NLP Training, Techniques & Products for learning NLP

Did you know there is a little known but powerful framework that you can use with the Meta Model that can transform the results you can achieve with the technology of NLP?

It's called the Framing Tool and in this post I want to give you a brief overview about this very powerful framework for thinking that takes what you may already know about the Meta Model and gives you the ultimate "Swiss Army Knife" of thinking tools to use in your business and life. The Framing Tool is a fantastic tool to have in your toolset and was developed by Master Trainer Michael Breen.

Let's look at an example of it in action …

The other week I got a phone call from a very successful consultancy company asking me to help them figure out a viable solution to a complex resourcing problem that a large multinational company was having in the city of London. They hadn't won the business yet, they simply were after getting an invite to tender and help them solve the problem, after spending sixty minutes doing a meet an greet about the problem with the client.

I love these kind of challenges, because they require one to demonstrate really good thinking skills and bridge any doubt and trust question that a new client who has never before worked with you, naturally has.

Getting To The Real Frame Of Reference

So I spent ten minutes on the phone talking with the founding consultant of the firm to get his frame of reference on the problem. And at first I wasn't interested in the sensory details of the problem like most of us have been taught the Meta Model … to drill down so if a person says "My girlfriend is angry at me", you say "angry how specifically?" or "angry compared to what?", "who says she is angry?" etc etc. This is what I call "getting a person to describe the water, when they are, more often than not, already drowning!" .. No first I needed to get clear on whether the issue in focus was …

- The right issue
- A solvable one
- Would meet the clients requirements

Getting to grips with the stated and real frame of reference is key to doing effective change, influence, thinking work.

The frame of reference guides and directs a person thinking about a given topic and is the end result, the conclusion, that they will have made (typically  unconsciously) after completing a series of thinking processes.

You see when any of us make a statement or utterance is it the output of a long line of internal processes, the communicator will have had to leave out a vast array of information about the event/experience/topic under discussion.

As any given event occurs, our brains  will  be  going  through  a  series  of  unconscious  processes.  These  include identifying,  labeling,  categorizing,  and  establishing  new  cause  and  effect  relationships  and  meanings,  as  events  occur,  based  on  previous  references  and  conclusions already established. The end result is what we call the surface structure statement. This  statement is a conclusion that the client has reached, as a result of a complex  neurological process.

So the first thing I asked inside my head is "What must be true in order for the lead consultants statement to be the right thing to say?."

This question is at the core of correctly identifying the frame of reference that a client has. Asking this question along with using the Meta Model challenges of presuppositions, mind-reading and cause-effect with the lead consultant on his own thinking, quickly flushed out that he wasn't sure if indeed he had correctly identified the true scope and nature of the clients problem.

But now we had an issue .. the follow up meeting was fast approaching AND he couldn't go back to the client and qualify if indeed they had really identified the clients real problem.

And this is where the framing tool came in so handy ….

In fact all of the steps outlined above were based on using the framing tool. There is a whole series of questions and understandings that the framework has about how thinking works that makes it so powerful.

But before I digress, let's return to the "problem"..

Calculating The Clients Reality

What were we to do … we knew after spending ten minutes or so talking that in fact we only had probably about 25 to 35% of the end clients actual problem but we couldn't go back and get more. So I meet up with the consultancy bid team and lead them through a process of calculating the missing pieces …

Side Comment:

You may not know this but the famous NLP Volume 1 book was actually called "NLP Volume 1, the study of the structure of subjective experience AND what can be calculated from it" … this last bit is missed off the officially released title but it a key area of NLP .. being able to calculate certain things from only a limited set of inputs … and this is what the Framing tool can help you do.

You see Michael's Framing tool focuses on two key aspects of human thinking .. causal modeling … and the process of abstraction and instantiation.

Casual Modeling refers to the process of how we establish a link between one or  more  events,  objects  or  circumstances,  which  suggests  that  one  of  the  events,  objects  or  circumstances  is  produced,  generated  or  created  by  another  of  the  event(s).  In  essence  causal  modeling  describes  how  cause  and  effect  reasoning  underpins our experience of reality. Causal modeling teaches us how we bind our  experiences together.

By working through what has to be there, what could be there, what consequences and benefits etc must exist etc as a result of the causes we were able to quickly identify not just what the immediate "scenario" for the client was today but what the causal chain of consequences would look like if left unchecked and the significant benefits that they would enjoy by making certain adjustments.

In fact, by going through this simple but powerful process, I was able to help the bid team identify several hundred thousand pounds of "invisible" but real costs and negative consequences that allowed them to build a powerful business case for implementing a solution we proposed to the client.

We used the same powerful combination of the Framing Tool and Meta Model to create the slide deck, pitch at the presentation which lead the client to say take on board enthusiastically our definition of the real problem and solution to resolve it. Any anyone skilled with these two models can do the same thing in whatever context they want.

