasp, the many
techniques and exercises included in this and subsequent chap-
ters will help you to increase your behavioural choice (flexibil-
ity), regardless of the context.
How the NLP model of

We actively and communication works
unconsciously
seek out
You interact with your external environment by selecting infor-
information to
support the things mation through your senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and
that are important touch. As your senses are bombarded by so much information at
to us. the same time, you make sense of it all by deciding which pieces
of information to pay attention to, and which to ignore.
The filters you use to decide what is important and what is
chapter two
unimportant are values, beliefs, memories, language, perception

of time and motivation patterns called metaprogrammes (these
internal
will be covered in Chapter 4).
representation
Filtered information forms an internal map in the mind by a systems:
combination of pictures, sounds, feelings, smells and tastes. Your
V - pictures
internal map and your physiology together create a state of being.
(visual)
We sometimes talk about being in a particular “state of mind”
A- sounds
but we can often be unaware of how much our body contributes (auditory)
to the state. When your mind holds onto a negative thought your K — feelings
body becomes tense. This is what we generally call “stress.” A (kinaesthetic)
state of relaxation can be achieved by breathing slowly and 0 -— smells
deeply and releasing muscle tension. (olfactory)
G — tastes
Your state influences your behaviour and so determines the
(gustatory)
results you get. All behaviour is therefore state dependent. This is
the process which generates ideas and turns them into action. So
increasing behavioural flexibility starts with learning to control
All behaviour is
states of mind and body, and this requires an understanding of
state dependent.
how the information filters work.
Your information filters
Values and beliefs cause you to look and listen for information to
support what is important to you, and in doing so you overlook
a great deal of information which could be useful. I have
explained how values and beliefs can create limitations in each of
the roles that make up your identity, so I shall continue this
section with language.
m@ Language By our use of

language we
If you were to give exact representations of your every experi-
generalize, distort
ence, you would bore people into an early grave. You may know and delete much
some people who are like this. By our use of language we gener- information from
alize, distort and delete much information from our original our original
experience and end up giving people summaries and snippets. experience.
©
A common example is where a colleague returns from a

meeting and you ask “how was the meeting?” A typical response
might be: “Oh, it was really productive; it took a while to get our
minds around some of the issues but we got there eventually.”
This tells you very little about the meeting. If you wanted a more
accurate account, you would need to review the meeting
minutes, and even this record of events is likely to include some
misinterpretations as a result of words being changed or mis-
placed. It certainly would not contain the body language, voice
tone, facial expressions and emotions which are so much a part
of the meaning in communication.
Words give a very poor and over-simplified account of an orig-
inal experience and are often the cause of much wasted effort.
We add meaning to the world around us by the use of language
which is often not a true representation of our experience. Try
this simple teaser as an example:
Question: The signalman saw the train driver passing a red

stop light, but he didn’t report this —- why?
Try and come up with your own answer before reading any further.
Answer 1: = The red light was to warn trains going in the oppo-
site direction.
Answer 2: The train driver was walking.
Answer 3: The signalman was watching a film of the train

driver on television.
Answer 4: = The red light was a road traffic light halting vehicles
at a rail crossing point.
Answer 5: = The signalman was observing the train driver from

an aeroplane which was just taking off over the
railway lines.
Language is the universal code we use to exchange information

with other humans. The example above demonstrates how easy it
chapter two
is for us to form unhelpful perceptions of reality by decoding

words to mean something completely different from what the
originator intended. In order to avoid these mistakes, in this
example, you would have to ask these questions:
e How specifically did the signalman see the train driver?

e How exactly was the train driver passing the red light?
e Which red light, and where exactly was it in relation to the
train driver and the signalman?
Once you realize
Some politicians are extremely good at using language to their how language acts
advantage. Once you realize how language acts as a filter on as a filter on
experience to
experience to create a unique reality for each person, you will
Create a unique
begin to appreciate one of the major reasons for communication reality for each
breakdowns in organizations. In Chapter 7 I will be introducing person, you will
you to two language models — the Milton Model, and its anti- begin to appreciate
dote, the Meta Model. These models will arm you with the tools one of the major
to uncover the deeper structure of experience and avoid the traps reasons for
communication
set by our language.
breakdowns in
organizations.
m@ Memory
Memories help to make sense of new information by searching

for a link to something which you already know. This process of
searching your memory for links to your experience creates
expectations for the future. A memory of an experience will
contain conditions which influence your thinking and behaviour
the next time you experience a similar situation: for example, a
written request to a senior manager for extra resources may be
rejected, and the memory you keep of this rejection will influ-
ence how you approach requesting extra resources again in the Each memory of an
future. Experiences become generalized to the same meaning for experience will
contain contextual
future events of a similar nature.
elements (what,
Emotions are closely linked to memories. Each memory of an
who, where, etc.)
experience will contain contextual elements (what, who, where, plus the emotions
etc.) plus the emotions connected with the experience. When you connected with the
recall a memory with a strong emotion attached, you will feel the experience.
same feelings which were generated at the time of the original

experience. NLP makes use of the link between memory, emo-
tions and feelings by helping to exercise choice over your state of
being. Some remembered states of being have negative emotions
connected to them. These states are called unresourceful states
because they inhibit access to many of your internal resource such
as logical thought, creativity, confidence, patience, resilience,
clarity and motivation.
A personnel manager once held a painful memory of a first
meeting with a general manager whose manner she interpreted as
aggressive and dismissive. This encounter led to her feeling
intimidated, and whenever she was faced with attending a
meeting she would recall this first experience and prepare for a
similar unpleasant encounter by getting into the remembered
unresourceful state. Her memory of the first experience set
expectations for all subsequent meetings. Let’s run this scenario
through the NLP model of communication in Figure 2.2 using
fictitious names for the two characters involved:
This language has a disempowering influence at the unconscious

level. These beliefs support values — “what’s important here is to
survive the meeting unscathed and without losing credibility”.
The result of this telephone conversation with Adrian is an inter-
chapter two
nal representation, or map, consisting of visuals, sounds, feelings

and any smells or tastes that she may also have connected to this
memory. This “map” is how Jane internally represents the expe-
rience of the telephone call with Adrian. The map creates a state
of general unresourcefulness which affects her physiology (body
slumping slightly, some muscles around the shoulders, face and
hands tightening).
This mind and body state of being now drives Jane’s behaviour
— what she does and what she says. The result of this is exactly as
she anticipated and had prepared for — Adrian gets things all his
own way and Jane survives unscathed to do battle another day.
If, like Jane, you hold memories attached to unresourceful
emotional states, why not change the memory in some way so
that future experiences turn out to be more useful for you?
What’s the point in re-running old patterns from your memory
Your ability to
that get in the way of improving your operational performance? generate creative,
Your ability to generate creative, useful and purposeful ideas will useful and
be greatly enhanced by the control you have over your “states purposeful ideas
of being” in response to feedback from the external territory will be greatly
and your own neurology. Before I introduce you to a technique enhanced by the
control you have
to help state control, I will explain the two basic types of
over your “states
state which can be utilized intentionally for different purposes —
of being”.
associated and dissociated.
Associated state
When you recall an experience from memory, or create an imag-
inary experience where you are part of the visual representation,
you are “associated” to the experience. It is as if you are seeing
with your own eyes and hearing with your own ears. Associated
states connect you to the feelings or emotions which are linked to
the memory or the created experience. Actors “associate” with
their roles to create real feelings rather than simulated emotional
states. Whenever you want to access a particular feeling, associ-
ate with a memory of a time when you last had the feeling.
Dissociated state
When you create a picture in your mind’s eye of a memory or an
imaginary situation, and where you are observing yourself, you
are “dissociated” from the experience. Dissociating removes
emotional content from the experience. You can use this tech-
nique when you want to revisit an unpleasant memory without
re-experiencing the emotional content. The Swish technique uses
a dissociated visual representation to change an unresourceful
state to a resourceful one.
EXERCISE OSs The Swish technique
Step 1
Recall an interaction where you responded in a way that generates concern as

you think about it now. It could be a meeting, a telephone call or a presentation —
any interaction where you would like to change future responses from unre-
sourceful to resourceful.
Step 2
Find the trigger to the unresourceful state. How do you know when to create the
state for yourself? In the Jane/Adrian example, Jane’s state was triggered by a
picture she created in her mind as she thought of Adrian. Her state became worse
as she added Adrian’s voice to her internally represented picture of Adrian speak-
ing to her on the telephone. This is an internal trigger (created entirely in the
mind). At other times the trigger would come from Adrian’s voice over the tele-
phone (external trigger). If, in your example, the trigger is an internal representa-
tion, then reconstruct the visual, auditory, olfactory and gustatory elements just
as they normally occur in your mind. If the trigger is external, then use all modal-
ities to create a fully associated internal representation, i.e. as if you are re-
experiencing the memory.
Step 3
ldentify at least one or maybe two qualities of your image that, when intensified,
change your emotional response to it and make you feel even worse (this may
seem odd but it is an important step in the procedure). Usually brightness and
chapter two
size are qualities that work well for many people, but colour, contrast, location or
depth may work also. Play around with this until you have identified the qualities
that work best to make you feel worse. These qualities (called submodalities) are
the “critical submodalities”.
Step 4
Now stand up, walk around and think of something completely different for a few
moments. This gets you to break out of the state you have just thought yourself
into.
Step 5
Construct a new image of how you would rather be in response to this interac-
tion. The image you create is of a different you, having the resources now to
Dissociated
choose a better outcome. Your picture must be dissociated, that is —- you are
pictures create the
looking at yourself in the picture. Dissociated pictures create the motivation to motivation to move
move towards something you want. An associated picture would give you the towards something
feeling that you already had the resources, so make it dissociated. you want.
Make sure that you include all the resources you need. Resources might include
assertiveness, confidence, clarity of thought, listening ability, creativity, ques-
tioning ability, calmness and patience. Choose your own resources — if you
choose skills, make sure you have at least knowledge of the skill — if you need a
skill which you don’t have yet, then find a way of acquiring the skill as soon as
possible.
Make your new image compelling; then shrink it down to the size of a small
postage stamp and as you do this see the colour draining out so it becomes grey.
Step 6
Now take your original image of the negative situation and put your new shrunken
image into the bottom corner. The next step requires speed. As you say to your-
self “swish” or “swoosh”, instantaneously make the large picture small and dark
while making the new self-image large and bright. The small image expands to fill
your entire field of internal imagery and at the same time the large image disap-
pears to nothing.
Step 7
Repeat step 6 about five times, making sure that you “break state” between each
one. You can break your state simply by changing: your breathing pattern or
stretching. Speed and repetition are essential.
Step 8
To test your new “response” all you need to do is trigger the state again by imag-
ining a future time when you will want this different response. This is called
“future pacing”. If your trigger is external, all you have to do is imagine the event
that would trigger your state. If you still get the original response, go back to Step
1 and do it again, although by the time you have “swished” your images five to
six times you will find that the new state swishes itself and the job is done.
Swish the critical submodalities

(brightness and size work well for
many people)
WM FIGURE 2.3
The Swish
I encourage you to experiment with this technique and use it

often. You can exert more choice over your internal maps of
reality by programming your neurology to respond to the exter-
nal territory in more resourceful ways. This way your perceptual
filters are working to improve and enhance how you operate,
removing self-imposed limitations.
chapter two
@ Time
The modern concept of time management is a fallacy. It isn’t It isn’t possible to

possible to manage time; what you actually do is manage yourself manage time; what
in and through time. Imagine what answers you might get if you you actually do is
manage yourself in
were to ask ten people selected at random what they were doing
and through time.
two weeks ago last Tuesday. Are you likely to get the same
answers? Of course not. The answers you might get will vary
from “I don’t know” to “I think I was ...” and “yes, I was playing
tennis with my girlfriend” or something similar. Follow this by
asking them what they will be doing precisely three weeks from
now. Some will be able to tell you exactly what they will be
doing, others may have a vague idea and there will be those who
haven’t given it a thought.
We all have our own way of thinking about time. Some people
are good long-term planners; other people have difficulty think-
The way in which
ing further ahead than the end of the week. Our ability to recall
we perceive time
past events also varies immensely. The way in which we perceive internally has a
time internally has a major influence on how we recall past major influence on
events, experience the now, and plan future events. You might how we recall past
think that time should be the same for everyone — we have clocks events, experience
and watches to help us conceptualize time into our lives, and they the now, and plan
future events.
are all synchronized to move at the same speed. NLP provides a
technique called “timeline” which can be used to help reorganize
unhelpful time perception (or time coding), and to help us make
the best use of time by planning our actions in a way that helps to
achieve our objectives.
Timeline is a metaphor — and a very useful one. It uses the
principle of coding time within and around the physical space
our body occupies. It is possible to have time organized as a
chronological line going from the past through the present and to
the future. I have also come across many people with very differ-
ent and much more complex configurations than this. However,
there are some general principles which have been found to be
consistent, and which are useful in helping us to understand the
advantages and disadvantages of different types of timeline.
There are two basic forms of timeline, each with many varia-
tions. People who seem to live permanently in the here and now
will often be late for appointments because the mow is much
more important and real to them than the future. You will find
that these people are usually late for meetings because they get
totally involved in the now and afford little value to time sched-
ules, which they frequently overrun. They are also easily per-
suaded to stay late when deeply engaged in a discussion. When
their attention is focused, they are easily able to keep it that way.
These people tend not to work with personal organizers, often
preferring simple diary entries to record future events. Living
Living in-time
creates memories
in-time creates memories with high emotional content which,
with high when recalled, are usually fully associated experiences. People
emotional content who are “in-time” generally have timeline configurations similar
which, when to those shown in Figure 2.4 (A-B; X-Y) where the body is
recalled, are actually “in” the timeline.
usually fully
associated
experiences.
<+— the present

(now)
aerial view
M FIGURE 2.4
“In-time” timeline
configuration
The second basic timeline configuration is through-time as shown

in Figure 2.5. People who have their timelines configured in this
way are more likely to use complex personal organizer systems
because the past and future have as much importance as the now.
chapter two
The past moves The future moves

away to the left away to the right
in an arc. in an arc.
present
MFIGURE 2.5
A typical
“through-time”
aerial view
timeline
configuration
These people often become distracted by their own thoughts of

other events in the past and future, and even though they are
with you in body, their minds can often be elsewhere. They will
usually be consistently on time to most appointments. Extreme
through-time people may actually arrive up to an hour early as
being late is totally unimaginable to them, and being on time is
often more important than the meeting itself.
Where is your timeline? Are you in-time or through-time?
How do you perceive or code time in relation to the physical
If you can
space in and around your body? If you can determine your own
determine your
timeline, you can also change it and use it as a highly effective own timeline, you
planning system to help you plan for success. can also change it
To elicit your own configuration, pick a time from your distant and use it as a
past when you were celebrating a birthday, and recall some spe- highly effective
cific experiences from the day. Now think of another birthday a planning system to
help you plan for
few years Jater than that one, and do the same. Now think of
success.
another birthday a few years later ... and keep going until you get
to your most recent birthday. Stay with each memory for a few
moments, bringing to mind as many images as possible from each
birthday.
Now I want you to go through this process again, and this time
see if you can locate from which direction the internal images of
you celebrating your birthday are coming from. Draw an imagi-
nary line through each image and you will have your metaphori-
cal timeline. It may not be like either of the two examples shown
in Figures 2.4 and 2.5 - that’s all right. Some people have very
unusual configurations; for example, it is not uncommon for

people to have vertical timelines, and I know some people with
spirals around their body. The point is, how useful is your time-
line in its present form? If it’s not very useful then imagine how
you would prefer it to be. How effective are you at finishing
work on time? How about investing your time — do you invest it
wisely? Is your general time-keeping OK? Can you confidently
plan major important projects years in advance? How about day-
to-day time investment and general time discipline?
If you want to improve in any of these areas, it may be worth
experimenting with alternative timelines. The one which is most
suited to western business is the “front v-shaped through-time”
timeline (as shown in Figure 2.5). You could adopt this configu-
ration and explore the flexibility of associating with it when you
want to be fully engaged and dissociating when you want to work
with your diary. Later on you will have the opportunity of using
your timeline to plan for a successful future event.
How your physiology impacts

your results
NLP At this stage it is important to introduce physiology because of

The mind and body the huge impact it has on everything you think and do. Referring
are one system to the NLP communication model (Figure 2.2), the mind and
and therefore body are one system and therefore influence each other. The
influence each result of their influence on each other is a state of being, and this
other.
state determines your behaviour. Have you ever found yourself
lacking the drive to get something done because you are in the
wrong state of mind? Or sometimes because you just don’t feel
like doing something. How is your state affected by what your
mind is thinking and what your body is feeling? What state of
mind and body do you need to be-in to get something done? It is
clear that certain tasks require a particular state and that the state
is a combination of how the mind and body are influencing each
other.
chapter two
@ Congruence
Physiology includes posture, movement, expression, gesture,

breathing, muscle tone, external touch and internal feelings. Try
this from a standing position. Slump forward, put on a sad face,
let your knees bend, drop your shoulders, slow your breathing
down, let your eyelids droop, let all your muscles sag and say ...
“Tm feeling on top of the world today.” How did that feel?
Peculiar? Would you expect anyone to believe you?
What you did was to give your brain a signal that you were
feeling tired or deflated and so the words that you said came out
as incongruent to the message your body was giving. You gener-
ated a mixed message. You would not expect to deliver a brilliant
&
corporate presentation if your body and mind were not in com-
plete harmony with one another. It’s no good standing in a con-
We are never
fident posture if your internal dialogue is saying, “I’m too deceived; we deceive
nervous to do this — I haven’t had enough experience.” You will ourselves.
JOHANN WOLFGANG
not be at your best if you are incongruent in any way. If your boss VON GOETHE
(1749-1832) German
asks you if you want a promotion and you answer yes, but with a
poet, dramatist,
waver in your voice and a hunched posture — you need to find novelist
out why you have incongruent signals.

Often, the unconscious will send signals of incongruence via
mind or body because it has identified a problem area. Could the
Many of your “gut
unconscious have concerns about the ecology of hasty decisions?
feelings” are
Many of your “gut feelings” are unconscious warning signals of unconscious
incongruence. Listen to them; they are offering you feedback. warning signals of
incongruence.
Listen to them;
m@ Use your body to get into a positive state
they are offering
For any task there is a certain physiology that will enhance your you feedback.
mental and emotional state. Getting feedback from inside your
body about how you feel is just as important as the feedback you
get from external sources. If you are in a meeting with senior
managers and you suddenly get a feeling of being cut out of the
discussion — this is feedback. Where is the feeling, and how has it
affected your overall state? It’s time to move your body. Adjust
your physiology in some way — how are you breathing? High in
the chest or from the lower abdomen? Fast or slow? Breathe dif-
ferently and check your state. How are you holding your body?
Any incongruence
Are your muscles tense? Are you leaning to one side? Are you
will be noticed by
others and rigid or slightly slumped? Make some changes and check your
processed by their state again. You don’t need drastic changes; small changes are
own perceptual usually enough to alter your state. And remember to check
filters. what’s going on in your mind also. What are your perceptual
filters doing? How useful is your internal dialogue at this time?
What changes can you make to become fully congruent with
yourself and in a positive, confident state?
If you’re going to make a valid contribution to the meeting you
want to do it with confidence. A lack of confidence will be
noticed by others and processed by their own perceptual filters;
so who knows how they are going to represent you inside their
own minds?
CREATING DIRECTION
= Getting from here to where you want to be
a Creating your direction
w Making it happen
Q he idea behind creating direction is to harness the full poten-

tial of the workforce and channel an elusive 110 per cent
All men seek one goal;
success or happiness. effort into gainful activities. This is the ultimate in getting
The only way to the most out of people — creating an environment in which
achieve true success is
to express yourself people are fully committed to achieving business objectives as a
completely in service
to society. First, have
result of intrinsic motivation rather than some external carrot
a definite, clear, and stick approach.
practical ideal — a
goal, an objective. Think of yourself as the conductor of an orchestra made up of
Second, have the
individuals with particular talents for producing music from one
necessary means to
achieve your ends — or more instruments. Together, given the same music scores, the
wisdom, money,
materials and orchestra can translate complex musical notation into sounds that
methods. Third, adjust stir the emotions of the listener. So what does the conductor do?
your means to that
end. He provides direction in many ways. Imagine you are the trumpet
ARISTOTLE, player in a 50-piece orchestra. Do you think you could hear the
384-322 BC
Greek philosopher flutes over the percussion? The music the orchestra hears is not the
music the audience hears. A listener sitting in the audience front
left will hear different music from a listener sitting back right.
Now imagine you’re part of the orchestra being led by an
inspirational conductor whose body movements and gestures are
coordinating and synchronizing the different sections of the
The music the
orchestra. He is not telling the musicians what notes to play,
orchestra hears is
not the music the rather leading each musician through the emotional peaks and
audience hears. undertones of the “story” the music is expressing. This is direc-
tion. Enthusiasts of orchestral music can often tell you the name
of a conductor by listening to the music and recognizing their
particular style. Not all conductors direct in the same way, but
without direction you lose emotional content which is what
music is all about.
As a manager you can allow your experts to follow instructions
You need to be and they will always find enough work to fill their time and keep
personally 110 per busy. The question is: “How do you create an environment that
cent committed to
stimulates individuals through intrinsic motivation?” First of all
the direction
yourself — with the
you must know what direction is the right one. Then you need to
passion of an be personally 110 per cent committed to the direction yourself —
inspirational and engage every member of your team with the passion of an
conductor. inspirational conductor.
chapter three
CREATING DIRECTION
This chapter offers you techniques for creating direction,

aligning yourself to the direction, and creating the right state that
will help you to “make it happen”. It is easy to fall into the
routine of just going to work and getting on with things, but if
you want to be effective and drive real results through your
teams, you want to be doing much more than this. Consistent
high achieving managers are passionate conductors of the efforts
of their teams. They infect people with a sense of direction, so
they know without doubt what the priorities are at any time.
They also enjoy the feeling of seeing their efforts turn into tangi-
ble results that are highly valued. There are some specific NLP
models and techniques to help you achieve this, and they will be
introduced within the following three-stage process:
1 Getting from here to where you want to be

2 Creating your direction
3 Integrating your direction
Getting from here to where

you want to be
It is always best to
Creating direction implies that you desire to be somewhere other know where you’re
than where you are right now. There is a basic human desire that going; otherwise
you could end up
causes us to think in this way. No matter how much we are enjoy-
anywhere.
ing our current set of circumstances, at some point we will want
change, and some people will want more change than others. It is
always best to know where you’re going; otherwise you could end
up anywhere. While this seems like common sense, it is remarkable
how many managers and their teams turn up to work each day just
to maintain the daily grind, with hardly any direction other than to
get as much work as possible done before the end of the day.
In my experience of providing training workshops to support
organizational development programmes I have been able to
observe how many times the “goal posts” move from the time of
conducting the needs analysis to completing the training design.
unclear future states
present
state
known desired state
This is indicative of a management that wants to change but is

unclear about the desired future state. The result of this pattern
is that the future evolves as a sequence of knee-jerk reactions to
current events rather than a strategic, planned succession of
managed changes. If you don’t know what the future is going to
look like, how can you invest in the skills you will need on the
way and when you get there?
Global view
To begin to describe your desired state you need to view your
What does the team as a function of the whole. If you’re a CEO you will want to
organization consider your executive team as part of the market in which it
expect of you? operates. At this stage you need to think systemically about parts
and wholes. What logical larger part of the system is your span of
responsibility a part? How are you going to give your team the
direction it needs to continually realign behind the larger
system’s mission and business objectives?
To be successful at this you want to incorporate feedback from
around the organization. First, you need to know the higher-level
mission and objectives, and you will want to put some concrete
reality into the generalized words used to build corporate mis-
sions. Statements like “we aim to be number one” carry little
meaning without concrete realities to back them up. Some orga-
nizations are better than others at designing mission statements,
transmitting them through the entire business and translating
them into operational objectives within each business unit. If you
chapter three
CREATING DIRECTION
have insufficient information of a global nature to decide the

direction for your part of the organization how are you going to
motivate people and set priorities for your team?
Executive teams often know the direction in which they are
going but their communication structures may block the dissem-
ination of this important information. If this is the case then be
persistent in seeking it out. What is expected of you?
How are you perceived by others?

In the global system, you are part of the orchestra, and this
perspective limits what you hear. From your current position you From your current
are unable to judge how the audience is hearing your music until position you are
you stop playing and listen for the strength of applause or silence unable to judge
(your feedback). This is often the case in organizations. You can how the audience
is hearing your
become so involved in production or service delivery that it is
music until you
difficult to tell if your efforts are being channelled in the right
stop playing and
direction. You may have to initiate specific activities to generate listen for the
useful feedback from your customers, both internal and external. strength of
Unless you invest time in designing a feedback system, you may applause or
find that your feedback comes from a small number of customers silence (your
and therefore does not accurately represent the majority. feedback).
Whether you are producing goods, delivering a service, or engag-

ing in any type of interaction with another person, your perfor-
mance will be judged by different criteria from different
perspectives. A line manager and a company director, for example,
will perceive the work of a company accountant differently. The
“perceptual positions” technique helps you gain an insight into
multiple perspectives of your own behaviour or the way your
department or company operates, by simulating the sound of the
music from at least two additional perspectives other than your
own.
Your autopilot is quite capable of thinking about situations
from different perspectives, but you will get far superior results
when this natural activity is carried out with purpose and
intention. It’s about the quality of your thinking.
The perceptual positions exercise will allow you to integrate this
@) others you
@) observer
WM FIGURE 3.1 or (meta
perspective)
Perceptual
positions
information as you take on the perspectives of your customers.

Refer to Figure 3.1. Position 1 is you. Position 2 is your customers’
perspective, and there may be multiple perspectives if you have
different groups of customers to provide for. Position 3 is an
observer perspective, or meta position (meaning sitting over and
above everything else). From this meta position you are able to
observe the interaction between you and your customers. You can
use position 2 for any person you interact with. Here’s how to do
Mt
EXERCISE aLe Perceptual positions
1 Think of an interaction you have with a specific customer or with someone

from an internal business unit with whom you need to cooperate. Alternatively,
choose an interaction with any individual where you would simply like to have
more feedback about the way you are perceived. Make sure it is a specific
person.
2 Place three markers on the floor, one at each point of a triangle so that they are
about six feet from one another. Identify these points as you, the other person
in the interaction, and an observer.
3 Stand on your marker and look at the other person. Answer the question “how
does their behaviour affect me?” Get some quality information before moving
on to the next step.
4 Stand on the other person’s marker and become that person by associating
into their role. Look back at your marker and get a feel for what you see and
what you hear. Answer the question “what does this behaviour do/not do for
me?” Get some quality information before proceeding to the next step.
chapter three
CREATING DIRECTION
5 Stand on the observer's marker and look at both the other markers. Look for
what is happening and what is being said. What process is taking place? What
is/isn’t being achieved? It is important to remain dissociated from both roles
as you observe them. Is the interaction moving you and your team closer to
achieving your goals? Is it helping you to achieve the higher-level mission?
6 Repeat steps 3-5 as many times as it takes for new insights to emerge. Make
sure that you “break state” between steps 3 and 5 by thinking of something
totally unconnected for a few moments. You are looking for ways in which you
can change, not how to change the other person.
This technique can also be used at a departmental or company

level. As long as you are able to associate into the second position
(or role) you will get some interesting new insights into others’
perceptions, which may provide answers to puzzling or confus-
ing situations and help you to create direction for your team.
Here’s how you could set up multiple second-position perspec-
tives for an internal service provider (refer to Figure 3.2).
Position 1 Scope of responsibility for the department and the

department’s mission and objectives.
Position 2(a) An employee’s perspective of your service.
Position 2(b) A business manager’s perspective of your service.
Position 2(c) A board member’s perspective of your service.
Position 3 An observer’s perspective of each interaction.
In addition to the interactions between position 1 and multiple

2s, notice the interaction between board member, manager and
(@) (a) employee
@ (b) manager
MFIGURE 3.2
@) (c) board member Multiple second
position
perspectives
employee. The dynamics between these perspectives are also

important. By associating into each second-position role, you are
able to get a feel for how other roles in the organization perceive
the integration of service, provided by your department, into
everyday working practices.
Only by really By spatially “marking out” each position on the floor you are
associating into “breaking state” as you move between positions. This ensures
customer roles can you enter a clean, associated state, helping you to “become” each
you take on their of the second-position roles. Only by really associating into cus-
perspectives of tomer roles can you take on their perspectives of your operation.
your operation.
You can run through this activity with your team by using role
play. Some people can play customer roles while others take the
meta position. You will need to keep the team associated into
their roles, so it is a good idea to invite a facilitator to help
orchestrate this for you.
This exercise will help you to discover lots of useful ideas for
improvements that are customer-focused. It will help you to
Design the
“think outside of the departmental square” and help to be more
strategy that will
guide your team to exacting in recognizing what needs to change. It will help you to
a desired future design the strategy that will guide your team to a desired future
state. state while avoiding the knee-jerk strategy that leads to unclear
future states.
Creating your direction
m Congruence
Turn your focus on your personal mission, identity, values and

beliefs. This is all about becoming a role model for your team and
Your team will
being engaged in activities that get results for your business unit
follow if you lead
with enthusiasm
that feed into the higher mission. If you expect the team to “buy
for what’s in” to the direction you are communicating, they will want to see
important and with that you are not only congruent in your messages, but that every-
a solid belief in thing you do and say reinforces the way you want them to go.
your team’s ability Your team will follow if you lead with enthusiasm for what’s
to deliver. important and with a solid belief in your team’s ability to deliver.
®
chapter three
CREATING DIRECTION
As you begin to design your direction, compare your personal

sense of role, values and beliefs with those that need to be in
place to support the direction. This means being tough with
yourself and recognizing that the way you prefer to work may
not necessarily be the way to get things done in your company,
and may not be the way to get the best out of every individual.
For example, let’s say you value structure and procedure in your
work, and as a result you spend much time creating charts and
lines of responsibility, setting detailed objectives and having
people write procedures manuals for work processes. This may
seem like you are making progress and it may be having a posi-
tive effect in places, but is your team inspired? Do they know
instinctively the best decisions to make in all circumstances,
regardless of stated procedure? Do they feel valued and trusted?
Do you encourage them to find ways of improving their perfor-
mance on their own initiative? This is not to undervalue clearly
defined process, but to stand back and take a look at the balance
between the minute detail of work and the bigger sense of direc-
tion, focus and passion to do a great job.
Alternatively, you could be the kind of manager who cares so
much for people that you undervalue their capability by not
stretching them enough and you subdue their efforts with kind-
ness. While a good manager will show a caring side to people,
they are there to work, and if you don’t see your role as setting
worthy challenges that truly stretch people, they will stagnate
and never achieve their potential. So what do you value about the
work of your business unit? What do you believe you and your
team are capable of achieving? The answers to these questions
will determine your degree of effectiveness in your role.
Well-formed outcomes
Having goals and objectives is the very essence of management
activity. However, it is more effective to talk about outcomes
than objectives because outcomes cover much wider conse-
quences than objectives. The difference can be explained by the
following questions: regarding objectives it is common to ask
“what do you want to achieve?” With outcomes the question is

“what outcomes do you want as a result of achieving this objec-
Well-Formed
tive?” So, assuming you have described what the desired state is
Outcomes
Positively stated for your team, it is time to construct outcomes that will make the
Resourced journey so much more real and exciting for people. To help you
Initiated and recall this simple yet extremely effective method I shall use the
maintained by self mnemonic PRIEST.
Ecological to you Positively stated Take a few moments to not think of a green
and others
giraffe. I said to not think of a green giraffe. The mind can only
Sensory-based
represent a negative (not) by making it a positive. If you go
evidence criteria
Time phased around telling people what not to do, don’t be surprised when
they end up doing precisely what you wanted them to avoid
doing.
This is a key factor in parenting, education and of course busi-
ness. Remembering is much more conducive to learning.
State your
Desiring a positive outcome is much more conducive to success
outcomes in the
positive. than prioritizing what to avoid. The mind converts negatives to
positives, so state your outcomes in the positive — what you want
to achieve rather than what you want to avoid, otherwise you
might end up with getting what you don’t want. Also, by only
stating what you want to avoid, you may find that individual
team members begin to design their own future desired states
which may not be aligned with the aims of the organization.
Resourced Make sure you have, or can acquire all the
resources you need to achieve your outcomes. Resources can
include physical assets like people, money and materials. They
can also include knowledge and skills, but above all make sure
you have inner resources such as confidence, determination,
patience, focus and curiosity.
Initiated and maintained by self If your outcomes rely on
others too much you are asking for trouble. You are responsible
for your own part of the business. No one else is going to bail you
out or carry the can if you don’t deliver. Ask this question of your
outcomes: Do I have sufficient authority and control in the orga-
nization to achieve my outcomes without having to rely on other
people to make things happen? If the answer is no, rethink your
chapter three
CREATING DIRECTION
outcomes and how you are going to achieve them. Your out-
comes should be initiated and maintained by you so that you
have the flexibility to respond to changes in the system as you
begin to move towards them. If you need others to cooperate
with you then use your resources to influence them accordingly.
Ecological As you think through what needs to be done to
achieve your outcomes, do it with sensitivity to other parts of the
Are you completely
system. What consequences will there be as a result of you
congruent about
moving towards this outcome? Could there be repercussions what you need to
along the way with other managers, employees, departments, do to achieve this
customers, suppliers, family members, and friends? How will outcome?
they be affected? How about yourself? Are you completely con-
gruent about what you need to do to achieve this outcome?
Sensory-based evidence criteria How will you know when you
have achieved your outcome? What evidence criteria will you
decide upon? Make it sensory-based evidence — what will you
see, hear and feel that will tell you if you have achieved your
outcome?
Time phased Have you time phased your outcomes? Will the
time realistically allow everything to get done? When specifically
do you expect to achieve your outcome? Your team will want to
know these timescales; otherwise you may discover other people’s
priorities stealing the time you need to achieve your outcomes.
Setting outcomes that are well formed is one of the fundamen-
tals of NLP. Outcomes you think about don’t have to be related
to long-term desires. You can have an outcome for every action
you take, for example a conversation with a fellow manager, a
meeting, a major project or your next promotion.
Making it happen
Let’s assume you have involved your team in deciding the desired
state and outcomes have been set. Everything that happens in
your department from this point on needs to be aligned behind
your team outcomes. For example, imagine you are manager of
the marketing department of an oil company and one of your

aims is to design and produce, in standard format and on a six-
monthly basis, marketing strategy plans for senior business unit
directors. You will require a system to produce this information,
one that incorporates workflow and communication lines to
capture information, process it and issue it to identified receivers.
Figure 3.3 shows this as a basic input/output diagram with a
feedback loop. Thinking of the work in your department system-
ically, as in Figure 3.3, and defining the inputs and outputs to
each process, provides you with a basis for checking whether
what is actually happening in your department is aligned to your
outcomes.
WORK
INPUTS PROCESSES OUTPUTS
=e
_—
FEEDBACK
FIGURE 3.3
Basic work system
diagram
Your feedback system should give you information about direc-

tion and outcomes — are you on the right track? If you suddenly
find that information is being distorted, you have a malfunction in
the system. Any malfunction is feedback, so you will want to
Any malfunction is
investigate why there is a deviation from the agreed outcomes. It
feedback.
could be that the system is advising you that new outcomes need
to be formed as the business moves on, or there could be any
number of factors responsible for distorting information.
Capabilities
Referring back to the levels of learning and change in Chapter 1,
you will want to assess your own capabilities and those of your
team. This is a feature of setting well-formed outcomes. You may
chapter three
CREATING DIRECTION
have heard of the Peter Principle — that people are promoted to

their level of incompetence. A simple comparison of knowledge
and skills against the tasks to be done will help identify the skills
gap that needs to be plugged.
Developing people into new and more challenging roles has
huge payoffs. Having the flexibility to continually realign behind
outcomes and corporate direction creates an environment of
change and variety that stimulates personal development.
Whatever roles your people are performing, they will require con-
fidence, communication skills, powers of influence, determination
and the ability to evaluate and prioritize work as individuals and
teams.
Integration — a vital catalyst

Very often, the ingredients that determine the degree of success
in achieving an outcome are nothing to do with skills, knowledge
or attitude — but state.
The capabilities of any system consisting of a set of processes
or instructions are subject to the mental and physical energy
If you are not
applied by the people working it. In the same way that teachers
motivated and
are behavioural examples for their pupils, managers are behav-
enthused by the
ioural examples for their team. If you are not motivated and direction you have
enthused by the direction you have set, don’t expect your people set, don’t expect
to be either. I recently spent some time coaching an executive your people to be
team responsible for a global brand product that was losing either.
market share. I was surprised to find the team low in energy and
lacking in confidence. When I met the chief executive I discov-
ered the cause — he didn’t connect with his team during the entire
day, preferring to spend tea and coffee breaks away from the
group on his mobile phone. He had not seized the opportunity
the day presented to engage and enthuse his team, but demon-
strated his usual distant behaviour.
You need to make the desired future state a compelling place
to direct your energy. This is an effect of the state you are in at
any time during the day. If you arrive at work in a bad mood,
others will be affected by it. If you come out of a meeting looking
stressed and worried, your team will interpret this as something

bad and they will end up in a negative state which will affect their
work. It is better to overestimate the effect you have on others
and make sure you are able to maintain a positive state regardless
of what is going on.
Activating the future Research to discover what makes en-

trepreneurs successful shows that very few of them produce
detailed plans. They usually have lots of ideas and perhaps some
global plans, but the detail is often left to sort itself out. What is
common among many successful entrepreneurs is a strategy
for visualizing their direction, or outcomes. In 1985 the young
chairman of the Virgin Group said:
“I see Virgin becoming the largest entertainment group based

outside the US. Getting to where we are now was quite difficult.
Getting from here to a billion-pound company will be much
easier. I sometimes wonder what type of company we'll be then.”
These words, spoken by Richard Branson, give clues to his

internal strategy for success. It is clear that he had visualized
getting to be a billion-pound company. His belief structure deter-
mined that he would get there. In his mind he was already doing
the things that would achieve this.
The visual modality is very powerful and it can be used to
guide our unconscious behaviour towards our outcomes. Our
mental pictures provide signposts for our behaviour, directing us
Our mental
to make the right decisions from day to day that move us in the
pictures provide
signposts for our direction we wish to go. It works in a similar way to a computer
behaviour, which has been left switched on for a number of years with the
directing us to same image on the screen. Eventually the screen image gets
make the right burned into the tube so that you can actually see the image when
decisions from day the screen is turned off. The visualization technique burns in a
to day that move
compelling future to your neurology.
us in the direction
Imagine what you, your team and your customers will be doing
we wish to go.
and saying when you have achieved your outcomes. Visualize this
into a mental picture — make it bright and clear with lots of
@
chapter three
CREATING DIRECTION
colour. Keep it a dissociated picture — you are looking as an

observer. Enlarge it so that you can see the detail of people’s
Q
Your reason and your
faces as they express delight at your products or service. Make passion are the rudder
and the sails of your
your picture 3-D and put in movement. Add the sounds you
seafaring soul. If either
would expect to hear around you, and now intensify all these your sails or your
rudder be broken, you
qualities so that the images burn in to your mind. can but toss and drift,
When you have intensified enough, you will begin to feel or else be held at a
standstill in mid-seas.
success. It may be a slight flutter in the stomach area or a confi- K. GIBRAN, The Prophet
dent smile. Your body will begin to take on the posture of
success, your head will be up, eyes up, seeing, hearing and feeling
a successful future. Have you done this yet? Good, now see your-
self doing this regularly to make absolutely sure that you inte-
grate success potential into your whole neurology.
The technique you have just practised is also a future pace. By
visualizing success you have imagined what the desired state will
be like. It’s a bit like trying on the future to see if it fits. If it
doesn’t fit you will get feedback in some way, probably as a signal
of incongruence from some part of your physiology. If this
happens you know what to do. Incorporate the feedback, make
adjustments to your outcomes and reactivate.
ELF-MASTERY
= The sixth strategy state
= Metaprogrammes
@ Achieving self-mastery
gw Orange circle thinking

