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I
often ask people in the seminars that we give, before
beginning to teach strategies, "How many people used a
strategy today?" I'm interested in how many people will
raise their hand, and how many won't, and usually only a
few people raise their hand, because people typically are
not aware of their pervasive use of strategies.
Now, a
strategy is any internal and external set (order, syntax)
of experiences which consistently produces a specific
outcome. For example, when I go somewhere, I need to make
a picture of where I'm going and how to get there in my
mind. And I gather information verbally until I have a
clear picture of the entire route that I'm going to
travel. When I have enough information, I then forget it
and trust my unconscious mind. That's my strategy for
driving somewhere, when I do it successfully. When I don't
do it successfully, it's usually because I haven't
gathered enough information. So, I don't have a clear
picture, and then I may even take the wrong turn or get
lost. Do you use a strategy when you go somewhere? Of
course you do, although you may not have been aware of it
until this moment. Think of it, what is your strategy?
What do you do when you go somewhere?
We use internal processing strategies
for everything we do.
All of our apparent external behaviors are controlled by
internal processing strategies. All of our overt
behaviors! So that means that we use strategies for love,
strategies for hate, strategies for learning, strategies
for math, parenting, sports, communication, sales,
marketing, wealth, poverty, happiness, death, sex, eating,
disease, creativity, relaxation, attention and fun. There
are strategies for everything.
We
first develop a particular strategy when we are young. At
an early age, perhaps you put a series of internal and
external experiences together, and made (for example) a
decision. Then, at some point when you knew it worked, you
generalized the process that you used before in making the
decision and said, either consciously or unconsciously,
"OK, this is a good way to make a decision", and you then
probably used it over and over and over again.
Let's
say, for example, you made a picture in your mind and
talked to yourself or someone else about it, until you had
enough information, and that was how you made the
decision. If that syntax worked for you, then at some time
you began to use it over and over again.
In our
lives, we use strategies for everything that we do. And so
the second question I often ask people, in the process of
doing a seminar is, "So those of you that didn't use a
strategy yet today, how did you get here?" "How did you
get to the seminar?" "And how did you decide what seat to
sit in?" So, a strategy is essentially what it is that you
do in your mind in the process of doing something.
Since
NLP deals with form and not content, we're not so much
interested in the content of the thought, just the form.
You might say, "Well, I thought of this", or "I thought
about that" or "I thought of flowers" or whatever you did.
Rather than the content, what did you do, did you make a
picture in your mind, did you have a certain set of words
that you said to yourself? Did you think of somebody
else's voice, or did you have a certain feeling or
emotion? Our interest is in the context, form, and process
instead of the content.
NLP was created as a result of Modeling.
Bandler and Grinder's system for Modeling was essentially
to discover somebody's belief systems, physiology, and
mental strategies. In the process of modeling, they would
elicit a person's internal program, which they called
"mental syntax" or "strategy." In terms of modeling, then,
one important element is the internal syntax or what they
do inside their head when they do what they do. What
strategy do they use?
Now,
as an example, let's see how you might model a foreign
language. If you were modeling a language, like French,
you'd model three things. First, you'd model the
vocabulary, actually learning the vocabulary. You'd learn
"plume" means "pen." Next you'd learn syntax. So, you'd
learn how to say sentences in French, putting certain
words in certain order. Regarding the order and sequence
of words, Tony Robbins is fond of pointing out that "The
dog bit Johnny" is substantially different from "Johnny
bit the dog." It has a completely different meaning, yet
they're the same words. But they're in a different order.
The difference in meaning is created by the syntax (order,
sequence).
And
also in modeling a language, you'd also model the mouth
movements. You'd learn how to pronounce "plume" so you
could say it with the correct accent.
Modeling mental NLP strategies allows us to take a
strategy from one place and move it to another place. Now,
if I'm dealing with content, then it's hard to move
content from one place to another. But if I'm dealing with
process, if I'm dealing with the "how to" regarding
processing information then I can discover somebody's
internal program and I can install it in someone else.