The Value Of The Framing Tool:

The Framing Tool, combined with the Meta Model allows you to rapidly get inside your clients model of the world and gives you the keys to being able to create transformative experiences for yourself and others.

You don't have to figure out "which technique" you need to work or try a million different questions to get to result. In fact using these two models for problem solving is just one application. It is just as versatile in any endeavor from persuading your boss for a rise to creating change.

If you are interested in learning more, Michael and I cover this and the many related deep, real world, NLP skills and topics in a lot more detail inside the Platinum Audio News Club. You can sign up for a complete risk free, free trial here today and enjoy $200 of exclusive NLP Times products on us, in the member's area.

Simply click here to find out more.

Making It Practical:

Getting highly skilled with the Meta Model and Framing Tool is covered in depth in the Platinum Audio News Club but if you want to put what you learned here into action right now then start by listening to your friends family and clients and asking yourself these two simple but very powerful questions:

1. What must be so in order for "X thing" to be the RIGHT and only thing to say?
2. What will be/could be consequences or benefits of this statement be?

X thing = the central issue or statement under focus

Keep doing this over and over .. and quickly you will be able to predict things about them and the way their are holding their problem that seem "magical" and then able to use whatever Meta Model challenge that will have the largest impact on the presenting issue.

For those who are more advanced, use the above two questions and loop iteratively forward and backwards .. meaning if the person says "I hate men/women!" you will anticipate the precedents and influences several steps in to the past and the consequences/benefits of such a statement several steps into the future.

A quick quiz for you ..

How many of the ten statements below are true?

The unconscious mind is real

The purpose of the Meta Model is to elicit deep structure and drill down to get to answers

*    The unconscious mind is real
*    The purpose of the Meta Model is to elicit deep structure and drill down to get to answers
*    Anchoring is really just stimulus response conditioning
*    Strategies are real and are how people process experiences and act in the world
*    Meta States are real
*    Modelling is all about replicating human behaviour
*    With NLP, you can fix anyone once you know the right technique to use
*    Human beings have many parts to them .. that is why they have conflicts
*    The field of NLP hasn't changed much in the past 30 years
*    NLP is a science

Ten, nine, seven? What did you guess?

Actually the answer is 0.

That's right zero.

You see all of the above are long standing myths or errors in their presentation but that sound real. In fact most people still teach them as real.

These and many others, are the kind of myths that cause no end of confusion around getting really good with NLP. They did for me. In fact, possibly like you, I've consumed tens of thousands of pages from many NLP authors that said as such.

And what do you think happens when you treat something as REAL?

Well for most of us … it usually means we CAN'T see it another way. Our mental filters become fixed, stuck and unless something comes along and jars it you are not likely to ever notice it as any different. And something worse happens .. you also adopt the limitations of that worldview. And you also, as so many others have done, install in others the same limitation!

So for example by thinking that you only use the Meta Model to drill down to get more sensory specific answers you don't realise that you can use it as an elegant tool for persuasion and installation…

When you adopt the worldview, you take both sides of it .. the limitations and the benefits. And sometimes the limitations can keep you stuck or be less effective with it than you might otherwise be.

I know that some members reading this might think that this is heresy.

But before anyone starts flaming, stop and think about what Richard Bandler once shared with me…

He said:

"Be distrustful of feeling right if you can’t alter something quickly and easily … [The most important distinction for NLPers to get about NLP] is to shut up the f*** up inside their head.  That thinking about skills that you’re supposed to perceive is a BIG mistake."

Clearing Up Any Confusion:

Now so we are clear, let me review some of the statements I made earlier so you get where I am coming from…

If the unconscious is "real" then where is it? No one has ever empirically proved there is anything called an unconscious. Yet we accept is as "real". The terms conscious, unconscious and sub-conscious are mental constructs we use to talk about processes that we believe are occurring. And they can be handy metaphors but aren't literally true, to the best of any persons knowledge.

Anchoring is not stimulus response conditioning because it doesn't take into account one time learning experiences, of which a functional anchor is an example.

Strategies are a model, a description we (NLPers) use to describe processes that we note to be occurring in others. It doesn't reflect everything that is going on inside of someone when they are .. making a decision, buying, feeling attracted etc .. but it is a very powerful tool we have for doing all kinds of effective work.Yet if you think that "strategies" are inside of people you can quickly start over-focusing on eliciting the strategy and not seeing the human being in front of you!

Meta States - this will be a hot potato I suspect, but these aren't real either. Why? Well think about it, a meta state is a linguistic description about a neurological process. The term itself is a consequence of trying to language a neurological process. The body is a whole and integrated system. If I am sad, and you ask me, "how do you feel about being sad?" .. there are lots of things involved .. it presupposes that I have a feeling about my first feeling "sad" and so sends my attention inwards to do a TDS and to now label a new feeling to my first experience. Bingo, if I follow along I now have a new linguistic description to describe my experience. I might say, "well I feel annoyed about being sad" and a 'meta state' has been formed .. or has it?