© was recently interviewed by a magazine journalist who wanted

a story about outdoor training. Her pleasant manner and con-
He who knows others
is clever; fident style projected a high level of professionalism. She was
He who knows also extremely ambitious. We had a very enjoyable lunch
himself has
discernment. together and after the interview she confided in me that her
He who overcomes
others has force;
career potential was not being realized because she couldn’t bring
He who overcomes herself to call top editors with her scoops. Why should an ambi-
himself is strong.
tious, confident, capable, intelligent woman procrastinate over
TAO TE CHING,
book one something as simple as this?
If you know enough about yourself, you can learn how to
motivate yourself to do just about anything. Most people,
however, know very little about the unconscious patterns of
thought and behaviour that help them to decide what to invest
energy and resources in, what to procrastinate over and what to
avoid. This chapter looks at certain personality traits that influ-
ence your motivation and suggests ways of generating increased
motivation through language, thinking patterns and behaviour.
NLP This is the road to self-mastery in any management role.
You have all the There are two major principles to this chapter:
resources you
@ you have all the resources you need to succeed
need to succeed.
There is no failure e there is no failure — only feedback
— only feedback.
We all have infinitely more capability than we have ever demon-
strated, and the way to bring it out is to remove the barriers in
your thinking which are keeping it from emerging. As a manager
Before you do there will be activities at which you excel, there may be others
anything, you need
that you are just learning, and there may be some areas where
to motivate
you would rather not get involved. Regardless of how you see
yourself to want to
do it. yourself, or how you feel about any particular activity, your
results depend upon how well you perform tasks and engage
your team, and so before you do anything, you need to motivate
Goals that are not
yourself to want to do it. Any task lacking self-motivation will
also wants are have a degree of reluctance attached — and reluctance is the
unlikely to be enemy of self-mastery. Goals that are not also wants are unlikely
achieved. to be achieved with any degree of finesse.
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The sixth strategy state
What prevents you from doing some things and what compels
you to do others? How is it that you can be intrinsically moti-
vated to complete some tasks superbly well, and not others?
As a manager you need the flexibility to motivate yourself at
any time, for any task using intrinsic means — regardless of the
attempts of your paymaster to manipulate you. It is no use
making a half-hearted attempt at your job because others are not
motivating you. Motivation comes from within, and if you do
not get used to motivating yourself, you are unlikely to have
much of a career in management. However you choose to engage
with your work and people, you will have a strategy for doing so.
By this I mean a certain way of thinking and behaving that when
applied gets a particular result. In NLP this is called a strategy —
the sequence of thoughts and behaviours that you use to perform
any specific task. Figure 4.1, the sixth strategy, shows five strate-
gies that result in poor performance and one strategy, the sixth,
a motivation strategy which comes from self-mastery.
6
1
Accomplished
Full recurrent
with perceived ease
procrastination
and excellence
2 identity z
Incongruent mismatch High stress
neurology low confidence
Loss of focus and

easily distracted distinctions
M FIGURE 4.1
The sixth strategy
There are five main reasons why tasks are either unfinished, or
finished but to a low or average standard. These five reasons I
have called strategies because they are just that — avoidance
strategies. Any task, which is mentally and physically within your
capability range, can be accomplished to a high standard of excel-
lence if you know how to prepare yourself and how to engage
effectively. Preparation creates the optimum state for doing the
task.
I shall begin by explaining strategies 1 and 2, and then I will
show you how to deal with them before moving on to strategy 3.
When you arrive at the sixth strategy, the strategy of self-mastery,
you will know how to create a sixth strategy state for yourself
any time you need it. The sixth strategy is any method you use
for getting into a state of high self-motivation, and there is a
choice of NLP techniques available to you, depending upon the
avoidance strategy you want to overcome.
@ Fear of failure
This is probably one of the major limitations to personal devel-

opment and success. It is also one of the easiest to change, often
resulting in instant and astounding results. Fear is accompanied
by limiting beliefs, i.e. ifIattempt this task, I will probably fail
and take a blow to my self-esteem and professional credibility.
Perception of status is also at stake here. The limitation is some-
times so strong that it can create full recurrent procrastination
for particular tasks.
I know some people who plan their family holidays to avoid
certain activities at work. The energy required to generate differ-
The energy
ent excuses for not doing something can lead to stress. In my
required to
generate different earlier example, the journalist who interviewed me had a limiting
excuses for not belief about calling editors with scoops, and whenever she
doing something thought about it she created strong visual images of the different
can lead to stress. ways she could fail. Many sales people have limiting beliefs
around cold calling and selling at director level.
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Thinking about situations in which you have convinced your-

self that the outcome will be unpleasant burns failure into the
mind, and this is what you respond to. It’s incredible how it is
possible to run through scenarios in the mind and come to the
Creating maps for
conclusion that you will fail. The only real test is to try it and find
failure and
out. But if you allow conjecture to decide what you are prepared developing
to do, then you will find yourself in a very small comfort zone avoidance
of what you are willing to try. Creating maps for failure and strategies are such
developing avoidance strategies are such a waste of energy! a waste of energy!
Beliefs are very closely linked to identity. In Chapter 1 you
Ap:
considered the labels you use to reinforce who you are. Limiting
beliefs act to preserve your current identity and stop you from Limiting beliefs act
to preserve your
changing because there is a certain comfort and security attached
current identity
to who you are right now. The only way to grow and develop
and stop you from
your role is to stretch yourself beyond what is comfortable and changing.
familiar to you.
@ Identity mismatch
This strategy is saying I am not the sort of person who does this.
It is protecting you by keeping you safely and securely locked
into the thinking and behaviour that is comfortable for you.
When you become involved in a task, for whatever reason, which
you do not consider is your responsibility, you may generate
signals of incongruence. This is simply your unconscious mind
knowing that your behaviour is at odds with what you are think-
ing.
Quite often these signals will be caused by value conflicts. If
You only exert
the task you are doing has little value for you, why are you doing
energy and
it? If your results depend upon you completing this task, why resources into
have you not attached a high enough value to it? You only exert activities that have
energy and resources into activities that have value for you. My value for you.
journalist acquaintance had not created the value and belief
structure to change her identity into a person who sells scoops to
editors.
If you take a few moments to think of the various tasks which
ie ©
engage you at work, and then attach a commitment indicator to

each one, say on a scale of 1-10, how many would you score at
ten? For those which may be less than ten, why are you not fully
committed to the task? To fully commit yourself to anything
requires an alignment of all the levels of learning and change —
identity, values, beliefs, capabilities, behaviour and environment.
There is a saying which goes “when you commit with yourself
fully, the gods go with you.”
“When you commit
with yourself fully, You may be thinking of tasks or activities that are important to
the gods go with you, but where you want to be more confident and accom-
you.” plished, and which you approach in a higher state of motivation.
Perhaps it’s a high-level meeting with a boss or a particular client,
or a presentation to the company. A major project could be
coming your way, or maybe you have been asked to manage a
merger for the first time. Whatever the task ahead, to accomplish
it with ease and excellence you will require different behaviours
and thought processes. The next exercise invites you to design a
sixth strategy state of excellence. Pll run through the exercise
using one of the examples above, leaving you to substitute your
own particular situation as appropriate.
EXERCISE ees Creating your sixth strategy state
For the purpose of this exercise |will assume the role of a business unit manager
who has been asked to manage a major project for a prestigious new client. You
could choose your own situation and follow the steps in the exercise.
“| have never before managed a project of this size and importance; in fact |
have avoided large projects in the past because project management isn’t some-
thing that | want to do, although | am aware that to take my department to more
challenging heights in the organization | will have to take on a large project some
time.”
Depending upon the circumstances of the required change, |could use one of
many NLP techniques. The technique |will use in this scenario is “creating a new
part”, and |will use it to help me redefine my identity and align my belief systems
to be successful at project management.
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Step 1: What would it be like?

“There is a part of me that has some objection to doing project management, and
| must first discover, from within, precisely what this objection is. What stops me
from plunging enthusiastically into the role of project management? What would
have to change for this objecting part of me to be comfortable with project
management? | am beginning to imagine myself as a project manager and |
become fully associated into the role.”
So | imagine what it will be like performing the role of a project manager as |
keep my internal senses alert for signals that explain the reason for the objection.
| am beginning to feel heavy in my stomach area and to feel a frown forming
on my forehead. What is it that is making me feel uncomfortable about this? In
my mind’s eye | see myself at the end of the project. | am in a meeting with the
project board and they are discussing the problems with the project. It’s all my
fault; | didn’t manage it in a professional way (this is my internal dialogue cutting
in now). | wasn’t trained to manage this level of resource and to own this level of
responsibility. |failed to notice when things began to go wrong.
Step 2: Assessing the feedback

The feedback from this process tells me that | have issues around skills, respon-
sibility, professionalism and noticing when things are going wrong. | now ask
myself, “Would it be OK to manage a large project if (i) | were trained, (ii) |could
handle the increased responsibility, (iii) |would be perceived by the project board
as a professional and (iv) | could remain focused on the work so that |will notice
at an early stage when things were likely to go wrong?” | want a response from
my objecting part here so | associate again with the role, this time adding these
four resources, and check my feelings for signs of agreement.
Step 3: Construct the new part

What will | look like when | am managing a large project with all these added
resources? As |am visualizing this scenario in the future, |am staying alerttoany
signals of conflict. How does it feel now that | am becoming a professional
project manager? | have read some books on project management, | have sought
advice from some of our highly skilled project managers, | have booked myself
onto a course to learn about managing projects and |am confident about keeping
focused and projecting a professional image of myself.
| run the movie through my mind of exactly what | will be doing to ensure my
success as a project manager. “The image is intensifying now, brighter, more
colour, larger, three dimensional. | can hear what |_ am saying to the people
around me and what they are saying to me. | look and feel like a professional. |
know how to be a project manager. | have a new part now that /s a project
manager. The part with the original objection no-longer objects. | am a project
manager!
Step 4: Check the ecology

So far the exercise has concentrated solely on you. It is important to also con-
sider wider implications of a change of this nature, particularly with those around
you — family, friends, colleagues, the team, the organization and customers.
Check for signals of incongruence as you answer the question “how will this
change affect these people and my relationship with them?” It may not be a good
idea to become a Superb project manager if by doing so it affects other areas of
your life adversely. Also, if you are not fully behind the project, how will this
impact the project and its stakeholders? Are you being honest with other people
by taking on the role?
This process is all about creating an identity for yourself that is

congruent. You still need to acquire skills, but you will be much
more eager to acquire them. Having a strong sense of identity
with the role from the outset will increase the desire to become a
brilliant project manager. Once you have this you’ll be surprised
at how easily the skill will come. Confidence and identity can
develop with skills training alone, but it takes much longer and
often doesn’t identify or deal with limiting beliefs or identity
conflicts. The sixth strategy state gets you there faster and in a
more resourceful state of mind and body.
@ Unclear outcomes
Do you ever find it difficult to concentrate on the task in hand?

Perhaps at times where something is playing on your mind —
either a decision to make or a situation that is begging to be
resolved and you haven’t thought of a solution yet? Pick any
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SELF-MASTERY
day of the week and you will probably have a number of these
unresolved problems or decisions zapping around your mind.
Problems such as illnesses or financial problems are likely to
distract you from any task, although even these situations can be
controlled. Some common distractions take the form of “should
I go to the transition meeting next week?” or “who should I
include in the email about the new product launch tomorrow?”
or “I wonder if Bill is waiting for my report?” when you are
trying to concentrate on something else.
One cause of distraction is having unclear outcomes.
Sometimes it’s possible to get so involved in detail that you
deviate from the main purpose of what you are supposed to be
doing. It may be more interesting, or you may perceive it as
more important than the task in hand, but if it’s not tied in to
your outcomes, it’s not likely to get you very far. If it’s not tied in to
The answer to this was covered in Chapter 3 — well-formed your outcomes, it’s
outcomes. If ever you find yourself putting energy into some- not likely to get
thing and being unclear about the outcome — take yourself you very far.
through the PRIEST list, check your outcomes, and make what-
ever change is necessary to get back on track. Motivation likes to
be directed towards a clear outcome. A lack of clarity in your
outcomes isn’t the only cause of distraction and lack of focus but
it is acommon one. Dislike of the task is another.
= Dislike of the task
There is no single reason why you may be either interested or

uninterested in any particular task — this strategy tends to be
There needs to be
much more deeply embedded in patterns called metapro- some intrinsic
grammes. You may be able to delegate some tasks which you value in the task
prefer not to do, but as you make changes to your identity and for you to be fully
values, and as you make transitions to new roles, you will dis- motivated.
cover there are some tasks you would rather leave alone. The
reason for this can be found in your metaprogramme profile. The
more you attempt a task which requires a certain way of working
you rarely use, the more stressed you will become.
Metaprogrammes
Metaprogrammes are deletion filters (refer to Figure 2.2,

Chapter 2). They focus our attention by deleting information and
creating habitual patterns of thinking and behaviour. Metapro-
grammes may differ across contexts,-and in business they can
help to explain preferences for job types and provide insights as
to why some people are able to excel at particular tasks that
others struggle with. These habitual patterns are called metapro-
grammes because they programme our behaviour at a level of
influence that is over and above (meta) everything else.
Here are ten metaprogrammes that give clues as to how people
are likely to respond in a given situation. They are explained here
in exaggerated form to aid learning. You may find that some of
your patterns are exaggerated, others less so. They will give you
an insight to behavioural patterns, and like everything else in
NLP there is no “right” or “wrong” pattern, just different pat-
terns and consequences. One pattern may be responsible for poor
results in one task, but the same pattern may be getting excellent
results in another.
MTABLE 2
1 Motivational direction towards — away from
Metaprogrammes
2 Activity content things — people — activities — information —
places
4 Level of activity
6 Attention direction
8 Group behaviour
9 Relationship filter
10 Comparison sorts
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1 Motivational direction (towards — away from) This was a

feature of the well-formed outcomes in Chapter 3 —- positively
stated. People are either motivated towards or away from some-
thing. “Towards” people know what they want and create their
Own motivation to reach their outcomes. “Away from” people
find it difficult to agree outcomes or objectives because they are
more focused on what to avoid. A towards person will talk about
what they want. An away from person will talk about what they
don’t want. Away from people are suited to jobs where they can
find problems, but don’t ask them for solutions as they may come
up with the most immediately obvious solution. Someone with a
strong away from pattern is unlikely to be creative in their
response to problems. A towards pattern will be seen as a go-for-
it mentality, future focused, and quick to get onto the next thing.
2 Activity content (things — people — activities — information —

places) This pattern dictates what a person is likely to focus their
attention on the most. It shows up often as the first point of inter-
est when two people meet. A person with a focus on information
is likely to be asking for numbers, statistics and reports, and in
doing so may miss other important things such as whether people
are fully engaged, or whether the location of the next conference
is suitable other than the travelling distance and room measure-
ments. Someone with a focus on people may be an excellent moti-
vator yet miss important information on performance and budget.
Find out what your primary focus is and make sure that you are
paying attention to the other areas or you may be making decisions
based on insufficient experience and consideration.
3 Work pattern (options — procedures) These are fascinating

patterns, and perhaps one of the easiest to identify through
observing behaviour. Some people prefer to have a well-written
procedure to follow and will attempt to create their own if one
doesn’t exist. However, they are most likely to create a procedure
to reflect what actually happens — they are not very good at
designing new procedures; you need an options person to do that.
Options people like to have variety and choice. They are excel-
lent brainstormers and good all round ideas people, and they
dislike being constrained by rigid procedures. They also like to
keep their options open for as long as possible, so expect them to
procrastinate over decisions. Procedures people are ideal for jobs
that have strict rules and where there. is little need for creative
input. Options people prefer work that gives them plenty of
variety and options.
4 Level of activity (proactive — reactive) Some people

prefer to be proactive; others like being reactive. Reactive people
are the firefighters. When the phone stops ringing they take a
rest and wait for it to ring again. Proactive people, on the other
hand, will use the time between calls to make improvements to
the systems, and will enjoy jobs that offer scope and lots of
autonomy to make their own decisions.
The types of jobs that suit reactive people are telephone help
desks, receptionists or anything that is based on a responsive
service. Proactive people would suffer from stress in these occu-
pations. Proactive people talk about what they are going to do,
while reactive people talk about what they have done.
5 Chunk size (global — specifics) Global people like to talk

about the big picture. They want to see the general view of things
and are less concerned about detail. If you were to ask a global
person about a recent film they had seen, you would get an
answer something like “it was a good thriller — better than the
last one I saw”. A detail person would keep your ears pinned
back for some time telling you all the details of each character
and each part of the story. Detail people tend to talk more
sequentially while global people jump around across topics
freely. Global people would become stressed in a job requiring
lots of detailed analysis or description, and detail people would
find it hard to cope in jobs demanding global thinking.
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6 Attention direction (self — others) People whose attention

is directed outwards towards others make great nurses, social
workers and trainers because of their genuine concern for the
well-being of others. It is as if they have antennae out, constantly
picking up signals of discomfort or deviation from some desired
outcome.
People with attention focused inwards, on self, are more con-
cerned with how they are feeling or how they are progressing
towards their outcomes. They often miss many of the signals of
discomfort or deviation from other people. They look after
themselves and assume that other people are capable of looking
after their own needs.
7 Reference sort (internal — external) This is about the ref-

erences used to check if things are okay. People with an internal
reference instinctively know if they have done a good job. People
with an external reference need someone else to tell them.
Successful entrepreneurs are extremely internally referenced —
they know when they have made a good or a bad decision.
Someone who is very externally referenced will appreciate a
management structure to give them feedback on the standard of
their work. The implications for you as a manager are that if you
are internally referenced, and require little feedback, it may
not occur to you that some members of your team really need
feedback from you. On the other hand, if you are externally
referenced you may be giving too much feedback to your team
members and they may perceive you as over-effusive. Striking a
balance here is important.
8 Group behaviour (task - people) This is about the focus of

energy in team situations. Some people have a strong association
with tasks and this will be at the forefront of their thinking
regardless of any team disputes or personal indifferences. Other
people are more associated with team maintenance functions and
will seem to have less regard for the task in hand when there are
problems within the team. Task focused people perform well in
jobs where they can get their heads down without having to deal
with too many other people. People focused people need jobs
where it is important to establish and maintain good relation-
ships, such as public relations or customer service. The key here
is to utilize the strengths in the team, and to be aware of your
preference and the influence this has.on team performance.
9 Relationship filter (match — mismatch) There are four

main orientations which determine how people sort information
from their environment to learn and understand.
e Similarity Some people display a tendency to look for

“what’s there” as opposed to “what’s missing”. There is a
focus on commonality and how things fit together. There is a
danger for people with a strong similarity sort to generalize
very quickly and to form assumptions. They also have diffi-
culty coping with change, and prefer long-term steady
employment. They may stay in the same job happily for 20-25
years and get stressed when things begin to change.
e Similarity with exceptions This filter looks for similarity

first, with a secondary emphasis on difference. During conver-
sations you can tell when someone is using this filter by their
use of comparatives such as more, better, less, except, but,
although. People who evaluate relationships using this filter
don’t mind change as long as it is gradual and not too fre-
quent. They will typically remain in the same job for 5-7 years
before looking for something different.
e Difference These people will look for difference in everything,

changing things for change’s sake. Because they are continually
looking for what is different, they miss the similarities. This
relates to situations, things, places, activities and people. They
tend to become restless in a job after 9-18 months.
e Difference with exceptions This filter focuses first on “what’s

different” with a secondary emphasis on “what’s the same”.
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When someone is using this relationship filter, they will

typically say, “It’s a refreshing change, although the hours are
the same.” People using this filter will tend to stay in a job for
18-36 months.
10 Comparison sorts (quantitative — qualitative) Comparison

sorts are filters for selecting information with which to make a
decision. The information can be either quantitative or qualita-
tive. This is simply a “more/less than” sort or a “better/worse
than” sort. Some managers make decisions based solely upon the
amount of money to be made, or costs to be reduced, and give
little regard to qualitative consequences. Others may focus so
much on quality that they give insufficient consideration to the
quantitative aspect of their goals.
These ten metaprogrammes are a selection of the ones you will

find most useful in your management role. Once you are able to
identify them, you will notice the effect they have on how differ-
ently people approach their jobs. This has a significant influence
on their results. You may already be applying these to explain
puzzling behaviour of people you know at work, and in later
chapters we will be using them to do just that.
However, the purpose of introducing you to metaprogrammes
in this section is to give you an insight into your own thinking
and behaviour. Are there some tasks that you would rather not
do? Can you identify where a metaprogramme may explain this
situation?
One of the questions I am often asked is “can you change your
metaprogramme profile?” The answer is yes, and it takes time.
There may be reasons why you want to adopt an alien metapro-
gramme for long-term gains, or alternatively you may wish to
adopt one to help you use a particular strategy for a short-term
gain. The best process to use for this is to model someone who
has the metaprogramme you want, and who uses it to achieve
what you also want to achieve.
Modelling
NLP is often referred to as a set of tools for “modelling” behav-
iour, or eliciting a person’s map of reality. I do not intend to cover
modelling in its entirety here. However, I can provide you with
some basics. As we all adopt behaviours from our role models
unconsciously, the following information will start you thinking
about doing it with more purpose and intention.
For example, if you are a strong global person, you may find it
useful on occasion to make fine distinctions within a detailed
document, the sorts of distinctions that you would expect from a
specifics person. Perhaps it’s a financial spreadsheet or a legal
document. Who do you know who is really excellent at picking
the bones out of this type of document? Find this person and
model them. Ask if you can spend time with them to help you
improve your attention to detail. You will be shadowing them
while observing their physiology as they are performing the task.
Look particularly for the following:
e Breathing — rhythm, speed, depth, chest or stomach area

e Posture — leaning forward/back, left/right, head position,
shoulders
e Voice — Pitch, tonality, resonance, speed, rhythm
These are the main elements of physiology to model. What you

are doing is being like them. You know that the mind and body
are one system and that they affect each other, so by taking on a
person’s physiology, it will be easier to think like them.
Discover and adopt the person’s value and belief system
attached to detailed work, but make sure that it is ecological with
the rest of your environment first. You wouldn’t want to adopt
the value system of a megalomaniac, for example. Select your
modelling subjects with care! What do they believe about detail?
What’s important about it? What else is important about
working with detail? As they answer, you find out when they are
using a visual, auditory and kinaesthetic mode when doing the
task you are modelling them for.
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You don’t have to rely on formal training courses to learn new

things when there are so many skilled people around you to learn
Select your
from. All you have to do is identify the excellent person and ask
modelling subjects
to model them! with care!
@ Unskilled
Returning now to the sixth strategy model, another reason for

not completing a task could be that you are missing the skills
Some managers
required. Persisting with a task, unskilled, often leads to stress are very good at
and in some cases low levels of confidence. Some managers are giving people tasks
very good at giving people tasks without providing the skills to without providing
go with them. the skills to go
Becoming a manager is typical of this situation. It is such a vast with them.
area to understand, and there are so many learning materials

available it is often difficult to know what you should be study-
ing. Some think they have this pinned down with clear develop-
ment programmes designed to deliver a set of management
competencies. Turning this type of learning into management
accomplishment of practical everyday tasks, however, takes time.
How many days does a manager expect to invest in learning how
to manage materials, time and people in an organization? If you
take the conventional route you never stop counting.
Most (if not al!) management courses are about communicating.
Managers really need to understand how learning occurs and
begin to harness feedback. At a very fundamental level, being an
effective manager requires you to be in control of three kinds of
relationship:
1 Your relationship with the tasks you do

2 Your relationship with other people you want to influence
3 Your relationship with yourself
Being in control of these three types of relationship requires self-

mastery, and the road to self-mastery begins with taking control
of your state and being self-motivated. The more situations in
which you are able to create the sixth strategy state for yourself,
the easier will be your transition to effective manager.

NLP is about human communication, learning and change,
and we can all learn a great deal from each other.
Achieving self-mastery
You have all the resources you need to succeed now. To explain
this bold statement I will tell you more about the journalist,
whose mental block was preventing her from taking her scoops
to top editors. I was intrigued to discover the many hidden
talents she had which helped her to achieve her current success. I
asked her what her strategy was for finding a story and writing it
up, to which she replied:
all the places where I might find information, che)

/ resting place to be, go there, get my story and wr
/ up. I never miss an editorial deadline. Even if it’s the night before _
the deadline, I know I will get the story in, even if I have to stay a
: alnight writing.”
The voice tonality and physiology were congruent with the

message. This is clearly a winning strategy fuelled with high
octane self-motivation. It is also a visual strategy “ .. | look for
places ...” So my next question was, “What would happen if you
were to use this strategy for calling new editors with your
scoops? Can you see a similarly desired and conclusive result?”
She realized that she was able to motivate herself and act deci-
sively in another context. So all she needed to do was apply the
same thinking strategy to the job of calling editors. She had all
Strategies are the resources she needed — she just hadn’t learned how to use the
made up of
same resources for different contexts.
neurological
We all have a range of strategies for doing all kinds of things.
responses to
situations; they Some strategies are more useful than others. Our strategies are
contain both main made up of neurological responses to situations; they contain
and body patterns. both mind and body patterns. We have strategies that we use
@
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to motivate ourselves, which I have called sixth strategy states.

Self-mastery requires high states of motivation. We can move
Self-mastery
strategies between contexts, so that if we are getting great results
requires high
in One activity we can use the same state to improve our perfor- states of
mance in another area. motivation.
Whenever you catch yourself running an avoidance strategy,
you now have the know-how to choose differently. If the task
you are avoiding is something that will move you towards your
outcomes, a sixth strategy state will get you there.
I will leave you to think about this, and about some of the tasks
which you would prefer to accomplish with ease and excellence.
Take an inventory of the following and choose where a change
might have the desired effect. It could be a belief. It could be an
identity level change. It could be rooted in your metaprogramme
profile. It could be a value conflict, or perhaps it is simply a skill
deficit. Do you know someone who does this skill elegantly? Do
you have a state of high self-motivation for another task that can Q)
be easily transferred to this task? In other living
creatures the
Use Table 3 to record these and other important dimensions of
ignorance of
self for individual tasks. You may find it interesting, and useful, themselves is nature,
but in men it is a vice.
to interview a model of excellence for a task you want to improve
BOETHIUS (480-525)
at, and record their profile on a sixth strategy table. Roman philosopher
Orange circle thinking
When we run workshops, our delegates leave clutching one or

more cardboard orange circles! In today’s fast moving corporate
world people do not have time for complex management theo-
ries. Cumbersome manuals collected from countless management
courses sit on shelves gathering dust all over the world. What
people need is quick, effective techniques which can be used pre-
cisely when they are needed — in the moment in the workplace.
This is one of the key attributes of NLP — speed of change. Orange
circle thinking is a development which came about as a result of
MTABLE 3
Task description
Sixth strategy
profile table
Outcomes
Positively stated
Resourced
Initiated and maintained by self
Ecological
Sensory based evidence criteria
Time phased
Alignment
Identity or role description
Values
Beliefs
Capabilities
Behaviour
Environment
Metaprogrammes
towards/away from
a
things/people/activities /information/places
a
options/procedures
proactive/reactive
global/specifics ,
self/others
internal/external
task/maintenance
|
match/mismatch
:
quantitative/qualitative
aa
chapter four
SELF-MASTERY
research conducted in our workshops over a number of years. It’s

a technique to help you achieve the sixth strategy state for self-
mastery. We have used it very successfully with managers from a
whole cross section of industries and professions. It will help you
to quickly reframe the way you think and achieve different
results. The concept is called orange circle thinking and uses
shape, colour, language and Chinese philosophy to produce one
of the simplest, quickest and most accessible modern day change
techniques we know of. You don’t have to understand it to be able
to use it but it helps, so I'll explain it step by step.
@ This not that
A few years ago while running workshops we noticed how

people were defining their association with work by the use of
two small words. Work they enjoyed was referred to as this and
work they didn’t enjoy was that. This set us off listening for these
two words and testing if what we had discovered was common
among work groups. We knew that work which is some way off
in the past can become that because of the lapse of time, and
work which is still some way off in the future can be that for the
same reason. However, as the time lapse shortens and the work
gets nearer it will either become this or it will remain that right
up until the point at which it can be avoided no longer.
It’s not rocket science to realize this work is generally per-
formed quickly, effectively and to a high standard while that work
is generally done under duress, after some procrastination and
maybe not to such a high standard. By referring to work as that,
managers were distancing themselves from it both mentally and
emotionally, with a negative effect on their focus and decision-
making. We realized that if we could get people thinking this not
that, they would become more focused and effective.
The first challenge is to find out what is causing the work to be
considered that. Is it a lack of value or even a value violation? Is
there a metaprogramme conflict or a limiting belief about capa-
bility or results? We also realized this and that were not limited
to work. There were this and that relationships, this and that
people and this and that scenarios of every kind. That-type think-
ing can be very engrained and built up over a long period of time,
so how were we going to get people to see the limitation of their
thinking and help them to change it?
Enter Chinese philosophy. We were-soon to discover that we
were not the first to have noticed the relevance of this and that.
1A Taoist Classic, In an ancient Chinese text, Chuang-Tzu,' we discovered an
Chuang-Tzu,
Foreign Languages
entire page linking this and that to yin yang theory. We explored
Press, Beijing further. Figure 4.2 shows the yin and yang concept. It is a symbol
ISBN 7-119-00104-3.
of flow and opposites. For example cold cannot exist without
hot, good cannot exist without bad, and so on. The small circles
in the symbol show that within yang there is some yin and vice
versa. In practical terms you will find this to be the case; for
example even the most macho of males will have some softness
and even the softest and gentlest of females will have some hard-
ness. We concluded therefore that every this must contain some
that and vice versa. What we needed to do was to get people to
focus on the this part of that and make it grow. Life becomes
what you focus on and this becomes your reality. So within every
that exists a window of opportunity to develop it into this.
MFIGURE 4.2
The yin and yang
concept
Enter shape and colour. Traditionally blue is the colour of rules

and regulations, structure and limitation and the square is limit-
ing because you can get stuck in the corners. That is therefore
represented by a blue square. Orange, on the other hand, is rec-
ognized as the colour of energy and vitality and where these
things exist there is possibility. A circle represents flow because
there are no corners to get stuck in. This therefore is represented
chapter four
SELF-MASTERY
with an orange circle. Now we have the yin and yang

of work. If
you take a blue square and an orange circle of equal
dimensions
and place one on top of the other, it doesn’t matter
which one
you place on top — you will always see the other one
poking out
around the edges. The bits poking out from behind are the
windows of opportunity.
MFIGURE 4.3
The yin and yang
of work
You are now ready for some orange circle thinking. Bring to
mind something you have been procrastinating over because you
know you are not going to enjoy doing it, or something about it
is confusing to you. Write down exactly how you are thinking
and/or feeling about the task on a blue square card. Now take an
orange pen and place a small dot in the centre of the card. Think
of all the good things that will come into effect as a result of com-
pleting the task. Think about ways in which you could make it
more enjoyable — do you need new skills, do you need to mend a
relationship, do you need help, do you need to find some value
in the task? For every positive thought, draw another orange
circle around the dot and don’t stop until you have increased the
size of the circle to fit the edges of the blue card. Take an orange
circle and draw a symbol on it to represent your new way of
thinking about the task. If you feel ready you can discard the blue
card at this stage. If not, then you can use it in combination with
other techniques mentioned later in this book, for example “col-
lapsing anchors”. You may now wish to take the orange circle
and place it on a timeline at a point that represents having com-
pleted the task. Walk from “now” to this time, stand behind the
orange circle and look back to “now”. Ask yourself what exactly
you did to get to this point. You may even want to create more
orange circles to represent the stages along the way.
Here is an example. Imagine you have to get sales reports done

by the end of next week but you keep putting them off because
you have to get some information from someone you think is
obstructive. You are a people focused person and figures don’t
turn you on. Your blue card may say something like: I dislike
doing the sales reports because I have to go and see Ben in
accounts. Ben is a surly young man who really doesn’t enjoy
working here and often makes mistakes. I then have to go back to
him and he becomes even surlier. I will probably make mistakes
with the figures.
Your orange circle may start with:
e The sales reports are a valuable piece of data on which we can

build for the future
I can build a positive relationship with Ben
What does Ben enjoy — is it football, films, technology, etc.?
Build rapport with Ben
Find out what would make Ben’s stay at the company a
happier one (if indeed he really is unhappy and this isn’t just a
perception I have built up)
e@ What does Ben do well? Are his mistakes a result of the poor
relationship between us?
e@ Maybe Ben would like some more responsibility and if I can
build the relationship, he may do even more preparation for
me which would help with his own career
e What if Ben could help me to understand the figures so I am
more comfortable with the report?
Having reframed your blue square that to an orange circle this,

place it on a timeline and look back at what you did differently to
make the sales reports something you can now focus on and do
effectively.
Scenarios like this one stem from just one single thought, and
over time grow to become large clusters of blue square thinking.
You have millions of thoughts each day — what would it be like if
you were to play them all back to yourself at the end of every day?
How many would be contained in blue squares? How many would
chapter four
SELF-MASTERY
be bouncing around in orange circles? You know the expression

“one thought leads to another” — well, Figure 4.4 represents a
whole network of blue square thinking. The figure can either
represent the thinking inside your own head or the viral nature of
cultural thinking within your organization.
MFIGURE 4.4
Blue square
thinking
The alternative is an orange circle network of thinking as shown

in Figure 4.5 — a network which is more productive both individ-
ually and in the form of a healthy virus within your organization.
The way to maintain a healthy thinking network which has a
positive impact on your environment and your results is to iden-
tify the initial trigger thought or emotional tug which is causing
negative thoughts to cluster.
You can use orange circle thinking to help you to:
@ increase job satisfaction

e clarify the meaning of your work
@ increase productivity
e improve your time management
MFIGURE 4.5
Orange circle
thinking
@ improve your working and personal relationships

e develop your creativity
e reduce stress levels
e improve work/life balance
It can help your organization to:
structure change
ensure team and organizational buy in
speed up change
reduce resistance to change
keep the culture positive and energetic
improve performance and have a direct impact on the bottom
line
As a result of reading through this chapter I imagine you have

gained an insight to some of your patterns of thinking and be-
haviour. Some of it you will have known, some may have
surprised you.
chapter four
SELF-MASTERY
Today’s business environment is complex and sophisticated.

