What is a strategy? Why elicit a strategy in NLP?

The NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming definition of a strategy is “a specific syntax of internal and external human experience that consistently produces a specific outcome”. In easy to understand terms, a strategy is the steps that you take to produce certain behaviour.

In life, at work or in your own business you have a strategy for everything. You have a strategy for learning new material at work, you have a strategy for playing football on the weekend, you have a strategy for being happy, and you have a strategy for anything such as wealth, relaxation, motivation, marketing, procrastination, eating, or buying. In fact everything you do each and every day of your life has a strategy.

In NLP a strategy is elicited so that it can be used to improve outcomes/behaviour and in other cases a strategy can be modified to get rid of behaviour you do not want or serve you in some way. When eliciting a strategy various questions are asked to determine internal and external modalities such as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or auditory digital.

As an example, you may want to determine someone’s buying strategy. In asking questions you will determine initially whether they see something (visual), hear something (auditory), feeling something (kinesthetic) or saying something to themselves (auditory digital). A buying strategy may result in the following modalities: a person is purchasing a new pair of running shoes and initially they see the shoes in the store window (visual), then they picture them on their feet (visual) and that picture gives them a good feeling (kinesthetic). In further questioning it is elicited that they know the shoes were the right ones and the price was right (auditory digital). The modalities of this buying strategy are visual, visual, kinesthetic and auditory digital. If this strategy was resulting in impulse buying then additional steps could be placed into the strategy to prevent the unwanted behaviour of impulse purchasing.

In summary a strategy are the steps you take to produce certain behaviour or achieve specific outcomes. In NLP a strategy is only changed when the existing strategy is not producing the most effective behaviour. Are there any strategies you would like to change? 

NLP and the Hierarchy of Ideas

In any communication, language (words) consists of 7%, tonality being 38% and 55% related to your physiology. Generally, the language you use is unconscious as you don’t think about the words that are coming out of your mouth. 

It is important that you learn to use language in such a way that it is in your conscious awareness and produces the kind of response that you really want. One way of using language more effectively to produce desired results is to apply the hierarchy of ideas. The hierarchy of ideas is all about moving from the abstract to the specific in language.

Abstract or vague language is all about getting the big picture of an idea or situation. It is like getting the vision. In NLP, the use of such language is known as “chunking up” and questions asked include: “what is this an example of…?”, “for what purpose…?” or “what is your intention…?’. Chunking up or abstract language is useful for negotiation as negotiation is essentially the process of gaining agreement and agreement is only possible by being abstract. By using vague language with someone you can identify motivating or deep needs of that person. 

Specific or detailed language is known as “chunking down” or getting to the details or distinction of a situation. Common questions asked to chunk down include: “what are examples of this…?”, or “what specifically…?” For example, if you were feeling overwhelmed in a certain situation, by asking yourself “what specifically am I overwhelmed about…?” will help you to find a solution to the source of being overwhelmed.

By using the hierarchy of ideas either chunking up (vague or abstract) or chunking down (specific) will assist you to use language that will produce the desired results or outcomes you want to achieve. By understanding the use of abstract to specific language will enable you to use these to match/mirror others and communicate more effectively in any given situation. 

Do you have behavioural flexibility?

Behavioural flexibility is the ability to be able to change your behaviour if you are not achieving the intended result or outcome. As an example, if you are communicating with a colleague about a work matter and if they look puzzled then for some reason what you are communicating is not being understood. So what should be done? You need to change your behaviour so that the other person can understand what you are saying or talking about.

Behavioural flexibility requires you to have the ability to notice whether your communication is understand through sensory acuity. Sensory acuity is about noticing minute changes that occurs in the other person’s physiology and that those changes have meaning. Minute changes occur in someone’s skin colour, skin tonus, breathing rate and location, lower lip size and eyes being focused/defocused or pupil dilated to undilated.  Other important changes include the other person’s voice tonality such as tone, tempo timbre or volume.

By having sensory acuity enables you to be a more effective communicator. By noticing changes you can then be flexible in your behaviour to produce better results.

To illustrate behavioural flexibility the following situation occurred at Albany Airport in July of this year : 

A business person arrived at Albany airport from Perth. After waiting at the carousel for over 15 minutes and most of the people had left the terminal he realised his luggage was missing. He went to the baggage claim area and said very fast “I am here on business and need my luggage for an important business meeting, I want to know where my bags are?” Baggage handler said “Hello (talking slowly)”. Again the businessman repeated himself and the baggage claim officer just said “Hello and yes?” The coin then dropped with the business person that his communication was not being conveyed to the baggage handler. So he slowed down his speech and said “G’day mate, how has your day been?” Handler said “not bad”. The business person then proceeded to mention that his luggage had not arrived and he required some assistance. This time the baggage handler mentioned he could help him.  By realising that his communication was not getting through, the passenger from Perth talked slower and “copied” the other person’s communication style, which resulted in achieving the outcome he desired.

