Improve Results with NLP
Brian Moore explores how you can choose to develop your flexibility as a communicator, using the often misunderstood techniques of Neuro-Linguistic-Programming [NLP].
Have you ever wondered why it is that you get on with some people very easily and with others it seems to be a bit of a stretch? How useful would it be for you to know that you can get on with those who appear to be different from yourself and more easily achieve your communication and training objectives with them?
In this article you will start to become aware of how, it is that you filter information (and your experience of the world), how other people may be filtering differently from you, and how you can present information to others in such a way as to influence them and achieve your objectives. Would this be useful? The good news is, identifying the way someone filters information can be elicited quite simply through listening to them during a conversation or as they make contributions during your training session.
Filters - What Are They?
As you read this article, there are approximately 2 million bits of data per second coming at you in the form of pictures, sounds and feelings. The brain is not able to take in all this information at once. It therefore deletes, distorts and generalises information and takes in 7-9 chunks of information per second.
Each of us takes in different chunks of information about the same event or exchange. Our perception of the world then is individual to each of us.
Personality Filters are like pairs of spectacles people habitually wear which let in only a certain amount or type of information. These Personality Filters are just one of the mechanisms through which people delete, distort and generalise incoming information. They determine what we pay attention to and also determine our response and behaviour to others. For example, if I said to you: “I really should speak to Brian about this issue, and then I need to give him some more specific objectives to work on”, you can clearly hear from my language that my reason for speaking to Brian is based on Necessity. I am therefore filtering for ‘necessity’. If you wished to ‘be in rapport’ with me, motivate me, influence me, or persuade me, it would be a good idea to use the same language as I use myself, that is, the language of ‘Necessity’. (Further information on the specific language to use is featured later in this article).
In this article, we shall concentrate on the Complex Personality Filters which can be identified simply during conversations. These filters are particularly useful in your training sessions, as well as in the contexts of interviewing, team building and motivating staff.
It is important to understand that people are not always positioned at either end of he continuum above. They may indeed demonstrate both filters. For example Introducing this programme across all levels of Management will give us the maximum impact to our bottom line, however it is vital that we gain the buy in of the top team first’ - Possibility with some necessity.
Furthermore, the way one filters can also be context dependent. For example, I might filter for ‘necessity’ at work, but for ‘possibility’ in my personal life.
It is important to understand that we need to calibrate someone’s filter for the particular context in which we are communicating with them.
There are up to 22 sets of Personality Filters. In this brief article we will focus on the following four:
• Necessity - Possibility (The Reason ‘for
doing things’ Filter)
• Towards - Away From (The Direction
Filter)
• Similarity - Difference (The Relationship
Filter)
• Global - Specific (The Chunk Size Filter)
All these filters are particularly important in the contexts of training, motivating and generally building rapport with people.
When Can I Use This Information?
To increase your success rate with communicating with people and to enhance your ability to really communicate with those you are communicating with, and to enhance your ability to really understand
how other people view the world and how they ‘tick’, paying attention to how people filter information.
So when specifically would you choose to use this information?
• When you have a specific objective or goal to achieve
• When you are ‘out of rapport’ with someone and wish to gain rapport
• When you are giving a training session or making a presentation
• When you wish to find the ideal candidate for a job
• When you are assessing the cultural fit of another organisation
• When you wish to motivate and influence your staff and colleagues
• When you wish to give constructive feedback
• When you wish to influence your boss
... and so on
In fact, every time you have an objective to achieve which involves communicating with another person.
How Can I Use This Information?
First of all it is essential to notice how it is that YOU filter information. You can do this by asking yourself the following questions and noting down the language you use to answer them. What does your language tell you about the way you filter?
1. The Reason filter: Necessity–Possibility
(a) Why do I choose to do my present job?
(b) Why are you choosing to do what you’re doing now?
2. The Direction filter: Towards–Away From
(a) What do you want in a job/relationship/car/holiday?