One can repeat this process several times and come up with a chain of meta questions "how do you feel about being X, about feeling Y, about feeling Z?" and very quickly you have created a whole linguistic world … and specific feelings that come with that line of meta-thinking, but ultimately in the body it is experienced as ONE state.

Personally for me I don't mind what "new inventions" or ideas anyone comes up with but it is important that we keep a perspective, and that our meanings about 'what is what' and 'what is stuff we make up' remain clear so we don't trip ourselves into distorted worldviews that have little to do with what is going on 'out there'. If we don't regularly test our thinking  (and the Meta Model is a great tool for that), we risk getting caught inside our own or someone else's mentally invented worldviews … and suffer the consequences .. and rewards (assumedly the new models were found by some to be better that what they had before).

Change Your Thinking & Be A Practitioner Of The Changes

The field of NLP is constantly changing and updating but only inside the minds and community of those who are constantly challenging their thinking about it and testing the results they can get. There is A LOT more to the elegant use of the Meta Model for example, that masters of the field can do today, than what Richard and John wrote in the Structure of Magic. From what I can see, neither of the founders have stopped developing and refining what they are doing with their own take on the technology.

However, after spending years reading, learning, and practicing NLP, I've realised that in the majority we seem to be suffering over-theorisation about NLP and that is why I co-founded the Platinum Audio News Club. To try and approach learning and getting really good with the technology of NLP with minimum theory and have Master Trainer Michael Breen lead the program as someone who has been on the inside track of NLP, part of a small group of "old school" NLPers who are constantly challenging and updating their thinking about the technology for circa twenty five years.

And learning to challenge and update our skills and thinking is something we can all do more of. So I'll leave you with a quote, from Dr. Bandler that inspires me to constantly evaluate and improve my own thinking and skills:

"I’ve learned so much so quickly because I never assume that I understand.  So I always go and ask and then make sure that what they’re telling me actually

works.  And that I have enough of the process that I can do it.

…. It’s like you keep finding out until you can do something.  How do you know when you have enough?  When you actually can do it.  And then you’re sure you
have enough when you can teach somebody else to do it.  And once you understand a limitation you begin to discover that it’s always a double edged
sword.  It does good things but it also does bad things.  So you have to separate them out."

If you'd like to buy the full interview I did with Doctor Bandler, including the full transcript you can get it here.

For people interested in expanding their thinking and skills with NLP, feel free to check out the Platinum Audio News Club here.

Got a question or a comment, feel free to leave your thoughts below.

For everyone who has been emailing asking "when will the Platinum Audio News Club" be open … it now is.

Master Trainer Michael Breen and I have been working hard the past few months adding lots of new modules focusing on advanced language skills, strategy work, how to do unconscious installations and much more.

We've gone far out to bring you the key distinctions, skills and knowledge that can can dramatically improve your skill levels, regardless if you are an NLP novice or trainer  or Coach.

For full details about this unique monthly NLP membership program, and to get lots of cool bonuses and first month FREE, check it out here.

Over the last six posts on making 2010 a great year, I've outlined the core principles that if you put into effect you will see yourself producing alot more of what you want in 2010.

Briefly they are:

1. Know what you really want
2. Be clear about when you are getting it
3. Understand the law of cause and effect
4. Carry out your Pre-flight check list (i.e. a strong intention and compelling vision for what you want)
5. Use a thinking strategy for effective strategy, answering the three core questions over and over again
6. Understand and ensure you have the motivation to get going AND to continue

the last step is

7. Change Your Approach (when it's needed)

Really this last step highlights a rule of planning and that is "no plan survives contact with reality" .. in fact most plans for any kind of complicated goal ever work anywhere near perfectly. Which means you need to constantly be going back to step two, be clear about when you are getting. If you realise you are not getting the results you want for (and you've taken the lag between cause and effect into account) then change your approach and do something else instead based on the feedback you have or your best guess. Continue this cycle, UNTIL you have achieved what you want.

Of course if there are resources in your immediate or extended network of friends, family or colleagues that you can tap into to help guide you along, then their experiences or input can save you VAST amounts of time, energy and money, depending on what you are trying to do. As with any practice in NLP, you are always looking to make best use of the resources you have available to you.

The above seven steps are common sense when you think about them, but unfortunately for most they are not common practice. And that seems to be the case whether we are talking about large Fortune 100 companies or individuals. Yes, it can take time to get these habits wired into muscle, but the effort is worth the return many, many fold.

Wishing you a awesome 2010.

When do fitness clubs makes their easiest money?