Relationships.in business are not as simple as they used to be.
Roles and responsibilities are widening and the goalposts are
often shifting daily. Even as you are reading this, someone, some-
where, perhaps in another part of the world, is planning some-
thing which will impact you in some way. You cannot really
control anything. The moment you think you know what is going
on, things change. The only stability you can maintain is your
own state of mind. Mastering this is the real key to effectiveness.
No one can predict what will happen tomorrow, but if you have
control over your state of mind and body you can be prepared
for just about anything, and respond positively and effectively.
It’s not about being Mr. Happy all the time, or Mr. Optimistic,
but being able to access whatever state you want for whatever
situation you find yourself in, and being motivated enough to
infuse others with your positive energy. This is what being master
of the self means.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
= People power
# The business of empowerment
g What kind of power do you have?
# Generating power
= Two important lessons on empowerment
= A question of respect
& Pacing and leading
a Reframing
m The empowering leader

©) he verb to empower is frequently used in modern manage-

ment speak, but what does it actually mean? The police force
The purpose of getting
power is to be able to are empowered to keep law and order by means of a policy
give it away. and set of guidelines, or rules, governing their behaviour — what
ANEURIN BEVAN
(1897-1960) they are and are not allowed to do. The policies and guidelines
British Labour refer to the decisions they are allowed to make, for example
politician
when to use force, when to take into custody or decisions on the
length of time a suspect can be detained. The government decides
how much power to give to others so they can make decisions as
they carry out their roles.
In recent years empowerment has risen to a high position on
the human resource director’s agenda as a result of the stripping
out of layers of middle management decision makers. Someone
has to make the decisions, so it will have to rest with the people
actually doing the work. But they won’t be allowed to decide
everything — some things are not negotiable, such as wage levels
and structure, markets, headcount or investment. Looking for
answers to the question “how much empowerment?” will lead
you to the problems many organizations and individual managers
struggle with when they attempt to introduce it. Your own inter-
pretation of empowerment will be determined by your values,
your role and your beliefs. I invite you to think now about your
own perceptions of you the leader, as you discover more about
the type of leader you want to become.
People power
When an individual is given the power to make decisions which

previously would have been made by their manager, lots of
things change. The outcome of decisions will be different because
of personal interpretation, change to the manager’s role, and
other people having to get used to someone else making deci-
sions which affect them. Empowerment has wide-reaching conse-
quences and is not something you introduce to your team
overnight. There are skills, agreements and understandings to
form first, and then, when people feel supported and confident
chapter five
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
with their new powers, it will begin to happen. Empowerment is

about giving people the power to make a difference. It might be
defined as:
When you empower people you challenge the traditional role of

the manager as a decision maker/problem solver and redefine the
role as an enabler/coach. It is based around the concept that
problems are best solved by the people working with the problem
and not by some higher order of management. This argument
makes sense since the higher up the organizational tree you get,
the less you will know about operational problems. Total Quality
Management initiatives are based upon this concept. NLP gives
you the skills to put the power where it is needed most and to do
it with confidence. If more people were to use NLP skills in their
jobs, companies wouldn’t need to invest so much in improve-
ment schemes and programmes. Progress and improvement
would be integrated into people’s jobs naturally.
The business of empowerment
Companies that empower people put fewer limitations and

boundaries on structure. They nurture and reinforce learning
cultures where change, skills, achievement and progress are
highly valued and are at least equal to rules and procedures. They
put more emphasis on contribution than status, and they reward
achievement, not long service — this results from a sincere belief
that success is achieved through people. Empowerment is an
integral part of the way they do business.
The empowered individual is able to use the team for creating
new solutions to problems and makes fast decisions that benefit
business aims. There is richness to the working day that disem-
powered people do not have. They are able to use more personal
expression in their role, which brings greater variety to the
working day. An empowered individual thrives on flexibility —

having the skills and freedom to respond in different ways to
changes in the environment. Problems are. treated as opportuni-
ties with no fear of owning up to mistakes. An organization of
empowered individuals is the organization of progress, achieve-
ment, and focus on creating the future.
An organization of
In contrast to this, organizations that disempower people often
empowered
individuals is the
value status and position or knowledge and expertise over actual
organization of contribution. Procedure and protocol are more important than
progress, finding innovative solutions. Working norms are protected, and
achievement, and there are recognized ways of getting things done. Problems cause
focus on creating embarrassment and often get swept under the carpet only to re-
the future.
emerge at a later date. The disempowered organization values
rules and correct protocol over personal expression and creative
thinking.
One of my clients told me how his company, which is losing
valuable employees, talks of people being their most valuable
asset and of being empowered, but each time this message is
given it is concluded with “but if anyone doesn’t get what we are
here to do maybe you are in the wrong company”. Is it any
wonder people are leaving? Another company has a similar state-
ment which goes something like “you’re either on the bus or off
the bus”. Anyone with NLP skills can read the message behind
statements like these and it is clear to the trained ear that these
managers either don’t know how to empower people, but have
adopted the language, or they don’t believe in empowerment but
they do believe they should be talking about it. Often their frus-
tration at wanting quick results and the pressure from stake-
holders prevents them from investing sufficiently in the
programmes that will really motivate and get the elusive 110 per
cent out of people.
What kind of power do you have?
Think about an engine, with the output rated in horsepower

produced by petrol and air combusting in the cylinders. The
chapter five
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
engine converts the power of the combustion to movement

through its transmission. Mechanics often talk about an engine’s
performance or behaviour. Any mechanic will tell you how
important the mix of petrol and air is to the performance of the
engine.
In a similar way, organizations use power to achieve perfor-
mance. Very often the organizational mix of identity, values and
beliefs (the fuel) is misaligned with the aspirations of employees
(combustion) and makes hard work of tasks (the engine splutters)
which results in poor performance (refer to Figure 5.1).
INPUT
Fuel identity
Mix values
beliefs
(culture)
Combustion + ig I
power production
| activity (work done)
RESULTS
performance
MFIGURE 5.1
Power production
Power is held by individuals who are held accountable for its use.
When power is misused, abused or unused, those holding it often
underestimate the importance of sharing their power or giving it
away. There are many types of power produced by organiza-
tional cultures, but they all tend to emerge from one of three
basic cultural orientations.
@ The authoritarian culture — coercive power
This is the traditional command and control culture, which

produces coercive power. Managers like to make rules and have
things done a certain way. They value position and status above
achievement, and they embrace correct protocol, procedures and
bureaucracy. They believe people need to be controlled; other-
wise they will get away with as much as possible. Coercive power
is produced by a management of mistrust, formality, authority
and with respect for higher status regardless of contribution. The
challenge for these managers is how to overcome the feeling of
powerlessness they believe will happen as a result of giving away
their power.
@ The technical culture — expert power
Managers who create this culture are wrapped up in themselves.

They identify with knowledge, skill, expertise and technical
information. They are technocrats and judges. They value preci-
sion, facts, accuracy, competency and right over wrong. Beliefs
about people are based on intelligence, knowledge and ingenuity.
Expert power is produced by knowledgeable, technical man-
agers. The experts want to hold onto their knowledge-based
power, as to give it away would leave them powerless. The chal-
lenge here again is how to overcome their belief about being left
powerless.
@ The learning culture — generative power
This is the culture of empowerment. Managers identify with

Managers who improvement, quality, change, fun, ingenuity, variety and the
create learning future. They are nurturers, enablers and vehicles for achieve-
Cultures value ment. When people leave, it is often because they have been
individual developed to a level at which they can only progress further in
contributions
other environments. Partings are mutually agreeable and cele-
rather than
brated by both manager and employee.
position or status
and are likely to be Managers who create learning cultures value individual con-
achievement tributions rather than position or status and are likely to be
oriented. achievement oriented. They believe that future success is
22)
chapter five
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Culture Identity MTABLE 4

Culture and types
Authoritarian +Rule maker Position People need to of power
Controller Status be kept under production
Protocol control
Procedures
Legitimacy
Technical Technocrat | Precision Expertise is the | Expert

Judge Facts most important
Accuracy measure of
Competence people
Right/wrong
Learning Nurturer Contribution Future success Generative

Achiever Achievement is dependent
Enabler Development upon personal
expression and
innovation
dependent upon the personal expression of people. They

produce generative power — a power that is able to continue
generating itself without regular management intervention. Its
generative power is produced by nurturing, supporting and
challenging — processes that create confidence to take risks and
break the norms for the good of the business. The challenge for
these managers is to encourage people to stretch themselves and
use 1:1 interactions not only as a personal development process,
but also a way of keeping things under control.
You will find that in reality few organizations fit exactly into
one of these three cultures, but that they may have a mix of all
three with one being the most predominant. For the remainder
of this chapter I will focus on the learning culture and the dynam-
ics that produce generative power since this culture matches the
underlying principles of NLP.
Generating power
Organizations of empowered individuals share some common

traits that form the culture within which people can be nurtured
and developed. It is a culture with few boundaries and constraints
allowing for maximum flexibility and change. Also, by virtue of
empowering people, you are removing controlling influences, and
this is probably one of the biggest challenges to your security and
confidence as a manager. A fundamental prerequisite for empow-
erment is the letting go of conventional control mechanisms.
A fundamental
In our management workshops I refer to the continuum
prerequisite for
empowerment is between control and empowerment. Trust between manager and
the letting go of team is the key dynamic here. Figure 5.2 shows this continuum.
conventional In order to empower people you must give up more of your
control control by giving away your power. For many managers this is a
mechanisms. scary concept, but only because they haven’t developed relation-
ships with their team to ensure that adequate control is main-
tained. The difference here is not a change to what is controlled
or how it is controlled, but who is doing the controlling.
control
continuum
MFIGURE 5.2
7a parame 1——1— | empowerment
The control- 0
empowerment Control can be retained through frequent communication
continuum
Trust develops as control is handed over. Managers are often

afraid of the consequences of handing over control. It’s not
Trust develops as
losing control — more trusting it to others — and then developing
control is handed
over.
more open methods of retaining control through frequent two-
way communication, agreeing aims, outcomes and performance.
®
chapter five
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Letting go of control then is the first step to trusting people,

and trust is the main building block of empowerment. Think of
Trust is the main
trust as the axle around which all the other conditions of empow-
building block of
erment turn. Figure 5.3 shows this as the wheel of empowerment empowerment.
with one condition attached to each spoke of the wheel.
A
aston]
poe |
expectations responsibilty
ee) }
MFIGURE 5.3
The wheel of
empowerment
Like the spokes of a wheel, each condition provides the

strength to support the others — they are interdependent relation-
ships. If you take one away, the wheel will weaken and eventually
collapse. Without the spokes, the axle is an item without purpose.
Power is no use without the authority to use it. People like to
have clear guidance on the limits to authority so they can be Power is no use
confident when using it. without the
Intelligent decisions that stem from increased levels of author- authority to use it.
ity and responsibility will depend upon knowledge of the busi-
ness, and the best way to expand this is through involvement in
the business ~ exposing people to new business areas and increas-
ing their knowledge. People will want to feel well-informed
when they are making decisions, taking risks and generally stick-
ing their necks out. People will go to great lengths to succeed if
they feel they are supported. You can help people to access
the organization’s resources, open doors for them, and provide
emotional support for their efforts. .
The final spoke completes the wheel — managing people’s
expectations. People don’t change their behaviour just because
you want them to. They need intrinsic rewards that create desire.
Whatever expectations you set, they must be manageable. This
covers both expectations you have of your team (outcomes) and
what they expect to get in return for investing their energy.
Over-promising and under-delivering in both these areas can be
fatal.
The spokes can only do their job when there is space between
them. Imagine a wheel with all the spokes on one side — it would
soon collapse. This space represents the level of autonomy and
freedom people have to channel their full range of talents. Some
wheels have more spokes and less space just like some companies
have more shared authority and responsibility, but with not
quite so much autonomy and freedom. It is often decided by the
business you are in.
Case scenario — the finance company

Some time ago I attended an Institute of Directors conference
where the audience was being addressed by the sales and
operations director of a new, upbeat finance company. During
the presentation, the operations director told his story of being
headhunted from a blue-chip competitor company. He empha-
sized the difference it made to him, how he had felt constrained
by his previous company, which insisted on maintaining tight
controls over what could and couldn’t be changed. He explained
that in this new company he felt as if the chains around him had
been removed and that he was doing things he never thought he
could do. He was very enthusiastic as he showed the sales growth
chart, which was highly impressive. This company is now a major
competitor and one of the industry leaders.
Two important lessons on empowerment

@ Lesson number one - it takes a little time
About 10 years ago seminars on empowerment were being held

weekly. Managers would be attracted by the buzz words and go
chapter five
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
along for a dose of “what to do”, only to find on their return to

the workplace that just telling people they were being empow-
ered to take important decisions wasn’t working. Of course it
wasn’t — achieving the state of empowerment takes both time and
a change to management’s perception of their own role.
lm Lesson number two - true empowerment is

generative
You do not force power, rather you provide the right fuel mix
(conditions) for power to be generated. There is a massive differ-
Align yourself with
ence between the two. Make sure that your own thinking around
the conditions of
the dynamics of empowerment is correct. Align yourself with the empowerment.
conditions of empowerment and monitor feedback from your
language (particularly your internal dialogue). Empowerment is
not something you issueor something you do to others. It is a
generative condition in response to a newly formed set of rela-
tionships between you and your team. Your people will take
power from you if you create the conditions where they feel
trusted to use it.
A question of respect
Everyone has their own set of values and beliefs. Groups form
common values and beliefs in response to the way they are
Groups form
treated. Organizations, or parts of an organization that have yet common values
to become learning cultures and produce generative power, will and beliefs in
have a set of values and beliefs that they have formed in response response to the
to how they have been treated in the past. If the culture has been way they are
mainly authoritarian, they may still put a value on doing as little treated.
as possible and keeping their heads down below the parapet.

They may believe that they have few prospects because no one
would recognize their efforts of achievement anyway. If someone
did notice them, it usually meant bad news about something
trivial like procedures or working practices.
NLP Values and beliefs like these set like concrete over time. They
A person’s create identities of disconnectedness with the organization.
behaviour ina When you turn up for work, you become.a ducker and diver.
situation is the Working within a culture like this for two or three years is long
best choice enough to generate some very unproductive behaviours that are
available to them.
unlikely to change overnight. A person’s behaviour in a situation
is the best choice available to them. People learn the best ways of
surviving in situations, and as a change agent, this is something
NLP
Have respect for
you will learn to respect. Having a healthy respect for other
other people’s people’s maps of the world will help you to understand why they
maps of the world. are as they are.
NLP is not concerned with whether something is right or
wrong, only what is. The NLP communication model explained
earlier showed how people’s maps of the world influence their
behaviour, and so if you want someone to change their behay-
iour, you must offer them choices of different maps and allow
them to make their own decision to change. Telling someone
their action was wrong is just telling them something they may
already know. Asking them what the consequences are of their
action is developmental and more likely to result in change.
@ WIIFM —- or what’s in it for me?
There are three basic requirements to change. A person has to:
@ want to change
e be allowed to change
e@ know how to change
For a person to want to change, to generate the motivation to

change, there must be some reward. Intrinsic rewards of self-
esteem and personal development may not be perceived as
rewards if people are operating out of a world map that was
designed to deal with an authoritarian culture. It may be futile to
offer people a better future if their attitudes to the organization
chapter five
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
are based on a “moving away from” metaprogramme and avoid-

ance strategies. And how about the second requirement? If you
do all the right things, will other managers still allow people to
do things differently? Or will structure, bureaucracy and proto-
col get in the way of change? I will leave the third requirement
until later in this chapter where I will turn to the skills of the
leader as an enabler and an agent of change. I will deal with the
problem of motivation first, because if you can get to the point
where people are self-motivated and you are creating the condi-
tions of empowerment, you are well on the way to producing
generative power. Getting to this point, however, takes time,
You need to pace
patience and understanding — you need to pace identity, values identity, values
and beliefs before you can begin to lead. and beliefs before
you can begin to
lead.
Pacing and leading
If you want to take people to a new place, you first have to meet
them where they are and respect their reasons for being there.
Pacing in the business sense means being like them behaviourally
in as many ways as you can without taking on the limitations that
may exist for them.
For example, let’s take a worst case scenario. Imagine you have
taken over management of a production facility employing 250
people, 14 of whom are managers and supervisors. There is a
history of poor management practice resulting in a value system
of mistrust in management, dislike of trendy new “fads” such as
re-engineering, and a “9 to 5” mentality. The only reason for
coming to work is to earn money.
For most people this is accomplished with as little effort as
possible. So, from this view you can extract that for the majority
of workers, work means money and little else. This meaning is
significant as you will discover in a moment after you have paced
them. You will want to meet and talk with as many people as
possible —let’s say you are walking around the facility and stop to
talk to one of the operatives. You say to him:
“Hi, Bill. How’s the new assembly run doing, is it behaving

itself today?” Bill replies, “It’s OK. I still haven’t had any joy
with the requisition for the new grunging unit though — still, I
should knowby now not to expect too much. They’re not
really interested in investment for production; the bosses are
too busy on foreign trips finding out the latest in Japanese
working methods. They'll have us all doing morning exercises
hed.
Now you have two options here: you can either disagree with Bill
and argue with him about how things are going to change now
that you are around or you can pace his experience and get him
interested in you.
“Well, Bill, I worked for one outfit that tried all the Japanese
- working methods (using Bill’s words), and you are dead right
about one thing. Sometimes bosses spend so much time looking |
"outside the company (agreeing with Bill) that they miss what’s
reallyimportant inside (implying Bill’s work is import. :
Let me chase that Heation foryee when soeactly 7
| post ite” .
This is pacing. It is also rapport building, which I shall cover in

great detail in Chapter 7. By pacing people’s experience you are
unconsciously saying to them, “I am like you, I understand you,
I have empathy with your situation, you can trust me, I have
no tricks up my sleeve, ey are important and your views are
valid.”
In a scenario like this one you will have a great deal of pacing
to do whenever you make the opportunities to communicate
with the 250, paying particular attention to the words you use
with the management team. They may have a different set of
values than the operatives. As the American critic Pauline Kael
chapter five
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
once said of culture: “One of the surest signs of the Philistine is

his reverence for the superior tastes of those who put him down.”
It is unsafe to assume that everyone buys into the same value
system. What you are doing is pacing the current state, so that
you can begin to lead to some other desired state. One of the
ways of re-orienting people towards a desired state is with a
reframe.
Reframing
Jim Froud, an artist and poet friend of mine, demonstrated the

power of reframing very simply with an elderly lady who lives
near him. She was complaining that her gas bill was too high
when Jim interjected with an excellent reframe which changed
her entire meaning around the gas bill. He said:
ae itdoes seem op te t it,

Lames to a pena
. ae
In youa ae your gas bill by abe more
raw fruit and vegetables and end up being healthier, couldn’t
your. : : 5
What a powerful reframe!

This is what you need to do with the 250 production opera-
tives. Work to them means earning money. I’m not suggesting
that you can reframe this meaning in one sentence, as Jim did
with the elderly lady; it takes time and patience where you have
group value systems framing the meaning. But over time you will
want to reframe this meaning of work to a more desired meaning
— one that is more in tune with a learning culture.
A more useful and enjoyable meaning of work might be — work

means friends, money and enjoyment, learning, development,
challenge, achievement. People will make their own meaning,
and so don’t expect everyone to form the same meaning you have
in your mind. Your job is to offer people more choices of think-
ing about work which require more.resourceful states of being
that will begin to produce generative decision making power.
And your job is no longer a decision maker or problem solver,
but an enabler and a coach.
The empowering leader
Staying with the example of the 250 production operatives, we

can begin to define in more detail the new role of the manager,
or the empowering leader. Before going any further however, it
is important to recognize the power of beliefs.
Beliefs are like glue holding values together. The change
process is going to start with melting this glue, and once this
process begins you will be surprised at how quickly people
respond thereafter. Beliefs are like self-fulfilling prophecies. You
may have heard of the Pygmalion effect from Greek mythology.
Pygmalion fell in love with Galatea, the beautiful statue he was
carving. Aphrodite, goddess of love, took pity on him and
rewarded his devotion by bringing her to life. Whatever you
Whatever you
believe, it is true for you. When you look into this phenomenon
believe, it is true there are countless examples of beliefs turning into reality,
for you. whether it’s a limiting belief or positive building belief.
This has two important implications. First, that people will be
hanging on to their existing belief systems which they have been
reinforcing with their perceptual filters, and second, there are
beliefs you will hold about these people. If you believe in them
they will respond. If you do all the things you are supposed to do,
but inside you are telling yourself they will not change, your beliefs
will determine the outcome of your efforts — as a self-fulfilling
prophecy. You must believe sincerely in what you want to achieve!
chapter five
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
@ The leader as teacher
These 250 operatives need to know how to change, and you are
the change agent. Once they have begun to change their beliefs
and take on new values, they will need the capability to change
their behaviour and activate the different responsibilities and
authority you want them to manage. How you interact with
people as their teacher will determine your level of success.
How you interact
When you think of yourself as a teacher, think of drawing out with people as
knowledge rather than putting it in. When people arrive at their their teacher will
own conclusions and decisions, they are much more committed determine your
to seeing them through than anything you can prescribe for level of success.
them. Coaching is the method used to “draw out”. In your role
as teacher, there are three main areas of focus.
1 Identifying opportunities to coach

These can come at any time. As you are establishing a “new
way” you may wish to introduce formal coaching sessions.
However, coaching is best done as the work opportunities
present themselves. Take every advantage of a coaching oppor-
tunity — if you pass up one golden opportunity, make sure your
reason for doing so is fully justified. You can spot a coaching
opportunity where any of the following conditions prevail:
e An employee asks you how to do something

e An employee asks you to do something
e An employee asks for your advice
e Anemployee says “I can’t”
e You are asked for an opinion or decision
e You notice someone doing a task in an ineffective or ineffi-
cient way
e You want to broaden someone’s thinking around a task
e You are participating with employees on a team task
e There is a problem or complaint
2 Agreeing outcomes with people

Make a habit of using well-formed outcomes rather than
objectives. After a while people will begin to use these as a
natural process to consider the wider consequences of their

decisions and actions. Not considering consequences is a
common cause of many problems in business. It’s worth taking
time to make sure your outcomes are well formed.
3 Matching individuals to tasks

Take notice of metaprogrammes and match people to jobs
they will get something out of. Don’t put a small-chunk person
in charge of policy making or an options person on a task re-
quiring lots of repetition. Business is rife with people not
matched with the right jobs, and in large organizations this can
get overlooked resulting in people being trained to do jobs they
don’t particularly enjoy. If you get the right match, you will
then be able to stretch people by providing challenges for them.
@ The leader as coaching enabler
Coaching and enabling go inextricably together. If you are doing

one well, you will by default be doing the other. Your outcome is
to enable people to achieve more, for themselves and for the
business. And you will want to achieve this by drawing out rather
than putting in. There are two basic approaches to on-your-feet
coaching — questioning and suggesting.
Questioning
Always find out what the employee’s outcome is. This seems like
common sense, but it is possible to spend time coaching someone
to achieve an outcome that has not been thoroughly thought
through. Check this out first if you’re not absolutely sure about it
(you might want to remind yourself of the well-formed condi-
tions for outcomes by referring back to Chapter 3). Having satis-
fied yourself that outcomes are well formed, you can begin the
questioning process.
I will not attempt to provide you with all the questions you will
need for all possible coaching situations as this could fill an entire
book in itself, but we can go back to our production operatives
chapter five
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
and imagine that we have identified a coaching opportunity with

one of the line managers (Mary) who has come to you with a
problem. Note that my outcome is formed around Mary’s devel-
opment as a manager, not around Mary’s outcomes for achieving
her targets. I want to develop Mary’s capability to make her own
decisions rather than solve this one decision for her. So the
sensory-based evidence criteria for my outcome is that when I ask
Mary what problems she has been having, she will tell me about
specific problems, and how she has overcome them without my
help.
hn aofthetargetbe ae because I
e cor imissioned in time for tomor-
vhat
is your target for the week?”
youted sofar?”
lingthe plant engineers of the urgency to

hine commissioned, but they won't listen. I
fwhatee todo.The other grungers are running :
Mv er: Vhatis st pping theplant engineers a
— reoP bined infull

They’ 5s job:
shiftonl and this
only gives them a a ae Los won't earntheirae
allowance on i” ‘ oS — :
Dey aeaes se
Moan.can you.imagineae Coe ae to

o happenfor
you to
meet your targets this weeok?”
Mary: “Hmmm. I’ve thought of everything else. The only way

we’re going to do it is if we get that new grunger commis-
sioned, but I can’t see the plant engineers coming over for a
half shift.”
Manager: “What can you see them coming over for?”
Mary: “Well, I know it will hit our budget, but if I put in a

request for maintenance on the widget sorter at the same time,
I could make up a complete shift for them. The work will need
to be done some time.”
Manager: “That seems like a great idea to me. Let me know

how it goes.”
In all these questions the manager has not given Mary a solution.
Mary came up with her own solution, which may not have been
the best one, but it has succeeded in getting Mary to begin
making decisions of this type on her own. Success can only be
truly determined when the manager gets feedback to match
sensory-based evidence criteria.
Suggesting
This approach can be used where the employee is not able to
form his own solution. If you have asked all the probing ques-
tions and still there is no glimmer of an idea, then offer your sug-
gestions, but in a way that the employee almost thinks it is his
solution. Here’s an example using Tom from the production
facility.
Tom: “The scrap rate isgoing up because we are getting con-

taminated raw materials.” |
Manager: “That’s serious. What have you done about it?”
Tom: “I can’t see what I can do about it. Raw (gee aren’t
my Ce
chapter five
POWER
TO THE PEOPLE
Manager: “It happened to me when I worked for ABCo, and I Q

didn’t like yey other people’ : ge problems were affect- They say power
corrupts and perhaps
ing my work. it does. What I know,
| in myself, is quite a
Tom: “That’s how I feel, but nobody cares.” different thing. That
power corrupts the
_ Manager: “T wonder what would happen if someone were to people it is exercised
| over.
write to the supplier and copy it to our purchasing people?” | RAYMOND WILLIAMS
British academic
Tom: “That’s not a bad idea. I would really let them know the
extent of the pO we are having to deal with because of
ag
Manager: “Well, it seems like the best option open to you since
no one else seems to be looking at it.”
Tom: “Hmmm. You’re right. Ill do it now.”
Manager: “Copy me in please, Tom.”
These are just a couple of examples of how a coaching session

might go. The best gift you can give your people is the gift of
personal development and the feeling of success.
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—
EXPLORING YOUR MIND
& Insights to the way people think
= How people interpret what you say
= Representation systems
mg The visual system
g The auditory system
g@ The kinaesthetic system
= Internal dialogue
# Submodalities
Insights to the way people think
NLP hapter 1 looked at your flexibility to respond to behavioural

! am in charge of patterns and processes rather than to the content of a situa-
my mind and tion. Here you will venture further down this route by
therefore my showing you ways in which you can respond to someone’s
results! process, or pattern of thinking, in addition to the content of what
they are saying. If you know the process of a communication, you
are better able to respond in an appropriate style to achieve an
If you know the agreeable outcome, rather than merely reacting to what has been
process of a
said.
communication,
At a macro level, a colleague at a meeting might say, “I have
you are better able
to respond in an noticed that sales of blue shirts have taken a dive again.” In this
appropriate style example, if you were responsible for blue shirts you might
to achieve an respond in a number of ways to this comment. You might be
agreeable defensive and say, “This was anticipated with the current market
outcome. trends” in which case you have merely reacted to the content
with the sole intention of defending yourself. You might be more
detailed with your answer and say, “Yes, we’re down exactly
3 per cent from the budgeted sales figure which is a 6 per cent
year to date adverse variance,” in which case you are still react-
ing to the content of the discussion.
A different response would be to identify the process before
providing information, for example, “Yes, we have all seen the
report, and my team is responding; what I am more interested in
today is coming up with ways to flush out the issues around the
problem we are all here to resolve.” This reply invites the ques-
tioner to assess their own thought process and justify the rele-
vance of the statement. This is just one example to demonstrate
the difference between content and process at the macro level.
People will
Productive communication starts with trust and understand-
reciprocate trust
ing. Trust is a fundamental prerequisite for creating a culture of
only when they
believe managers empowered individuals, and people will reciprocate trust when
understand them they believe managers understand them and their problems.
and their Without understanding and trust, people can be sceptical and sus-
problems. picious of change. You can develop deep rapport, understanding
@
chapter six
EXPLORING YOUR MIND
and trust by matching your own patterns of communication

more closely to the patterns of others you wish to influence.
Rapport is a fundamental requirement for productive commu-
nication. It is based on a principle well known to successful influ-
encers — people like people who are like them. It’s very rare that a
person will buy a product, idea or suggestion from someone they
dislike. This chapter provides an insight to the communication
patterns you can utilize to develop deep rapport with anyone.
How people interpret what you say

\ 2
7 ~
Research has shown that whenever we communicate, only 7 per 7 AY
cent of our message is contained in the words. Thirty-eight per Se = 38%

cent is in the tone of voice, and 55 per cent is in the body lan- Physiology = 55%
guage. Human communication is interpreted through these three
types of expression, and it is the unconscious mind that will
interpret the nonverbal expression. Your conscious mind is more
likely to miss this information entirely, except where the behav-
iour displays strong emotions such as anger and frustration. If
you were to say to one of your employees, “I’m comfortable with
you taking three months to complete this project,” but you know
there is pressure on you to complete it earlier, your body and
tone of voice will supply the majority of the message. In this case ‘
it will be incongruent to the words you are saying and the ip:
employee will unconsciously pick up this 93 per cent of your Being able to
message, which is saying “I am not really comfortable with this.” notice the
The employee could be left confused because of your in- nonverbal
elements of
congruence, and you may find yourself with a staff shortage cn.
communication is
problem later down the line. Being able to notice the nonverbal the first step in
elements of communication, including your own, is the first step understanding the
in understanding the thinking process behind them. thinking process
behind them.
®
Representation systems
We represent information internally by wayof pictures, sounds,

feelings, smells and tastes. Think of it as representing inside our
minds that which we take in through our five senses from the
external territory (refer to Figure 2.2, Chapter 2). Our senses are
our information input channels. As I look out of my window I
notice the leaves falling from the trees, and I can hear a dog
barking in the distance. As my thoughts turn to the feeling of
hunger in my stomach from the smell of dinner roasting in the
oven, the taste of parsnips in my mouth completes the feeling
that autumn has arrived, and I tell myself that summer is almost
over for another year.
Did you follow the route of my sensory experience? Did you
see leaves falling from the trees? Could you taste the parsnips?
Whatever we take in from the external territory we represent
internally by a mix of all our senses. This multisensory input
influences our thought processing. Have you ever woken up in
the morning after having a vivid dream that seemed real? Many
people experience dreams that are so vivid they have difficulty
knowing what was real and what was a dream. This is because the
brain constructs real and imagined experiences in the same way.
The brain
constructs real and Our reality is what we represent in our mind from the external
imagined world around us and is only a perception.
experiences in the Our representational systems influence our thinking, and over
same way. time we develop preferences in the way we use them. In the
western world the primary representation systems are visual,
auditory and kinaesthetic. The olfactory (smell) and gustatory
(taste) systems are more often used as triggers to the other
systems. The smell of dinner roasting triggers a feeling of hunger.
In the eastern world you will find that smell and taste are more
often used as primary systems than in the west, although many
westerners may find this an unusual concept to understand.
chapter six
EXPLORING YOUR MIND
@ Preferred representation system
People think-in all three primary representation systems and

most people have a preference for one over the other two. The
preferred system will be the one that is the most developed and
the one with which more distinctions can be made.
You will find that experts who demonstrate their skill with
ease and excellence are able to make many fine distinctions in the
relevant representation systems. Dancers, for example, will have
a well-developed sense of feeling to help guide their movement.
Artists will have a well-developed visual system and musicians,
a strong auditory system.
You will also find people in all kinds of disciplines with differ-
ing mixes of strengths in each system. Auditory people “like the
sound” of an idea while a visual person would “see the potential”
and a kinaesthetic person might “have a warm feeling” about it.
The systems that are not used as often as the preferred system
often explain why a person experiences difficulty in acquiring
certain skills. Someone with an underdeveloped auditory facility
may struggle to learn a musical instrument.
@ Lead representation system
The lead system is the system used to initially access information.

Once a thought has been accessed by the lead system, the pre-
ferred system takes over the processing. For example, if I were to
ask you how your most recent meeting went, you might first
access a picture you have stored of the people at the meeting, and
then you might tune in to the discussion. In this example, the
visual system was the lead to the preferred auditory system.
Some people have a kinaesthetic lead system to access stored
feelings from memory in order to recreate either visual images or
sounds from an experience. Other people lead with the visual
system and hand over to kinaesthetic for the finer distinctions of
how they felt about an experience. A master chef will have a well-
developed sense of smell and taste with which to make fine
distinctions about food preparation.
It is useful to recognize the differences and to be able to
identify, from certain behavioural cues, how a person is thinking.
The aim is not to stereotype people as auditories, visuals or
kinaesthetics, although while learning we tend to do so; it is
more useful to notice how someone is thinking in the moment
when you want to communicate with them, and there are more
than enough cues to help us do this from sensory-based language,
eye movements, breathing patterns, gestures and voice qualities.
The visual system
People with a well-developed visual system think in pictures.

Their memories will contain more visual detail than feelings or
sounds, and they will more readily describe how people or things
looked than what was said or how they were feeling at the time.
Their visual distinctions will be richer and more detailed than
those of an auditory or kinaesthetic person. About 35 per cent of
the population has a preference for the visual representation
About 35 per cent
of the population
system.
has a preference
for the visual @ Visual language
representation
system. The words people use give strong clues to their preferred system
of representation. For example, a person with a well-developed
visual system might say, “I would like a clearer view of this
project. The picture | have is much too hazy for me to make a
decision.” The term for these sensory-based words is predicates.
Here are some more examples of visual predicates you may hear
people using:
“The future’s sketchy.” “That’s one way of looking at it.”

“Let me picture this.” “That’s a bright idea.”
“ve seen one aspect of this.” “Tt’s not at all clear.”
chapter six
EXPLORING YOUR MIND
“We can see eye to eye.” “Let’s focus on the issues.”

“That’s a dim view to take.” “It’s a sight for sore eyes.”
“I see what you mean.” “Let me reveal the plan.”
“Tt shows promise.” “Let me shed some light on this.”
“Beyond a shadow of a doubt.” “It’s been well scoped out.”
m@ Visual eye movements
If you watch people’s eyes as they are talking, you will notice
many movements — up, down, lateral, fixed gazes and many
other combinations. Research has shown that these eye move-
ments correspond to how we are accessing or processing infor-
mation. There is a direct neurological link between the eye
movements and the different parts of the brain that are used for
different types of thinking. When people are thinking visually
their eyes will be either upward or focused on some point in
space straight ahead. Right-handed people look up to the left
when they are recalling past experiences and up to the right when
they are constructing an image for the first time.
up — right visual construct up — left visual recall
Oe MFIGURE
Eye accessing
cues — visual
representation
system
6.1
Some left-handed people have a reversed left/right configuration.

Once an image has been constructed or recalled, it is sometimes
placed more centrally for further processing. This is the forward
gaze. Try this out for yourself — pose to someone the following
questions and requests while you watch their eye movements.
Watch closely as the movements are often very quick and
darting.
1 Imagine what a green monkey would look like riding on the

back of a blue elephant dressed in a pink ballet costume.
What you might expect to see is a move up — left to get the
pictures of the real animals, then a move up — right to
construct the peculiar image of them all together.
2 What was the design of your bedroom wallpaper you had as a

child?
This should get you a move up — left.
3 What was the weather like five days ago?

You should get another up — left movement.
What did you find? Don’t worry if you got lots of lateral and
downward movements as well; these relate to other modes of
thought which I will cover shortly. When you know what all the
eye movements mean, you will be able to practise reading them.
If you want to develop your visual system, use these eye move-
ments to assist your thinking.
@ Visual breathing, gestures and vocal qualities
Highly visual people breathe from high in the chest area which
makes it shallow and at a faster rate than the breathing of audi-
tory and kinaesthetic breathing. When people are thinking visu-
ally, they gesture upwards with their head, arms and hands. Look
at the photographs and paintings of any well-known visionary
and you will find that in the majority of pictures they are gestur-
ing upward in some way. When I recall pictures of Martin Luther
King, for example, it is with his arms raised upward as if helping
to recreate his “dream”.
A highly visual person is also likely to have a posture that
allows them to look up above the horizon, as this is where the
richest images are created. They take care over how they are
dressed because looking good is much more important than
wearing comfortable clothes. Visual thinking also has some
distinct vocal characteristics. A highly visual person will tend to
chapter six
EXPLORING YOUR MIND
speak quickly to keep up with all the pictures in their mind, and
their voice pitch will be high.
The auditory system
People who have a preference for the auditory system are able to
make more distinctions in sound than in pictures or feelings.
They will often recall the precise words people used in meetings
or presentations, but they may not recall so easily the colour of
the room, the clothes worn by the presenter or how they felt at
the time. They are also more likely to remember vocal character-
istics and any background noise. Auditory people are often easily
distracted by sounds around them since their perceptual filters
are tuned in to listen in preference to seeing and feeling. Around
20 per cent of the population has a preference for the auditory
Around 20 per cent
system. of the population
has a preference
for the auditory
@ Auditory language
system.
Some examples of auditory predicates in commonly used phrases
are:
“T hear you.” “Could you amplify that statement?”

“Let me tune in to this.” _ “Music to my ears.”
“Sounds like a great idea.” “He’s playing the wrong tune.”
“Describe it to me.” “T would like to comment.”
“That rings a bell.” “T'll echo that.”
“T’m all ears.” “That’s a loud statement.”
“Tt’s hush hush.” “We’re in harmony over this.”
“We're on the same “Tt’s loud and clear.”
wavelength.” “Say it word for word.”
“In a manner of speaking.”
m@ Auditory eye movements
When people think in sounds their eyes move laterally left or

right. A lateral left move indicates remembered sounds and

lateral right, constructed sounds.
lateral — right auditory construct lateral — left auditory recall
M FIGURE 6.2
Eye accessing
cues — auditory
representation
system
Try out the following requests on people you know:
1 Recite a nursery rhyme.

This should cause a move laterally to the left.
2 Make up a short tune.

This should cause a move laterally to the right.
If you stimulated other movements either in addition to, or

instead of, the lateral moves, it could mean that your subject used
a kinaesthetic or visual lead system or was extremely weak in the
auditory system. For example, a strong visual person might have
seen themselves reading a nursery rhyme at some specific time in
their past. When you practise with other people, be sure to give
requests rather than ask questions. Invariably, if you ask someone
“can you recite a nursery rhyme?” they may answer yes or no
without checking if they really can remember one the whole way
through. If you give requests or commands, your subject is more
inclined to search for the information and you will notice the eye
movements.
@ Auditory breathing, gestures and vocal qualities
Auditory breathing expands the midchest area. The head is

usually in a well-balanced position, or sometimes leaning to one
side as if listening to something. Gestures may consist of touch-
chapter six
EXPLORING YOUR MIND
ing the ears or lifting the head to listen with more intent. The
voice is usually quite rich with a good tonal range and plenty of
resonance, and it is often pleasant to listen to.
The kinaesthetic system
When people are thinking kinaesthetically they are accessing

feelings. They prefer to “get a feel” for something rather than
About 45 per cent
hear about it or look at a picture. When assessing project
of the population
timescales they are more inclined to go with a “feeling” about the uses the
amount of time allocated than to make a decision based upon kinaesthetic
what they read from a project plan. About 45 per cent of the pop- system as their
ulation uses the kinaesthetic system as their primary system. primary system.
@ Kinaesthetic language
The following are examples of kinaesthetic predicates in com-

monly used phrases:
“T like the feel of that.” “Whip up a storm.”

“Start again from scratch.” “You can feel the pressure.”
“Bite the bullet.” “It’s based on concrete evidence.”
“Smooth out the problems.” “Tt’s a gut feeling.”
“Tll get in touch with you.” “Hang in there.”
“T get your drift.” “T can feel it in my bones.”
“Get a handle on this.” “He’s thick-skinned.”
“Let’s firm up on this.” “We've only scratched the surface.”
“Can you grasp this idea?” “Touch base with me.”
“Dig deep and you'll find it.” “Tt was a heated discussion.”
“We need to move on this one.” “You can sense what’s happening.”
“Keep your shirt on.”
@ Kinaesthetic eye movements
The eye-accessing cue of a kinaesthetic thought process is down

and to the right. This is where the eyes go when you want to get
in touch with your feelings.
Try out the following requests/questions on people you know:
1 Imagine what it feels like to have wet clothing next to your

skin.
2 How do you feel when you are really relaxed?
down - right kinaesthetic system

—
FIGURE 6.3
Eye accessing
cues — kinaesthetic
representation
it
system
You will find that most people use their kinaesthetic system to
check how they feel about certain things. If you found that some
people looked laterally or upward, it could be that they have an
under-developed kinaesthetic system. Have you ever heard
people complaining about their “unfeeling” partners?
@ Kinaesthetic breathing, gestures and vocal qualities
Highly kinaesthetic people breathe deeper and much lower in the

abdomen than visual and auditory people. The head is often
angled down, and the voice tone is deeper. Speech is slower than
with auditory and visual thinking, with frequent pauses to check
how they are feeling about what they are saying and what they
want to say.
Internal dialogue
Talking with oneself is another way of thinking. People who have

developed a preference for this type of thinking often seem
distant from a conversation for long periods because they need to
have internal conversations with themselves to make decisions.
chapter six
EXPLORING YOUR MIND
This is a very time-consuming decision making process compared

to the visual system, where decisions can be made as fast as you
are able to flash comparative visuals through your mind’s
eye. The eye position that gives the cue for internal dialogue is
down - left.
down - left internal dialogue
MFIGURE 6.4
ee x Eye accessing
cues — internal
dialogue
The gesture that is normally associated with internal dialogue is

known as the “telephone position”, with one hand on the side of
the face, the index finger pointing towards the ear, middle finger
under the nose, and thumb under the chin. People who use a lot
of internal dialogue usually read by repeating the written word in
their own dialogue. This is a very slow and ineffective way of
reading compared with a visual strategy which translates the
words into pictures at a much faster pace than dialogue can ever
hope to achieve. You can use your internal dialogue creatively,
for example, using different voices for the characters in a novel
you are reading. |
When you begin to notice how people are thinking, remember
— there is no right or wrong way to think. By observing and uti-
Remember — there
lizing eye accessing cues you can significantly improve the pro- is no right or
ductivity of your communication with people you want to wrong way to
influence. All you have to do is match the other person, so if they think.
are using their visual system when speaking to you, you use the
same system when you reply. This will be covered in more detail
in Chapter 8, “Influence and persuasion”.
Try this exercise to discover your preferred representation

system.
EXERCISE — Representation system questionnaire
For each of the following questions there are three answers. Choose the one
answer that seems most natural to you. Do this quickly, spending no more than
a few seconds on each question by ticking either a, b orc.
1 When you first learn of a new project, do you prefer to initially ...
(a) see the big picture?
(b) talk it over with yourself or others?
(c) get a feel for how it might unfold?
2 When you come up against problems, do you prefer to ...