Discovering this process might allow you to change
someone's strategy. We talked about this in a seminar that
I did recently where a participant had a buying strategy
of "see it", "feel good about it" and "buy it." So, "I see
something I want and I get a feeling right away, and I buy
it", is pretty efficient for making quick decisions,
especially if you're an airline pilot. She felt, however,
that it was not really effective for buying because she'd
see a lot of things she liked and she bought them. So, she
decided she wanted to change the strategy.
Most
NLP strategies that people have can be easily learned or
modified, according to whatever our outcome is. And that's
why in NLP one of the presuppositions is that people have
all the resources they need. For example, if someone is
very decisive at home and they have trouble making
decisions at work, one of the things we can do is move
their decision-making strategy from home to work.
A Strategy is a specific syntax of
external and internal experience which consistently
produces a specific behavioral outcome,
or to put it in plain English, a strategy is something
that somebody does in their brain and nervous system that
produces a specific result. It's what somebody does in
their head when they do what they do.
An
analogy that seems to work really well in describing
strategies is the analogy of baking a cake. In the process
of baking a cake, you get all the ingredients together,
get a bowl, and you put the ingredients into a bowl in a
certain order. It's important to take all the ingredients
and put them in a bowl in a certain order. In a recipe,
there's a certain order or sequence of when the elements
should go into the recipe. And so, if you put the elements
of the cake into the bowl in the wrong order, or even in
the oven before you put them into the bowl, you'll get a
substantially different outcome.
A
strategy is a specific order and sequence of internal and
external processes or internal and external experiences
that consistently produce a specific outcome. If you
reverse the strategy, that is, if you reverse the order
and sequence of the strategy, the outcome that you get may
be substantially different.
So,
how do you discover someone's strategy for doing a
specific thing? Well, just ask. Just ask, and listen to
their predicates, watch their eyes (eye patterns), and
make note of the order and sequence of the modalities as
they are presented to you.
What
are the elements that can go into a strategy? There are
only six, fortunately. There are only six things that
people can do in their mind -- what a surprise. You
thought you could do a lot more than six things, didn't
you? There are only six things that you can do, though.
The six are pictures, sounds, feelings, tastes, smells,
and you can talk to yourself. And you can do each of those
things either internally or externally.
If
you're making note of the syntax of the elements in a
person's strategy, we've developed a shorthand notation
process for NLP strategies. And they're shown below:
V =
Visual
A = Auditory
K = Kinesthetic (feelings)
O = Olfactory
G = Gustatory
In
addition we can say certain things about those
Representational System elements:
e = External
i = Internal
t = Tonal (At)
d = Digital
c = Constructed
r = Recalled
The
strategy notation that we use corresponds directly to the
eye pattern chart below. As you listen and watch the
person you're eliciting the strategy from, note first the
major modalities -- [V], [At], [K], [O], [G], [Ad]. Also
make note of whether they are internal or external. For
example, seeing a picture in your head is Visual Internal
(or Vi), looking at a car to see if you like it is Visual
External (or Ve), and may include a comparison to a
remembered or created car (Vr or Vc). Talking to the
salesperson, and gathering information about the purchase
to find if it meets your criteria is Auditory digital (or
Ad), and External. Or feeling a rug to discover if you
like the feel is Kinesthetic external (or Ke), while
feeling good about the purchase is Kinesthetic internal
(or Ki).
Making
sure that your shorthand notation for each step of the
strategy includes the distinction of whether it's internal
or external, we make a superscript, "e" for external and
"i" for internal. And when dealing with auditory, you want
to make the differentiation between auditory digital [Ad]
or auditory tonal [At]. Digital includes lists, criteria
-- whether it "makes sense", whereas tonal is more
concerned with whether it "sounds right". Make a subscript
of "t" for tonal or "d" for digital.
You
will want to note the elements in the order they occur.
And, it's OK to ask over and over again until you have a
strategy that you can be confident about. Make several
tests. Ask over and over if you need to so you get it
right, and you are sure that the building blocks are in
their correct order.
The T.O.T.E. Model:
Bandler, Grinder and Dilts and others in the book,
Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Volume I, refer to a model
of NLP strategies called T.O.T.E. The T.O.T.E. model was
designed to represent how people process information.
T.O.T.E. stands for test, operate, test, and exit.