January through March … when they have lots of us sign up for those "awesome 2 months for 1" deals, but in reality on a minor percentage of new gym members ever go to the gym more than once a week, if that.

Why?

There are lots of reasons but one reason is the absence of motivation. But motivation is a psudo-noun, a normalization. When we strip it bare we find motive … or as the dictionary defines it "excitement to action".

Regardless of what ever you call it if you are going to have an amazing 2010, in terms of manifesting more of the things and experiences that lead to you calling the year amazing, then you need two types of processes in action  to get this metaphorical plane off the ground …

1. A strong motive to get yourself going

Anthony Robbin's is famous for saying "reasons come first, answers comes second" .. if you want to lock in power and certainty that you will achieve your goals this year then do, a brain juice check as John LaValle would call it and make sure you have a strong feeling that compels you to action. If you don't either do something to get "that engine running" (some ideas here) or remove that goal from your list.

A strong burning desire will call into being the will and motive in you to bring your goal to reality. You won't need to pump yourself up with positive self talk .. because every part of you will demand this result for you.

As a side note, if you want to get it really locked in get yourself 'absolutely certain' that the said outcome will happen, that there can be no other way, and the chances of the desired outcome of happening go through the roof. A forthcoming post will walk you through a process of how to do this.

2. A process to keep yourself going

Getting started is only part of the equation of getting to results. Unless you have a burning desire (intensity scale of at least 8 out of 10), then you will need to have a process that reinforces and rewards you along the way.

Many people start on a goal but stop early on or half way through because the energy  or emotion that was there in the beginning that got them going is no longer there any more and so they don't "feel" any compulsion to continue to act.

Setting up weekly or fortnightly reviews on your major goals where you reinforce your wins and progress towards your outcomes is a great way to "stay focused and motivated to get to results". Of course even better is every time you part-take in the said activity you reward yourself and end on a 'win' and remember to feel good when you have made ANY progress towards you said outcome. This will help train your neurology to "do more of this" and naturally lend itself to wiring you up for ongoing and continual success.

Making It Practical:

Take your number 1 goal or desired outcome for 2010 and ask yourself:

How motivated are you to achieve this goal?

If already 18 days into 2010 you find your "motivation" is waning then take ten minutes to really ASSOCIATE into many cool and wonderful things that you will enjoy either directly or indirectly from pursuing and completing this course of action.

Have you got some process setup to keep yourself going toward your goal?

This can be anything from:

- a supportive buddy or external coach who encourages you on and whom you know you will have to report your updates to

- to a strong internal reasons you immediately think/hear/feel when you think about the said goal

- to a journal where you write down your wins and words of motivation and encouragement

- to scheduled checks and "milestone" rewards for yourself where you treat yourself to something fun and fulfilling for reaching your outcome ..

There are many ways of doing this .. the most important thing right now is to ensure you have the motivation to get you started AND the motivation to keep you going.

A strong motive force is like jet fuel .. with it you can get to almost anywhere …. without it you won't even pull out of your yard …

On January 5th I included a poem called "Who Am I?" (see that post below) which was all about the awesome power of Habit to influence and "drive the bus" each of our lives. Your habits will heavily influence what you do and what you won't do.

One habit that will KILL your progress in its tracks is procrastination. The dictionary defines this as "putting something off" … but really procrastination is all about "doing something else instead" … and there in lies a problem. If you have a well worn in habit of "doing something else instead" when you should be working on a goal etc you are going to find 2010 will be a year of 'threading water', making little progress, rather than reaching the end of the pool.

If we were more conscious of our habits or in NLP we could call them strategies we would be able to consider changing them, but because, for the most part we don't see the effect of them, in the now, we let them continue and so the obvious consequences usually result.

So what's the antidote for getting blindsided to "doing something else"? Simple, when you set and en-act your goals for 2010 ask yourself these three questions:

What is really essential here?

Most of the time you don't need to do everything in order to get to your outcome, you can take shortcuts or reduce steps. Just like when you use the Meta Model well, go for the largest chunks first meaning the ones that will have the most affect on your outcome. Sanity check yourself to identify have you got the minimum number of necessary conditions to get to your goal.  Basically challenge yourself constantly to see if you are putting unnecessary steps in your way and if you are remove them.

What is the impact of this next action?

Keep in mind the rule of Cause-Effect, if you do this action now, what will happen and what won't happen as a result. We all only have a finite amount of time so learning to use it on your highest leverage activities will fast track your goal achievement.

What is the next physical action required to move this forward and when I am going to do this?

Always have a next physical action clear in your mind, regarding every major goal. This will ensure you are clear about your outputs and what you need to do next.

Making it Practical:

Keep these three questions on 3×4 cards next to where you work or somewhere where you can see them often and stop occasionally, pick them up and check your current action against them .. and soon your brain will have "wired up" this effective way of thinking and you'll start seeing awesome results in your life.