(a) bounce ideas around?
(b) imagine different perspectives?
(c) talk through the options?
3 When you celebrate successes, do you prefer to ...

(a) broadcast the news?
(b) project a bright picture for everyone to see?
(c) give everyone a pat on the back?
4 When negotiating, do you prefer to ...

(a) debate the options?
(b) imagine the possibilities?
(c) take a flexible stance?
5 At company seminars, do you prefer to ...

(a) grasp the gist of the message?
(b) hear the message word for word?
(c) sketch out the meaning?
chapter six
EXPLORING YOUR MIND
During meetings, do you prefer to ...

(a) observe the views of others?
(b) tune in to other people’s remarks?
(c) feel the thrust of the arguments?
When brainstorming, do you prefer

to ...
(a) take a bird’s-eye view of the situation?
(b) thrash ideas around?
(c) voice suggestions?
When travelling to work, do you prefer to ...

(a) get a feel for how your day will go?
(b) focus on the day ahead?
(c) talk over your daily schedule?
When you need information, do you prefer to ...

(a) talk to an expert?
(b) seek a specialist's view?
(c) use the experience of others?
10 When being challenged, do you prefer to ...

(a) sound out the other person?
(b) get a sense of the other person’s standpoint?
(c) illustrate the other person’s point of view?
11 When you are interviewing for new staff, do you prefer to ...
(a) examine all aspects of their potential?
(b) inquire about the comment in their CV?
(c) get a firm grasp of their experience?
12 When you are preparing to write a proposal, do you prefer to ...

(a) cut a rough draft?
(b) articulate the main topics?
(c) clarify the overall picture?
Use the score sheet on the next page to score your answers. Put a 1 in the box
next to each answer you have chosen and leave the other two answer boxes
blank.
SCORE SHEET
Interpreting your score
Column 1 contains visual modality answers, Column 2 auditory and Column 3

kinaesthetic. The column with the highest score is very likely to indicate your
preferred representation system. It may help you to tune your listening to the right
direction until you get more of a fee/ for representation system cues and see how
you can use them to take your communication skills to new heights.
Submodalities
Imagine for a moment that you are walking barefoot along a

beach. Notice the waves gently lapping around your feet, and
observe the palm trees gently swaying in a warm breeze as the
sound of Caribbean music in the distance has you dancing to its
hypnotic rhythm.
chapter six
EXPLORING YOUR MIND
What kind of picture have you created in your mind as you

were reading this? Do you have a colour picture of a beach or is
it black and white? Is your image still or more like a movie? In
which location in your mind’s eye does it appear? How large is
it? Is it a bright picture or a dim one? How about the contrast?
These qualities of your internal thoughts are called submodal-
ities. You were introduced to submodalities with the Swish
technique in Chapter 2, where you learned that bright colourful
pictures are more motivating than dull black and white ones.
Now let’s go back to your beach scene. Did you hear the music,
and the waves lapping around your feet? Could you feel your feet
sinking into the sand?
Submodialities are created in all the modalities: visual, auditory
(and internal dialogue), kinaesthetic, olfactory and gustatory.
There is no definitive list, only what you are able to experience
subjectively. I have met people who have blue feelings and some
with multicoloured sounds. I’m not going to question that — it’s
their world inside their head, not mine.
Submodalities have a direct link with the intensity of your
experience. One way of experimenting with your submodalities
Submodalities
is to imagine a control panel with a sliding control knob for each
have a direct link
analogue quality (those that can vary over a range like dark to with the intensity
bright), and an on/off switch for each digital quality (those that of your experience.
can only be in one of two states, like switching from a still image
to a movie). How does it feel to have control over your own
mind at this level? Many people endure the same old movies
with the same old sound tracks re-run after re-run. Your internal
dialogue doesn’t have to take over either — you can tame that one
and get rid of the old negative tape loops that seem to run when-
ever they feel like it.
The next time you become aware of internal dialogue that you
would rather not have, move it to another location. Turn down the
volume, turn it off, or change the tone or pitch and find out what
happens. A common NLP cure for insomnia due to incessant inter-
nal dialogue (this is very common among workaholics) is to move
the voice to another location, reduce the volume, lower the tone
and make itilethargic: Try this the next #2995 son Gor yn
Ox: S70 bo Ch ee, Se Wee i See ees
Submodalities
influence your
state. Submodalities directly influence your state. Even with all the
knowledge about how to perform a task or a role, if you are not
making appropriate distinctions, your performance may be suf-
fering. Using visual, auditory and kinaesthetic modes to make
certain distinctions about what is happening in the business is
another way of developing your flexibility.
The key to working with your own submodalities is to:
1 Find out what your own preferred and lead representation

systems are.
Listen to the predicates you use, check how you breathe and
notice your voice qualities. Ask a friend to watch your eye
movements. You could set up your own test with the help of
a friend.
2 Be aware of your own behaviour and recognize from the feed-

back you get where you need to make changes.
Where would you like to have better choices and improve the
results you get?
3 Notice from your own cues what representation systems you

are using to produce the behaviour.
Be fully aware of how your state changes as you begin to
think about these situations. Which system leads you into the
preferred system you use in each of these situations?
4 Use your control panel to change your submodalities or to

change representation systems completely.
Start by making any change. If one change doesn’t work, try
another, and another. -
Here’s a list of some of the more common submodalities in each

of the three main representation systems.
chapter six
EXPLORING YOUR MIND
Visual submodalities
Associated or dissociated Depth (two- or three-dimensional)
Colour or black and white Focus
Location Transparent or opaque
Size Orientation (tilt, angle)
Size of yourself (in the picture) The number of different images
in relation to the overall
image
Contrast Moving or still
Framed or panoramic Speed of movement
Brightness Magnification of separate objects
Auditory submodalities
Volume Duration
Location of sounds Clarity
Words or other sounds or both Pitch
Stereo or mono Resonance
Tone
Kinaesthetic submodalities
Pressure Shape
&
Half our mistakes in
Location Texture life arise from feeling
where we ought to
Weight Temperature think, and thinking
Local or whole body sensation Intensity where we ought to
feel.
J. CHURTON COLLINS
Everything begins with a thought, and how you manifest your (1848-1908)
English author, critic,
thoughts with internal images, sounds and dialogue has an scholar
impact on the decisions you make. Having an effective thought
process is a much valued attribute in business, but when you con-
sider the many variations and differences possible between indi-
viduals is it any wonder why communication often fails to have
the intended effect? But when you have learned how to modify
your own communication process you can begin to communicate
in ways which convey the meaning you truly intend to get across,
and do it with increasing elegance.
The more you tune in to others’ communication preferences

the more you will be understood, and the more impact you will
have. One of the most basic needs we have as human beings is the
need to be understood. When you are able to convey understand-
ing to people they will trust you more, and as a consequence your
sphere of influence within the group or organization will grow.
THE POWER OF WORDS
a Intention, purpose and outcome
= How true is your language to your experience?
g What’s your chunk size?
g Artfully vague language
@ Frame your thinking
= Reframe your thinking
# Learn to learn with metaphor
= Is what you say congruent with what you do?

Q) anguage is our universal system for communicating mean-

ing, understanding and experience to each other. Earlier |
The stroke of the whip
maketh marks in the said that the words you use account for only 7 per cent
flesh: but the stroke of of meaning, and yet it is with this small amount that we can
the tongue breaketh
the bones. Many have pack tremendous power into our communication. In ancient
fallen by the edge of
the sword: but not so
eastern wisdom, words are often referred to as arrows that,
many as have fallen once they have left the bow, will strike their target with great
by the tongue.
APOCRYPHA
impact.
Ecclesiasticus You may have experienced the negative effects of words from
an authoritarian, unfeeling despot, or more indirectly by a leader
gp unable to represent the thoughts of others. All communication

has a power rating, and this chapter contains many ways in which
All communication
you can increase the rating of your communication to ecologi-
has a power rating.
cally accomplish your outcomes.
Language is a tool that can be abused, or used positively to
apply leverage in situations and help you move towards your
goals. It is a diagnostic tool and a tool of influence and persua-
sion. It provides clues to the thinking patterns and processes of
others, and the way you use it can either constrain or enhance
your flexibility. There are people who have become skilled in the
art of discussion and debate, who enjoy the act of talking with no
particular end in mind other than to put forward an opinion,
argument or proposition, or merely to fill space with words.
Intention, purpose and outcome
Language is one of the perceptual filters that generalize, distort

and delete sensory information and help to form your own
Thought and
speech are almost
unique version of reality. Language conforms to a specific struc-
synthesized into ture and a set of rules which help to sequence words so that you
one process. can be understood by others, and these rules are so deeply
embedded into your unconscious that thought and speech are
almost synthesized into one process.
Whenever we open our mouths, words might come out, and
once they’re out it’s too late to change them — like arrows leaving
©
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
a bow. If only it were possible to backtrack and choose our words

more wisely, we could significantly improve our communication
skill. Words have an instant effect on the people listening. To
demonstrate this point, imagine a person saying something as
innocent as “People who tow trailers are a nuisance on the road,”
to which a listener replies, “I tow a trailer,” and the first speaker
responds with, “Well, they’re not all nuisances; it’s mainly the
large commercial caravans that I object to.”
The initial words that were uttered would have an effect on the
listener. Do you think the listener will believe the first statement
or the second? Words must be chosen wisely. Communication is
effective when it is designed to achieve a higher purpose than any
one individual statement and when there is also a clear intention
behind the use of each word. All communication has an intention Ap:
behind it, but often we find the intention may not be useful. It
All communication
may even be unconscious, such as the need to be listened to, of
has an intention
which the speaker will be unaware. An engineering manager I behind it.
used to know would hijack any meeting by talking almost
nonstop. His continual banter was a commentary of his experi-
ences which quickly digressed from the business in hand. There If you have no
was clearly no conscious effort to produce words with higher conscious
intentions and purpose. intention, your
autopilot will
I can only guess that the intention of his autopilot was perhaps
decide one for you,
to convince others of the depth of his experience. If you have no
which may be
conscious intention, your autopilot will decide one for you, incongruent with
which may be incongruent with your goals. your goals.
How true is your language

to your experience?
If we understand where language lets us down, we will know

where to begin looking to improve communication. The NLP
model of communication in Chapter 2 explained how language
filters your experience. If I were to tell you about a recent trip
I made to Germany, filling in every moment of my experience —
the size, shape, colour of the hotel, the type of windows it had,
all my conversations with waiters, the weather each day, etc. —
you would become bored very quickly. So I select what I consider
the highlights and leave out the rest. .
We do this all the time, and often the words we use to create
brevity actually change the meaning of. our original thoughts by
generalizing, deleting and distorting the original memory.
Language can be thought of as the surface structure of our expe-
rience, and the thoughts that were formed when we had the
experience are the deeper structure. Words can never be the orig-
inal experience they seek to represent — they are too far removed
from it. First we have an experience, which we represent with
our internal representation systems, and when we want to talk to
others about the experience, we recall the sensory information
NLP from memory and communicate it to others in words. The words
The words we use we use are not the event or the item they represent. Our memo-
are not the event ries contain all our judgements, opinions and perceptions we
or the item they applied to our original experience.
represent. Let’s take a look at some ways to upgrade the power rating of
your communication.
What’s your chunk size?
Communication takes place on different levels. See how many

different levels you can detect in this conversation among a
group of accountants.
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
open mouth and utter surface structure

the chosen words of conscious A
language
[asa
generalize |
deep structure
recail the memory Bf Uinconecions
thought
internal representation
of sensory information |
stored in memory /
mFIGURE 7.1
Surface and deep
structure
In this example some of the accountants are referring to details

(three-minute phone call and stationery costs) and others to
much bigger concepts (year-end results, phone companies’
profits). If we were to talk about transport, the transport system
is a large chunk (global), and the bus that takes me to work is a
small chunk (specific). You may recall from Chapter 4 a metapro-
gramme based on this concept.
If you were to draw a
chart of the changing levels,
it might look like this:
information
size
chunk
Jim Ken Sarah Kim
conversation progress
Some people prefer to speak globally, while others prefer to be

specific. Flexible communication requires the ability to chunk
up, down or laterally depending upon the situation. Just staying
at one level is certainly inflexible. Politicians are experts at this.
If you were to ask a politician a relatively small-chunk question
like “what are you going to do about income tax?”, a common
evasive response would be to chunk upward, i.e. “income tax is
but one element in the fight to keep inflation under control
which we have always said will remain at the top of the political
agenda for some years to come, and our record over the past five
years clearly demonstrates that we have got it right.”
This response chunked up from income tax to inflation.
A lateral move remains at the same chunk size. Figure 7.2
demonstrates all three moves — up, down and lateral with the
question that triggers the move in each direction.
upward (general)
communication
nie
example eal
of?
What are other

examples lateral
of this?
5 ; motor
anking || food retail | nourance
bank i | mot |g
merchant
banking What is an
example of
this?
share dealing
acme shares
M FIGURE 7.2 my acme shares

Stepping up, down
| downward (specific)
and laterally
©
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
You will find that some people have the flexibility to move
around and relate to people using a mix of chunk sizes. Other
people seem to get stuck in either big picture or detail. People
who are stuck in detail have a lot to say, and when they get going
may not know when to stop. Their conversations can be quite
cluttered and may seem tedious to other people. People who are
stuck in big picture tend to have shorter conversations as they
don’t feel the need to explain and describe things fully. As a
manager you want to have the flexibility to move up, down and
across this model depending upon what the situation calls for.
Most importantly, as your career progresses and you become
more involved in business aims and strategies, you will need the
ability to think and speak in big chunks. Managers who are stuck
in detail tend to interfere in the work of their staff as they find it
hard to let go of the details.
If you are addressing a large group of people, it is often best to
keep your information to a large-chunk size and avoid specifics.
This allows people to put their own meaning to your words, and
you will avoid getting tied up with specific details and technical-
ities. Chunking up will help you to create direction for your team
by defining global objectives for the business. Once you have
described these it’s just a matter of chunking down until you
reach the level at which your part of the organization operates.
Be aware of your own preference for chunk size, and notice
the preferences of other people. Developing your ability to
move up, down and across will increase the flexibility of your
communication.
Artfully vague language
If you chunk up and stay there, your conversations will be “art-

fully vague”. This is the language of presidents, politicians, pro-
fessional orators, hypnotherapists and CEOs. It is the language
that Hitler, Martin Luther King and Gandhi all used to pursue
their very different aims. Artfully vague language is a powerful
language when used with intention. It is powerful because it uses

words that have no specific meaning and which anyone can
believe. It uses gross generalizations, deletions and distortions
that give a general message while allowing individuals to apply
their own specific meaning.
Company mission statements are built from artfully vague lan-
guage so that they can have meaning for the whole organization.
If mission statements were specific they would be so lengthy no
one would take any notice of them. Consider this mission state-
ment — “we aim to be number one”. It doesn’t say very much at
all, but its meaning can permeate through the organization, being
interpreted by each person in their own way. Artfully vague lan-
1Grinder, Bandler and guage is known as the Milton Model’ in NLP after the late
DeLozier, Patterns of
the hypnotic
Milton Erickson, who was recognized around the world for
techniques of Milton being a highly effective and unconventional hypnotherapist.
H. Erickson, M.D.,
Vols I and II, Meta
Publications, 1975,
1976. @ The Meta Model
The Meta Model is the antidote to artfully vague language.

Clearly there will be many times where specificity is required,
such as a group problem-solving session where measurement is
an important criterion. The Meta Model provides the tests to
recover information which has been generalized, distorted and
deleted by our perceptual filters. It is known as the precision tool
and is often likened to a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting in precisely the
right place and dissecting to remove diseased tissue.
There will be times when you will want to be artfully vague,
speaking at a large convention or sending a note of commenda-
tion to a company division, for example. There will be other
times when you will want to use the Meta Model to get agree-
ment on an important detail with someone who is generalizing. I
will run through each of the Milton Model language patterns and
give the Meta Model test with an example for each one. The
examples given are not intended to demonstrate what to say in
any particular context, but to show you various artfully vague
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
patterns, and the Meta Model responses that suggest what is

missing. The specific responses given here are not intended to be
used as shown, as to do so will probably blow any rapport you
have managed to create. It is up to you to decide how to bring the
focus onto the missing information depending upon your situa-
tion and your outcome. I suggest you couch your question or
statement in such a way that it causes no offence, and can be
taken as an intelligent and curious remark. In this way you are
more likely to have a positive influence on the other person. To
just use the examples as given here may alienate the other person.
#@ Nominalizations
Take the word flexibility, which should be a familiar word to you

by now, and ask ten people from your organization what it
means to them. I guarantee you will get ten different answers
(and some may well surprise you). The word flexibility belongs
to a category of words called “nominalizations”, which are
process words that have been changed into nouns, i.e. to “flex”
(process) and the state of “flexibility” (noun). Using words like
this allows people to add their own meaning, from their own
model of the world. Here’s a nominalized speech:
“T have a great admiration and respect for the Southern team

whose delivery of our new system has set new standards of per-
formance and redefined what success means to our company.”
(The words in italics are nominalizations.)
Now here are the Meta Model responses to this which result
from changing the noun back into a process:
e How do you admire them?

e How do you show your respect?
e How did they deliver and to whom did they deliver?
e How exactly did they perform?
e What did they succeed at?
m@ Unspecified nouns
This pattern deletes specific “who” and “what” information as in

the following examples:
“They will have it ready by next Tuesday.”

“The entire project was chaotic from beginning to end.”
“Managers should lead from the front.”
“Accountants shouldn’t be trusted with these matters.”
And the Meta Model responses:
Who will have it ready?

Which project? What was chaotic about it?
Which managers? Who or what should they lead? Whose front?
Which accountants shouldn’t be trusted? What matters?
m@ Unspecified verbs
This is simply a deletion of the “how” information, for example:
“We launched the product.”

“The order was finally completed.”
“We are doing our best.”
“We are taking an aggressive approach in this marketplace.”
How specifically did you launch the product?

How specifically was the order completed?
How precisely are you doing your best?
How explicitly are you taking an aggressive approach?
@ Lost performative
These are value judgements and you can notice them in just about
every sentence uttered by a politician. Examples: are: “It's
absolutely clear that we got this policy right”; “The future of this
industry is secure”; “We have the best health system in the
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
western world.” These statements are all judgements that can

have an enormous impact when used in a high level address or
presentation. If you consider any dispute where the parties
involved have different values, you will hear an abundance of lost
performatives.
Here are some more examples:
® “We have the best IT system on the market today.’ >
e “Our service is falling behind our competitors.”

e “It’s obvious that what we need to do is diversify.”
© “She’s clearly out in front of the rest.”
e According to whom?
e Who says so?
e It’s obvious to whom?
e To whom is it clear she is out in front?
@ Comparisons
One of our human traits is the ability to make comparisons. We

continually look around us for similarities or differences. This is
a fundamental part of our brain’s processing function. Yet often,
in conversation, part of the information we use for comparison
gets left out. Here are some examples:
“It’s better to take this approach.”

“You'll find the sales are increasing significantly.”
“We’re the best team for the job.”
“She’s an ideal candidate.”
e Better compared with what?

e Increasing compared against what?
e Best with respect to what?
e Ideal compared with whom?
@ Mind reading
This pattern is about assuming you know what another person is

thinking. Let’s suppose you are in a meeting and, as you follow
the line of discussion, you become concerned that a project you
were managing is coming under close scrutiny and some criti-
cism. You may begin to have thoughts about the relationship
between you and the critics, perhaps one of them appears to be
attacking more than the others. It could be the tone of voice or
the body language that you are responding to, and suddenly you
find yourself thinking “he’s got it in for me”.
This is a classic mind read. How do you know he has it in for
you? It would be more useful to notice both the verbal and non-
verbal cues without attaching meaning. For example:
c Ww‘voice has a sharp edge tore
os we byin ae two of the project.
Assuming anything further than this is tempting fate. If your

project is being torn into, you will need your mind’s processing
power for rational analysis of the situation, so better not to waste
it on mind reading. Even worse, while you are mind reading you
are deleting lots of other information that could be useful to you.
Here is another example:
goinigto beand, li you won

u 7.want
tant announcement wh ich you have all been
e How do you know we are all wondering?

e How do you know I won’t want to miss the announcement?
@ How do you know we have been waiting for the announcement?
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
@ Cause and effect
This pattern involves one thing having a causal relationship to

another — A causes B. The problem sometimes created with this
pattern is the construction of cause/effects that act as limitations.
For example, compare “the sun makes the flowers grow” with
“the CEO makes me nervous”. The former is a biological act of
nature where the sun contributes to the process of photosynthe-
sis having a direct biological effect on the flowers. In the latter
case, it is not the CEO that causes nervousness — there is no direct
biological link. Flowers cannot choose to photosynthesize, but
you can choose your “state” of mind in response to the way you
interpret the world.
Using the Meta Model on your internal dialogue will help you
to retain control of your state. The Meta Model challenge to the
previous example would be “how exactly does the CEO make
you nervous?” or you could say “how do you manage to make
yourself nervous when you’re with the CEO?”
e “If I took a holiday the work would suffer.”

e “Meetings make me tired.”
e “Involving the workforce will make many improvements.”
e How would your taking a holiday cause the work to suffer?

e How do you manage to make yourself tired when you’re at
meetings?
e How will involvement lead to improvements?
= Complex equivalence
This pattern involves two statements that are given the same
meaning. For example, “Your being here means we can start to
make progress.” Making progress is attributed to your being here.
“Arriving late means you have no respect for me.”

“I can tell you’re angry by your tapping foot.”
“These results mean we can relax for a while.”
“Being in the top team means we can be proud of ourselves.”
e How does being late mean I have no respect for you?

e How have you come to the conclusion that my tapping foot
means I am angry?
How do the results mean that we can relax?
e How does being in the top team mean we can be proud?
@ Presupposition
These are the assumptions we use from day to day that must be
true for our language to make sense. For example, “we’ll pull out
all the stops on this campaign” presupposes that on other cam-
paigns not all of the stops were pulled out. Here are some more:
e “Are you using Acme Ltd to market the new product?”

(presupposes I am going to market a new product).
e “When you have my experience you’ll understand my
decision” (presupposes I don’t have your experience and |
don’t understand your decision).
e “Are you going to pilot the project in the north or the south?”
(presupposes I am going to pilot the project).
e “You have made the same mistake as everyone else” (pre-
supposes everyone else has made this mistake).
8 What makes you think I have decided to market the product?

@ What makes you think I don’t have your experience?
e How do you know I don’t understand your decision?
e What leads you to believe I am going to pilot this project?
@ How do you know everyone else has made this mistake?
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
@ Universal quantifiers
These are patterns of generalization and include words like all,

never, every, none, everyone and always. Take “all politicians are
untrustworthy”. This statement applies a belief about politics to
all possible political activities.
Generalizing is a way of taking a statement that was probably
used to describe one experience and applying it to cover all pos-
sibilities. Often these statements are opinions or beliefs, and
when we apply these to all possibilities there is a high risk of cre-
ating limitations to our thinking process and therefore limiting
our flexibility. Here are some examples:
“We must all increase our productivity.”

“Sales have taken a fall this year.”
“Managers don’t understand us.”
“T can’t getget peop
people to cooperate
p with me.”
“Property is too expensive in this area.”
All?
Have all sales taken a fall?
Has one manager ever understood you?
Isn’t there one person who will cooperate?
All property?
@ Generalizations
In addition to the universal quantifiers there are a host of other

generalizations. Many words used in business are just generaliza-
tions of an idea or concept. Ask people what quality means and
they will probably come up with statements they have learned like
“setting it right first time” or “signing your work with excellence”.
Generalizations are useful for global communication.
However, the corporate speak of mission statements and strategy
must, at some stage, be translated into language that people
can relate to and help them make smart decisions that move the
business forward. Otherwise mission statements will remain just

empty, useless words.
@ Modal operators of necessity
From early childhood we are conditioned to conform to rules. I

remember from my own first months at infant school being told
where I must and mustn’t go; where I ought to be at certain
times; what I had to say when addressing teachers; what I should
and shouldn’t do when in the playground. And this conditioning
stays with us throughout our lives. We create order in our envi-
ronment by imposing rules and procedures on ourselves and
others. Sometimes the language we choose to build our rule
structures and moral code restricts our flexibility.
The modal operators you choose have an influence on your
motivation. Someone who thinks “I must complete the order
today” is more likely to get the job done than a person who
thinks “I might get this order completed today.”
If you are finding it difficult to motivate yourself to do some-
thing, check out the modal operators you are using. A shift from
might through must to will can make a big difference, especially
when you also use the submodalities of will from some other task
in which you are highly motivated. Use this with the sixth
strategy state (Chapter 4) to add even more power to your state
of motivation.
Modal operators of necessity usually contain the words
ought/ought not, should/shouldn’t, must/mustn’t, i.e. “I mustn’t
be late finishing this report.” The Meta Model response to a
modal operator of necessity is simply “what would happen if you
(did/didn’t)/(were/were not)?”
@ Modal operator of possibility
These patterns determine the boundaries of what is possible and

impossible for you. In Chapter 1, the first two responses to the
square peg in the round hole problem contained modal operators
of possibility - “I can’t do that” and “Yes I can do that.” You
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
probably set a great many limitations for yourself with these

simple words. I’m not suggesting you can do anything you wish —
some things are physically impossible because of the laws of
nature, such as walking on water. However, much potential
remains suppressed because of limiting beliefs, and you can notice
these through language and the choice of modal operators.
Any time you find yourself using the word can’t, ask yourself if
it is a physical limitation or whether the words won’t or haven’t
learned yet are more appropriate. As I mentioned in chapter 1,
can’t is a disempowering word, except where it is used to negate
a limitation such as “you can’t not succeed”. Here are some
examples of this pattern:
“T can’t manage this workload.”
“We mustn’t upset the applecart.”
“Tt’s impossible to get through to him.”
“They can’t see my argument at all.”
And the Meta Model responses are:

What prevents you from managing it?
What could happen if you did upset it?
What stops you from getting through?
What prevents them from seeing it?
Milton Model language contains many more subtleties than I
have so far mentioned in this chapter. Developing rapport,
pacing and leading, influencing, and offering more behavioural
choices are ways of using it, and in the following two chapters I
will introduce you to some practical applications.
To end this section on Milton Model and Meta Model, here’s
a short extract of Gordon Brown’s keynote speech to the Fabian
Future of Britishness conference of 14 January 2006. Have a go
at identifying the Milton Model language and apply the appro-
priate Meta Model responses. Have fun.
c hallengeseine
our country — our relationships with Europe, America and the

rest of the world; how we equip ourselves for globalization;
the future direction of constitutional change; a modern view
of citizenship; the future of local government, ideas of local-
ism; and, of course, our community relations and multicultur-
alism and, since July 7th, the balance between diversity and
integration; even the shape of our public services — you must
have a clear view of what being British means, what you value
about being British and what gives us purpose as a nation.”
The language patterns of Milton Model and Meta Model can be

used in a variety of ways. There are no strict rules for when you
should or should not use a particular pattern. It all depends on the
outcome you want to achieve, your intention and your higher
purpose. There will be times when artfully vague language will
move you towards your outcome and times when the precision of
the Meta Model is the most appropriate tool. However you decide
to use these tools, take notice of the following health warning.
Using both types of language to excess will result in a severe
breakdown of rapport. There is little else in this life as infuriating
as someone who perpetually bombards you with the latest tech-
nique learned from a training course, and the Meta Model can
have a particularly devastating effect. Practise these patterns with
yourself as a continual challenge to your internal dialogue, and
apply a high degree of subtlety when using them with other
people. You can use your own words — whatever you are most
comfortable with — it’s your outcome that is important.
Frame your thinking
Frames are like aspects. If I look out of the front window of my

house I get an aspect of the driveway and trees in the distance. If
I look out of the back window I get an aspect of the garden and
trees beyond.
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
Information frames are useful for thinking from different

aspects. I will introduce you to six frames which I have found to
be most useful, although there really is no limit on the types of
frames which you could design for a particular context.
You can use information frames either to clarify and focus
your own thinking or the thinking of a group, a client or an
employee. Frames are used frequently to help keep meetings on
track. Figure 7.3 shows six different frames.
information
frames
relevancy
challenge
evidence
M@ FIGURE 7.3
Information frames
@ Ecology frame
It is useful to switch to this frame when you sense ecological

issues are being overlooked. This means being thoughtful of pos-
sible negative consequences in the wider system in which the
issue under discussion is a part. So for example, a suggested
product variation based on costs may have negative conse-
quences on suppliers, customers, distributors and servicing.
Some questions to ask from within this frame would be:
e What other consequences could there be if we make this decision?

e How will this decision affect the wider system?
e Who else should we involve in this decision?
NLP is often referred to as “the study of consequences” and the

ecology frame ensures that all consequences of an intention are
considered. Sometimes you may get an unsettling feeling about a

decision with no real evidence to back up a postponement. This
is your signal of incongruence cutting in and warning you that
something has been overlooked. A switch to the ecology frame
could avoid a potential future blunder.
@ Outcome frame
Outcomes were covered in detail in Chapter 3. The purpose of

this frame is to keep thinking focused on agreed aims while con-
sidering other possible outcomes. It is often necessary to remind
people of outcomes when activity begins to wander off track.
m@ Relevancy challenge frame
At times it is important to keep full concentration on achieving

an outcome, and you may sense a comment or an action that
takes you off track. The relevancy challenge frame is similar to
the outcome frame in that its purpose is to maintain focus. The
relevancy challenge is used in an immediate way as soon as a
deviation is sensed. Practise this with your own thinking when it
is important to keep focused for an extended period of time.
Questions to ask are:
e How does this/that help achieve the outcome?

e What relevance does this/that have to the outcome?
@ Evidence frame
Sometimes you may find yourself, or your group, arriving at

decisions without sufficient reason for doing so. In these situa-
tions the evidence frame will clarify your purpose and intention.
This is a useful frame for improvement groups and problem
solvers in general who need evidence with which to make com-
parisons between current and desired states. You will find the
evidence frame useful for testing your own assumptions and
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
actions. Are you moving towards achieving an outcome that

has measurable. evidence criteria? What evidence is there to
determine how far you are from your outcomes?
& As-if frame
The purpose of the as-if frame is to stimulate creativity. This is a

useful frame where you have major personal decisions to make
like job moves, additional roles or company moves. Visualizing
yourself as-if you have made the change by running the movie in
your mind will help to highlight the part of the change that is
generating the incongruence signal.
As-if frames are also ideal for creativity workshops and sce-
nario planning sessions. The question to ask is “What could
Happeniticn 7
@ Backtrack frame
This frame is used to clarify understanding of previous informa-

tion before proceeding further. It is used to deepen rapport
through reflection of the words, tonalities and gestures used by
others (these points will be covered in greater detail in the
next chapter). It is also useful as a coaching tool to enhance the
thinking of others.
For example, consider a coaching session where the outcome
is to develop problem-solving abilities while working on a
performance objective:
/ Mana cigar inner:

9 approach the ae board for ar S
oe agreer entto begin stage two.”
Manager: “What do you need to do in order to achieve :
that?” (backtrack)
Employee: “Send them a detailed and costed plan.”
Manager: “That’s right — and what will you need to
produce the plan?” (backtrack)
Employee: “I'll need resource allocation reports from engi-

neering and up-to-date costs for materials and
labour.” >
Manager: “How do you propose to go about getting
_. them?” (backtrack) etc... etc... etc.
Reframe your thinking
To reframe is to change the meaning about something which

causes a change in perception and attitude and opens up new
possibilities. This is a powerful technique for which there are
many examples in everyday business life - for example, the
meeting with an unsettling authoritarian could mean that “you
interact from a defensive position with safety and survival in
mind”. Reframed to mean “a challenge to discover how much
you can influence the person toward your ideas” would put you
in a more resourceful state and would certainly influence your
behaviour and therefore the outcome of the meeting.
A keynote speaker late for an important business conference
walked onto the stage 45 minutes late and said, “It’s not that I’m
late — I’m here as a result of foresight — you see my scheduled
flight was delayed four hours, but luckily I decided to drive so
that I could give my very sick neighbour a lift to the hospital.
Had I taken my scheduled flight I would not be here at all, and
perhaps neither would my neighbour. Thank you for your
patichees =
Many business problems are divergent by nature, which can
cause managers to suffer from the symptoms of stress. Albert
Einstein’s belief that “in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”
offers these managers a superb reframe for divergent problem sit-
uations. Working with opportunities is much more rewarding than
working with problems — and the attitude is much healthier too.
I have found enormous interest in reframing from my manage-
ment students. It is often seen as a quick remedy for negativity
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
and cynicism. Earlier you were introduced to a number of

reframing examples, one of which was a reframe around the
meaning of work. In one workshop we were dealing with the
meaning of cynicism with a small group of managers who had
been with the company for many years. Their problem was that
they had seen and heard it all before. It didn’t work last time and
it won't work this time. They're making decisions in the dark.
These were some of the phrases they were using.
They were not in a resourceful state for learning and they
agreed it was because they were cynical about any change which
top management introduced. I could have chosen to work with
their meaning of work, but it was much easier working with their
meaning of cynicism. I first got them all to agree that cynicism
meant they had seen it all before and showed little confidence in
top management. | then used a higher chunk within an evidence
frame and a change of perceptual position to unsettle this
meaning by saying, “If you have little confidence in your top
team, who by the way have demonstrated their ability to grow a
successful company (higher chunk) which pays your wages and
expenses every month (evidence), then who can you put your
confidence in?” This rattled them a little as I continued with
“And just imagine how the top team might interpret your cyni-
cism” (second perceptual position). “What words do you think
they might come up with for how you are reacting to their
plans?”
This did the job. You could see the change taking place as they
admitted their cynicism had been holding them back. They
approached the remainder of the workshop positively and began
to discuss problems rationally with each other. The change of
meaning about their cynical attitude helped them to realize how
unproductive they had been — knocking top management rather
than dealing with the problems.
Learn to learn with metaphor
Prince Llewelyn lived in a castle in Wales. One day the prince

went out, leaving his faithful and trusting dog Gelert to watch
over his young son and protect him from the wolves roaming
freely in the nearby forest. When the prince returned to the
castle, he found to his horror that his son was missing from his
overturned cradle. There were bloodstains around the cradle and
on the floor. He turned to find Gelert who was panting heavily
with blood around his mouth. Distressed and fearing the worst,
the prince drew his sword and stabbed Gelert through the heart.
The prince’s head dropped and his heart sank at what had hap-
pened, then from behind a curtain he heard a cry. It was his son,
alive and well, standing next to the dead body of a wolf.
Metaphor is one of the earliest and most effective forms of
learning. This story of Gelert the faithful dog can be used to
teach the consequences of jumping to conclusions. The right
metaphor, when told in an appropriate context, can deliver an
extremely powerful learning message to the unconscious mind.
Metaphors are memorable and can contain emotions as well as
learning. Humour is ideally suited to metaphor. A great
metaphor delivered well can lead an audience through many
emotional states, from humour to heartbreak.
Is what you say congruent

with what you do?
Q) The notion of congruence has been referred to a number of times

already in previous chapters. It is something that, like ecology,
Speak clearly, if you
speak at all; winds and twists around every element of NLP. It is important to
Carve every word
before you let it fall.
cover congruence in the context of language because of the huge
DR. OLIVER WENDELL impact it can have on organizational effectiveness.
HOLMES (1809-94)
Mistrust is often the cause of incongruence which leads to
American writer and
physician decreased performance. Often people don’t seem to recognize
chapter seven
THE POWER OF WORDS
when they are being incongruent. Yet other people pick up these
signals unconsciously and respond accordingly. The director who
sends all his managers on coaching and mentoring training, and
yet continues to communicate in a dictatorial way will transmit
strong signals of incongruence between what he says and what he
does.
Congruence requires a manager to become a paragon for
others to follow. The old statements of leadership apply — lead by
example, set standards for others, be a role model for others. If
you are incongruent in your communication, then expect puz-
zling behaviour and low levels of creativity from your employees.
If you are congruent, accept the respect others will give to you.
——
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Ans. yolaa om
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4
INFLUENCE
AND PERSUASION
= Are you a trusting person?
mg Like me - like you
= Rapport
= Sensory information
mg Pacing
m Leading
@ Anchoring
Q) usiness runs on decisions and interactions between people.