The
notion of strategies actually comes from George Miller,
and Galanter, and Pribram in a book called Plans and the
Structure of Behavior. They're the ones who originally
developed the concept of the T.O.T.E. model.
As the
theory goes, a strategy or T.O.T.E. begins with a certain
test. It's a test that actually starts or fires off the
strategy. It's the starting point. As you look at the
diagram below, follow along beginning with the word
"T.O.T.E.", where it says "input" (this is where the
information comes from for the strategy), and to the right
of that, you see the first test.
TEST OPERATE TEST EXIT -- THE TOTE
MODEL
Adapted from Miller, Galanter & Pribram
Here's how it works:
The information gathered provides a
trigger,
setting off the first test, and the strategy begins. It
operates for a while and it tests again, to see if it's
complete. If it's not complete, it goes back to a certain
point, and then comes back to the test again. It continues
this loop until it gets a positive outcome, then it exits.
The
first test establishes the strategy test criteria that are
carried forward to the next test. So, the first test
starts the strategy and it establishes criteria for the
next test.
As an
example, let's look at how you know to be motivated.
What's the one thing -- the trigger that gets you
motivated? (The first test can also be called the trigger
because it's what sets you off.) Is there usually one
thing (like something you see, or hear)? Remember a time
when you were especially motivated. What set you off? Do
you remember the trigger? If not, pick another time. Do
you remember the trigger, now? Was it something you saw,
something you heard or the touch of something or someone?
It's really important in the process of eliciting,
utilizing, designing or creating new strategies to
discover a specific trigger that will get the person into
the strategy. For example, if you design the world's
greatest new strategy for a person that doesn't have an
appropriate trigger, it won't ever get set off. So it's
important to discover the trigger that sets off the
strategy.
Next is the operation.
The operation accesses and gathers the data required by
the strategy. The operation of a strategy, TEST-OPERATE,
is going to access certain data. The data that is going to
be accessed in the operation section is threefold. What do
you think they should be?
The
first kind of data accessed is external (remember the
notations that we covered earlier?) visual external,
auditory external, and kinesthetic external -- any
external process in the process in the Operate part of the
strategy will be gathering data.
The
data accessed could also be internal. And if it's
internal, there are two possibilities. The two data could
be either Remembering data or Creating data -- Memories or
constructed data. So the three types are external, which
is gathering, and internal which could be remembered or
created.
Test:
Then there's the next test. We've gone through TEST -
OPERATE - TEST ... we're at that point now. The second
test is a comparison. It's always going to be a comparison
that allows you to know that the strategy is complete.
It's a comparison of the new data to the criteria
established at the first test. So the first test will
establish the criteria. The second test will compare all
the known data to the criteria established in the first
test. And, typically, the test will occur with a
comparison in the same representational system (V, A, K, O
or G). Now, at that point, if there is a "plus", which
means that the test is successful, there will be a match
between gathered data and the criteria, and we'll have an
exit at that point. If there is no match at that point,
then we'll usually go back and continue the strategy.
Exit:
Finally, the exit is going to be a decision point or a
choice point, and it's a representation of the test where
the strategy will either exit at that point, or loop back
and get more data.
To
summarize, the functional properties of strategies are the
TEST, OPERATE, TEST, and the EXIT. The first test is a
trigger. The trigger feeds information forward to the
second test, which compares the data to the output of the
process of operation, and which (the operation) is
gathering or accessing data or creating data. And then,
when the test is successful, the strategy is, at that
point, complete.
All our outward behavior is a result of
these neurological processing patterns.
All overt behavior is controlled by these sequences of
internal and external neurological representations. If a
specific pattern occurs, then a specific behavior is
generated. If the neurological pattern does not occur,
then the behavior does not occur.
A
typical neurological pattern is the result of either one
of two basic processes: Either (1) synesthesia patterns
(which occur in much the same way that anchors do in that
their associations are connected together in a chain where
there are representational system overlaps) or (2)
strategies. And a synesthesia pattern is somewhat like a
very short fast strategy with only two components.
Synesthesia:
A synesthesia pattern, goes something like this: "... it's
kind of like I want to see how I feel about that".
Linguistically, you can spot a synesthesia pattern when
somebody says, "Well, I've got to see if it sounds right."