In this real life example, the business person noticed through sensory acuity that his communication was not achieving the intended result. He changed his communication style and matched/mirrored the style of the baggage handler. By having behaviour flexibility he was able to produce the intended result of learning the location of his bags. 

What is NLP? What are the origins? What are the benefits?

NLP is the abbreviation for Neuro Linguistic Programming with neuro being related to the brain or nervous system, linguistic is language and programming is programming as in computer science. However this definition does not really define and explain what it is! NLP explores the relationship between how you think (neuro), how you communicate both verbally and non-verbally (linguistic) and your patterns of behaviour (programming). NLP is beneficial as it enables you to communicate more effectively with others, understand your internal representations of events and situations, anchor positive and empowering states which ultimately affect how you respond and behave to given situations or events. NLP is useful in eliminating limiting beliefs or negative emotions.

NLP was conceived in the early 1970’s by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. Richard Bandler was a student at Santa Cruz University and into computers and Gestalt Therapy and John Grinder was a Linguistics Professor. The major influences which have played a part in NLP are: general semantics (Alfred Korzybski), logical levels (Gregory Bateson), stimulus and response (Ivan Pavlov), family therapy/meta model (Virginia Satir), hypnosis (Milton Erickson), gestalt therapy (Fritz Perls), systems theory (Galanter, Miller and Pribram), and psychology (William James).

Benefits of understanding and applying NLP

• You understand how you communicate and make internal representations of an external event and how a lot of information is deleted, generalised and distorted in some way which affects the way you interpret or make meaning of the event
• NLP can assist you to regain the deleted information
• How you can produce the best possible behaviour by following the five principles for success, the keys to an achievable outcome and ensure your goals or outcomes are well formed
• How to build rapport with others through understanding of representational systems, predicates, eye patterns and changes in physiology
• How to change your submodalities to change your behaviour for improved results
• How to create anchors for more positive and empowering behaviours
• How to improve your strategies for learning, spelling and motivation
• How to conduct more effective and outcome based meetings using NLP
• How to achieve higher sales through the 5 step sales process
• How to negotiate more effectively with others so that it is a win, win situation

The benefits of NLP are extensive and there is insufficient space to be able to list them. However, all you need to know is that NLP is an effective tool or coaching technique that will take your life and/or business to a new level of excellence. NLP can be used with individuals, groups, teams and organisations. 

How to anchor confidence for your life and/or business?

Would you like to be more in control of your state (e.g. a more positive state) for example when you need to give a presentation to a group of people, attend a meeting or meet a prospective client to make a sale? And of course you have said ‘yes’. A powerful technique you can use is anchoring.

What is anchoring? Anchoring is a process involving a stimulus and a response and when a specific stimulus is applied at the peak of an intense state then the two get linked together neurologically. The origins of anchoring go back to a famous study conducted by Ivan Pavlov when he worked with dogs and he performed stimulus and response tests. In these tests Pavlov would show a steak to the animal and then hit a tuning fork. The dog would then salivate. After repeating this number of times, he noticed that without the steak being present the dog would still salivate when hitting the tuning fork.

Did you know that in everyday life you have many anchors? Take for example the alarm clock in the morning, when you hear it, you get out of bed and start getting ready for work. The humble traffic light is an anchor, it goes red and you stop the car. Another one, the telephone rings; you get out of the chair and answer it. These are anchors in which there is a stimulus and then a response which results in your behaviour.

Why use an anchor? Well, imagine you have had a difficult morning and you must go and see a prospective client. You certainly want to have a positive state towards that client; otherwise there will be no chance of getting a sale. So by having an anchor you can change your state from being negative to one of being positive and empowered.

So how do I successfully create such an anchor?  To create an anchor remember the pneumonic device of ‘I TURN’ which stands for Intensity, Timing, Uniqueness, Replication, and Number of times. For the intensity of the experience, you must be fully associated in the experience (e.g. seen through your own eyes). For example remember a time, a specific time when you were fully motivated and see what you saw, hear what you heard and feel what you felt. The Timing of the anchor is important and you need to anchor it as you go into a state and release it just after the anchor peaks. In terms of uniqueness it needs to be a unique location on the body. A common place is the knuckle on the hand. However, if you anchor the hand, then every time someone shakes your hand, the anchor will be “watered” down and become ineffective.  The next step is the replication of the stimulus and this is all about being able to repeat it and in the same location. The last step is the number of times you anchor it. The more times you anchor it, the more effective and powerful will be the anchor.