From strategic decisions made by the board of directors
We are not won by
arguments that we to the everyday decisions of managers and employees, the
can analyse but by
well-being of any organization depends upon the quality of
tone and temper, by
the manner which is interaction and decision making.
the man himself.
In modern work environments a person’s contribution 1s more
SAMUEL BUTLER
(1835-1902) valued than their status. The command and control style of man-
English author aging is rapidly becoming redundant, although some managers
still struggle with how to make this a reality. Using rank to ensure
compliance is an old-fashioned idea - a relic from Victorian
times. Even the armed forces these days prefer to use modern
motivation principles rather than rely on rank and authority.
Compliance is fast being replaced by involvement and participa-
tion, and alongside this change in management style you have a
change in influencing methods.
To belong to an organization and have no influence over its
operations is to be subservient to the ideas of others. “Yes men”
Business today
are like this — docile, passive and compliant. Business today
needs fewer “yes
men” and more
needs fewer “yes men” and more creative people who are pre-
creative people pared to take risks, try new angles and stretch the horizons of
who are prepared possibility. To do this requires a questioning mind, a passion for
to take risks, try difference and change, and an ability to align others behind your
new angles and thinking.
stretch the
Galileo was a brilliant scientist whose curious mind led him to
horizons of
discover that, contrary to the beliefs of the Catholic church in the
possibility.
seventeenth century, the Earth was not an unmoving mass at the
centre of the universe. Sadly, Galileo did not have the ability to
influence his contemporaries and his published work “dialogue
on two world systems” led to his being placed under house arrest
for the remainder of his life.
To influence requires a respect for the other person’s model of
the world. It also needs integrity, patience and understanding.
Toinfluence
requires a respect
Without these qualities your attempts to influence others may
for the other be perceived as manipulative, in which case, like Galileo, your
person’s model of proposals are likely to fall on deaf ears. This brings us back to
the world. intention and purpose. If you have a worthwhile purpose with
©
chapter eight
INFLUENCE AND PERSUASION
well-formed outcomes, and if your intention is biased towards

the business and not towards political gain, then you have the
necessary basic principles for influencing respectfully.
Are you a trusting person?
People will allow themselves to be influenced by people they

trust. This doesn’t apply only to the people you want to motivate
in your team, but to anyone you want to influence. The opposite
is also true. Have you ever made a major purchase from someone
you didn’t trust? I doubt it. In fact when faced with a choice,
most people would rather buy a product which just falls short of
meeting their needs from someone they trust, than buy an ideal
product from someone they don’t.
Having integrity of purpose and honest intentions will be
rewarded with trust, yet this is still not enough. There is a capa-
Having integrity of
bility you can develop which is equally as fundamental and
purpose and
important as trust — “being liked”. It is possible to trust someone honest intentions
and to dislike them, although trusting and liking are often closely will be rewarded
linked. Do you have friends that you don’t trust to return items with trust.
you have loaned them? If a person trusts you and likes you, the
basic requisites for influence are established.
Like me — like you
A very good friend of mine has a great ability to be like the person
or group he is with. I have observed him discussing strategy with
CEOs, swapping gossip with the cleaning lady, telling dirty jokes
to engineers, and engaging a Chinese chef in the culinary subtleties
of Cantonese food. Like a chameleon that changes colour to blend
in with its environment, he has the life experience and behavioural
flexibility to blend in with whoever he is interacting with.
People like people who are like them, and they are cautious of
people who are not like them. The more you are like someone,
the better understanding you will have of their model of the

world. It’s a dynamic on which all people base their social activi-
ties and relationships — it is deep rooted in our psyche. Liking and
trusting is what happens between people when they have rapport
with each other. Rapport can be left to happen naturally, or you
can have the behavioural flexibility to generate it intentionally.
Rapport
Building rapport with people is one of the most productive activ-

ities you can engage in. Having good rapport with people makes
everything so much easier. If one of your outcomes requires the
influence of a certain person, then I can think of nothing more
outcome-oriented than rapport building with this person, even if
it means going out of your way to find an opportunity. In the
same way that trust and liking can be generated intentionally, so
can rapport.
NLP So how do you go about gaining trust and getting people to
In any interaction, like you? You simply be like them and show a sincere interest in
whenever you them as a person. In any interaction, whenever you encounter
encounter resistance, it is a sign of a lack of rapport. Before I continue with
resistance, it is a the components of rapport, there are some key skills to master.
sign of a lack of
rapport.
Sensory information
You have learned how a person’s behaviour provides cues to

their thought processes, and you know that there is much more
meaning under the surface of the words a person uses than is
immediately apparent. Remember also that 55 per cent of
someone’s message is contained in their physiology and 38 per
cent in their vocal qualities. Aside from the words used there is
an enormous amount of information available that is vital in
understanding, gaining trust, building rapport and influencing
them.
chapter eight
@ Sensory acuity
Gathering sensory information requires practice — and the act of

practising is itself a rapport-building activity. You are showing
interest in people, and most people enjoy the experience of
talking with someone who is interested in them. When you are
being receptive to sensory information you need to have your
attention focused entirely outside — this is called being in
“uptime” — totally alert with all your sensory receptors watching,
listening, smelling, tasting and feeling the changes going on in the
world around you. Being in “downtime” is the opposite of this,
where your attention is directed inside as you engage in reflective
visualization, internal dialogue or feeling. Whenever you are in
downtime you are missing sensory evidence from the outside
world.
Sensory acuity requires high states of uptime. As most people
have preferences over the use of their senses, the strongest being
the primary modality, it is a good idea to begin developing the
senses which you use least of all. After much practice your
sensory acuity will become sharper.
It is often the most subtle changes that give the most significant
cues to a person’s thought process. The late British poet Siegfried
Sassoon once said “in me the tiger sniffs the rose” which is an
excellent metaphor for sensory acuity. Recently I asked a consul-
tant to take responsibility for one of my own training pro-
grammes. After discussing the implications he said “OK, ’m
comfortable with that” — but I picked up a slight wavering in his
voice that was incongruent with his words. I didn’t want to inter-
rogate him so I just said “actually it’s not fair of me to foist this
onto you just now — there are some loose ends which I should
tidy up first.”
I didn’t know what the incongruence was about (and I don’t
think he was fully aware of it at the time), but sure enough about
three weeks later I learned that his knowledge of the programme
was very thin and he thanked me for retracting the responsibility.
He initially accepted responsibility for the programme for the
wrong reason. If you have ever persuaded someone to do some-
NLP thing they didn’t want to do, you are likely to have noticed a
The most signal of incongruence from some part of their body language or
important voice tone. The words can say “yes” while, at the same time, the
information about unconscious is saying “no”. The most important information
a person is their about a person is their behaviour.
behaviour.
& Calibration
This is the term given to the act of noticing state changes in a

person from behavioural cues such as posture, breathing, skin
tone, expression and voice qualities. You need to be in uptime,
exercising your sensory acuity to notice the subtle changes in a
person’s state. Our states are continually changing. It is easy to
notice a change from smiling to crying — that doesn’t take a
tremendous amount of sensory acuity — but many state changes
are more subtle than this.
Calibration is noticing exactly what you sense and nothing
more. For example, you may be in a meeting and notice the
chairman looking at you with a tightened forehead, reddish skin,
fast breathing and with his fists clenched on the table. This is cal-
ibration. On the other hand you might notice this behaviour and
think “he’s upset about something — he’s going to have a dig at
me.” This is mind reading.
Pacing
If you were to sit outside on the pavement in a large town and

watch people as they pass by, you would notice many differences
between them. You would notice the speed at which their
mind/body rhythm is working, their pace, stride, breathing rate,
facial expressions, eye movements and gestures. If you were to
use a graph to represent the differences, you would end up with
a range between two extremes (refer to Figure 8.1).
Now, imagine putting together two people from each extreme.
How would you describe their communication? Rapport would
chapter eight
A graph representing
someone who is
moving quickly,
breathing quickly and
who makes snappy
gestures and darting
eye movements.
A graph representing
someone who is
moving slowly,
breathing slowly and
who makes smooth
gestures and slow
eye movements.
MFIGURE 8.1
Extreme
neurological states
be out of the question while they are in such different neurolog-

ical states from each other. For rapport to happen they will need
to get rhythmically closer to each other.
Rapport can be developed simply by pacing various physical
conditions. To pace someone’s breathing is very powerful
because of the link to the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic
modalities (refer to Chapter 6). You can also pace body language
by matching and mirroring.
@ Matching and mirroring
If you have ever watched people who have deep rapport with one
Matching is an
another you will notice how closely their body posture, gestures
unconscious form
and voice qualities are matched. Notice two lovers in a restau- of communication
rant, or two people drinking at a bar, or a group of managers at that bonds
a meeting. Matching is an unconscious form of communication relationships by
that bonds relationships by deepening rapport. Matching is doing deepening rapport.
a
the same, i.e. sitting directly opposite someone, you match a lean
to the right with a lean to your right. Mirroring is where you
match their left with your right as a mirror image.
The intention of matching and mirroring is to communicate to
a person’s unconscious mind that you are on their wavelength.
For example, imagine you want to influence a customer who is
having a bad day and feeling low. It is important that you get his
cooperation for your project, but he is slouching and talking in a
negative way. To approach him confidently and ask him to get
excited about your project may appear threatening. So instead,
pace his body language and voice characteristics. Avoid taking on
his negative state by keeping in mind your intention to lead him
to a position where he is motivated to work with you on your
project. Your higher intention will keep you in a focused state.
The intention behind an emotion is unconscious, while the
intention to pace and lead is conscious.
When you are matching gestures, do so when it is your turn to
speak, rather than when the other person is gesturing. A hunch of
the shoulders, a hand on the breast, an open hand, a pointing
finger — these are all unconscious communication gestures you
can match or mirror. When matching the voice, listen for
rhythm, volume, speed, tone and pitch. Fast talkers (strong visual
people) are quickly frustrated by slow talkers (strong kinaesthet-
ics) and slow talkers often find fast talkers difficult to follow. If
you are highly visual, practise slowing down your speech by
breathing more slowly. If you are highly kinaesthetic, practise
speeding up your rate of speech.
Notice also the sensory words and phrases people use such as
“I see what you mean” and “that strikes a chord” and match
them. By using predicates from a person’s preferred sensory
system you are making yourself easy to listen to and understand.
Build a vocabulary of predicates and practise matching them. Try
mismatching a person’s predicates and notice the response you
get compared to when you are matching.
chapter eight
@ Pacing values
Anyone who has worked overseas in different cultures will

realize the importance of values. As organizations evolve they
adopt cultural values that govern how people work. Some com-
panies put a high value on time; others may value innovation
more highly. The more values you can pace, the closer you will
get to the person you are communicating with, and the deeper
your rapport will be. Here is a list of contexts to help you notice
values.
Cultural values
These could be the values of a nation’s culture or an organiza-
tional culture. Some companies have introduced a “casual
clothes” day for their employees. Some people think that the
classic business suit is an unnecessary item while others claim it
projects a professional and orderly aspect of your character.
When a suited client meets a casually dressed supplier, or vice
versa, the result is a cultural mismatch.
Organizational values
These are not so much rituals like the wearing of suits; they are
more intrinsic to the business operation. Sales executives know
these values extremely well. You can find them in reception halls
and executive meeting rooms; framed certificates for “commit-
ment to quality” and engraved plaques for “service to the com-
munity” or “service to the environment”. Whatever product you
want to sell a company, make sure it contributes to the
company’s values. Other values of this type which you may come
across are “innovation”, “market leaders”, “preferred partners”,
“the biggest and best” and “investors in people”. Recognizing
and utilizing these values is often the key to successful sales
campaigns and negotiations. Mismatching an organization’s
values is probably the quickest way of losing rapport and business.
Group values
At a group level in any organization you can come across many
different value systems operating at the same time. Groups that
co-exist in the same building can have widely differing values. A
production team may have values around team working and effi-
ciency while an R&D group might espouse the importance of
being innovative. A group in accounts is likely to work to differ-
ent values from Sales and Production. The value differences
between groups often lead to intergroup conflict and silo mentality.
Role values
People attach certain importance to their roles. This is the reason
why a person chooses a particular role for themselves, and values
are often vastly different across roles. A manager with a value for
creativity will operate very differently from a manager who
values cost control. Just listen to what a person is saying to get an
insight into what they value most.
Personal values
The range here is almost limitless, encompassing values con-
cerned with family, finance, intellect, relationships, work style,
enjoyment, leisure, socializing, hobbies, interests and sport.
These values are often exposed in casual conversation, as you are
waiting for a meeting to start or over lunch. Stay with these con-
versations for a while — at least until you have done some pacing.
These values also present themselves as elements of a person’s
home and office environment — the golfing trophy, the club tie,
the car sticker, the family photograph, the key fob, etc. These
material accessories are extensions to our personality and of real
importance to us.
Values are hierarchical and vary in strength. Chapter 1
explored how “means” values are linked to higher level “end”
Values are
hierarchical and
values. The same is true for group values and personal values. In
vary in strength. almost every case, when a choice must be made, group values will
override personal values, although most people will join groups
that have similar values to their own.
e-—-—
chapter eight
Metaprogrammes
Your metaprogrammes can be considered intrinsic values because
of the value attached to thinking and behaving in certain ways.
For example, a person who likes to work with procedures will
value this in the nature of work and other activities they engage
in.
There are words, gestures and other behavioural traits that
indicate certain metaprogrammes. A person who is highly away
from for example will talk about what they don’t want much of
the time. Someone with a procedures pattern will tend to count
on their fingers and mark out sequences of events with their
hands. A through-time person will check the time frequently, and
someone with a detail pattern will give you much more detail
than is necessary (unless you share the same pattern). An others
person will often check with other people before taking an
action, or in extreme cases not take the action at all for fear of
upsetting someone.
These everyday simple signs that give away the underlying
patterns of thinking can be used to match a pattern and build
rapport. The danger in mismatching a pattern is that you can
easily create confusion. Imagine a conversation between a big
picture person and a detail person and you will understand the
stress that can be created in a relationship. By matching you get
closer to a person and create a greater sense of understanding —
remember it’s the unconscious mind that feels more comfortable
with the relationship when you do a good job of matching.
VAK
You can also match the modality a person is using to communi-
cate with you, whether visual (v), auditory (a) or kinaesthetic (k)
or indeed any mix of these. It won’t be important to do this with
everybody, but it may give you the advantage you are looking for
with someone you want to influence. You have already learned
about eye accessing cues, sensory words and physiological signs
to indicate the modality being used, and any of these can be used
to match a person’s preferred style of communication. When you
do this you create rapport. If you mismatch, as in visual vs kinaes-

thetic you may be creating confusion at an unconscious level in
the other person.
Leading
Pacing will build rapport, gain trust and portray a likeable per-
sonality. Once you have mastered the art of pacing you can begin
to influence people by leading them in the direction you want
them to go. Some people are natural leaders and will hold a focal
point while others seem content to follow. Your skill at pacing
will put you in this same position, where others are content to
follow you because they trust and like you. Of course your pro-
posals have to be sound — don’t expect people to follow your lead
if you are offering inappropriate plans.
The key to pacing and leading is a seamless transition. You can
simply test whether you have paced sufficiently by adjusting your
body posture and noticing if the other person follows you. If they
do, you can continue to lead. If not, you need more rapport. I
will go through some practical scenarios explaining how you
might use pacing and leading, but first there is one more tech-
nique for your toolbag.
Anchoring
There are stories about soldiers who, years after serving in a war
zone, run for cover upon hearing a car backfire. Their physiolog-
ical reaction had been “anchored” as an instant response to the
sound of gunfire. Many of our everyday memories are anchored
to external stimuli. The sound of.a ringing bell can take you right
back to your schooldays. The smell of cod liver oil reminds me of
my preschool days where a spoonful a day was compulsory.
chapter eight
The external stimulus triggers an emotional state accessed

from memory. Some of our anchors access pleasant emotions
while others access unpleasant ones. Knowing about anchors,
and how the process of anchoring works, allows you to use them
to your advantage. You can use them with yourself to access spe-
cific states when you want them, and you can anchor states in
other people. We all unconsciously anchor states in each other
every day. I know of one manager who is very intelligent, expe-
rienced and professional in his role, and yet his boss, the manag-
ing director, has managed to anchor a state of subservience which
is triggered by the sound of his voice over the telephone. There is
a complete physiological shift from “upright with head slightly
down” to “bent forward and hunched with the head slightly
back”.
This is an example of an auditory anchor. A visual anchor
might be a facial expression, a photograph or a picture. A kinaes-
thetic anchor might be a pat on the back or a squeeze of the hand.
There are times when you may want to use some “feeling good”
anchors; at other times you may want to access states of “creativ-
ity”, “focused analysis” or “acute concentration”. How about
anchoring your sixth strategy state to make it instantly accessible
any time you want it?
You can set anchors in any modality — visual (v), auditory (a),
kinaesthetic (k), olfactory (0) or gustatory (g); however v, a and
k anchors are more practical than o and g because with the latter
you would have to carry a taste or smell around with you. The
advantage of an anchor over other NLP techniques is that you
can use it anywhere and anytime you may need it. The process
for setting an anchor is simple:
1 Access the state you want to anchor.

2 Anchor the state with a unique stimulus (v, a, k or any combi-
nation).
3 Break state.
4 Fire your anchor (apply the same unique stimulus as in 2
above) and check with the strength of your inner feelings
whether you have succeeded in creating the state change you

wanted.
The key to successful anchoring is:
1 Uniqueness of the stimulus Combinations of voice tone,

gesture and visuals work well. Imagine you are with a customer
and you happen to catch her in a state of agreement over where
to go for lunch. You could anchor this state by lowering your
voice tone, pointing upward with your thumb and saying “That’s
good.” At some later stage when you want a business decision,
run exactly the same stimulus to access the agreement state as
you say “That’s good” in the same voice tone, and at the same
time as you raise your brow to suggest you are asking a question.
2 Timing States vary in intensity and will rise to a peak

before diminishing. Sometimes the rise and fall may be so fast
that you miss it. This is where your sensory acuity comes in.
You want to set your anchor just before the state peaks (refer to
Figure 8.2). Low intensity states are not worth anchoring as they
will not have the effect you desire. Anchor states that are worth
accessing again. Here are some examples of states that might be
worth accessing in others — agreement, enjoyment, concentra-
tion, creativity, relaxation, attention, learning and fun.
Intensity of state
a _ Release your anchor

here
Set your anchor just before

the state peaks
MFIGURE 8.2
Applying an
anchor — timing
©
chapter eight
3 Easy to repeat You may want to set an anchor more than

once, so make your anchors easy to remember and repeat.
Remember it has to be unique, and when you use it you have to
repeat exactly what you did when you first set it up. Standing on
your head and singing may be unique, but how easy is it to repeat?
The following examples include some of the techniques covered

so far in this section with one or two additional techniques.
lm Example scenario 1: The negotiation

George is a manager negotiating with a supplier, Laura, and they
are in the final stages of a tender to place a £2 million computer
supply contract. George’s outcome is to get Laura to drop her price
to £1.6 million because she represents the preferred supplier whose
bid price of £2 million is too much for the budget. Laura’s outcome
is to secure this contract for no less than 15 per cent below the bid
price (£1.7 million). Laura is pacing and leading George.
Wsae - seeoy again. How are
How are you, George?”

:
garound for cost savings Tm afraid.”
miliar. My household bills are‘piling upat
simply got
g totighten up somehow.”J
redicates, the valueofmakingcost
feel more at ease wit

(Pacing the past and future, matching kinaesthetic predicates,

breathing and voice qualities. There is also an embedded sug-
gestion, “we can remove the shock”, which is marked out using
a lower voice tone. Laura ends by asking a question with the
purpose of accessing a “feel good” state which she will attempt
to anchor.)
George: “Cut the price by 50 per cent and invoice in

arrears?”
(This is a half-serious answer made with a light-hearted laugh

which is turned into a question by a higher voice tone at the
end.)
Laura: “I like clients with a sense of humour like you,

George. How would you feel if I were to cut the
cost by say 12.5 per cent, which I could do by
reducing part of the service?”
(The words “I like” were emphasized by volume and tone at

the same time as she tapped her fingers sharply on the desk
~ this combination set up a unique auditory stimulus anchor
for George’s light-hearted laugh. More value matching
at the personal level (sense of humour) with the initial
sentence.)
George: “That’s moving in the right direction, but I was

hoping for more than 12.5 per cent; can you move
any further?”
(George is persistent but happy to be led by Laura because

the rapport is so good. He is enjoying himself.)
Laura: “I can move a little further, I have always managed —

to accommodate you in the past, haven’t I? I will
have to review the services though. Let me recap for
a moment. I know you don’t expect me to compro-—
mise on quality, and yet you want a reduction in
excess of 12.5 per cent. I could revise the service
chapter eight
offering to reduce our costs, but that would be a

compromise on the service to your customers. I feel
sure that, like me, you would rather compromise on
the price than on quality or service (fires anchor). I
am happy to offer you 14 per cent right now on the
proposal as it stands with no compromise on quality
and service. Can we strike a deal on this now?”
(More matching and pacing. Leading begins when Laura starts

to recap. Lots of matching values — quality and service. More
rapport building with the words “I feel sure that, like me”
which contains an embedded suggestion “like me”. The ques-
tion “haven’t I” is tagged on to the end of a sentence inten-
tionally to get George to say the word “yes” which is an
agreement state. Laura fires her anchor by using the same
voice tone that was used to set the anchor as she taps the table
in the same place to make the same sound. The anchor is fired
to access George’s light-hearted laugh state, just as she begins
to make her final offer.)
m@ Example scenario 2: The inquest
Jeff is a service manager being called to explain a major service

incident by his client, Mike, whose outcome is to give Jeff a hard
time and keep him in an underdog position. Jeff's outcome is to
use the meeting as an opportunity to build rapport and
strengthen their relationship. Jeff is pacing and leading Mike.
Mike: “Hello, Jeff. Sit down. Coffee?”

Jeff: “Yes please.”
Mike: “I have to say that this incident is possibly the worst on
record and I will need a complete account of what hap-
pened. I also want to be assured that you are capable of
preventing any future occurrence.”
—
Jeff:
S&
What you do speaks
so loud that I cannot
hear what you say.
RALPH WALDO
EMERSON
(1803-82)
“American essayist,
poet and philosopher
©
chapter eight
al inae report,and we are» already writing new

| procedures from 1 at1we have learned.”7:
pacingofa Jeff begins

= he slowly changes his
res io
| strengthen his words,
ym theincident to higher-level
ievement, procedures and
a ae -
In extreme examples where someone is really against you,

patience is the key. Just keep matching, mirroring and pacing and
you will eventually get rapport to a level at which you can begin
to lead. Pacing an organization needs to be done on many differ- Pacing an
ent levels all at the same time. Dave Sibley, a top sales executive organization needs
in the computer industry during the IT boom years, secured the to be done on
many different
biggest desktop computing contract in Europe — British Telecom.
levels all at the
It was initially worth over £60 million per year and grew to over
same time.
£100 million! His strategy was to match and pace values at many
different levels in the organization and build rapport. It took him
about four years to move from a position of being unknown and
uninvited, to having his photograph taken with the director of IT
services. That’s the power of rapport.
The next chapter will draw on what you have read up to this
point and introduce you to many more ways of using NLP in
common business situations. The techniques included in Chapter
9 have been chosen for their effectiveness in the context pre-
sented, and they all have the same outcome — to help you achieve
a personal competitive advantage!
#
if
blading’
7 4 a
oat
~s 7 - - ;
‘
APPLYING NLP 10 13
EVERYDAY CHALLENGES
= NLP and stress management
@ NLP and time management
= NLP and confidence
@ NLP and personal creativity
mg NLP and group creativity
@ NLP and procrastination
@ NLP and decision making
= NLP and presenting to groups
= NLP and motivation
= NLP and meetings
a NLP and project management
= NLP and managing your friends
a NLP and building effective teams

ou have now covered the basic concepts and dynamics of

Yu and applied them in various exercises dealing with the
key themes of being an effective manager and leader. In this
chapter you will learn how to apply NLP to everyday challenges
using a variety of different techniques and exercises. I trust that,
by now, you have realized how NLP has such a wide application,
limited only by the blocks to your own creative thinking. While
this chapter is meant to be one you can dip into when you need
it, some of the exercises refer to earlier parts of the book for a
fuller description of the techniques suggested.
NLP and stress management
The process of getting stressed is something you learn. How

stressed you get will depend on how well you have learned to
tense your muscles, frown, have negative internal dialogue and
dark murky mental imagery, and to breathe rapidly from your
upper chest. You will also have learned when to get stressed, such
as times when you are late for a meeting and get stuck in traffic,
or when you sense time is running out and your tasks are
nowhere near completion; perhaps other people are being diffi-
cult or producing poor quality work or maybe your boss is
putting you under increasing pressure. It could be that you are
not meeting your own very high standards of work. Maybe
things just aren’t going to be perfect, right or as you want them
to be. Whatever triggers your stress, know that you have learned
to create it for yourself. Although stress is often related to the
environment, it has really more to do with your ability to control
your response to potentially stressful situations.
chapter nine
APPLYING NLP TO 13 EVERYDAY CHALLENGES
Conquering stress ak EXERCISE 7

Here’s a way of dealing with stress using both mind and body.
Mind
Bring to mind a situation that tends to get you stressed. Focus on the next time
you will be in this situation and create an image of the scenario. See yourself in
the image as you are responding to the stressful situation, but this time you will
be responding differently — in a more calm and controlled way, disconnected
emotionally from whatever is going on around you. As you watch this image tell
yourself how ridiculous it was that you used to get stressed and how much better
you feel now you are in control of your reaction. Turn up the brightness, colour
and contrast of your image, and adjust any sound so that it makes you feel even
more in control and relaxed. Bring your image closer and notice how the feelings
of calm and control get stronger.
Body
Continue to focus on your image and breathe deeply in a relaxed and natural way.
Inhale all the way down to your lower abdomen while relaxing your body, paying
particular attention to your shoulders, jaw and brow. Inhale and exhale through
your nose.
As you continue to breathe deeply and naturally, look down and tell yourself how
easy it is to be relaxed no matter what is going on around you; after all, life is full
of potentially stressful situations but you needn’t get emotionally tangled in them
— now you are in control and can focus on what’s really important, not on how
you are feeling.
Return to the image you have created in your mind and put a frame around it.
Now push it off into the distance so you can just make out some of the detail. As
you observe the situation from this distance, being fully relaxed and in control,
project these feelings into your image and bring it closer, and as it comes
towards you, strengthen the feelings of calm and control. Allow the image to
come so close that you become part of the image, fully associating with it and the
powerful feelings of calm and control. Just as the feeling begins to peak, squeeze
together the thumb and middle finger of your left hand, hold for about 20 seconds
and then release. You have now set yourself an anchor which you can use
anytime you are faced with a potentially stressful situation.
Stress is damaging to both the mind and body, and you owe it to
yourself to take care of your stress levels. Remember also that for
some people stress can be a driver. We may never achieve any-
thing without feeling under some degree ‘of stress. It’s when
stress starts to make you tired, tense, fatigued and aching that it
gets dangerous. If the stress isn’t firing you up and you don’t feel
great, then you need to address it.
NLP and time management
Noticing the language we use to describe time gives clues about

the way we allow time to act upon our experience metaphorically.
Some of these metaphors are quite ridiculous. Here are some
common metaphors with their presuppositions:
e | haven't got time for that (time is a possession — something

you have or haven’t got)
e | can’t make the time to do that (time can be manufactured)
e There’s never enough time (time is a commodity which is
always in short supply)
e Time is against us (time has physical form and energy)
e Time is on our side (time can choose to take sides)
e We have all the time in the world (time is contained by the
world and we can own it)
e@ Time waits for no one (time is inconsiderate)
These common metaphors are used to express a relationship with

time. It may seem harmless to say these things, but the language
you use has a real effect on your behaviour. Metaphors like these
are perceptual filters on your engagement with time. The way
you relate to time through metaphor has an immediate influence
on your level of productivity and effectiveness.
Think how absurd the title of this section is. As if anyone can
actually manage time. It’s one of the few things we have no influ-
ence over whatsoever! So stop trying to manage time — you will
not succeed. Instead manage your priorities — pursue what’s
chapter nine
really important to you and fill your time with gainful activities —
then do no more, and use some of your time to relax and play.
In my earlier role as a training manager with a large IT
company I spent hundreds of thousands of pounds sending man-
agers on time management courses. I can honestly say that the
majority of this money was ill-spent. Why? Because 50 per cent
of the managers who attended these courses already used their
time well and gained very little from the course. The remaining
50 per cent were using their time ineffectively, and they struggled
to put what they learned into practice. What I learned through
NLP is how time management is little to do with lists and sched-
ules and everything to do with emotions and the conscious
awareness of the passing of time.
@ Emotions and priorities
Make a list of tasks that are part of your role as manager and cat-
egorize them into tasks you enjoy and those you don’t enjoy — for
whatever reason. As you look down your list is it apparent where
you are losing time? It will be because of one of the following
three causes:
e You have not learned to delegate your tasks to others.

e@ You spend more time than is necessary on tasks you enjoy.
e You spend more time thinking about tasks you don’t enjoy
than getting on with them.
I am using the term enjoy quite loosely here — another way of cat-
egorizing is to select one group of tasks that you just get on with
and another group which you tend to keep at a mental and emo-
tional distance because you’re unsure how best to handle them.
In fact, this is what tends to happen and why time management is
more about emotions than lists of important things to do. What
do you do when you have prioritized your tasks for the week and
on Monday morning you get an email asking you for two hours
of your time to attend a meeting which you hoped you wouldn’t
have to attend? You need to deal with more than just priorities,
as these will continue to shift on a weekly, if not daily and some-

times hourly, basis. You also need to manage the emotional
distance between you and your tasks so that you can get on with
things and stop pushing things to the back of your mind. When
you are fully engaged, its amazing how much you can get done.
Emotional distance can be caused by-any of the following:
e You find the people you have to deal with difficult, awkward
or puzzling.
e You find part or all of the task confusing, difficult or boring.
e You are uncertain about the value of putting effort into the
task.
e You have certain beliefs about your relationship with the task
or the people you must deal with.
Now take each one of the tasks from your “mental and emotional
distance” category and identify what it is about the task that is
causing you to create the distance. Once you have identified the
cause, write them down and as you are writing, notice the state
you are in. Chances are you will be in an unresourceful state and
this is what is really stopping you from cracking on with these
tasks. If you could get rid of the task, you would probably have
done so by now, so by default the tasks in your list are ones you
feel you have to do. If this is so, then isn’t it better to be in a
resourceful state when thinking about them, and doing them?
When you are in a positive state you simply do a better job, so
find something to get into a positive state about.
@ This not that
These words were covered earlier in Chapter 4 in the section on

Orange Circle Thinking. Here we will use them to increase your
awareness of how engaged you are with your work, mentally and
emotionally. One way to keep on top of your tasks from moment
to moment is to listen specifically for the words this and that
when referring to tasks. These small words can give an insight
into the degree of emotional and mental connection with each of
chapter nine
your tasks. In normal everyday use we tend to use the word that
when referring to something distant, either in time or location,
for example “that project we did last year” compared with “this
project I am doing now”, and “that office across town” com-
pared with “this office we are working in here”. The word that is
also used to keep mentally and emotionally distanced from a task
that is current, for example, “that project he is managing”, or “I
have to do that job now”. It tends to be used when the project or
task is something we are not looking forward to for some reason.
Having a mental distance to a problem can be very useful when
done with a clear intention of problem solving; however, when
you are distanced in this context you can be certain that you will
be less focused and have to fight distraction to get the job done.
You are likely to procrastinate and waste time with tasks you refer
to as that more than those you refer to as this. The next time you
catch yourself using that to refer to tasks which are current, ask
yourself, “Am I really focused on doing a great job? What is
causing me to make it a that?” Then do the next exercise and get
yourself into an appropriately positive state for getting on with
the task in hand, whoever the project manager happens to be.
Motivate yourself to get things done es EXERCISE 8
Take one that task and begin to look for the positive benefits to you as a result of
getting the task done effectively. Write down each positive benefit you identify.
Look deep for positive benefits you may not have recognized before. You want to
find all the positive benefits in doing this task. Perhaps the task you are thinking
of right now will provide you with some sort of challenge or stretch. Maybe it’s an
opportunity to learn something new or build a relationship. There is always some-
thing of benefit in everything if you look long enough and are prepared to reframe
your perception.
Next go through the “well-formed outcomes” procedure in Chapter 3 to ensure

you have everything you need to do a great iob, and then create positive, empow-
ering images of success in your mind. Use your imagination to put your image
into an orange circle and make the image bright and clear. See all the positive
benefits of getting this task done. Make your image bigger.and bring it closer to
you, keeping it inside the round orange frame. How do you feel about this task
now? Next do the same thing for other tasks in the same category, creating more
energy and motivation for getting you engaged with the task.
m@ How useful is your personal time code?
How you code time and relate to it is a major influence on how

you use the time you have. People who use their time produc-
tively have a good sense of the passing of time and how long a
minute, hour or three hours really is. It’s the reason why some
people are consistently late and others are always on time. Your
personal “time code” occupies the physical space around your
body. Albert Einstein discovered the link between space and
time, and we now know how individuals relate to time (refer to
the section on time in Chapter 2). People with a through time
pattern, or code, will know where and when they have to be and
are likely to spend time preparing. An in time pattern, or code,
will have the opposite effect, putting the owners in various states
of chaos and uncertainty as they rush between appointments
being habitually late.
If you have an in time code that isn’t helping, how do you go
about changing it? The answer is to design yourself a “being on
time and prepared” strategy and timeline. So prepare to spend
more time thinking about how much time things really take and
how important certain activities really are.
EXERCISE Es Focus on what’s really important to you
Begin by identifying what is really important to you (refer to the section on values
in Chapter 1), and choose a couple of activities related to one of your top priori-
ties from this list. For each activity, set yourself an outcome and mentally
rehearse what you will need to do to achieve it. Think about what preparation you
want to do and calculate an estimated amount of time for each task you have
identified.
Now, look down to your left and tell yourself how much more you will be achiev-
ing now you have this new strategy, then look up to your right and see how much
chapter nine
more effective you are being. Notice how you are bringing conversations to a
Close so you can move on to other more pressing activities, and how you are
taking the time to be well prepared for your meetings. Now look down to your
right and enjoy the feeling of being in contro!. Look down again to your left and
repeat this cycle of down — left to tell, up — right to see, and down — right to feel
at least five times until your mind becomes familiar with the idea that you are
going to be working in a different way from now on, focused on the activities that
are going to move you closer to your outcomes.
B@ Timeline
You can now make the strategy even more powerful by designing
a new timeline. First of all imagine a timeline that starts with this
moment “now” right in front of you and moves out to your past at
a 45-degree angle to your left, and to your future at a 45-degree
angle to your right. The line can stretch out away from you as far
as you want it to. Make your new timeline very brightly coloured
and distinct in some way. It should be pleasing to look at. Now
take each task in turn from the previous exercise and capture it as
a still image, brightly coloured, clear and in a frame. Continuing to
work with your imagination, place this image at a point on your
timeline in the future where you think it will be happening. Do this
for all the other tasks and remember to refer to your new timeline
frequently over the next few weeks until it becomes habitual. Your
new “being on time and prepared” strategy is now complete.
Here is a classic NLP exercise working with timeline and visu-
alization which can be used for creating successful future events.
Planning for success

aceNaan 10
Is there a task coming up in the future that is important to you, your team or your
organization, and at which you want to personally excel? Perhaps an important
meeting, a planning session with your team. a customer presentation, a strategic
report you have to write, a full blown multi-million pound project or a job inter-
view? You are going to use a spatial metaphor to help build a successful event,
So you will need plenty of physical space for this exercise.
Step 1
‘Tad James and Imagine that your future! timeline projects out in front of you onto the floor — as
Wyatt Woodsmall, , : -
Timeline theraey and if you are rolling out a red carpet. 3
the basis of
personality, Meta
Publications, 1988. Step 2
Place an image of you succeeding in this future task on the timeline at a distance
that feels right to you. Make the image a bright colourful one. The image can be
on any plane, it can be 3-D and with sound effects if you like.
Step 3
Now walk down your timeline, stop when you are on top of your image and
become fully associated with the feeling of success in this task. Feel how good it
is to be this successful. Enjoy this feeling for a few moments.
Step 4
Continue walking now, just past your image. Stop and turn around so that you are
looking down your timeline back to the now point. You should be focusing on the
time between now and your image of success (refer to Figure 9.1). As you focus
_ communicating
skills
acquisition
planning | seeking | rehearsal
advice
mm of —»
tasks
OO 0
NOW
MFIGURE 9.1 oie

Building success image of succesful future event
into future events
@Q—_—_—— |
chapter nine
your thinking on this time span, imagine all the things you had to do to ensure your
success. Here are some examples of useful questions to focus your thinking:
e@ What was important to you?

e@ What plans did you have to make?
e@ Who did you inform about your task?
e Who did you communicate with?
@ What method of communication was most relevant?
e Did you need extra skills — and how did you acquire them?
@ Was advice from experienced and successful people helpful to you?
e Did you rehearse and/or practice?
What you are doing at this stage is visualizing having done all the things you
needed to do in order to achieve a successful task. When you are comfortable
that everything has been considered, you can begin to fit them onto your timeline
in the places that seem most appropriate.
Step 5
When you have all your images in place on your timeline, you are ready to walk
back to the original now position where you started from, pausing momentarily
over each image to fully associate into the activity. When you arrive back at your
Original position and look down your timeline, are you confident that each of the
tasks you have identified is sufficiently detailed to ensure your success? If the
answer is yes, you have completed the exercise. If you have any doubt or uncer-
tainty, then take another walk down your timeline until you get to the place where
the doubt is generated and make whatever adjustments you consider necessary.
This process will give you feedback about the reality of your
planned time allocation for completing the task. Have you
invested sufficient time in all the necessary areas in order to
ensure you achieve your outcome, without any question of
doubt? The questions above are provided as examples only and
are certainly not exhaustive. You may find your own questions
more relevant to your particular chosen task.
This technique can be used to build success into any future
task, although it is particularly useful for major events and where
you have little experience to draw upon. It has many advantages
Q) over conventional diary entry planning which tends to be done

very hurriedly and in a fully dissociated state. How often do you
Time goes, you say?
Ah, no! find yourself committed to someone else’s project plan where the
Alas, Time stays; we go.
timescale for completion has been set before you have had the
AUSTIN DOBSON
(1840-1921) chance to consider what you need to do? The result of this is to
British author cut planning time which is often unrecognized as a productive
activity. Timeline planning, particularly for important projects, is
a very thorough and effective process. Used in conjunction with
other NLP techniques it enables you to build in robustness, cer-
tainty and accomplishment into your futures.
NLP and confidence
Confidence is a state of mind. It comes from within. No matter

how much you study or how hard you work, the ability to
succeed in a competitive environment requires self-confidence.
Imagine being confident in any situation — with new clients,
speaking to groups, taking an exam, selling and negotiating.
The situations where you already feel confident may not be
“confidence” at all, but familiarity. When you are in your comfort
zone and engaged in an activity which you are familiar with and
where you have a record of doing well, there is no real stretch to
your abilities. It is when you step outside your comfort zone,
where your abilities are stretched, that will test your confidence.
Some people approach new tasks with a curiosity to learn and as
a consequence they get on top of things fairly quickly. But not
everyone seems to have this approach. Some people seem to get
stressed when attempting new tasks and almost expect things to
go wrong which they invariably do. You might say that people in
the former group are confident, and those in the latter lack con-
fidence in themselves. You can really only test confidence in an
unfamiliar situation.
Confidence is something that you create as an inner strength
which you can use anywhere, anytime. It’s not about being con-
fident at this or that, but being a confident person whatever the
chapter nine
situation or challenge before you. Wherever you feel the need to

be more confident, the following tools will help you get there.
Building confidence Nene 11
Identify a situation where you would like to be more confident, for example:
@ |n meetings with an important person

e Giving presentations
e Giving honest feedback
e Visiting a client
e Ina selling situation
e Networking with prospective business associates
e Meeting new friends
@ At training courses
e Conducting an appraisal
Write your situation here:
Technique 1: Context switch
List five situations, in a similar context to the one you have identified above,
where you are usually very confident.
Next, imagine you are re-enacting one of the contexts above, feeling very confi-
dent, and answer the following questions:
1 How are you feeling when you have this confidence?
2 How are you holding yourself?
3 What is going through your mind?
4 What are you saying to yourself?
5 On what are you focusing your attention?
Now adopt the thinking, inner dialogue, posture and emotions you have when
confident, at times where you have lacked confidence. Prepare yourself in this
way.
Technique 2: Self-belief
Nothing promotes confidence more than a strong belief in yourself, your capabil-
ity and in the actions you take. Spend some time thinking about the contexts in
which you want to be more confident, and run movies in your mind of how you
want to “be” in each specific situation. Make your mind-movies colourful, big and
with a positive outcome. Replay them to yourself and be immersed in the suc-
cessful outcomes you have created. Tell yourself that you believe you can be
confident in any situation. Describe the reasons for wanting to be confident.
Completing the following half statements might help you with this process:
aay
chapter nine
e@ The context in which | want to be more confident is ...
@ The outcome of my mind-movie is ...
e | can be confident in this situation because ...
e Being confident in this situation will mean that ...
Technique 3: Sphere of confidence
This technique is in common use by media presenters, actors and public speak-
ers. It is very effective at giving you the feeling of confidence — after all, that’s
what confidence is — a feeling and an attitude. And when you feel confident you
can be your best.
Stand upright, with your back straight and body relaxed. Breathe slowly and
deeply, through the nose, and take the air down to expand the lower abdomen.
Hold your head straight and look out just above the horizon.
Imagine that you are breathing in confidence, and even more confidence is
coming down from the universe, through the top of your head and into your entire
body. Your feet have grown roots and you are now able to draw confidence from
the Earth below.
Next, think of a time when you were very confident. The context is irrelevant.
Locate the feeling you have when you are confident and imagine this feeling is
growing out from your navel in a sphere surrounding your body. The sphere also
fills with confidence from your breath, the universe and the Earth.
As the sphere grows, feel the confidence filling your entire body, until the sphere
is encompassing your whole body. Imagine the confidence swirling around
inside you and making you strong. Wherever you are, your sphere will be with
you, and everyone it touches will feel your confidence.
Technique 4: Smile at your thoughts
When your confidence begins to weaken it is often because your response to a

situation or to someone else you consider as “better than you” is negative. For
example, imagine observing someone perform a task so elegantly that you doubt
you could do it so well. It is not the observation that knocks your confidence, it’s
your response to it, e.g. “I’m not that good.”
All you need to do is change your response, and the easiest way of doing that is
to SMILE. Whenever you catch yourself responding in this way, just examine the
thought you are having, and then smile at it. You will find that the thought disap-
pears and you can access your natural confident state quite easily.
Technique 5: Look inside
Stop looking in the mirror, and start looking inside for your confidence. Your face
and body are not going to change radically overnight, and the more you concern
yourself with your visual image, the less confident you will become.
The more confident you feel, the more confidence you project, and the more con-
fident you will look from the outside. Of course it’s important to look good, but all
this takes is a reasonable dress sense, nice haircut and a good standard of per-
sonal hygiene.
Think of your capabilities, and what you have learned. Feel a sense of dedication
and commitment to achieving a goal, and whatever distractions attempt to draw
your focus onto less valuable pursuits, just keep bringing it back to your goal.
Focus and refocus. Make a habit each morning, after briefly checking the mirror,
to connect with your inner resources of motivation and drive, and you will feel
more confident each day.
Technique 6: Compete with yourself
Sometimes confidence is low because of the tendency to compare with others.

