NLP Training 7 - Questions and Strategy

[michaelbeale@ppimk.com]

[michaelbeale@ppimk.com]

Transcript - Draft

Liam : So Michael, what is a strategy in NLP?

Michael : Strategy in NLP is being able to describe and articulate the structure of steps that you go through in doing something, and normally this would include your experience, whether you're looking at something, whether you've got some internal pictures or whether you're listening to something - It's a very detailed list of the steps that you go through in order to do something.

Liam : What is important when eliciting a strategy from somebody?

Michael : I think again it's a matter of keeping my map out of the way. I think, to me it's a very analytical process. I want to find out what you do, I don't want to interpret what you do.

So it's asking questions in a respectful way - because in some cases people won't actually know what it is that they consciously do. So you have to ask them some questions in a different number of ways in all sorts of angles to gently pester them to raise it into consciousness.

Liam : Could you elicit one of my strategies?

Michael : Yes, certainly. Let's take you as a martial artist - just before you do a martial arts move, what's the thing that happens before you do the move? What would be your start, or just before you start?

Liam : Well I tend to have this dream the night before that I am able to do this move, so I have a muscle-memory in my system - I know how to do it.

Michael : OK, and how do you know that you have a dream? What actually happens?

Liam : Well, I visualize myself doing the move, and I can actually feel it in my body as if I'm doing it.

Michael : OK. So you're aware that you've had the dream. What come next?

Liam : Well I step back and try to recreate the feeling of the dream. So I recreate the image of me doing it and the feeling throughout my body of doing it successfully, over and over again.

Michael : OK, so you go back and feel how it felt. Is there anything else that you're aware of that happens?

Liam : Well just before I do the move I have to completely clear my head of anxieties, of fears, of these little voices that say "Don't do this, this is a bad idea."

Michael : Tell me about the fear. If I was do learn what you did, how would I feel the fear?

Liam : Well you'd have your heartbeat, which will start going crazy because you're about to do something which you're not entirely comfortable with, and it's a very natural and physical fear. But fear and excitement are the same things, so if you put a positive spin on the fear, turn it into excitement, and just go through the motions and actually enjoy it - then you're far more likely to actually get through it.

Michael : So what I do is that when I feel my heart beating, I actually use that as an incentive to do your thing. And from that state until the end of the movement, what happens?

Liam : Your mind has to be completely blank. So you'd set off and go with the move, completely action-minded, no other thoughts, no other nagging anxieties, and just - give yourself up to the action, I suppose.

Michael : OK, excellent. And how do you know when the move is finished?

Liam : Well you know that you've done it successfully because you've landed on your feet, and you're not hurt - and sometime you have people clapping or sometimes you have people gasping or recovering from gasping, because they think you've just done something stupid.

Michael : That gives us a very brief outline of your strategy.

Liam : Is there anything about NLP and strategy that you feel is particularly important and that perhaps you'd like to emphasize?

Michael : I think that strategies are tremendously important. When I first did NLP I tended to leave them out, but I think that they're the most valuable thing that you can do, because if you can understand in detail what you're doing now, it becomes obvious how to improve.

So I would emphasize the power of asking simple questions and letting the person respond, without interpreting or interfering with their response - Because the other thing that I've found is that if you can come up with a solution that is very close to what people are doing now, they will implement it very very easily.

If I try and super-impose my technique onto somebody else, it may work it may not work. There are many times that it may work, but often it requires much more effort than understanding what they're doing now and getting them to change just a little bit so you're building one what they already do.

Liam : Michael Beale, thank you.

Michael : Thank you.