(b) What do you want in your life?
(c) What’s important about what you do?
3. The Relationship Filter: Similarity – Difference
(a) What is the relationship between what you’re doing this year (month)on the job and what you did last year (month) on the job?
(b) When you go into a new situation, what do you notice first - the similarities or the differences?
(c) Place 3 coins on the table in front of you. What is the relationship between these three coins.
4. The Chunk size filter: Global–Specific
(a) If you were promoted to the next level within the organisation, what would you pay attention to first?
(b) If we were going to do a project together, would you want to know the big picture first (e.g. how it affects the company, nation etc.) or would you want to get the details of what we’re doing first?
Now you have some idea as to how you filter information. When you communicate with others, practice eliciting this information, concentrating on the structure (away from, towards, necessity, possibility etc.) of their language and the context (home, work, parent, director) they use it in. When you have established what their filters are, use the following few ideas to help you communicate with them more effectively.
Communications: Training, Presentations and Motivating
• Go from a global overview of the topic to more specific detail on the steps along the way, then move back again to the global view (Global-Specific).
• Start by explaining the goals and out comes you are seeking to achieve, move to what it is you wish to avoid (consequences of these), then move back to your outcomes (Towards - Away from).
• Use the language of necessity and move through to the language of probability and then on to possibility again. For example, “We need to do X and then we could do Y which would mean we can then to Z”. (Necessity - Probability - Possibility).
“NLP is how to use the language of the mind to consistently achieve our specific and desired outcomes”
• When initiating or describing new initiatives, point out what will remain the same and the similarities in your new proposal and how it builds on existing practices (for example). Then outline some of the key differences these initiatives will make. (Similarity - Difference).
The ability to identify and utilise this information will give you and your people the ability to communicate with anyone.
Recruitment
• Identify the ideal Personality Filters for a particular position
• Listen out for these filters when you are interviewing candidates
You can ask yourself the following questions:
• Do we want a new MD or Senior Manager who is keenly interested in (and therefore likely to spend most of their time in) the specific detail as opposed to understanding the big picture and willing to delegate to those who prefer detail?
• Do we want a sales person who is driven by necessity and moving away from things, or one who is challenged by the possibilities open to them?
• Do we want a newly qualified accountant who is required to work at a detailed level and be good at analysis and spotting the differences who prefers working at the global level?
• Do we want a customer relations professional who is high on difference?
• Do you want a receptionist/telephonist who is looking for variety in her work in a dynamic and changing working environment?
The answer to any of these questions may be ‘Yes, we do’. Only your organisation will know what characteristics it is seeking from prospective candidates. Understanding what characteristics your organisation needs, and using Personality filters as one part of your recruitment process, you can begin to understand whether the candidate is likely to be a good fit.
NLP a Brief Introduction?
NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming, the brainchild of two Americans, Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the early 70s, began as a model of how we communicate to ourselves and others.
NLP today is referred to as the science of excellence. It studies how people excel in fields such as business, sport, therapy, health and education, & provides us with tools to learn how to match that excellence. NLP has transformed what is possible in the ways in which we can communicate, influence, manage and achieve whatever you really want.
When NLP methods are applied to the workplace, it allows individuals to be more flexible within a constantly changing business environment. Leadership skills are improved through acquiring a deeper understanding of the emotional make-up of the individuals within a team and how they interact.
“The ability to identify and utilise this information will give you and your people the ability to communicate with anyone”
In personal relationships, people can become locked into a cycle of argument and mutual recrimination without realising it. When the emphasis is placed on re-thinking behaviour that has become a habit, real change becomes possible.
In other words, NLP is how to use the language of the mind to consistently achieve our specific and desired outcomes.
Brian Moore of Peak Potential Limited is a Certified Trainer of
Neuro-Linguistic Programming & Hypnotherapy, and a Master
Practitioner in Time Line Therapy. See www.peakpotential.ie