When we see someone doing something better than us we can feel bad about our
chapter nine
own performance. Also, if you are very competitive, and like to compete with
other people, you will not come first all the time.
SO confidence isn’t about beating others, it’s more about doing things as well as
you can, and any comparison is best done with your own previous performance.
What did you learn the last time you did a particular task? How will you do it
better next time?
And it’s OK to observe and learn from other people, as long as you are not com-
paring. With observation you can pick up tips and ideas to use, and this is one
way of learning new things. So learn to observe without comparing, and learn to
compete with yourself alone.
Technique 7: The breath of confidence
Whether you are sitting, standing or walking, make sure your posture is straight,
especially your back; breathe in and out through your nose; take the breath down
to the lower abdomen, and relax your body.
Breathe in slowly and deeply for a slow count of 8 and hold the breath for a count
of 8; then let the breath out slowly to a count of 8. With each breath imagine that
the air you take in is pure confidence itself. Imagine it as a white mist spreading
throughout your entire body and giving you the feeling of confidence.
Now move your mind to concentrate on the situation where you would like more
confidence, and imagine being in the situation now, as you continue to breathe as
described above. When you next encounter
the situation where you would like to
have more confidence, begin the breathing just before you engage, and stay
relaxed all the way through to the end.
Technique 8: Adopt confident gestures
When you are lacking confidence it will show in your body language and your
gestures. The body will attempt to be less noticed, and so the gestures will
become much smaller. You can get the feeling of confidence back by reversing
the body language.
For example:
@ When making a suggestion, gesture in a big way with your hands and adopt a
supportive facial expression.
e@ When listening, are you showing that you are cea by holding your head
to one side and concentrating on what is being said?
e When arriving do you greet people with a confident handshake?
e When leaving, do you make a decisive exit after saying goodbye to each
person in turn?
e When speaking, are your words precise and clear, with a confident voice tone?
When you are speaking, if you express your words with some clear and precise
hand gestures, you will not only appear more confident, you will feel it also.
Technique 9: Be decisive
Nothing kills confidence more than indecisiveness. Each morning, make a habit
of writing down the things you want to achieve that day, and stick to it like glue.
Even if there are only two things on the list, it doesn’t matter what those two
things are, just be sure to do them.
Indecisiveness often comes from a lack of vision and direction, or a fear of some-
thing, or assumptions and conjecture about the value of any particular activity.
When you catch yourself in any of these modes of thought it is time to just do
something for the sole purpose of getting it done. At least that’s decisive.
Technique 10: Focus with clarity
When you have a lack of focus your confidence will fall. This is because your
attention has no guide and will be pulled in all directions. This may well lead to a
drop in your confidence, as you no longer have a clear purpose for engaging in
certain activities.
Spend some time contemplating your purpose within the context where you have
low confidence. For example, imagine that you want to be more confident with
selling your products or services. Do you know what your purpose is for engag-
ing in this activity? Is itto make profit? To deliver value? To grow the business or
chapter nine
some other overall purpose? Chances are that if you are unable to answer this
question, your confidence may be low as a result of the inconsistency of your
approach to your customers.
Consistency is important to confidence. When you are absolutely clear about

your purpose, then you will know how best to interact with your customers —
confidently.
NLP and personal creativity
You will realize by now that NLP is all about creativity and inno-
Q)
Imagination is not a
vation — using different ways of thinking to open up new possibil- talent of some men,
ities. This section introduces you to combinations of techniques but is the health of
every man.
that are particularly effective in creating innovative ideas for RALPH WALDO
solving all kinds of problems. EMERSON
(1803-82)
American essayist,
poet and philosopher
& NLP is creativity
Every creation began its life as a thought in one person’s mind,

but not all mind creations make it into the physical world. This
takes execution. The result of a well-executed idea is innovation.
It is common for many people to have similar ideas, but only one
person may have what it takes to execute and innovate.
Throughout the book you have been introduced to new ways of
thinking that can really change how you behave and how you
feel. If you only have the thought about it, without executing the
exercise, you will not change anything. NLP works well when
you execute by doing the exercises, and the result is new and
innovative ways of relating to the world. Like everyone else, you
are a creative individual, but your creative abilities do not work
automatically — you have to want to be creative if you want to
avoid being constrained by your habits. The activities in this
section will help you to become a more creatively oriented
person. So, relax and enjoy executing the exercises.
m@ The difference between creativity and innovation
To create is to bring into existence, and to innovate is to execute

):
and bring in novelty. So by these definitionsit is quite possible to
To create is to
create many things which are not innovative. Creating a thou-
bring into
sand ideas of a similar nature will not take your organization,
existence, and to
innovate is to your department or your career into new realms, whereas one
execute and bring innovation can, and the right innovation will. The Nobel prize
in novelty. winner Linus Pauling said, “The best way to have a good idea is
to have lots of ideas.” Creative thinking is the pathway to inno-
vation, but to innovate you need to execute just one idea.
There are few totally fresh ideas from which to innovate;
however, there are many existing ideas which can be taken from
one context and adapted to fit another. For an example, consider
the business franchise. The very first franchise was an innovation
in the way a business could be grown and managed, but the idea
had been in use for some time in another context, as a privilege
of legal immunity or exemption.
Ap Everyone has the ability to think creatively and to innovate.
The reason why some people seem to find this difficult is because
“The best way to
they have unconsciously erected barriers that block their thinking.
have a good idea
is to have lots of
ideas.” @ Hindrances to creativity and innovation
How to overcome the major hindrances to creative thinking and

generation of innovative ideas.
Step out of your habitual thinking

Have you noticed that where a job requires quick thinking and
where time is at a premium, sometimes the tendency to find a solu-
tion too quickly ends up creating another problem? You can recog-
nize this when you hear problems being described as solutions.
An example of this is where you might be restricted in your
ability to increase production because the machinery is running
at capacity. To say “we need to invest in more production
machinery” is to define a solution, and in doing so blocks any
other possible solutions from being created. It is more useful to
chapter nine
say “we are producing to capacity with this machinery” and open
up the potential for creating a wider choice of solutions, for
example, contracting the extra work out, utilizing seasonal fluc-
tuations in demand or reducing the amount of rework.
Habitual thinking limits perspective (refer to Figure 9.2). You
can widen perspective on a problem by adopting different ways
You can widen
of thinking about it, and the techniques in this chapter are
perspective ona
designed to do just that. problem by
adopting different
Step outside the problem ways of thinking
Have you ever watched a group of eleven-year-olds playing about it.
football? They become so totally involved in the action that they

all follow the ball wherever it goes. There is no plan other than
to get the ball, kick it in the general direction of the goal and
follow it. As they grow older they discover tactics and strategy.
narrow perspective
problem | of habitual thinking
wide perspective
problem
of flexible thinking
M FIGURE 9.2
Perspective
Some people work this way. They are totally associated

emotionally with what they are doing and spend little time in
Everyone has the
reflective thought. To see alternative solutions and new perspec-
ability to create
and be innovative.
tives requires a certain degree of mental distance from the
problem. Pull back from the problem and you will also remove
yourself emotionally. In this state you will be able to make lots of
new connections and generate fresh ideas around the problem
scenario you are dealing with.
Make your beliefs and values work for you

Contrary to what some people may believe, the marketing people
don’t have a monopoly on creativity and innovation. Neither do
artists, poets, scientists or film directors. Everyone has the ability
to create and be innovative, and the first place to begin making
improvements is to examine your beliefs. If you believe you are
not creative, or that your creativeness has limitations, then that’s
exactly what you are likely to live up to.
A limiting belief can block you from developing your creative
thinking styles — so change it to a belief that will support and
encourage you to widen your perspectives on problems. It is also
worth checking out your identity and values. If being creative
isn’t important to you, it is unlikely that you will put energy into
developing your creative capability. Likewise, if you don’t
connect with innovation in some way as part of your identity,
this will severely hinder creativity.
What does your culture value most, creative thinking or action?

Creativity and innovation require curiosity for which there is a
language — the language of questions. There is another language
in organizations — the language of action. Notice what people say
and how often each type of language is used. The two languages
can be related to the early metaphor in Chapter 1, where the
action language is used by people responding with defeat, reac-
Which type of tion and complexity, while the language of questions is used by
language do you people responding with curiosity. Which type of language do you
use? use?
©
chapter nine
The language of action consists of dialogue that is about doing,

achieving, analyzing, evaluating, utility and necessity. The lan-
guage of curiosity is less concrete, and more to do with contem-
plation, imagination and possibility. There is a place and time for
both these languages, but in some organizations action alone is
rewarded, so people spend all their time doing and little time
thinking and being curious. I will build on the importance of lan-
guage by relating to thinking styles and different types of organi-
zational problem.
Types of problems in organizations
I want to emphasize just two categories of problem — convergent

and divergent.
Convergent problems
Many day-to-day operational problems seem complicated and
ambiguous on a first appraisal, but really all they need is a logical
thought process to solve them. These problems are contained
within a relatively small part of the overall organizational system,
and they can be neatly funnelled towards a specific solution.
Convergent problems are usually solved through appropriate
process and procedure. For example, suppose information
coming in from clients using a variety of services is getting
broader, and this is making it difficult to find exactly what you
are looking for, plus it is not easy to channel it into the market-
ing effort. One solution would be to categorize the information
types and build a search function to access it using special soft-
ware.
Divergent problems
Divergent problems tend to be influenced by more than one busi-
ness unit, and the more you attempt to apply a logical thought
process the more divergent the problem becomes, often moving
off into many different directions, making it difficult to represent
as one entity. Consider the following situation.
Resistance to change Employees in the service division of a

communications company seem not to be interested in improv-
ing the quality of operational processes. They work hard and
they get on well as a team but appear content to continue
working with inadequate methods and procedures. They think
that managers, not them, are responsible for fixing things. The
division has been struggling to maintain service levels and is now
showing signs of resistance to the demand for improvements
from management and from clients. Whatever managers tried to
fix the problem, it just popped up somewhere else. These types of
problems can have multiple causes which are not so obvious or
apparent on surface inspection.
This is a typical convergent problem. There may be many
reasons why people resist change, and there could be any number
of different dynamics acting all at the same time with no logical
or rational reason. A common response to these problems is the
complexity response — investing resources into designing and
implementing comprehensive management, measurement and
improvement systems. Sometimes management changes and
training are sought for a quick solution. Often the fundamental
problem remains because the response provided a solution when
what was needed was more curiosity to understand the root
causes of the problem.
The problem with being small The manager of a small assembly

plant wants to reduce the number of substandard parts which
he receives from his company’s various large manufacturing
divisions. His part of the operation is one of the smallest and
contributes least to sales turnover for the group. Everyone seems
to be busy on more important areas of the business. Even his own
director spends most of his time looking after other responsibili-
ties. How can the assembly manager convince other managers
from manufacturing to involve themselves in an improvement
plan?
This type of problem requires a strategic plan of influence and
persuasion. The solution may not be contained within the infor-
chapter nine
mation provided and so the problem needs to be opened up with

a curiosity type of response.
People are the backbone of any organization. It is possible to
consider changes to processes without considering the influence
of people and to do this within the confines of an executive
meeting room. However, to do so is extremely myopic.
Listening, understanding and involvement are the oil on the
wheels of change. But to listen only with the ears over the tele-
phone is to disregard 55 per cent of the overall communication
contained in body language.
Managers who invest time in productive two-way, face-to-face
communication with people will pick up messages from physiol-
ogy that are not contained in the words. Many divergent prob-
lems are complicated because people are involved and they often
have different and sometimes conflicting priorities. If you
remove people from the equation, many organizational problems
become convergent. Consider this simple scenario:
A manager decides that it would be a great PR exercise for all

employees to wear badges saying “Total Quality Commitment”.
The manager gets everyone together and says, “I want you all to
wear these badges as a sign to our customers that we are com-
mitted to quality.” What actually happens is that the badges are
worn — but only when the manager visits them.
In this case, the manager in question didn’t have the sensory

acuity to pick up from nonverbal responses that there was an
issue with wearing the badges. Not only that, but the issue isn’t
really about badges, it’s about the way they are treated by man-
agers generally. These signs will only be picked up by managers
who are sensitive to them and understand the nature and impor-
tance of motivation. Noticing these nonverbal cues of dissatisfac-
tion will increase your flexibility to deal with underlying
divergent problems such as this one.
The wearing or nonwearing of badges may seem insignificant,
and in isolation it is. However, it brings to the surface the much
deeper problem of uncooperative manager/employee relation-

ships. If this issue were to be addressed it could have a much
wider influence on significant areas like productivity, efficiency
and effectiveness.
A state of curiosity will help to open up the space containing a
divergent problem, and if you want to know how a manager or a
group might respond to a new procedure, you will get better
quality information by noticing the messages contained in physi-
ology and voice tone.
m@ Daydream your way to success
*Robert B. Dilts, Albert Einstein and Walt Disney were both endowed with cre-
Strategies of Genius,
vol. 2, Meta
ative genius.* They both had very well developed visual modali-
Publications, 1994. ties, and they both spent a great deal of time daydreaming —
engrossed in their inner movies. Einstein’s early memory, which
led to his Theory of Relativity, was of a daydream during a math-
ematics class where he visualized himself sitting on a beam of
light. Einstein had the sensory acuity to notice that his thoughts
were born from images. He developed his visual modality by sup-
pressing words and thinking in pictures alone, which removed
boundaries to his imagination. Walt Disney used strong imagery
to conjure up exciting new cartoon films, and he also used sound
and movement to create, in his mind, the full VAK experience for
his audience.
Visualizing is very useful for thinking about divergent prob-
lems. Language can constrain possibility. Yet, in many organiza-
tions, particularly those focused on action and reaction, you are
unlikely to win favour by staring out of the window. The ability
to “think on your feet” is applauded, and mastering this ability
can make you appear highly dynamic; however, the quality of
decisions made “on the hoof” will depend upon the ability to
switch styles of thinking in the midst of action. Your ability to do
so will depend on your existing ability to visualize and getting
enough practice to make it a habit.
chapter nine
The next exercise is based upon Walt Disney’s creativity strat-

egy which will be explained in more detail in the next section of
this chapter. With practice, this exercise will help you to be more
creative, innovative and decisive “on-your-feet”.
Thinking on your feet psaSas os a
This strategy can be used in any situation requiring creative solutions to a

problem being discussed. The context is not important.
—_— Picture the situation and construct possible solutions in your mind’s eye. Let
your imagination roam free — it’s OK to be different and unorthodox. Adopt the
dreaming posture (head slightly up and cocked to left, eyes up right, breathe
from high-chest area). Proceed to step 2 after having created a number of pos-
sible solutions.
ips) Criticize each visual idea using internal dialogue. Adopt the critical evaluation
posture (head slightly down, left hand on chin, index finger pointing up
towards ear, eyes down left, breathe from midchest). What are the advantages
and disadvantages of each possibility?
Lee) Imagine you have decided to go with a solution. What does it feel like to have
accepted it? Does it feel right? Test for incongruence signals. Adopt the reality
posture (head slightly down, eyes down right, breathe from lower abdomen).
clesy If in step 3 you feel incongruent about the solution, repeat steps 1-3 using
fresh visual ideas as the content.
on lf in step 3 you feel congruent, repeat steps 1-3 with your solution as the
content. If in step 3 you still feel congruent the second time around, trust your
solution and decide now!
There is a variation to this pattern in which you may want to

choose between two ideas. What you do is to construct a clear
image in your mind of each solution side by side at some point in
the distance, and flit your eyes from one to the other looking for
differences. Because this version is comparing two developed
ideas, and isn’t looking to create new alternatives, it is not neces-
sary to look up right. The other steps are the same — take the
solution which appears to be most appropriate and put it

through the auditory and kinaesthetic processes. This is more
like a decision making process than a creative one, but it is
extremely useful for making decisions “on the hoof”. It is worth
practising this strategy, as it is possible to develop it so that the
whole process can be completed within a few seconds. You will
notice people who do this naturally as their eyes flit rapidly
between two locations of focus.
@ Natural creative you
Everyone has a unique state they put themselves into when they
are being creative. Like everything else, your level of creativity
will be state-dependent. A high intensity state of creativity will
produce more and better ideas than a low intensity state.
Therefore it makes sense to calibrate an intense state and anchor
it for future access. This is particularly useful when you need to
be creative for extended periods like brainstorming sessions and
visualizing futures. I’ll take you through the process.
You want to recall a specific time when you were being highly
creative. If nothing comes to mind it’s OK to imagine what it
would be like to be highly creative. Now take this memory and
visualize what you look like as you are being creative. See your-
self being highly creative, and hear what you are saying and what
others around you are saying. Make the picture brighter, bigger
and more colourful. Turn up the sound and pan it from left to
right then have it continue in a circle all the way around. Make
the picture even bigger and three dimensional. Exaggerate move-
ment and bring it towards you as you associate with it. Be aware
of your feelings inside and anchor this state by pressing your
temples with the middle finger of each hand just before your state
reaches its peak of intensity. Choose a different place on your
body to set the anchor if you prefer. The important thing is to
make sure it’s a location you can find again with a good degree of
precision when you want to fire the anchor.
chapter nine
Repeat this exact same process, with exactly the same anchor
four or five times, making sure that you “break state” between
each one. The result will be an anchored high intensity state of
creativity which you can access whenever you want to boost a
future creative thinking process. The best time to anchor this
state, or any state, is when you are experiencing it in the real
world, so the next time you find yourself being highly creative,
anchor the state.
m@ Regenerate your flow
Have you ever been in a state of intense concentration and

suddenly got blocked? It could be that you were writing an
important letter and found yourself stuck for a particular word
or phrase. It could be a convergent problem that required
careful, logical thought, and your flow of thinking got blocked
somehow. What actually happens in these instances is that the
chemicals in your brain create neural connections that seem to
get welded together. What you need to do is break these connec-
tions to allow new and different connections to be made. When
you are navigating your experience for ideas to use in other con-
texts — you are learning how to make connections.
The process is the same. What you are doing is calling up an
existing memory pattern and adding a new one to it. The brain,
which has two halves — left and right — works through a complex
and countless number of reference structures, or neural linkages.
The left side of the brain processes information sequentially, one
chunk at a time, and it controls the right side of the body. The
right side processes whole pieces of information and controls the
left side of the body.
This information will help to explain the seemingly absurd
nature of the next exercise. It works by forcing you to use both
sides of your brain simultaneously for speaking and moving the
body to a unique pattern. The exercise comes from kinesiology
and is used to help balance left and right brain activity using the
body to break habitual brain patterns and force new connections
to be made. It is guaranteed to unblock the severest of stuck think-

ing by scrambling the neural connections! Notice the difference in
how you feel inside your head before and after the exercise.
EXERCISE ee Scrambling the brain
Refer to the diagram and starting at the top left, follow the alphabet through to Y
and back again. Say each letter of the alphabet out loud at the same time as doing
the following actions:
L = raise left arm and right foot

R = raise right arm and left foot
T = raise both arms and stand on tip-toe.
This exercise is best done standing up and vocalizing each letter. It can be mod-
ified for the office and done discreetly at your desk by using internal dialogue and
raising fingers and toes. Once you have used this pattern a few times it will start
to become habitual. Prevent this by mixing up the letters L, R and 7 to produce
different patterns.
| hope you found the exercise fun and effective ... try it when you really get stuck
for the answer to a problem. Other movements to get your mind to change
include juggling, mini basketball, skipping, pogo, stretching — anything to get the
blood pumping through your veins. The main thing is to move your body if you
want to move your mind.
™@ Supercharge your creativity
How you enhance your own state of creativity will be unique to

you. Whether you work at improving your visual, auditory or
chapter nine
kinaesthetic modalities will depend upon your current preference.

Recent brain research has shown that creativity and learning can
be enhanced by stimulating the brain in a number of different
ways — emotionally, nutritionally and physically/mentally.
In the mood for creativity

The brain learns best when it is emotionally charged, either neg-
atively or positively. People easily recall emotional highs and
lows in their life. Negative emotions create stress and so are not
conducive to creativity. There is also a strong tendency to sup-
press negative or unpleasant emotions. It is better to create an
environment where informality, humour and freedom of expres-
sion are acceptable.
Formal business environments stifle creativity. Music is a pow-
erful way of accessing positive emotional states. Many of our
positive emotional experiences will be anchored to particular
songs or tunes. Music which relaxes and helps to generate
positive emotions will also enhance creative thinking.
NLP and group creativity

The ability to choose your own creative thought process is
something you have complete control over. This is not so with
Q
The world we have
groups. Most will require at the minimum some form of facilita- made as a result of the
level of thinking we
tion or structural framework and training to help them break out have done thus far
creates problems that
of habitual problem/solution processes.
we cannot solve at the
Quality circles and other such improvement initiatives are same level at which
we have created
formal structures for helping people to be creative by applying a them ... We shall
curiosity response to problems. Brainstorming is the most require a substantially
new manner of
common form of group creativity process used in organizations thinking if humankind
is to survive.
today, and for many problems it is reasonably effective. Yet
ALBERT EINSTEIN
brainstorming is merely a high level process which can have (1879-1955)
many different variations using techniques to widen the problem American physicist
space and increase both the quantity and quality of ideas. In this
chapter I will introduce you to some different techniques to use
in problem-solving sessions.
oe
m@ The key question
Among the many questions which will be asked during a

problem-solving activity there is one key question —
what type of problem is this?
This question moves you to a higher level from where it is

possible to get a clearer picture.
For example, a production line is having trouble matching its
output to sales forecasts. Sometimes output exceeds requirement,
and at other times it falls short. There are many arguments
between production supervisors and sales about poor communi-
cation, inaccurate orders on the computer system and last minute
changes to order specifications. As the company grows and sales
orders get larger and more complex, the problems become severe
and diverse with stress and frustration leading to decreased
motivation and lower levels of productivity.
The words you use to define a problem will influence your
solution. What type of problem is this? It could be classed as a
The words you use
problem of motivation, skill shortage, attitude, communication,
to define a
problem will process, systems, timing or any number of other seemingly
influence your obvious categories. Can you imagine the amount of solution
solution. resources that could be potentially called up by committing an
inappropriate solution to an ill-defined problem?
For this particular problem it is useful to go initially to a higher
level than where the problem is manifest, to ask questions and to
take a systemic view of the sales and production functions as a
whole entity. You want to notice the inability in each subsystem
for achieving higher-level organizational outcomes (meeting
customers’ delivery expectations for example). The process of
questioning and diagnosis gets you to a level of analysis where
connections can be made, and you are likely to get different
perspectives on the problem that will act as a catalyst for locking
thinking onto the right target. |
chapter nine
lm Sources of problems
The sources of problems can be diverse, but as far as NLP is con-

cerned, if the people working in the system are motivated to
work together to achieve greatness as a team, then even the most
complex of problems can be solved and turned into amazing new
opportunities. So any problem solving that involves more than
one person has the potential for creating brilliant possibilities as
long as the people involved are working cooperatively towards
the same goal. Problem solving in teams then focuses on systems
thinking and the team dynamics as a fundamental requirement to
creating solutions.
How do you see the problem?

When activity is driven by perception rather than what is actually
happening you are not problem solving but guessing and mind
reading.
A manager inherited a large and politically difficult on-site
computer service contract which, under previous management,
had fallen to extremely low levels of customer satisfaction. People
seemed to be working hard, but the client continued to emphasize
concern at appalling performance levels. It took six months to
turn the contract around to one of the division’s highest perform-
ing contracts in terms of customer satisfaction and level of service.
This is how the manager described his success:
“Tt was a question of the perception held by the contract team.

We had been taken on to manage the service, but the percep-
tion the team had was that they were there to be managed by -
the client and respond to their wishes. Once I explained the sit-
uation to the team they understood that the client wanted
them to take a management role. They became more proactive
in reshaping the policies and procedures that were hindering
performance improvement, and arranged client meetings with
the purpose of discussing service management issues rather
than defending a poor performance record which had become
the norm.”
Team activity is best directed by actual customer expectations

than perception. Perception-driven activity is a sure-fire way of
Perception-driven
wasting valuable resources. .
activity is a sure-
fire way of wasting
valuable How well do you all get on?
resources. Problems caused by people not getting along rarely get fixed until
the relationships are addressed. The symptoms of relationship
problems appear in the breakdown of communication generally
and the lack of cooperation between individuals and teams.
When this happens a new objective comes into play — that of
avoiding or creating confrontation, which acts as a limitation on
business performance.
Cultivate trust When teams are given the right direction and
are pulling together, they can deliver more than the sum of their
Trust is the
parts. When teams are poorly directed, they can close ranks and
foundation for
productive become isolated from other teams. This creates mistrust between
communication. teams, and trust is the foundation for productive communica-
tion. Where you have mistrust you have poor communication,
and it is futile to attempt fixing any other process while this situ-
ation remains. Mistrust is a constraint on potential and a huge
barrier to communication. People suppress ideas and informa-
tion when they feel mistrusted, and they limit the amount of
effort they put in. Mistrust also kills creativity and innovation
since no one wants to stick their neck out if they do not feel
trusted to do so. Can you recall a time when you communicated
freely and openly with someone you mistrusted? Probably not.
“Come on in!” As you begin to notice more about the differ-

ences between individuals, the things that make every person
unique, puzzling behaviour becomes easier to understand. You
have only to observe the behaviour of two people working side
by side and notice their communication patterns. For example,
one is a procedures person who values having an organized and
tidy desk, while the other is an options person with a low inter-
est in things and is generally untidy and less organized in the
chapter nine
office. When behavioural profiles are opposites people either

respect the differences and make the most of them, or they react
negatively. When differences are respected and utilized great
things can happen, but sometimes people feel threatened by these
differences and the result can create a territory battle. If you own
the territory you can organize it to your own liking and exclude
people who you do not understand or who puzzle you.
In large organizations people can feel that they own certain
parts of the territory because they have worked there for a long
time and put some of their personality into it. Territory includes
intellectual and process areas as well as physical space. I have
noticed resentment and low cooperation from managers who
consider they should have control of someone else’s process or
part of the organization. Time spent in understanding differences
between people and utilizing their strengths is well worth the
investment, and the return can be astounding.
The managing director of a manufacturing unit held opera-
tional meetings with her executive team every Monday morning.
After about three months it was apparent to her that the meetings
were ineffective. She was getting more and more frustrated at the
team’s inability to come up with good ideas and execute them, so
she decided to do something about it. At the next meeting she
made an opening statement that shocked some of the team. She
said, “I’m not enjoying these meetings. I never look forward to
them and quite frankly I think that we are all wasting our time.
Does anyone else feel the same way?” A unanimous vote of
agreement followed and in response to this the MD suggested the
team take time out to learn about each other and connect. A
series of outdoor events was organized and eventually the team
began to speak about what they each felt was really important in
their job. From this new understanding they were able to rein-
state their operational meetings, and instead of being threatened
by each other they began to draw on individual strengths to solve
their problems. They felt like a team for the very first time.
Whose buck is this? Where a process involving two or more

departments isn’t producing the desired outcome, it is important
to examine the responsibilities and authority levels on each side.
This situation can create “buck-passing” if no one wants to
accept responsibility for things going wrong, and people can be
quick to point the finger of blame. For responsibility to have the
desired effect on outcomes it must be aligned behind changing
organizational needs. It is not so useful to rely upon written
responsibilities alone. There must always be a sense of responsi-
bility which forms the overall attitude towards the job and shapes
There must always
values and beliefs. Problems often occur when an individual, or a
be a sense of
group, has a misaligned sense of what they are responsible for.
responsibility
which forms the “Sticking to the rulebook” behaviour typifies this situation, of
overall attitude which the “jobs-worth” disease is a classic example.
towards the job. Authority can be a block to improving relationship problems.
Even where there is a good sense of responsibility, a breakdown
may occur because people are not delegated appropriate levels of
authority. This is what empowerment is all about. For authority
to have a positive effect on the business it needs to be balanced
with responsibility. Relationship-type problems are often diver-
gent, so even when you think you have put your finger on the
root cause, it is well worth staying with the problem and opening
it up further. Communication workshops are useful tools to
encourage open and honest discussion and to help understand
relationship-type problems.
Engage, engage, engage

The assembly line was pioneered and refined in 1912 by Henry
Ford to produce the Model “T”. This work flow design lasted for
over half a century and you can still find examples of it around
today. Think of your capabilities, and what you have learned.
Feel a sense of dedication and commitment to achieving a goal,
and whatever distractions attempt to draw your focus onto less
valuable pursuits, just keep bringing it back to your goal. Focus
and refocus. They also began to understand worker psychology,
leading to a team-operated production facility. The more recent
chapter nine
drive for improved quality has led to an integration of the quality

function into the workflow rather than as an appendage at the
end of the product line.
As the pace of change continues to accelerate, the fundamental
design of work flow is under continual appraisal. Business re-
The fundamental
engineering is a methodology created for achieving complete
design of work
redesign of work systems. Problems are often related to out- flow needs
moded, inadequate or inappropriate work systems which can continual
lead to relationship problems as each sub-system falls short of appraisal.
meeting its internal customer expectations. Modern call centres
that have low staff retention and high sickness rates are typical of
a management ignorant of the connection between people and
work. Work systems that are designed from theoretical models
rarely meet performance expectations. The important omissions
from the formula are involvement and engagement.
The sales director of a new call centre in the personal finance
sector invited me to see the operation and observe how it had
broken the mould of the industry stereotype. Sure enough what |
discovered was a vibrant, colourful, noisy office where the call
centre operators were really enjoying their job. They were also
very professional and extremely helpful to customers. The sales
director told me that her main challenge was to keep the working
environment interesting, lively and a little bit crazy. This
company came from nowhere and quickly gained a respectable
market share which is still growing today.
I explained in Chapter 1 how identity, values, beliefs, capabil-
ity, behaviour and environment all influence results and are also
potential sources of problems. These levels can be used in group
problem-solving activities to open up problem space by applying
different perspectives. There are many activities that use this
model to help teams align behind common business outcomes. I
have included a few of the more widely used exercises you can
use with your problem-solving teams.
I said earlier how working from your own perception is not a
useful approach. The more perspectives you can gain on a
problem, the more information you will get as to the possible
cause. Divergent problems require interventions in more than

one area, and so there is always the danger that a solution to one
Divergent
perspective of the problem by itself will not be sufficient to effect
problems require
interventions in the desired change. The “multiple perspectives” method of
more than one problem solving can be adapted to include as many different per-
area. spectives as you think are necessary for a particular problem. |
will explain the method using the problem types I have men-
tioned in this chapter.
EXERCISE Dees Multiple perspectives
With a large group of 20 or more
Each square in Figure 9.3 represents a room containing a small group of between
three and six people. Each room is labelled with a different perspective of the
same problem. The groups brainstorm the same problem while remaining within
the scope of their allocated perspective. The groups think of the problem “as-if”
it were the type suggested by their allocated perspective. After a period of time
each group presents the outcome of their brainstorming session to the whole
team.
Most problem-solving sessions will perhaps include, at the very most, five or six
different perspectives. However, if a problem is sufficiently diverse and a serious
threat to the organization, all nine perspectives can be included by running the
exercise over a number of days and taking, say, three perspectives per session.
relationship
process
flow
MFIGURE 9.3 Capability

Multiple
perspectives
Gb-
chapter nine
With a smaller group
Vary this idea by allocating a different perspective to each member of the group
around the same table. Another variation of this method is to use meta-
programme perspectives, i.e. work patterns, activity content, motivational direc-
tion, level of activity, attention direction, reference sort, chunk size and group
behaviour.
Tips
Participants in this activity will require a thorough education in the whole process,
and it will help to provide each group with a reference guide for use while
brainstorming. The definitions of each perspective must be clearly stated to avoid
confusion between similar components such as “work design” and “process
flow”, “behaviour” and “capability”.
” “
The Walt Disney creativity strategy

Walt Disney was perhaps one of the most creative thinkers of our
time. His talent for creating animated films transformed the
industry and built a hugely successful business empire. His high
standards of quality, creativity and perfection were an obsession.
His films are a combination of exaggerated character features,
stirring music, stories based on human morals and vivid extremes
of stillness and action to carry an audience through a range of
emotional states. His most famous features include Bambi
(1943), Pinocchio (1939), Treasure Island (1950) and Snow
White (1938), all of which are still shown today on movie screens
all over the world.
Robert Dilts, a long time developer of NLP, has studied the
strategies of Walt Disney and produced models for others to use.
The underlying thinking style which Disney used to create new
characters, stories and film settings was very specific. It consisted
of three different phases of thinking:
e Dreamer
e Realist
e Critic
The dreamer The dreamer phase works purely with imagina-

tion, looking for possibilities of what could be. There are no con-
The dreamer
phase works
straints, limitations or evaluations connected to this mode. It is
purely with primarily a visual mode with a synthesis of sound and feeling.
imagination, Disney would actually visualize symphonic music — giving it form
looking for — music being the lead to his preferred visual modality. The phys-
possibilities of iology associated with the dreamer phase is upright, with the
what could be. head tilted slightly up and eyes up to the right (visual construct).
The realist The realist phase is concerned with the “how” of

implementation — how the output from the dreamer can be put
The realist phase
into action and made a reality. It does not seek to evaluate or
is concerned with
the “how” of criticize — rather to explore ways of making the dreamer’s vision
implementation. happen. The key to being an effective realist is the ability to asso-
ciate with different characters, taking different perspectives on
the finer details of the dreamer’s vision. To this end it may be
useful to adopt the physiology of each character.
The critic The critic phase is one of detail, logic and conse-
quences. The critic looks for problems using a “what if” frame.
The critic phase is
one of detail, logic
To effectively criticize the work of the dreamer and realist, the
and consequences. critic must be sufficiently removed from the situation. The critic
is concerned with getting the details right. Everything must fall
into place with no rough edges or unfinished actions.
This is not a negative stance, but a valuable contribution to
checking out ideas and ensuring they meet established criteria
and are robust. The critic can be just as creative as the dreamer by
identifying a missing or inappropriate element of a plan. Critics
should continually ask the question “what if?” The physiology of
the critic is in critical evaluation pose with the head tilted slightly
down and the hand to the side of the face or supporting the chin.
Using the strategy The dreamer does not have a monopoly on

ideas. The Walt Disney strategy is a creative process used to
generate ideas and each phase is equal in its contribution to
creativity. Without a realist and a critic the dreamer’s ideas are
chapter nine
unlikely to develop into actions. Here are two ways of using the
Walt Disney creative strategy in groups.
Disney’s perceptual positions ee 15
For small groups
This is based upon the same concept of space used earlier in the book, only this
time there are four physical locations labelled dreamer, realist, critic and
observer. The advantage of setting out physical locations for each perspective is
that it helps to separate the different thinking patterns. Try this exercise next time
you find yourself in a meeting where problem, solution and ideas seem to follow
no logical process of thought or discussion. The three Disney locations ensure
that each phase of the creativity process is separated, and the observer location
ensures that they are working congruently with each other.
® @)
DREAMER REALIST
NI @
®
OBSERVER OR (META MFIGURE 9.4
PERSPECTIVE) Disney’s
perceptual
positions
Step 1
Write a brief description of the context and objective for which creativity is
required. A visual image with the text will help to keep the group focused on the
objectives without having to break state to read. An image conveys its meaning
immediately your eye catches it while text has to be read before the meaning can
be derived. Hence images will keep a group more focused even while being
observed with peripheral vision.
Step 2
Organize the team into four groups. Ask each group to anchor a pure and strong
state to each of the three locations — dreamer, realist and critic. If the group is not
skilled in anchoring, you can help them to generate an optimum state for each
location by inviting them to recall a time when they were (a) dreaming, (b) being
a realist and (c) criticizing. -
Step 3
Associate with each location in turn, starting with the dreamer. Take as much
time as necessary to ensure that states are pure before moving on to the next
location. In the dreamer location, use visualization, sound and feelings only.
Internal dialogue is not a useful mode for creativity. In the realist location, take the
images created by the dreamer and make them work. Associate with any charac-
ters that may be involved to get a realistic feel of how they will be affected by the
ideas generated. From the critic location repeatedly ask the question “what if?”
until all the possible problems and dangers have been overcome.
Step 4
Step onto the observer location and consider the whole creativity process
happening among the three locations. Check that it is all congruent and focused
on the context and objectives.
Step 5
Continue to move through each position until there is satisfaction and congru-
ence with the ideas generated.
A variation for large groups
As an alternative to moving through the perceptual positions, you can have each
group remain with one perspective and pass the information around each group.
You will need four syndicate rooms for this exercise. In room 1 will be the dream-
ers who are tasked with generating ideas and passing them to the realists in room
2. The critics in room 3 take the ideas from the realists and pass them to the
observers in room 4. The observers do not alter the ideas, but give feedback to
each group on how well they are keeping to the context and objectives. They
chapter nine
should also recognize and feed back qualitative information about the content of
each group’s contribution.
A high street chain of stores was investing in a new image and

wanted to introduce some creative ideas to attract new customers
and keep them in the store for longer. We facilitated managers
from different stores through the Disney strategy, first by creat-
ing a very playful environment in the room and encouraging
crazy ideas. During this process one manager suggested that cus-
tomers could queue at the checkout in carts that moved along
on rails. Plenty more ideas were generated during the initial
Dreamer phase.
When it came to the Reality stage we set up the room com-
pletely differently - we removed the toys and turned the chairs to
face the opposite way. It was like everything in the room had
been picked up and turned around 180 degrees. We tidied up the
mess that had been created during stage 1 and removed materials
which were done with. When we brought the team back into the
room we told some stories with a very practical edge to get them
into a good “Realist” state. During this stage the “cart on rails”
idea was considered impractical, but another manager came up
with the idea of entertaining people in the queue to make the
wait more enjoyable. Others chipped in and thought practically
how to make the idea work. At the end of this stage the idea was
to let customers in the checkout queue try out products like
video games, cameras, hi-tech toys and portable DVD players
while they were waiting to be served.
All the ideas that were kept at the end of the Realist stage were
taken back to the workplace and put to other managers. The final
Critic stage was held in store so they could see what they had to
do to make the ideas work. The “queue entertainment” idea was
implemented and an immediate increase in sales of around 5 per
cent was achieved. A key contribution during the critic stage was
to make sure plenty of the “try out” products were held at the till
so when the customer arrived at the checkout the product was
there to be purchased.
The Einstein strategy