As an example, here are the steps to anchor a state of being totally confident. You will need a partner and these are the steps you will apply to that person or vice versa. Firstly, get the person to remember an intense past experience when they were totally confident. Secondly, notice as they enter the state of being confident there will be a change in their physiology such as eyes, colour of face, skin tonus, lower lip size etc. As they enter the state of being totally confident then apply a stimulus (e.g. your finger will touch one of their knuckles and always get permission to touch them first). Thirdly as you notice the person leaving the state (as it peaks) then remove the stimulus (remove your finger from their knuckle). Now you must break their state or ask them to clear the screen or say ‘can they smell hot chips’! The last part of anchoring is to test to determine whether they return to the state of being total confident. So apply your finger to that unique anchor and notice them going into that state again.  You should apply the anchor many times, as more you do it, the more powerful the anchor will be. Any state can be anchored, give it a go and notice the changes in your life. 

What are the Indicators of Rapport?

Rapport is an important process where you create trust and responsiveness to your communication. Rapport is commonly used in business including sales, education and also coaching.

How do you know when you have created or established rapport? Firstly, you have a warm feeling inside which is normally in the centre of the body. This feeling can also be one of nervousness of even ‘butterflies’ in the stomach.

Secondly, there is a colour change which will start from the neck up and can also stretch to the face of the other person. On some occasions, you may feel the colour change and even a blushing in your own face and then the other person. Normally the colour change will occur with a minute of the warm feeling inside.

Thirdly, is when the other person has a sense of knowing you from their past. For example, they may say to you “Did we go to university together?” or “Did we work together previously?” This indicator is all about a feeling of being at home.

The last indicator of rapport is related to the concept of pacing and leading. In Neuro Linguistic Programming (or NLP) pacing occurs when you are matching and mirroring someone, and after that there is leading. For example, you crossed your left leg over your right to match the same movements of the other person. When the other person feels they are in rapport, they will be likely to want to shift their position when you do. So if you decided to uncross your legs and you move your position in the chair and then the other person followed then you have paced and lead the person into a new position. The leading part is another indicator of rapport. All these indicators can be experience in yourself and/or the other person you are communicating with.  

Remember, rapport is the process of building a relationship based on trust, harmony and understanding. It is about meeting the other person in their model of the world. Rapport is important in any relationship and is useful for when you have issues to be discussed and can assist you in preventing issues from developing into complaints and problems. Next time you are in rapport with someone, notice the feelings, colour change, the feeling of being at home and the pacing and leading. 

What are submodalities?

The representational systems or the five senses by which you make an internal representation (IR) of your world are known as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory. Visual is what you see, auditory is what you hear, kinesthetic is what you feel, olfactory is smell and gustatory is taste. In NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) your representation of an external event is based on your five senses and these result in your state, physiology and subsequently your behaviour. This is essentially the NLP Model of Communication. These representational systems are also known as modalities.

These modalities (representational systems) can be further divided into the building blocks of the five senses. For example, how each picture (visual), sound (auditory) or feeling (kinesthetic) is composed. The submodalities of visual are: number of images, whether a picture or a movie, size or shape, colour or black and white, focused or unfocused, bright or dim, framed or not framed, associated (seen through your own eyes) or disassociated, and close or distant. Auditory submodalities can include: volume, pitch, timbre, tempo, tonality, duration, or harmony. Some of the submodalities for kinesthetic are: location within the body, sensations, pulse or breathing rate, intensity and movement or direction. Olfactory and gustatory can include sweet, sour, bitter, aromatic, fragrance or pungency.

Changing submodalities can have a profound effect on the way you think about a situation, event or even a person. For example, you have a colleague who irritates you in some manner. What you need to do is to make an image of that person and see them look at you at whichever way annoys you. Hear them say whatever it is he/she says and notice the bad feeling that occurs within your body. Then with that image change it to black and white (e.g. submodality of visual), move that image far off into the distance. Make that image of that person even smaller and smaller again. Now put a clown’s nose on their face. Next you need to hear whatever they are normally saying except they are saying it in Donald Duck’s or Mickey Mouses’ voice (e.g. submodality of auditory). Notice how you feel differently about that person.

By changing any of the submodalities of visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory and gustatory you can empower yourself in more situations and be in charge of how you respond and react to events.