A synesthesia pattern also occurs when you touch something
with your eyes closed and then make a picture of it
automatically.
A
synesthesia pattern occurs when two modality accessings
(like Visual - Kinesthetic) are closely linked, with one
of them possibly outside the awareness. Some typically
occurring synesthesia patterns are see-feel (mentioned
above); another is, in school, if the teacher spoke to you
with a harsh tone, you'd feel bad, and so now every time
somebody speaks to you with that tone of voice, you feel
bad, even though they don't mean anything by that tone of
voice; or an accident -- let's say you saw an accident,
you see blood, and you feel nauseous; or feel angry --
blame someone. Has that ever happened to you? Or in
therapy, for example, client says, with his eyes going up
and to his right, "Gee", and then down to the right, "I
don't know why I feel this way." As you observe the client
across from you saying, "Gee, I don't know why I feel this
way," you also see that he's making pictures, constructing
pictures, probably of bad things that could happen and
then he's jumping to a feeling about it. That's a
synesthesia pattern! In this case, the pictures may also
be outside of his awareness. That's a synesthesia pattern.
Strategy Elicitation:
Now, let's talk about strategy elicitation: There are two
ways to elicit strategies. One way is formal, the other is
informal. And, if you just ask someone informally, "How do
you do that?", they'll tell you. More often than not,
they'll also tell you in a way that includes the
modalities that they use in processing that information.
They will tell you their strategy.
Many
strategies will come out spontaneously and naturally
during a conversation and won't have to be elicited
formally. Informal strategy elicitation can be as simple
as someone saying to you, "Gee, every time I see that
particular sight, I get motivated." And you say, "So, how
do you know to get motivated. What is it about that
sight?" The fact is that people do internally what they're
talking about. So they will demonstrate verbally and
nonverbally the strategies used to access and make sense
of those experiences. So, for example, as someone talks
about a past decision, they will ordinarily also run
through the strategy steps. They will actually go right
through the steps in the strategy -- like an instant
replay. Have you ever watched a sports show on T.V. and
saw an instant replay? Just like that.
Formal Elicitation:
Strategies can also be elicited formally with a formal
script, and your formal notation. It makes it a little
easier when you have the person's cooperation, and in the
early stages of learning strategy elicitation it may be a
little easier to just read the script. In formal
elicitation, you can go over and over the steps of the
strategy until you get it. My suggestion is to learn how
to do both formal and informal elicitation so that you can
do both as needed. If you're doing formal elicitation,
just follow this outline:
TEXT FOR FORMAL STRATEGY ELICITATION
Can you recall a time when you were totally X'd?
Can
you recall a specific time?
As you
go back to that time now ...
What
was the very first thing that caused you to be totally
X'd?
Was it
something you saw (or the way someone looked at you?),
Was it something you heard (or someone's tone of voice?),
or
Was it the touch of someone or something?
What was the very first thing that caused you to be
totally X'd?
After
you (saw, heard, felt) that, what was the very next thing
that happened as you were totally X'd?
Did
you picture something in your mind?
Say something to yourself, or
Have a certain feeling or emotion?
What was the next thing that happened as you were totally
X'd
After
you (list previous), did you know that you totally X'd,
or...
(Continue until complete.)
TRANSCRIPT OF STRATEGY ELICITATION
MOTIVATION STRATEGY
Let's do that now. Bill, can we talk? How are you doing?
"Great". Can you recall a time when you were particularly
motivated?
"Yes".
Can
you recall a time when you were totally motivated?
Thinking ... "Yes".
Can
you recall a specific time? (He nods.)
As you
go back to that time now ...
What
was the very first thing that happened that caused you to
be totally motivated? (without pausing) Was it something
you saw or the way someone looked at you? Was it something
you heard or someone's tone of voice? Or, was it the touch
of someone or something? What was the very first thing
that caused you to be totally motivated?
"It
was something I saw".
Good.
After you saw what you saw, what was the very next thing
that happened as you were totally motivated? Did you
picture something in your mind? Did you say something to
yourself, or have a certain feeling or emotion? What was
the next thing that happened as you were totally
motivated?