Most people know of Albert Einstein for his Theory of Relativity
(E = MC’). Arriving at this formula took Einstein many years.
His very first thought on relativity occurred at the age of 16 as he
was daydreaming during a maths lesson at school. He wondered
what the world would look like if you were sitting on the end of
a light beam. And if you were holding a mirror in your hand,
would you be able to see your reflection?
Einstein is regarded as a genius for his contribution to science,
and we are lucky to have so many historic records that describe
his creative thinking strategy. Here’s an example of how
Einstein’s thinking strategy can be used in a group creativity
process.
The technique Einstein preferred to think in pictures rather

than words. Pure visual imagination doesn’t have the associa-
tions, meanings, rules and structure that a spoken language has.
If you think in words you are already influencing the quality and
quantity of ideas which you can potentially generate. Only after
thoughts have been generated is the spoken language of any use.
Some people may say that they don’t see pictures, or that they
don’t visualize. What actually happens is that these people do
visualize, but they have developed other representation systems
in preference to the visual modality. The following is often a con-
vincer for these people: what I want you to do is imagine a green
monkey playing basketball with a purple and yellow hippopota-
mus. Can you imagine that? Of course they can. Now, it’s time to
visualize.
EXERCISE UN Think like Einstein
The instructions for this are simple. You first need a situation frame — some
words that define the problem, and perhaps a system diagram showing the
problem boundaries. Once the frame is set, people are instructed to think only in
visual images. To do so they may need to tame their internal dialogue — tell them
that if it creeps in, to turn it off and concentrate on the pictures.
chapter nine
Allow the imagination to take control of the thinking process. Relaxation music
will help, and breathing high in the chest area will help to kick-in the visuals.
Suggest that they may want to relax and close their eyes — whatever is the most
comfortable. Sharing ideas as they emerge may stimulate ideas from others in
the group. When they have finished invite them to share their ideas with each
other freely in small groups of three to five. As each person explains their ideas, Q
the other group members ask questions relating to perception, identity, values I can never stand still.
I must explore and
and beliefs. For example, what identity would be most useful to carry out this experiment. Iam
never satisfied with
idea? What values and beliefs would be needed to make this happen? What
my work. I resent the
perceptions might people create around this idea? limitations of my own
imagination.
The results can be documented for later evaluation. This technique can also be WALT DISNEY
(1901-66)
used for the dreamer stage of the Walt Disney strategy. Remember that exercises American film
cartoonist and
of this nature are designed purely to generate possibilities, and there is no evalu-
director
ation of ideas at this stage.
NLP and procrastination
The ability to avoid certain tasks or decisions is a powerful phe-

nomenon. Just about every manager I have known has owned up
to a certain amount of procrastination. The question is how
much time do you spend avoiding doing things that you really
ought to be getting on with? If you could stop procrastinating
completely, how much extra time would you have on your
hands? How much better will you feel at having tackled and com-
pleted all the things you have been procrastinating about? So
how does procrastination work? Think about a task you need to
get done or a decision you are faced with at the moment. As you
think about this how are you representing the thought in your
mind? What are your images and sounds like? Is the picture
distant, fuzzy or grey? Are the sounds dull and incoherent? What
often happens with something you are avoiding is the images and
sounds that make up your thinking are distant and grey — this is a
function of your unconscious mind. So whenever you think
about the thing you feel you should be doing, your mind pushes
the thoughts into the distance or background and then moves on
to something with more of an instant reward such as making a

cup of coffee or checking your email. If there is still time to come
back to the task or decision later, you are likely to keep repeating
this pattern until the very last minute when the deadline has
arrived and you are able to procrastinate no longer. The problem
this causes, in addition to the bad feelings of not being in control,
is that you have no time for creative input because speed of
completion becomes paramount. Sound familiar? Luckily there
are techniques to get around this procrastination pattern.
@ Value to you
Engage only in tasks that mean something to you. If you are
unable to find meaning in your work you are probably in the
wrong job. It is so easy to fall into the trap of doing work for a
living that has no meaning for you, feeling undervalued and then
pinning your lack of achievement on poor time management.
The result is procrastination. More people than ever today are
leaving highly paid jobs because of the lack of personal fulfilment
in their role. Of course, like most roles today, there will be some
tasks you really enjoy and others you would rather not do — it’s
the balance that’s important. The simple way to check the value
content of your work is to keep a record of all the activities you
are involved with in a typical week or month, and as you are
doing each one rate the value according to what it is doing for
you, not for the organization. How do you feel as you are doing
it? What are you getting from it? Which tasks have been causing
the most procrastination?
Now take the tasks with the highest degree of procrastination
and use one or more of the following techniques to get yourself
really motivated to do them. Take one at a time and ask yourself,
“What’s important about this task?” If you are unable to find a
suitable answer, then maybe it doesn’t really need to be done. Or
could someone else be doing it instead of you? What would
happen if you didn’t do it? What could you be doing instead that
would be more gainful? Take the tasks that you still feel you
@ should be doing and continue with the next stage of the technique.
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H Outcome focus
Decide what you want as an outcome for the task. What do you
want to have achieved as a result of putting effort into the task?
You can use the “well-formed outcomes” guide in Chapter 3, to
make sure you have everything covered. Sometimes pro-
crastination is caused by ill-defined criteria, or a lack of focus
on what’s really important about the task. Use the following
questions to create your “well-formed outcome”.
1 What do I want to achieve from this?
2 What internal and external resources will I need to complete it

successfully?
3 How am I going to get this moving, retain responsibility for

whatever happens and stay in control throughout?
4 What will my achieving this do for me and others? What wider

impact will it have?
5 How will I know I have been successful? What evidence will I

use to measure this?
6 What timescale is realistic and acceptable for me?
Creating well-formed outcomes in this way can also overcome

another reason for procrastination — fear! I once coached a sales
executive who told me he avoided meeting new prospects
because of the fear of immediate rejection. To overcome this fear
he created a well-formed outcome for the next new prospect visit
and went through the motions as if he had already succeeded in
turning the prospect into a client. He began to recognize how
ridiculous he had been in avoiding new business and became
motivated to go and see new prospects. He also used the tech-
niques that follow to power up his intention to succeed and this
got him taking more positive action with new prospects.
m@ Options pattern
Now to the most common cause of procrastination — the options

pattern. If, like many other people, you are motivated by choices
then you are likely to procrastinate whenever a choice is before
you. In fact the less procedural you are, the more you are likely
to suffer from “options procrastination”. You will recognize this
pattern from the tendency to re-invent the wheel, or inertia
caused by your reluctance to make a choice. Becoming aware of
your options pattern is the first step to dealing with it. The next
step is to decide criteria for each choice you are facing — and then
to stick to it! Again, use the following techniques to kick you into
action.
EXERCISE Wks Propulsion technique
Think of a time when you really got moving with a task and completed it success-
fully. Notice the imagery that comes to mind and turn up the colours and bright-
ness while bringing it closer until you are fully associated. Now intensify the good
feelings and hold them while you continue with the next step.
Take one of the tasks which you have been procrastinating over and create an
image of having got stuck in and succeeded. Now create another image of the
consequences of having succeeded, and another of you and your new capability
now that you have replaced procrastination with action. You now have three
images to work with. Turn up the brightness and colour, and see each image
Clearly inside its own frame. Project the images above the horizon and in front of
you. Now, look down and tell yourself (in a determined tone of voice) how you
are ready to get stuck in. As you do this look up and merge the three images. See
them begin to swirl around and form a spinning orange sphere of dynamic
energy. Now move the orange sphere down from your mind into your lower
abdomen and spin it faster in a forward spinning motion. Keep telling yourself
how you are really ready to get moving ... and as the orange sphere spins
faster ... notice how you are being driven forward ready to act!
Here’s another exercise using the Orange Circle Thinking tech-

nique, based on an original NLP procedure called collapsing
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anchors. For this technique you will require a blue pen, an eee 18
orange pen, a piece of paper, a pair of scissors and some space.
Orange circle thinking
Cut out a square and on it with the blue pen draw a symbol representing what it
is you have been procrastinating over. Now place your blue square on the floor
and stand in front of it while feeling what it is like to have been procrastinating
over this situation. Now move a few feet away from the blue square, take a couple
of deep breaths and answer the following questions:
e@ What do you want to do with this situation?

e@ What outcome do you want to have as a result of getting on with it?
e@ How do you want to feel, having got it completed?
Now cut out a circle and using the orange pen draw a symbol representing these
three new ways of responding. Place the orange circle on the floor at least six feet
away from the blue square and stand facing it. Bring to mind a time when you did
get on with something and achieved a satisfactory and positive outcome. Notice
the images you have asscciated with this time and intensify the colour, bright-
ness and contrast. Bring the image closer to you until the feelings get stronger;
then at the peak of intensity turn to look at the blue square and notice how you feel
now about that situation. You will have a powerful feeling of wanting to get on with
it. The relevance of the orange circle and blue square is explained in Chapter 4.
NLP and decision making
How do you know if you are making the best decisions for your-
self and for the business? Some say that decision making is intu-
itive, others that it’s the science of weighing up the pros and
cons. When you think about having to make a decision, there is
always more evidence and experience to help you than you can
access consciously. When you have had strong feelings about
something and followed through with a decision, chances are you
will have achieved a good result. Some people call this intuition.
What’s actually happening in cases like this is your unconscious
mind is having an influence over your thinking. All the experi-

ences you have had that relate to the decision being considered
are being drawn upon — too many for the conscious mind to
think about. Your unconscious then sends a signal via your feel-
ings advising you whether or not to take the decision. Think of it
more as your unconscious intelligence-rather than intuition. The
trouble is, if you are highly stressed or not a feeling sort of
person, you may not feel the signal from your unconscious mind,
or even worse you may feel it but ignore it.
One of the causes of poor decisions is that they are often made
when you are feeling bad about something. If you think back to
some of the better decisions you have made, chances are they will
have been made when you were feeling good about yourself. The
next time you are facing a decision, make sure you are feeling
good about yourself, and if not, choose a technique to change the
way you are feeling.
In addition to your unconscious signals you have a decision-
making strategy. This consists of the sequence of events inside
your mind that you play each time you have a decision to make.
You probably use the same decision strategy to order a meal in a
restaurant and make a major business decision. If your decision
making is not working well, you can improve it or create an
entirely new strategy. You may also find that once you have
improved your strategy your unconscious signal will become
more recognizable to you.
@ Eliciting your strategy
All strategies are made up of a combination of the following:

External visual information
Internal images .
External auditory information
Internal auditory (such as your internal dialogue and remem-
bered conversations, or the catchy pop-tune you just can’t get
out of your head)
e Internal dialogue
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e External feeling (tactile)

e Internal feelings
@ Physiology
Your strategy will also be influenced by your values, beliefs and

metaprogrammes.
@ Creating a “good decision” strategy
Think about a good decision you made where you felt it was the
right thing to do and where the outcome was positive. Take your
mind back to the very first point at which you were aware a deci-
sion had to be made. What did you do first? Did you see a
picture, have a conversation with yourself or speak to other
people? This type of sequence of events has everything to do with
the quality of decisions you make. For example, one manager I
was coaching had made a series of bad decisions he was very
unhappy about. He asked for help to improve the impact of his
decisions. During coaching sessions I discovered his “bad deci-
sion” strategy was made up of the following sequence of events:
1 Internal visual — mind image of the outcome I want for making

this decision
2 Internal dialogue — tell self what to do to achieve outcome
3 Internal feeling — feels like I really want to decide this now and
get something moving
Notice the sense of urgency to act based on purely internal infor-

mation — two metaprogrammes possibly responsible for cutting
the strategy short. So we spent some time deciding what an im-
proved strategy might consist of and came up with an alternative.
During the session the manager installed the alternative strat-
egy as follows:
1 Internal visual — mind image of the outcome I want for making

this decision
2 Internal dialogue — who could I go to for further information
about this?
3 External auditory — speak to other people and gather information

4 External visual — look for similar examples of this decision
being made by others
5 Internal visual — revised mind image pea on new information
6 Internal dialogue — is this enough to go on? If not, return to
step 2
7 Internal feeling — yep, it feels right, so let’s go
You can use strategies to improve all the key strategy patterns
you have, including your strategy for self-motivation, creativity,
memory, learning and beliefs. What you are doing here is getting
right into the way you put your thoughts together and then cre-
ating new choices. Take some time and elicit your strategy for
making decisions; then ask yourself if it is working for you or
not. If your answer is vo, then change it.
NLP and presenting to groups
Think of speakers you admire, and of those where you have had
to fight to stay conscious as they did their best to send you to
sleep. What’s the difference? Apart from unique personality
traits the one thing that usually separates a dynamic speaker from
a dull one is technique and practice. Unless you are naturally
gifted you do not become a great speaker overnight. The major-
ity of the top dynamic speakers have worked at it and practised.
Before practice there is an important question to ask. What’s
the reason for bringing people together in a group? Resist the
temptation to ask people to give up valuable time in order to
merely impart information to them. This can be done far more
effectively by email, letter or brochure. The real opportunity
offered whenever people gather for a presentation is to engage
them in ideas, both mentally and emotionally. You can engage
and inspire your audience by encapsulating many of the NLP
concepts and techniques in this book. Bearing in mind that your
audience will consist of many different people all with different
metaprogrammes, representation systems, beliefs and values, you
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will have to find a way to accommodate them all if you are going
to keep them engaged. Here are some ideas:
1 Decide on your outcome — what is the purpose of your pre-

sentation? What message are you trying to convey? Make
sure there are no more than three key messages in your pre-
sentation. If you are one of a number of presenters at the
same event, take time to establish the key messages of the
other speakers. Link your messages to theirs by acknowledg-
ing their expertise and reinforcing your joint messages.
2 Place a high value on the time people have given up to listen
to your presentation. This will ensure that you give the prepa-
ration the time and commitment it deserves.
3 Visualize yourself having completed the presentation and
doing whatever it is you will do when it is successful — receiv-
ing a round of applause, a vote of thanks, some really inter-
esting questions. Keeping hold of this image, use a timeline to
determine what it was you had to do to get there. Mark a
point on the floor to represent “now”. Place your outcome
together with a symbol to represent what you will see, hear
and feel when you are successful onto an orange circle. Walk
forward from “now” to a time when you will have completed
your presentation and place it on the floor. Look back to
“now” and enjoy the moment. Then look at all the things you
had to do to achieve your outcome for your presentation.
Maybe you needed some skills, some research, some time to
practise, some professional visuals. Notice at which point on
the timeline these things appear, create an orange circle for
each one and get a sense of structure for your presentation.
4 Decide what state you want to be in for your presentation
and anchor it. Fire the anchor before entering the room (see
Chapter 8).
5 Make sure your language is “artfully vague” and positive (see
Chapter 7). At the beginning of the presentation use the
“Yes” set concept. It is generally accepted that if you can get
people saying “yes” three times, you will have them on your
side. Make sure that you include everyone in your opening

remarks and that they cannot possibly disagree with you for
at least three statements. Here is an example:
“Some of you I know will already be familiar with the topic

of my presentation this afternoon while for others it will be
fresh and new. Either way I know you will all have something
to contribute to the debate either now or when you have had
an opportunity to reflect. I look forward to and warmly
welcome your views and ideas.”
Not much to argue with here and vague enough for every-
one to feel comfortable.
6 Include all the predominantly visual, auditory and kinaes-
thetic people by using predicates in all systems (see Chapter
6). Provide visuals in the form of pictures, photographs and
diagrams for the visual people, use voice tone, tempo and
speed to full effect for auditory people and make sure that the
room is comfortable for the kinaesthetics. Remember that
kinaesthetics like to be comfortable in their chairs — they may
slouch, cross their arms and possibly fidget. This does not
mean they are bored — just comfortable. If possible provide
models, toys and samples for them to touch.
7 You can appeal to a number of different metaprogrammes by
using body language, gesture and example. Appeal to proce-
dural people by including an outline of what you are going to
cover and explain it by listing points on your fingers. Appeal
to options people by spreading your arms and suggesting that
there may be choices within the points you raise. As a general
rule presentations need to be kept at a high level of language
to accommodate everyone — you can satisfy the detail people
by preframing your presentation and informing them that
more detail will be contained in the notes they can collect as
they leave. Examples demonstrating your key points will also
help to satisfy those with a need for detail.
8 The voice has a range of tone, pitch, resonance, speed and
volume. A good presenter will use the whole range of the
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voice for emphasis. Work the voice with the body posture
and gestures to create rich messages for your audience. Make
a point of listening to popular presenters and orators and
noticing how they use their voice for different effects.
Practise changing your voice to reflect the type of emphasis
you want. From a deep, loud voice to stress a serious point,
Practise changing
change to a softer, quieter voice drawing the audience’s atten-
your voice to
tion to a small, specific, but important detail. Explore the reflect the type of
range you have available and put together combinations of emphasis you
voice and gesture for greater impact at your next presentation. want.
Use tonal marking to emphasize key words. Use pauses to
allow your messages to percolate. Use stories to help with
retention — people will remember the story and therefore the
meaning of your presentation long after you have finished.
10 If you want to anchor particular states in your audience, then
decide beforehand where you want to position yourself for
each state. For example, you may wish to stand to the left of
the presentation area when anchoring a state of energy and
move to the right-hand side when you want your audience to
be reflective. You only need to set the anchors a couple of
times before the audience will get the idea that as you begin
to walk over to the left-hand side you are going to raise their
energy levels and vice versa.
14 Speak in everyday language that people will understand —
resist the temptation to use corporate speak. Speak from the
heart and believe in what you are saying.
Handling questions from the audience
There are three basic requirements for answering all questions:
1 Never answer a question directly until you have determined

the intention behind it. This is a distinction about process, not
content.
Be in total uptime when you are asked a question so that your
sensory acuity is high, noticing unconscious communication
processes in physiology and voice qualities.
3 Remain emotionally detached. If someone has a question —

fine. Deal with it. It is the information which is being ques-
tioned, not you. If you are asked a direct personal question, it
may be better to deal with it after the presentation.
Determining the intention behind the question is quite simple.

Sometimes a questioner will provide it for you like this: “I have
just started work in this area and would find it useful to under-
stand more about this subject. What is . . .2” Others will not be so
obliging and will just ask the question “Why does x mean that y
is unsatisfactory?”
This “why” question may be straightforward or not — to be safe
ask the question, “Before J explain that for you it would help me
to know your level of interest in this area.” The answer to this
question will reveal the intention behind the first question, and
you will be able to answer more specifically for the questioner.
Some questioners enjoy getting feedback about the nature of
their question. These will be the “externally referenced” people.
You can make them feel OK by saying, “That’s a very pertinent
question — thank you for asking it” or a variation of these words.
Hypothetical and judgemental questions
e “What is your opinion about .. .? ”
e “What would happen if. . .?”

e “How far do you think this can go?”
You can choose a range of responses to these questions, most of

which consist of turning the question back to where it came, like
a boomerang. For example:
e “I’m not here to give my opinion but to present the facts. Do you
have an opinion you would like to share with the audience?”
e “That’s an interesting idea. Let’s see if we can work this out
together. If x did y, what would you expect to happen?”
e “I don’t know the answer to that question. I wonder if anyone
in the audience has an answer. Any takers?”
e “What do you think?”
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Questions or statements from confused minds
e “What did you say the yellow band was for?”

e “That doesn’t fit with what you were saying earlier.”
e “How can this year’s profit be higher than last year’s when we
all know that sales have taken a downturn?”
You probably want a “backtrack frame” for these types, and

perhaps a “chunk-up” to a higher level. For example:
e “Let’s go back and cover that once more. I mentioned the idea
e “Tl backtrack and put that into perspective with what I said
earlier. The concept of the yellow band...”
e “Let me explain that by first of all clarifying what I said previ-
ously. The overall income for last year...’ b)
The personal attack
e “How can middle managers be trusted with this?”

e “What makes you think engineers will be capable?”
Personal attacks are simple to deal with. You need to direct criti-
cism away from the person and towards the subject matter.
Chunking up is also a useful technique, for example:
e “Trusting is something we all could do more of, and it will be

important to trust the procedure designed by the production
teat.”
e “This company owes its success to the capabilities of all its
employees. They must be continually developed.”
The direct challenge

e “What is the point of all this?”
e “I fail to see how this will change anything.”
e “This has all been tried before — and it didn’t work then.”
These questions indicate that the person hasn’t bought into your
ideas because of a belief they are holding on to. You must decide
one of two responses.
1 Acknowledge the remark/question and move on

“I can understand why you have made that statement:
however, here is not the most appropriate place to deal with it.
I will be happy to talk to you about this after the presentation.”
2 Shake the belief
“That’s one perspective on this agenda. Tell me, what do you
think the consequences would be of not making a change?”
“What would get you to see it?”
Using your body

Your body is a very useful tool at times in dealing with people
who seem to be on ego trips. These people often need to demon-
strate to the audience and the presenter that they are experts in
your subject. Always avoid getting drawn into a technical debate.
Never get defensive. Stick to the process using the techniques
explained in this section and for added impact position yourself
as closely as possible to the questioner. This will have the effect
of putting them under the spotlight which is an uncomfortable
place for most people. Using confident gestures at the same time
will increase the impact even more.
Dealing effectively with questions is a matter of process. The
process consists of:
1 Acknowledging the question
2 Identifying the intention behind the question
3 Deciding whether to deal with it now or later
4 Choosing an information frame within which to deal with the
question
Backtrack
Relevancy challenge
Evidence
Outcome
Ecology
e As-if
5S Choosing a strategy
e Boomerang
e Chunking up
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e Direct criticism away from person and towards the subject

@ Shaking a belief
Sy
The object of oratory
alone is not truth, but
The final piece of advice to help you deliver effective presenta- persuasion.
LORD MACAULAY
tions is the most important — practice. Just like learning to ride a (1800-59)
bicycle, the first time feels a little awkward, and after a while it English historian
becomes a habit. Practise by yourself. Watch your physiology in

the mirror, and record your voice to notice the characteristics.
Rehearse your next presentation like an actor would rehearse for
a play. After a while, influencing and persuading through the cor-
porate presentation will become quite natural to you. Perhaps
you want to choose just one or two techniques to practise for
your next presentation. Take it one step at a time.
NLP and motivation
When you are able to fully motivate yourself it will be easier to

create the environment for others to do the same. So often I have
come across managers asking the same question: “how do you
motivate people?” A good number of these managers are not even
motivated themselves. Sometimes they have been feeling stressed
and unsure of their role; others have found it awkward just com-
municating openly with people. I recently heard a human
resources director give a presentation to his company of 3,000
people that “the change we are facing will be very difficult, but we
will survive it”. Clearly this director wasn’t feeling motivated
himself, but worse than this he didn’t recognize how his words
would impact on everyone else. Survival? How motivating is that?
If you are not fully motivated yourself, work on this, not on
other people’s motivation. People are very capable of motivating
themselves, and as a manager all you need to do is create the
environment that makes it easy for them to do so. As you work
through the following aspects of motivation, and apply them to
yourself, you will gain a better understanding of how to encour-
age others to do the same.
@ Aspirations
Motivation can be short term or long term. For example, if I con-

sider cooking and eating an inconvenience to life, and my diet
consists of pizza and other fast foods, I will be motivated to eat
when hungry, but after a meal I will no longer feel the same urge.
However, if my aspiration is to be healthy and nourish myself
with good quality food, the motivation to shop, cook, eat and
explore healthy options may be a continuous driving force,
keeping my kitchen stocked with fresh, healthy ingredients.
When motivation isn’t lasting it could be down to a lack of
higher aspiration. This is what truly drives people who show a
passion for what they do. Aspirations are bigger than goals. To eat
is a goal. To be healthy is an aspiration. Aspirations are more
closely related to who you are as a person and what you will be
remembered for. An aspiration is something that engages you in
activities that make a difference to you or to other people in some
way. So, you would not call “becoming the managing director” an
aspiration, but in doing so the aspiration is more about how you
can influence other people as the managing director. It is all too
common these days for a person to take a job purely for the finan-
cial rewards and perks or personal convenience, and actually
dislike the job but put up with it. When this person becomes a
manager they will certainly struggle to motivate others since they
do not understand the fundamentals of motivating themselves!
Motivation lies not in the rewards of a job, but in the job itself.
@ Metaprogrammes
When you find it a chore to do a certain task, chances are you

have a metaprogramme conflict. That is, the task you are doing
requires a certain focus that you do not find easy and may even
go against your natural pattern, for example, a job requiring
attention to fine detail when you much prefer to focus on
the bigger picture or a highly procedural task which gives
you no opportunity to exercise your preference for options.
Metaprogramme patterns can really limit your flexibility in
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certain situations. Refer to the table on metaprogrammes in

Chapter 4.
Your metaprogramme preferences that are weighted to one
end of the continuum are the ones to be most aware of. If you are
happy to work with details just as much as with the big picture
then you have flexibility to do jobs requiring both. Inflexibility
arises when you have a strong tendency for one pattern and
rarely use the pattern at the other end of the continuum. Meta-
programmes tend to be on a continuum except for the second
pattern “activity content” where your focus of attention may be
shared in varying proportions across the five aspects: people,
places, activities, information and things. To engage with tasks
that require a metaprogramme you rarely use will cause you to
become stressed. When a person finds himself doing a job that is
not aligned with his metaprogramme profile, then no amount of
carrot and stick will get him performing consistently well. It is far
better to fit people to jobs at which they can excel. Of course you
can change a metaprogramme pattern; to do so requires the
desire to change, a suitable exemplar to model and a technique or
two.
@ How to get fired up!
Now and again I meet people who are so unmotivated they find
it a struggle to do anything, even getting out of bed in the
morning. This indicates a lifestyle problem and there may be any
number of causes behind the lack of drive. You may end up
applying a range of techniques to help a person in such a low
state, but without a particular subject it is not something a book
is best able to deal with. But on the other hand if you have some-
thing specific in mind you really want to do but can’t seem to get
moving with it, here’s a technique to get you fired up and motor-
ing. It could be something you do now but don’t look forward to,
or something you keep procrastinating over. Perhaps it’s a task
you tend to get anxious about and don’t perform so well. Let’s
call the thing you want to get motivated about X.
EXERCISE ee Exercise —- Get fired up!
First of all describe how you feel as you think about X.
Now take a couple of deep breaths and describe how you want to feel instead. As
you connect with these positive feelings recall a time when you were feeling this
way and notice the imagery that comes to your. mind. If the experience you are
thinking of was one where you were highly motivated, the image should be
colourful and bright. Notice all the qualities of the image and fix it clearly in your
mind. Turn up the brightness, colour, contrast and size of the image to intensify
the feelings. Keeping this in your mind, create a new image of you getting on with
X in a highly motivated way and have this image adopt the exact same qualities
as the first image. Take your image and tilt it towards you slightly while you bring
it even closer and feel yourself falling into the image. Now get on with X.
NLP and meetings
NLP can be used to ensure meetings are kept lively, purposeful,

focused and above all productive. All too often in organizations
we see meetings deteriorating into a set of obligations which
people don’t look forward to. Meetings are a fundamental func-
tion of successful organizations and there is no reason why they
can’t be kept fresh and lively.
m@ What’s the purpose?
It is useful to refer back to the alignment model here (see Chapter

1). First consider the purpose for holding the meeting. Bear in
mind you are asking people to give up valuable (and expensive)
time to attend and that they may even have to travel long dis-
tances. Is a meeting the best way of achieving your purpose?
Would a telephone or video conference be just as effective? Or
could you just send them some information? Once clear about
your purpose you can set about ways of ensuring people are
engaged from the outset. Referring to the alignment model again,
encourage people to recognize the role they will play and to
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consider how they are going to participate. Ask what they want
to achieve from the meeting — in other words encourage them to
have clearly defined outcomes. Preframe the meeting by high-
lighting the value for each participant and emphasizing the bene-
fits for all when you achieve your purpose. Clear away any doubt
that you will achieve your purpose before you begin — even if the
purpose is simply to brainstorm some ideas at the outset of a new
project.
Accommodate the in time/through time metaprogramme by
having coffee first — this will give the through time people a chance
to arrive and exchange niceties and ideas together before the in
time people arrive with barely a minute to spare. Neither will miss
anything and neither will become frustrated by the other.
Use information frames (see Chapter 7) to keep the meeting on
track. Set any ground rules before you start. For example, if you
are brainstorming you may want to ban words and phrases such as
“no” or “that won’t work” and make sure even the most out-
rageous of ideas is included at this stage. This will have the effect
of removing reticence and allow people to be free-thinking.
Make sure the environment is conducive to the type of meeting
you are holding. If you want people to be creative then you want
them looking up a lot, moving about to break stuck states and
create new, more resourceful ones. Sitting down at a table, look-
ing down at papers means that people are naturally in the position
of internal dialogue and emotions — this is not conducive to cre-
ativity. If possible make sure the room is lit with natural light,
allow for frequent comfort breaks and keep the energy moving.
Accommodate visual people with pictures, plans, diagrams,
colour, flipcharts, etc. Accommodate auditory people with clear
backtracking and analysis and kinaesthetic people with models,
pens or toys to fiddle with and make sure the seating arrange-
ment is comfortable. Satisfy people who enjoy details by reassur-
ing them they will be needed to put more meat on the ideas once
they have been formulated. |
Anchors play a big part in meetings and can be either produc-
tive or destructive. If participants have had a negative experience
at a meeting, they are likely to bring this anchored negativity to

the next meeting and may even set up a generalized belief in their
minds that “all meetings are a waste of time” or “I can never get
my point across so what’s the point in going?” You can help to
avoid negative anchors by varying the format, environment and
content. For example, change the seating arrangement — don’t
allow people to “claim” seats — change the venue, vary the time
between meetings. Nominate different people to lead the
meeting. Create the agenda from real concerns of participants
instead of business needs. You may be surprised at the quality of
business issues that are presented in this way.
As well as keeping meetings negative-anchor free, you can set
positive anchors for people. Begin with an uplifting introduction,
even if the last period has not come up to expectation; if you focus
on what was good about it you are more likely to set a positive
anchor for people than if you open with an ear bashing. Remember
to give an uplifting summary that shows what you have achieved
during your time together at the end of the meeting so that people
leave feeling good and wanting to return for the next one.
Use the meta model to tactfully get clarity around people’s
ideas and pace and lead them in their thinking.
NLP and project management
Some years ago Banque Paribas decided to close its central

London offices and relocate to a new purpose built office
complex in Marylebone. The project manager in charge of
moving over 6,000 items of computer equipment asked me to
help his team scope out the project plan. His brief was that every
Paribas employee was to arrive at the new office to find com-
puter system logins and passwords, and programmemed tele-
phone numbers to be exactly the same as in the old office. They
were looking for 98 per cent error-free moving — and they got it.
The usual method of planning such a project would be to sit
around a boardroom table and come up with a list of what needs
chapter nine
doing and draw from existing project plans. Then these tasks
would be input to planning software and allocated resources and
timescales. On this occasion it was to be different. I took the
project team of eight people to a conference centre and we spent
the day planning the project in NLP fashion.
The first thing I did was to ask the team to mark a timeline on
the floor representing the time available to complete the project.
Next I asked the group (not addressing any particular individu-
als) to walk slowly down the timeline, stand at the end where
they will have finished and succeeded, look back and imagine all
the things that they did that led to success. Immediately three
highly visual members of the team responded and began seeing
all kinds of things having taken place. My next question was “and
who’s going to capture all this precious information?” In
response to this, two kinaesthetic members of the project team
leaped up and began scribbling on flipcharts. This left three
highly auditory people who I suggested listen to what was going
on, ask questions and check the detail. Then I left them to it.
Over the duration of the next few hours the team came up
with their plan. But it was more than just a plan because every
person had been fully engaged in the process and ownership was
high. They created new contingencies that had not been thought
of before, and they were highly motivated to get the project
moving.
When you engage people naturally and allow them to use their
strengths as a team, the process will take care of itself. Here we
demonstrated how a project brief and plan could be created in a
very simple yet robust way, ensuring the highest rate of success
possible. As a result the project manager vowed to always use the
same process when creating detailed plans.
NLP and managing your friends
Before you became a manager there was probably no job require-

ment to like people. I have rarely seen this in a job description.
You may be expected to cooperate as part of a team, but you are

not asked to like people, or to be everyone’s friend. All well and
good, until you get the job of managing your friends. Some
people in the team may be new faces to you, and some may be
your friends — people you like and get along with and can share
personal experiences with. They may-have been your peers for
some time, but now it’s your job to motivate them, set their
targets, give them feedback, discipline them, reward them and
coach them! There are usually two problems arising from this sit-
uation.
1 You continue your relationship with them as if nothing had

changed, enjoying their company and hoping they will
perform well without too much intervention from you. This
will backfire on you because in organizations people need
direction, leadership, feedback and development — and they
usually look to their manager for this. It is also likely that the
central hub of the manager/employee relationship — trust, is
compromised. The people who are not your mates see that
you relate differently to certain people and decide you cannot
be trusted. In order to motivate these people you will have to
work at winning back their trust.
2 You swing too much the other way and become the robotic
manager, giving your mates the message that you are not their
pal any longer but their manager. You alienate them and in
the process create a situation where your mates become your
adversaries opposing your ideas and attempts to motivate them.
So the solution then is to strike a balance between being a friend

and a manager. Think of it this way, rather than being their friend
you remain friendly as their manager. So it’s not such a black and
white scenario, rather one with changing shades of grey. Being
friendly doesn’t mean being a friend. You can be friendly to a
stranger, but the identity of friend is usually reserved for people
with whom you have a much deeper connection. So you keep the
friendly part of your behaviour and fit it to the identity of
manager.
chapter nine
Getting the right balance eee 20
Think about your role as manager. Choose some words or statements that you
consider to be appropriate to describe your role, and which encapsulate both the
behaviours of being friendly and managing. Next use your imagination to create
two scenarios in your mind. Make the first scenario one where you are with a
team member who is not one of the people you would call a friend. See yourself
communicating in a friendly way about setting goals, or giving feedback, or
coaching or some other manager/employee dynamic. Make your images bright,
clear and colourful, and be sure to project them above the level of the horizon. If
you can hear the conversation that is taking place, then make the voices coher-
ent and pleasant to listen to. Now check that this feels good by slowly bringing
the image closertoyou until it is right up front in your face. How does this change
your feeling? Does the good feeling intensify? If it does then keep this image and
move it a little further out and to the left. Now create a different image, using a
similar scenario but with a member of your team who is a person you would call
a friend. Do exactly the same as with the first image except that after bringing it
in to intensify the feeling, move it back out and place it to your right. So now you
have two images in your mind — on the left is the image of you managing in a
friendly way a person who is on your team but not a friend, and on the right is the
image of you doing exactly the same with a friend.
Now, use the images you have just created to generate the behaviour you want.
Place both images up to the right in your mind’s projection screen and see how
you are behaving. Look down to the left and say to yourself “how will |look when
| am managing people who are my friends and people who are not my friends?”
Look up again to your right at your images and notice the detail of how you are
interacting. Look down to your right and feel if it fits for you. Rotate around these
three positions, images, internal dialogue and feelings a few more times to
embed the behaviour as a new capability.
NLP and building effective teams
With the ever-increasing focus on team working, leaders need to

be on the constant look out for ways to create and maintain not
just effective team working but excellent team working. The
quality of the work achieved will have a direct bearing on the

dynamics and effectiveness of the team. A group of individuals
makes a team, but they do not necessarily act as a team without
active leadership. The team could be considered the basic build-
ing block of the contemporary organization. Each separate team,
or building block, is a dynamic force; and their collective efforts
are directed at making the organization successful. Well that’s
the idea. Sometimes teams are not given adequate leadership or
direction and they can find themselves in a state of dysfunction
and at odds with the efforts of other teams.
From an NLP standpoint a group of individuals can be most
effective by improving their communication and having a strong
sense of identity as a team. In addition to this an effective team
will share common values and beliefs about their role and what is
possible. The first step to getting your team into this position is
to begin open discussion and sharing how each person sees the
way things are. From this point you can involve the team in
moving forward. In this section there are a number of ideas to
help you with this process.
@ Team performance audit
For teams to work well they must attend to four aspects of being
a team. [hese are:
1. Team orientation — the importance of being a team and what

this means to each team member
2. Communication — the style, content and frequency of commu-
nication within the team
3. Support — a genuine and sincere desire to help each other
succeed
4. Processes — how the team makes decisions and solves problems
The following questionnaire will help your team to measure how

well it is doing in each of the four aspects of team working. The
results will clearly indicate what the team can do to improve its
performance. Give a copy of this questionnaire to each member
chapter nine
of your team and explain that the purpose is to gauge how well
the team is performing at the job of “being an effective team.”
The result will show what needs to be done to improve. Allow
individuals at least 30 minutes to complete the questionnaire and
then accumulate the results into the four categories as shown at
the end. Feed back the results to the team and ask them to decide
what they want to do to improve team performance. Allow up to
two hours for this process.
Team performance audit oN aietan: 21
For each of the 16 statements in the table below circle the answer which best fits
with your experience.
A B C
There are sufficient team meetings to |fully | | partly | | disagree
review performance agree eaaiee
| know what the priorities are for me and |fully | | partly | | disagree
my team on a day-to-day basis agree ala
Team values are clear and used as a |fully | disagree
means of resolving difficult team-related agree
issues
The team gets useful feedback from outside || fully | disagree
the team about the value of its contribution | agree
to the business
Team members are encouraged to speak |fully | | partly | | disagree
openly about problems concerning how the | agree | agree
team is working
You would feel safe expressing concerns |fully | | partly | i disagree
about
the team’s performanceto your team | agree | agree
leader
Team members frequently update each |fully | partly | | disagree
other on their projects and share work- agree | agree
related information gleaned from around the
organization
Communication between your team and —_

partly | | disagree
key stakeholders who have direct interest in agree
your team’s performance works well
Team members empathize with and | partly
support individuals experiencing work or agree
personal problems
Team members positively encourage each | disagree
other to succeed when tackling difficult
Challenges
Team members coach each other in | disagree
specific tasks, processes or other technical
aspects of their jobs
lf you were in a dispute with a customer, | fully | | partly | | disagree
supplier or another employee you feel agree | agree
confident that your team would support
you
Your team cooperates effectively with other |fully | Ipartly | | disagree
teams inside your organization agree | agree
The team takes the initiative to brainstorm |fully | Ipartly | | disagree
problems and make improvements to work agree | agree
and/or team processes
Members of your team receive training in |fully | | partly | | disagree
creative problem-solving techniques agree | agree
The team takes responsibility for improving | | fully | I partly | | disagree

its performance on a daily basis agree | agree
fase
|
Now total the answers you have circled in each column by applying the following
Scores.
For an answer circled in column A add a score of 1.

