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THE TOTE MODEL
The Model That NLP Masters Reach For First.
Tom O'Connor
Dear Visitor,
In my previous post I mentioned how researcher Anders Ericsson made a career studying elite performers. Chess Grandmasters, elite athletes, musicians and memory prodigies. People who have remarkable skills and accomplishments.
And one of the things he noted was if there is an ability that you lack, it’s not because you don’t have the capacity to acquire it. In most cases, it’s just you haven’t had been exposed to the experiences, patterns and strategies that could have taught you how to acquire that ability.
The raises and obvious question - HOW? How does one acquire an expert's capabilities and not need to put in 10,000 hours to accomplish a high level result? Whose got 10,000 hours to spare? That's where NLP comes in.
And as I indicated previously, one of the things that sets experts apart from everyone else is there very refined capacity to make better, richer and more relevant mental representations. Experts are able to look at the same information we can all see but have many more refined and nuanced ways of chunking, making sense of and calculating possibilities that ordinary people simply don’t have and don't even know exist!
In other words, they have better mental models and richer representations that people who don't possess that skill.
The exact same is true for people who are masters at NLP.
Richard Bandler made reference to this 15 years ago when I interviewed him. Towards the end of the interview he made a closing comment that is really important for anyone who wants to really excel with NLP and not just "talk" about NLP but be able to use it. Here's what he said:
“The people that have apprenticed with me for long periods of time end up being able to do a lot more. Not because they were exposed to a different class but because the level of perceptions by which they looked at the same thing changed.”
When I first heard this it flew right past me, but years later I realised there was something very special going on in that off-the-cuff statement.
I got curious and a little voice inside my head said:
“Ohh, now that’s cool. I wonder... what was the process that enabled them to acquire superior perception?”
This lead to many conversations with early NLP masters and apprectices where I discovered one of the patterns apprentices are drilled in, which changes their perceptions (and yours too when you use it) is...
They were all taught to internalise the NLP TOTE model.
There's a really, really good reason why...
Yet to my amazement, many NLPers were never taught the TOTE model on their practitioner and master practitioner courses and even those that were are, are frequently confused about it, how it works and why it's so darn important if you want to be able to do a LOT more with the toolkit than regular NLPers.
So here’s a quick overview from Master Trainer Michael Breen to help get you started.
Note: Michael makes reference to “Vic” in this video. Vic was a world champion martial artist Michael worked with and he had many truly outstanding strategies. You’ll get to learn about one of them in this video.
Enjoy.
There is a hierarchy to how you use the tools in NLP and the TOTE Model is the tool NLP masters reach for first for helping them get absolutely clear on what they are doing when working with others. Use it regularly and you'll begin to TRAIN your attention to percieve better. To make better and more helpful distinctions.
Learning to internalise the TOTE and use it in your everyday life is one of the best investments you can make if you want to accomplish so much more from all the activity that you do.
It also one of the key tools super learners and behavioural modelers use when eliciting strategies from elite performers.
Here's a helpful exercise to get you build the muscle of using the TOTE.
Exercise: Operationalise The TOTE in Yourself.
Start using the TOTE to describe and guide your own behaviours to successful completion.
This can be as simple as writing an email, what you prioritise for your week/end, how you plan a day, how you cook your favourite meal etc.
With 24 hours in a day; you are spoiled for choice on what you could use the TOTE on. Take a few minutes to describe and capture your own behaviours. The more you train yourself to work to a TOTE and not a TOTOTOTO... the more effective and productive you'll be at everything you do.
If you've already got some experience with the TOTE, start to track which areas of the TOTE do you do consistently and which areas do you overlook, or have not practiced to the point it is a well-formed habit?
Use this to modify your own behaviour.
To your success,
Tom
P.S. I'd love to know when it comes to learning or using NLP strategies, what's your single biggest problem, challenge, or frustration? Let me know here.
I’ve got a great video talking about the importance of ‘Mental Representations’ waiting for you on the other side of this short questionnaire.