"I
made a picture in my mind".
Great.
After you made a picture in your mind, did you know that
you were totally motivated or did you say something to
yourself, or have a certain feeling or emotion?
"I
said something to myself".
Good,
after you made a picture in your mind, and said something
to yourself, did you know that you were totally motivated
or did you say something to yourself, or have a certain
feeling or emotion? What was the next thing that happened
as you were totally motivated?
"Well,
I was just motivated, that's all."
Good,
so you felt motivated?
"Yes,
that's right."
Now,
we know that Bill's motivation strategy is
Now, we can also elicit the submodalities of each of the
major parts of this strategy, and I am not going to do a
complete elicitation of submodalities now. When you are
doing it, you may want to get out our chart of possible
submodalities. So, Bill, what was it about what you saw
that caused you to be motivated?
"What
do you mean?"
In
what you saw, what was the important thing that made it
motivating to you? Was the color important?
"No,
not really."
Was
the size?
"Yes,
well, if it had been smaller, I'm sure I wouldn't have
been as motivated."
So
size was important. Was how close you were to it
important?
"I
don't think so. Just so I could see."
Now
when you made the picture inside that you made when you
were motivated, was that picture a memory or did you make
it up in your head?
"I
made-up a picture of me doing something new."
Was
that picture near or far?
"It
was really close-up."
And
could you see yourself in the picture or were you looking
through your own eyes?
"I was
looking through my own eyes."
And
what did you say to yourself?
"I
said, 'Wow'."
Thank-you, Bill.
"Thank-you."
Informal Elicitation: After you've
mastered formal strategy elicitation, you can move on to
informal elicitation. You could elicit someone's decision
making strategy just by saying, "Hey, I love your shirt,
how did you decide to buy it?" and then just listen and
watch. Listen to the predicates, and watch the eye
patterns and the other nonverbal cues. Since strategies
can be elicited either informally or formally, if you do
nothing else except just talk to the person, they will
tell you exactly how they do whatever they do, and all you
have to do is just watch them and listen to them. In
business many times, its a little easier to discover
somebody's strategy without doing it formally, so we're
going to also cover several ways of doing strategy
elicitation without being particularly formal or overt
about it.
The
next type of strategy elicitation is elicitation from eye
patterns. You could just walk up to somebody and you could
go, "Wow, I really love your watch! How did you decide to
buy it?" and what they will do is, they'll move their eyes
in a certain direction as they remember it.
(This is how they look when you're facing them.)
Not Every Movement A Strategy:
The first thing to remember when eliciting NLP strategies
from eye patterns is that not every eye movement you see
is a strategy. Some people are going to process the
information you just asked them before they begin
accessing their strategy. They may, for example, repeat to
themselves exactly what you said, "Oh, he just said
'beautiful watch', how did I get it? And then they'll run
their strategy for you with their eyes. Some people will
immediately understand what you said and jump directly
into the strategy, moving their eyes in a certain
direction as they access their NLP strategies. Most people
will move their eyes in a recognizable pattern as they
access their strategy or as they replay the information in
their head. The question is, do they move their eyes so
that you can see them adequately? And that's where your
sensory acuity becomes very, very important. That's where
your sensory acuity makes a major difference. My
suggestion is that you make sure that you've gotten really
well-grounded in the eye patterns, and that you learn them
very well. Having done that, you can just relax and let
the information come to you. Just watch their eye patterns
and then note them on a piece of paper -- one of the
things I do is carry a little piece of paper with me, and
write down the order and sequence of their eye patterns as
I get them, so I'll remember them -- and note them, using
the notation form above.
I
suggest that as with any strategy elicitation, you also
test the strategy elicitation from eye patterns wherever
possible, questioning them over and over again, until
you're sure you've got it. It's OK to check several times
because the major question in the elicitation of
strategies from eye patterns is, "Where does the accessing
the information end and the strategy begin?" So you may
have to elicit the same strategy in a couple of different
situations, or a couple of different contexts in order to
discover how did they do it.
NLP
Strategies from eye patterns are extremely powerful. Later
we'll put it all together when we show how to utilize
those strategies in designing embedded commands.
Continue NLP Strategies,
Part 2
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