For an answer circled in column B add a score of 3.
For an answer circled in column C add a score of 5.
The lowest scoring groups show where development work is needed the most.
chapter nine
GROUP SCORES
Group 1:
Questions 1-4 Team Orientation
Score =
Group 2:
Questions 5-8 Communication
Score =
Group 3:
Questions 9-12 Support
Score =
Group 4:
Questions 13-16 Team Processes
Score =
Food for thought ...

How does team working in your company compare with that of your competitors?
@ The impact of values on teams

Some teams and companies invest time and effort creating
common values and codes of conduct with the aim of improving
the way people cooperate and succeed together. In my experi-
ence very few teams seem to have developed the knack of inte-
grating values into their working relationships. The majority end
up with a list of heartwarming moral principles on a flip chart
and think that that is all there is to it. The consequences of spend-
ing time on this activity with poor follow-through can often be
seen in a lowering of morale and scepticism the next time
someone suggests a “values creation” day.
If your team or company has embarked, or is soon to embark,

upon a journey like this, you might appreciate some tips to help
you live your values and create real benefits for customers,
employees and all stakeholders. I am sure you want the result of
your investment in time and other valuable resources to provide
the climate for a successful outcome.
Here are some fundamental tips for getting to the outcome
you want.
1. Regroup often to revisit your values and find out if they have
been upheld, and if so how. A one-off shot is never enough.
Get teams together three or four times a year to keep their
values alive.
Example: Hold a series of breakfast meetings over the course

of a month and focus on one or two values at each meeting.
Keep the climate of these meetings informal and encourage the
full participation of individuals to be open and honest about
the reality of values in action. Keep the mood positive with a
fun element and focus on making improvements to the way
values can be used to bring benefits. If your team is dispersed
across different time zones hold a videoconference. Use avail-
able technology to solve time and distance challenges.
2. Keep an eye out for situations in the working environment

that compromise your agreed values.
Example: Be ruthless with situations that compromise values.

If you ignore this, then your values will soon become meaning-
less and cynicism may set in. Let’s say that you notice a cus-
tomer waiting in reception for 20 minutes while waiting to be
seen by a manager. Do what you can for the customer in that
moment, and then be sure to discuss it with your team as soon
as possible after the incident. Use the value that has been
compromised as a guide to making improvements to the way
visitors are received.
chapter nine
3. Use your values when resolving problems or conflicts that

occur. Make sure everyone knows which value is being com-
promised and use the value as part of solution criteria.
Example: Let’s say that one of your team values is “active

cooperation with other functions” and you notice that a
problem is taking a while to resolve due to a lack of action by
someone in your own team. Be open and direct when asking
each other “how can we use this value to help solve this issue
quickly?” Be focused on solutions, not blame or punishment.
Use we rather than you and I.
4. Encourage your team(s) to suggest ways of improving the way

values are lived and experienced by others. This will help to
increase buy-in to the values and strengthen the impact they
have on decision making and conflict resolution.
Example: Emphasize the importance of living the values at

team meetings, and encourage people to offer experiences
where they believe a value has been compromised, and where
a value has helped to solve an issue. Be 100 per cent commit-
ted to taking action in any situation where a value has been
compromised.
5. Every now and then, perhaps at an annual conference or sea-

sonal get-together, provide some positive feedback about how
your values are being used to resolve everyday situations. This
will help individuals to learn how they can put values into
action. Tell stories of successes, and give recognition to those
people who have demonstrated values in action.
Example: Design a series of short workshops and have people

working in small groups of say between 8 and 12. The objec-
tive is to discuss the experiences in the group of values in
action, and identify one particular situation that the group
feels they want to communicate to everyone else. The situation
may or may not be successful; the main aim is to learn from
the experience. Encourage each subgroup to choose one situa-

tion and create a story to describe it. The next stage is for each
subgroup to tell its story to the main group.
You can be very creative with this activity, inviting subgroups to

use whatever medium they wish to tell their story, e.g. soap
opera, commercial, nursery rhyme, song, drama, mime, or what-
ever else comes to mind.
& Putting values into action is about what you do and what you
say in the moment that matters. The longer you leave it, the
“You
must be the
change
you want to weaker the intervention becomes. Any change requires role
see in the world.” models to demonstrate different thinking and behaviour. Anyone
GANDHI
(1869-1948) who has responsibility for people must recognize the conse-
quences of being a poor role model.
Team leaders and CEOs alike will get great results when they
are able to role model the desired change.
m People behave as the culture dictates
If an employee lives with fear, If an employee lives with

he learns to avoid taking risks. appreciation, she learns to
make an extra effort.
If an employee lives with If an employee lives with

deceit, she learns to stretch leadership, he learns how to
the truth. take initiative.
If an employee lives with small If an employee lives with

expectations, he learns to have openness, she learns how to be
limited scope. honest.
If an employee lives with a If an employee lives with

heavy hand, she learns how to experimentation, he learns
beat the system. how to be innovative.
If an employee lives with If an employee lives with clear

ridicule, he learns to keep his values, she learns how to set
ideas to himself. priorities.
chapter nine

formality, she learns to be a customer respect, he learns how
bureaucrat. to deliver outstanding service.

mistrust, he learns to be encouragement, she learns to
suspicious. be confident.

hostility, she learns to fight. positive visions, he learns how
to perform miracles.

indifference, he learns not to challenge, she learns how to
care. master change.
—
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n the pages of this book you have explored a discipline of mind

and body — a discipline which is being practised by more and
more professional people in all kinds of business. These people
recognize what it takes to be an effective manager in the informa-
tion age — accepting the challenge of complexity and divergence
— recognizing that, before anything else, the mind is an infinite
resource.
You will come across people from time to time who amaze you
in some way — perhaps you might admire a highly developed skill
for creative thought, problem solving, focus, determination,
motivating teams, speaking or running an international business
enterprise. These are skills which you can learn and master, and
the first step is to learn how to learn. Once this is mastered there
are few limitations to the skills available to you.
This book is about learning to learn for managers. It has taken
each component of your communication process, and with it
explained how to create programmes that will empower you to
achieve more of the outcomes you desire. Remember — to learn
requires going beyond the edge of what you already know. If that’s
an uncomfortable place to be, you have the know-how to build a
strong comfort factor into that experience — right now.
Here is a simple guide to help you practise NLP. It consists of
three simple steps:
1 Design outcomes that are well formed.

2 Use your sensory acuity to get feedback.
3 Be flexible to change according to the feedback you get.
Enjoy the journey.

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GLOSSARY
Glossary of NLP terms
Accessing cues Subtle behaviours that indicate which representa-

tional system a person is using. Typical types of accessing cues
include eye movements, voice tone and tempo, body posture,
gestures and breathing patterns.
“As-if” frame Pretending that some event has happened. Think-

ing “as-if” it had occurred encourages creative problem solving
by mentally going beyond apparent obstacles to desired
solutions. Ask “What would it be like if I could. . .?”
Align Arrange so that all the elements being aligned are parallel
and therefore moving in the same direction.
Ambiguity The use of language which is vague, or ambiguous.

Language which is ambiguous is also abstract (as opposed to
specific).
Analogue Having shades of meaning, as opposed to digital which

has discrete (on/off) meaning, as in an analogue watch (a watch
with minute and hour hands).
Analogue marking Using your voice tone, body language, ges-

tures, etc. to mark out key words in a sentence or a special part
of your presentation.
Anchor Any stimulus that is associated with a specific response.

Anchors happen naturally, and they can also be set up intention-
ally, for example, ringing a bell to get people’s attention, or more
subtle, standing in a particular place when answering questions.
Anchoring The process of associating an internal response with

some external trigger so that the response may be quickly, and
sometimes covertly, re-accessed. Anchoring can be visual (as with
specific hand gestures), auditory (by using specific words and
GLOSSARY
voice tone), and kinaesthetic (as when touching an arm or laying

a hand on someone’s shoulder). Criteria for anchoring:
@ intensity or purity of experience
e timing; at peak of experience
e accuracy of replication of anchor
Association As in a memory, looking through your own eyes,

hearing what you heard, and feeling the feelings as if you were
actually there. This is called the associated state.
Attitude A collection of values and beliefs around a certain

subject. Our attitudes are choices we have made.
Auditory Relating to hearing or the sense of hearing.
Backtrack To review or summarize, using another’s key words

and tonalities, or in presentations, a very precise summary using
the same key words in the same voice tones as were originally
used.
Behaviour The specific physical actions and reactions through

which we interact with people and the environment around us.
Behavioural flexibility The ability to vary one’s own behaviour in

order to elicit, or secure, a response from another person.
Behavioural flexibility can refer to the development of an entire
range of responses to any given stimulus as opposed to having
habitual, and therefore limiting, responses which would inhibit
performance potential.
Beliefs Closely held generalizations about

1 cause
2 meaning and
3. boundaries in
e the world around us
e behaviour
e capabilities and
e identity
GLOSSARY
Beliefs function at a different level than concrete reality and serve

to guide and interpret perceptions of reality, often by connecting
them to criteria or value systems. Beliefs are notoriously difficult
to change through typical rules of logic or rational thinking.
Calibration The process of learning to read another person’s

unconscious, nonverbal, responses in an ongoing interaction by
pairing observable behavioural cues with a specific internal
response.
Chunking Organizing or breaking down some experience into

bigger or smaller pieces. Chunking up involves moving to a
larger, more abstract, level of information. Chunking down
involves moving to a more specific and concrete level of informa-
tion. Chunking laterally involves finding other examples at the
same level of information.
Congruence When all of a person’s internal beliefs, strategies and

behaviours are fully in agreement and oriented towards securing
a desired outcome. Words, voice and behaviour all give the same
message.
Context The framework surrounding a particular event. This

framework will often determine how a particular experience or
event is interpreted.
Criteria The values or standards a person uses to make decisions

and judgements about the world. A single criterion is composed
of many elements, conscious and subconscious. The question to
ask is: “What’s important about . . .? 2
Deep structure The sensory maps (both conscious and subcon-

scious) that people use to organize and guide their behaviour.
Deletion One of the three universals of human modelling; the

process by which selected portions of the world are excluded
from the representation created by the person modelling. Within
language systems, deletion is a transformational process in which
GLOSSARY
portions of the deep structure are removed and, therefore, do not

appear in the surface structure representation.
Digital Having a discrete (on/off) meaning; as opposed to ana-

logue, which has shades of meaning.
Dissociation As in a memory, for example, looking at your body

in the picture from the outside, so that you do not have the feel-
ings you would have if you were actually there.
Distortion One of the three universals of human modelling; the

process by which the relationships which hold among the parts of
the model are represented differently from the relationships
which they are supposed to represent.
Down-time Having all sensory input channels turned inward.
Ecology The study of the effects of individual actions on the

larger system.
Elicitation The act of discovery and detection of certain internal

processes.
Environment The external context in which our behaviour takes

place. Our environment is that which we perceive as being
“outside” of us. It is not part of our behaviour but is rather some-
thing we must react to.
Eye accessing cues Movements of the eyes in certain directions

which indicate visual, auditory or kinaesthetic thinking.
Frame Set a context or way of perceiving something as in

outcome frame, backtrack frame, etc.
Future pacing The process of mentally rehearsing oneself through

some future situation in order to help ensure that the desired
behaviour will occur naturally and automatically.
Generalization One of the three universals of human modelling;

the process by which a specific experience comes to represent the
entire category of which it is a member.
GLOSSARY
Gustatory Relating to taste or the sense of taste.
Hierarchy An organization of things or ideas where the more

important ideas are given a ranking based upon their importance.
Identity Our sense of who we are. Our sense of identity organizes

our beliefs, capabilities and behaviours into a single system.
Incongruence State of having reservations; not totally committed

to an outcome. The internal conflict will be expressed in the
person’s behaviour.
Intention The purpose or desired outcome of any behaviour.
Internal representation Patterns of information we create and

store in our minds in combinations of images, sounds, feelings,
smells and tastes. The way we store and encode our memories.
Kinaesthetic Relating to body sensations. In NLP the term kinaes-

thetic is used to encompass all kinds of feelings including tactile,
visceral and emotional.
Leading Changing your own behaviours with enough rapport for

the other person to follow.
Lead system The preferred representational system (visual, audi-

tory, kinaesthetic) that finds information to input into conscious-
ness.
Logical levels An interna! hierarchy in which each level is pro-

gressively more psychologically encompassing and impactful. In
order of importance (from high to low) these levels include:
1 spiritual
2 identity
3 beliefs and values
4 capabilities
5 behaviour
6 environment
GLOSSARY
Map of reality (model of the world) Each person’s unique

representation of the world built from his or her individual
perceptions and experiences.
Matching Adopting parts of another person’s behaviour for the

purpose of enhancing rapport.
Meta Derived from Greek, meaning over or beyond.
Meta Model A model developed by John Grinder and Richard

Bandler that identifies categories of language patterns that can be
problematic or ambiguous. The Meta Model is based on transfor-
mational grammar and identifies common distortions, deletions
and generalizations which obscure the deep structure/original
meaning. The model has clarifying questions that will restore the
original meaning of the message. The Meta Model reconnects
language with experiences and can be used for gathering infor-
mation, clarifying meanings, identifying limitations and opening
up choices.
Metaprogramme A level of mental programming that determines

how we sort, orient to, and chunk our experiences. Our meta-
programmes are more abstract than our specific strategies for
thinking and define our general approach to a particular issue
rather than the details of our thinking process.
Metaphor The process of thinking about one situation or phe-

nomenon as something else, i.e., stories, parables and analogies.
Milton Model The inverse of the Meta Model, using artfully vague
language patterns to pace another person’s experience and access
unconscious resources. Based on the language used by Milton H.
Erickson, M.D.
Mirroring Matching portions of another person’s behaviour.
Mismatching Adopting different patterns of behaviour to

another person, breaking rapport for the purpose of redirect-
ing, interrupting or terminating a meeting or conversation.
GLOSSARY
Model of the world A person’s internal representation of the con-

dition of the world.
Modelling The process of observing and mapping the successful

behaviours of other people. This involves profiling behaviours/
physiology, beliefs and values, internal states and strategies.
Nonverbal Without words. Usually referring to the analogue

portion of our behaviour such as tone of voice or other external
behaviour.
Olfactory Relating to smell or the sense of smell.
Outcomes Goals or desired states that a person aspires to achieve.
Pacing A method used by communicators to quickly establish

rapport by matching certain aspects of their behaviour to those of
the person with whom they are communicating — a matching or
mirroring of behaviour.
Parts A metaphorical way of talking about independent pro-

grammes and strategies or behaviour. Programmes or “parts”
will often develop a persona that becomes one of their identify-
ing features.
Perceptual filters The unique ideas, experiences, beliefs and

language that shape our model of the world.
Perceptual position A particular perspective or point of view. In

NLP there are three basic positions one can take in perceiving a
particular experience. First position involves experiencing some-
thing through our own eyes associated in a first person point of
view. Second position involves experiencing something as if we
were in another person’s shoes. Third position involves standing
back and perceiving the relationship between ourselves and
others from a dissociated perspective.
Physiology To do with the physical part ofa person.
Problem space Problem space is defined by both physical and

nonphysical elements which create or contribute to a problem.
GLOSSARY
Solutions arise out of a “solution space” of resources and alterna-

tives. A solution space needs to be broader than the problem
space to produce an adequate solution.
Process and content Content is what is done, whereas process is

about how it is done. What you say is content and how you say it
is process.
Predicates Sensory-based words that indicate the use of one

representational system.
Preferred system The representational system that an individual

typically uses most to think consciously and organize his or her
experience.
Presupposition A basic underlying assumption which is necessary

for a representation to make sense. Within language systems, a
sentence which must be true for some other sentence to make
Sense.
Rapport The establishment of trust, harmony and cooperation in

a relationship.
Reframing Changing the frame of reference around a statement

to give it another meaning.
Relevancy challenge Asking how a specific statement or behav-

iour is helping to achieve an agreed outcome.
Representational systems The five senses: seeing, hearing, touch-

ing (feeling), smelling and tasting.
Reference structure The sum total of experiences in a person’s

life story. Also, the fullest representation from which other
representations within some systems are derived; for example,
the deep structure serves as the reference structure for the surface
structure.
Resources Any means that can be brought to bear to achieve an

outcome: physiology, states, thought, strategies, experiences,
people, events or possessions.
GLOSSARY
Resourceful state The total neurological and _ physiological

experience when a person feels resourceful.
Sensory acuity The process of learning to make finer and more

useful distinctions about the sense information we get from the
world.
Sensory-based description Information that is directly observable

and verifiable by the senses. It is the difference between “The lips
are pulled taut, some parts of her teeth are showing and the edges
of her mouth are higher than the main line of her mouth” and
“She’s happy” — which is an interpretation.
Second position Seeing the world from another person’s point of

view and so understanding their reality.
State The total ongoing mental and physical conditions from

which a person is acting. The state we are in affects our capabilities
and interpretation of experience.
Stimulus response An association between an experience and a

subsequent so-called reaction; the natural learning process Ivan
P. Pavlov demonstrated when he correlated the ringing of a bell
to the secretion of saliva in dogs.
Strategy A set of explicit mental and behavioural steps used to

achieve a specific outcome.
Sort A computer term meaning to reorganize and/or to filter

information in the process of the reorganization.
Submodalities The special sensory qualities perceived by each of

the senses. For example, visual submodalities include colour,
shape, movement, brightness, depth, etc.; auditory submodialities
include volume, pitch, tempo, etc.; and kinaesthetic submodalli-
ties include pressure, temperature, texture, location, etc.
Surface structure The words or language used to describe or

stand for the actual primary sensory representations stored in the
brain.
GLOSSARY
Swish pattern A generative NLP submodality process that

programmes your brain to go in a new direction.
Systemic To do with systems, looking at relationships and con-

sequences over time and space rather than linear cause and effect.
Third position When you observe yourself and others.
Timeline The way we store pictures, sounds and feelings of our

past, present and future.
Tonal marking Using your voice to mark out certain words as

being significant.
Trance An altered state with an inward focus of attention on a

few stimuli.
Uptime State where the attention and senses are committed

outwards.
Values Those things that are important to us and are driving our
actions.
Visual Relating to sight or the sense of sight.
Visualization The process of seeing images in your mind.
Voice quality The second most important channel of communica-

tion and influence. Research suggests it is 38 per cent of the total
impact of the communication.
Well-formedness conditions The set of conditions something must

satisfy in order to produce an effective and ecological outcome.
How to contact the author
for
NLP Coaching and Programmes
www.quadranti.com
david@quadrant1.com
+44 (0) 870 762 1300

index
alignment, to outcomes 53-4 planned 45-6~

capabilities 54-5 ‘unlearning’ 3
future, activation of 56-7 WIIFM (what’s in it for me?) 98-9
meetings 236-7 see also orange circle thinking
states of being, effect on others 55-6 chaos, thriving on xxiii
anchoring 253-4 choice, behavioural xxv, xxvi
creativity 202-3 chunking 70, 132-5, 133-4, 151, 255
easy to repeat 169 coaching enabler, leader as
influence 166-9, 170, 171 questioning 104-6
meetings 237-8 suggesting 106-7
modalities 167 Collins, John Churton 127
states 168, 227 commitment strategies xi
stimuli 166-7, 168 communication
timing 168 encoding/decoding 26-7
Aristotle 44 generative development model xxiii, xxv,
as-if frame 148-9, 253 XXVil
associated states 33, 254 human communication system 26-7
auditory system 112, 113, 125, 127 information filters 28-9, 68
anchors 167 information processing 26-7
breathing 118 NLP model of 27, 28-9, 40, 131
eye movements 117-18 patterns of thinking 110-11
gestures 118-19 see also language
language 117 complexity response 197-200
vocal qualities 119 confidence
autopilot 2-3 body, and positive states 42
breath of confidence 190-1
backtrack frame 149-50, 254 building confidence (exercise) 187-93
behaviour 254 competing with self 190-1
capability 17-19 context switching 187-8
choice xxv, xxvi decisiveness 192
creation of 6 familiarity 186
environment 19-21 focussing with clarity 192-3
flexibility of 6-7 gestures 191-2
state dependent 29 as inner strength 186-7
what it is 19 looking inside 190
beliefs 254-5 self—belief 188-9
changing 13 smiling at thoughts 190
confidence 13, 188-9 sphere of 189-90
limiting 62-3 congruence 255
see also values and beliefs language 152-3
blue square thinking 83 leading with enthusiasm 50
body outcomes 51-3
congruence 41 values and beliefs 50-1
positive states 40, 41-2 see also incongruence
stress 177 consequences, study of 147-8
body language 74, 161-2, 170, 171, 172, 259 context switching 187-8
Boethius 77 contribution, valuing over status 89-90, 156
brain, left and rights sides 203 control strategies xi, 94
brainstorming 205 convergent problems 197-200
Branson, Richard 56 creativity (group)
breathing brainstorming 205
pacing 161 Einstein strategy 217-19
submodalities 116, 118, 120 multiple perspectives (exercise) 212-13
Butler, Samuel 156 problem, sources of 207-10
problem definition 206
calibration 160, 202, 255 Walt Disney creativity strategy 213-17
capability 17-19 creativity (personal)
change blocks, removing 203-4
changing what you do xxvi brain scrambling (exercise) 204
orange circle thinking 78-85 convergent/divergent problems 197-200, 212
INDEX
enhancing 204-5 flexibility

habitual thinking, stepping out of 194-5 behavioural 6-7, 8, 10
ideas, generation of 24-5 problem solving 5-6
and innovation 194 Ford, Henry 210
language of action 196-7 frames see information frames
limiting beliefs 196 friends, management of 239-41
natural creativity 202-3 Froud, Jim 101
perspectives, widening 195 future, pacing 56-7, 256
problem, stepping out of 195-6
state-dependent 202-3 Galileo 156
thinking on your feet (exercise) 200-2 Gandhi, Mahatma 135
curiosity 4, 196, 199, 200 generalizations 143-4, 256
cynicism 151 generative development xxv—xxvii
Gibran, K. 57
daydreaming 200, 214 global people 70
decisionmaking goals
strategy, eliciting 224-6 capability 17-19
unconscious intelligence 223-4 wants 60
deep structure 132, 133, 255 Goethe, Johann Wolfgan von 41
detail people 70, 74, 135, 165 Gurdjieff, George 24
Dilts, Robert 213 gustatory system 112, 125, 257
direction, creating 50-3
feedback 54 habit formation 2-3, 6
inspirational conductor analogy 44-5 Hitler, Adolf 135
making it happen 53-7 how to technologies xxiii
mission statements 46-7
perceptions, of others 47-50 identity 257
planned change 45-6 identify with your role (exercise) 8-10
Disney, Walt 200, 201, 213-17, 219 identity labels 7-10
dissociation 34-6, 256 metaphors 10
distinctions, making 17, 18 values and beliefs 14-15
divergent problems 197-200, 212 incongruence 257
Dobson, Austin 186 mistrust 152-3
downtime 159, 256 signs of 159-60
and unconscious 41
ecology 66, 256 induction xxii
ecology frame 147-8 influence
Einstein, Albert 150, 200, 205, 218-19 anchoring 166-9, 170, 171
Emerson, Ralph Waldo 172, 193 being like 157-8
emotions being liked 157
memory 31-2 calibration 160
priorities 179-80 decisionmaking 156
empowerment integrity of purpose 157
business of 89-90 intention 156-7
as generative 97 interaction 156
leadership 102-7 leading 166
meaning of 88 and the organization 156
people power 88-9 pacing 160-6, 170, 172, 173
time for 96-7 respectful 156-7
wheel of 95-6 sensory information, gathering 158-60
end values 11, 14, 164 trust 157
environment 19-21, 237, 256 see also rapport
Erickson, Milton 136 information filters 28-9, 68
evidence frame 148-9 internal representation systems 29
eye movements 115-16, 117-18, 119-20, 121 language 130, 131-2
metaprogrammes 29
feedback 10 states of being 29
assessing 65 information frames
capability 17, 18 as-if frame 148-9
failure 60 backtrack frame 149-50
learning from xxiv, xxvi ecology frame 147-8
perceptions, others’ of you 47 evidence frame 148-9
work system diagram 54 frames, as aspects 146-7
filters see information filters outcome frame 148
firefighting xxiv relevancy challenge frame 148
INDEX
information processing 26-7 meetings

innovation xxXili, XXVi, Xxvii alignment 236-7
see also creativity anchors 237-8
intention 257 environment 237
conscious and unconscious 162 information frames 237
determining 229-30 modalities, accommodation of 237
influence 156-7 purpose 237
language 131, 136 in time/through time metaprogramme 237
internal dialogue 120-2 memory
controlling 125-6 changing 33
eye movements 121 emotions 31-2
internal representations 32-3, 257 process of 31-6
see also representation systems states of being 34-6
intuition 223-4 values and beliefs 32
Meta Model (language) 31, 136-7, 258
Johnson, Samuel 2 cause and effect 141
comparisons 139
Kael, Pauline 100 complex equivalence 141-2
kinaesthetic system 112, 113, 125, 127, generalizations 143-4
257 Gordon Brown speech example 145-6
anchors 167 lost performative 138-9
breathing 120 mind reading 140
eye movements 119-20 modal operators of necessity 144
gestures 120 modal operators of possibility 144-6
language 119 nominalizations 138
vocal qualities 120 presupposition 142
King, Martin Luther 135 universal quantifiers 143
knowledge unspecified nouns 138
capability 17-19 unspecified verbs 138
of self 60, 63 metaphors 10, 152, 178, 258
metaprogrammes 258
language activity content 69
artfully vague 135-46, 227-8 attention direction 71, 165
chunk size 132-5, 151 chunk size 70, 133-4
communication, power rating of 130 comparison sorts 73
communication breakdowns 30-1 group behaviour 71-2
congruence 152-3 level of activity 70
experience 131-2 motivational direction 69, 165
incorrect decoding of 30-1 reference sort 71
information frames 146-50 relationship 72-3
intention 131, 136 work pattern 69-70, 165
metaphor, learning with 152 Milton Model (language) 31, 136, 145-6, 258
oversimplification 29-30 mind
predicates, matching 162 patterns of thinking 110-11
purpose 130-1 stress 177
reframing thinking 150-1 mirroring 161-2, 170, 171, 172, 258
surface and deep structure 132, 133 mission statements 46-7, 136
as tool 130 modelling 74-5, 259
see also communication; Meta Model; Milton motivation
Model aspirations 234
law of requisite variety 6 getting fired up (exercise) 235-6
leadership intrinsic 44
empowerment 102-7 metaprogrammes 234-5
generative development model xxiii, xxvi, motivation to get things done (exercise)
XXVii 181-2
pacing 99-101 self-motivation 60, 61, 76, 78, 144, 233
team building 242-8 multiple perspectives 47-50, 212
learning
conventional methods xxiii nonverbal communication 111, 140, 158, 199
generative xxiii, xxv, 92-3 see also body language
process of xxvii-xxviii
olfactory system 112, 125, 259
management style 156 orange circle thinking 223
matching 161-2, 169, 170, 171, 172, 258 change technique 78-85
means values 11, 14, 164 outcome frame 148
INDEX
outcomes 259 outcome focus 220-1

alignment to 53-7, 236-7 propulsion techniques (exercise) 222
versus objectives 51-2 tasks, value to you 220
well-formed (PRIEST acronym) 52-3, 67 > project management 238-9
181, 220-1, 262 Pygmalion 102
pacing 259 questions, handling

breathing 161 body, use of 232
extreme neurological states 160-1 confused questions 231
leading 99-101 direct challenges 231-2
matching and mirroring 161-2, 170, 171, hypothetical/judgmental questions 230
172 intention, determining 229-30
of organization 173 personal attacks 231
rapport 160-1 process for 232-3
values 163-6, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173
Pauling, Linus 194 rapport 100, 110-11, 137, 146, 158, 160-1,
people focus 82, 199 166, 170, 171, 173, 260
see also empowerment see also pacing
perception—driven activity 207-8 reality, map of 27-8, 258
perceptual positions 151, 259 reframing 101-2, 260
Disney’s perceptual positions (exercise) relationship problems
215-17 authority 210
multiple perspectives 47-50, 212 differences, understanding 208-9
perceptual positions (exercise) 48-50 responsibilities 210
personal attacks 231 trust 208
Peter Principle 55 work flow design 210-11
power relationships, being in control of 75-6
authority 95 relevancy challenge frame 148, 260
coercive power 91-2, 93 representation systems
control-empowerment continuum 94 auditory system 112, 113, 117-19, 125, 127
expert power 92, 93 gustatory system 112, 125
generative power 92-3 information filters 29
involvement 95 internal dialogue 120-2
managed expectations 95-6 kinaesthetic system 112, 113, 119-20, 125,
production of 90-1 127
responsibility 95 lead 113-14
trust 94-5 olfactory system 112, 125
see also empowerment preferred 113, 114
predicates 114-15, 162, 228, 260 questionnaire (exercise) 122-4
presenting, to groups sensory experience 112
artfully vague language 227-8 visual system 112, 114-17, 125, 127
audience, engagement with 226-7 see also submodalities
everyday language 229 resourceful states 15, 261
metaprogramme, use of 228 Swish technique (exercise) 34-6
outcome 227 unresourceful states 13, 32
questions, handling 229-33 resources 6, 35, 260
state, anchoring 227 respect 97-9
success, visualization of 227 role models 19
technique and practice 226
time, value of 227 Sassoon, Siegfried 159
tonal marking 229 self-awareness xXiii, XXVi, XXVil
VAK predicates, use of 228 self-fulfilling prophecies 102
voice range 228-9 self—-mastery
presuppositions 5, 260 achieving 76-8
problem space 259-60 failure 60, 62-3
problems goals, and wants 60
convergent/divergent 197-200, 212 modelling 74-5
definition of 206 orange-circle thinking 78-85
describing as solutions 194—S resources 60, 76
as opportunities 150 self-motivation 60, 61, 76, 77
responding to 3-6 unskilled, for task 75-6
see also relationship problems see also sixth strategy state
procrastination self-reflection 2
options pattern 221-2 Semco S/A 11
orange circle thinking (exercise) 223 Semler, Ricardo 11
INDEX
sensory acuity 158-60, 168, 199, 200, 261 planning for success (exercise) 183-6
sensory experience 112 priorities, and emotions 179-80
sensory information, gathering priorities, managing 178-9
incongruence, signs of 159-60 this not that 180-1
sensory acuity 158-60 in time and through time patterns 37, 38-9,
uptime/downtime, being in 159 165, 182>
Sibley, Dave 173 time metaphors 178
sixth strategy state timelines 37-40, 183, 239
avoidance strategies 62, 63, 77 tonal marking 229, 262
creating sixth strategy state (exercise) 64-6 Total Quality Management 89
failure, fear of 62-3 trust
identity mismatch 63-4 empowerment 110-11
limiting beliefs 62-3 influence 157
profile table 77, 78 mistrust, and incongruence 152-3
self-motivation 61 power 94-5
task, dislike of 67 relationship problems 208
unclear outcomes 66-7
skills, of management xxii-xxiv unconscious
stability 85 autopilot 2-3
state of mind, mastery of 85 and incongruence 41
states of being intuition 223-4
anchoring 168 and language 130-1
associated state 33 matching and mirroring 161-2
control of 32, 33 nonverbal communication 111
creativity 202-3 self-knowledge 60, 63
dissociated state 34 unresourceful states 13, 32, 180
effect on others 55-6 uptime 159, 262
Swish technique (exercise) 34-6
stress management 29, 176-8 values and beliefs
conquering stress (exercise) 177 changing 12
submodalities 261 end values 11, 14
breathing 116, 118, 120 identify your values and beliefs (exercise)
critical 34-5, 36 11-17
intensity of experience 125 identity 14-15
state, influence on 126 information filters 29
values 165-6 means values 11, 14
see also auditory system; gustatory system; respect for 97-8
kinaesthetic system; olfactory system; value conflicts 63
visual system visual system 112, 125, 127
success, planning for (exercise) 183-6 anchors 167
surface structure 132, 133, 261 breathing 116
Swish technique (exercise) 34-6 eye movements 115-16
systems theory 5 gestures 116
language 114-15
Tao Te Ching 60 vocal characteristics 116-17
teacher, leader as visualization 262
coaching, opportunities for 103 creativity 200-2, 218
individuals to tasks, matching 104 divergent problems 200
outcomes, agreeing 103-4 future, activation of 56-7
teams, building effective outcomes 56-7
active leadership 242 planning for success (exercise) 183-6
culture, influence of 248-9 vocal qualities 116-17, 119, 120
team performance audit (exercise) 242-45 voice range 228-9
values, impact of 245-8
thinking, patterns of 110-11 Wendell Holmes, Oliver 152
this not that 79-85, 180-1 Williams, Raymond 107
Thriving on Chaos (Tom Peters) xxiii words, power of
time management work, meaning of 101-2
focussing on what’s important (exercise) work system diagram 54
182-2
motivation to get things done (exercise) yesmen 156
181-2 yin yang theory 80-1
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About the author
David Molden is a Director at
Quadrant 1 International, a
vehicle for helping business
people achieve greater
performance. He is also a
trainer on Q1’s flagship and
highly acclaimed Personal
Success Programme.
WITH THE POWER 0
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inits ected eaten. this bestselling book is specifically designed tos hele you learn
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included, along with practical Cie to ees you get a thorough erouneine —
understanding,
Completely revised andd updated. and packed full oteven more practical exercises, Mane
Withthe Power of NLP is ou means to erence greater bo alesuccess. oF
Misit |us on
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ee ee

MODELF R.BETTER MANAGee

“This new edition gives practical,

Lanchester Librarv: schoo,

ie WITHDRA® _ master of bo. NLP and

“Self-understanding is a prerequisite for leading and managing

Books that make you better

Books that make you better. That make you be better,

Prentice Hall Business is leading the field with a new breed

Books that are as sharp and smart as you are.

Prentice Hall Business.

For more details on products, and to contact us, visit

First published 1996

© Pearson Professional Limited 1996

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Typeset in 11/16pt Classical Garamond by 25

The Publisher's policy is to use paper manufactured from sustainable forests.

David Molden is a director, coach and trainer with Quadrant 1

Key to margin symbols

Creating your direction 50

What’s your chunk size? 132

Concluding thoughts 251

Glossary of NLP terms 253

n the last 35 years or so, the idea of self-development has

models and engaging activities for improving human communi-

ividly planted in my memory is the day I became a manager.

@ Some background information

In the margins you will find various pieces of information.

NLP This signifies one of a number of NLP principles around

This indicates an emphasis of the main learning points

This indicates where you will find an exercise in the

Quotes to emphasize specific learning points.

o the two pioneers and originators of NLP — Richard

f you are inspired to look beyond conventional teaching

What skills would you like to master?

I remember being given my first real management challenge —

I decided not to follow all their examples. So what do you want

fullest potential and realize success in management.

generates the flexibility needed to build effective strategies — for

Many people believe that learning from feedback is an uncon-

We all make many choices throughout the course of a day. How

This book is constructed around an all-embracing “generative

You operate in the organization as a leader, communicator and

You operate, get feedback, and change behaviour according to

Getting the most from this book

& How do you respond to problems?

a What do you believe you are managing?

Your autopilot — is it working for or

S ow much time do you spend in self-reflection? If you are

2 Once we have learned a new habit, it can be difficult to break

So, is your autopilot working for you or against you? To

3 Yes — if I reshape the square peg so that it fits. This is a

frame presented. The result is a clearer picture of the situation

The flexible manager will begin with option 4 as a default.

behaviour. The five levels are:

Figure 1.1 shows these levels within a contextual frame. The

People who make career moves start by unconsciously reframing

2 Values and beliefs

unconscious level. Take a few moments to think about your pro-

EXERCISE 1 VE identify with your role

Values and beliefs — why?

— means values and end values. It is important for me to exercise

| END VALUE = development