Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is being applied to a wide range of fields such as business management, sales, communication, education, coaching, sports, interpersonal relationships, psychotherapy, and even spirituality.

NLP has been defined as "both an art and science of personal excellence". It has also been described as a set of techniques and beliefs that adherents use primarily as an approach to healing and personal development. It was described by its original creators as "therapeutic magic" and "the study of the structure of subjective experience."


The science and technology

NLP methods include the use of visualization, affirmations, guided fantasy, ritual, trance states, hypnosis, and specific body language such as posture and eye movements.

Although NLP developer Robert Dilts says that “NLP is theoretically rooted in neurology, psychophysiology, linguistics, cybernetics and communication theory” [Roots of NLP (1983) p.3], other NLP proponents say it is based more on modelling and is sometimes described as closer to a technology than a science, similar to engineering, in the sense that its question is “what works” rather than “what is true”.

Richard Bandler and John Grinder created NLP in 1973, as a set of models and principles to describe the relationship between mind (neuro) and language (linguistic), and determine how their interaction might be organized (programming) to affect an individual's mind, body and behavior.

Individuals in fact do not have access to absolute knowledge of reality (even if such could exist), but only access to a set of beliefs about reality, which they have built up over time.

This idea has been described in the phrase “the map is not the territory.” It is considered crucially important in NLP when working with people to understand that their beliefs about reality and their awareness of things (the map) are not reality itself or everything they could be aware of (the territory).


Behind every behavior is a positive intention

In a similar vein, psychiatrist R. D. Laing has argued that the symptoms of what is normally called mental illness are just comprehensible reactions to impossible demands that society, and particularly family life, places on some sensitive individuals.

Taken from Virginia Satir’s work, the statement ‘Behind every behavior is a positive intention’ means that whatever a person does, he or she is in fact attempting to fulfill some positive intention (of which they may not be aware). It assumes that the current behavior exhibited by someone represents the best choice available to him or her at the time. Generating alternative
choices is a useful way of helping people to change behavior.


Conversions into active forms

These techniques include the conversion of verbs into active forms, sentence completeness, the conversion of some nouns (nominalizations) into verbs and specification of presuppositions, among others.

The linguistic metamodel can be used in business, for example, during the requirements specifications of any engineering project or business plan. The techniques used by a project leader during his conversations and writings brings support to the team to achieve a better understanding of the problem, helping them to specify suitable requirements according to the real needs of the company.

For instance, the group may be told:

The exact number of products we will produce during the first month will be defined in the coordination meeting.

According to the technique, it would be wise to clarify in the most precise manner what is the ‘coordination meeting’, who is going to assist, when it will be, and so on rather than counting on proceeding on assumptions.


Language to model reality - linguistic metamodel

The first development in NLP was the linguistic metamodel, a set of techniques used to trigger psychological changes using speech and dialogue. In systems theory, the part of the system that can adapt best, be most influential, and have best chance of achieving its goals, is often not the most forceful part, but the part that has most flexibility and least rigidity in its responses.

The name comes from the acknowledgment that persons use language to model reality. This is particularly evident in Noam Chomsky’s theories of transformational grammar, the theory that Grinder used as a theoretical framework at this point. The theory establishes language as having two-layered grammar - the deeper grammar being something that Grinder identified with a model of reality. The superficial grammar, on the other hand, is the one we use in speech, for instance English grammar.

The name ‘transformational grammar’ is associated with a set of functions that link the deep and superficial grammar and is an explanation of how we speak. NLP techniques are devised to “fix” specific faults in the deep grammar (model of reality) and/or in the transformations used inadvertently by speakers to produce speech starting from that deep layer.


The way mental processing takes place

The effectiveness of the mental strategy employed plays a critical part in the way mental processing takes place. This observation led to the concept of a “preferred representational system”, and the classification of people into fixed stereotypes:

· The visual sense – sight, mental imagery, spatial awareness
· The auditory sense – sound, speech, dialog, “white noise”
· The kinesthetic (or proprioceptive) sense – somatic feelings in the body, temperature, pressure, and also emotion

The other two senses, gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell), which are closely associated, often seem to be less significant in humans. For this reason, one often sees the term VAK in NLP reference texts, to signify the three primary representational systems, as well as the term 5-tuple (or VAKOG) if the author wishes to include all five senses.


Using the senses to process and interpret

Some exercises involve learning how to observe and respond to the various cues in real time. NLP’s interest in the senses is not so much in their role as bridges to the outside world, as in their role as internal channels for cognitive processing and interpretation. In this perspective, it is not very important per se whether a person “sees” or “hears” some memory.

It potentially is of greater importance for the same person, to discover that some auditory sounds - presented almost out of consciousness along with the memory - may be how the brain presents to consciousness, and how consciousness ‘knows’, whether this is a heart-warming pleasant memory, or a fearsome phobic one.

Representational systems are also relevant since some tasks are more optimally performed within one representational system than by another. For example, in education, spelling is better learned by children who have unconsciously used a strategy of visualization, than by those using a conscious strategy of sounding phonetics aloud. When taught to visualize, previously poor spellers can indeed learn to improve.

It’s also noteworthy that a dysfunction such as schizophrenia is in principle just as ‘structured’ and as capable of ‘modelling’ as any positive skill, and much valuable information can be learned about how certain patients ‘do’ key processes in their illnesses by exploring how they use their senses and the strategies employed.


The value of NLP in project management

Although originally NLP was used in the field of psychotheraphy, at least since 1996 it has been applied in business. At Ambrosoli (one of the most important candy factories in South America, at that time), while defining the characteristics and the scope of a project called "Activities Schedule" I held several meetings with the company's managers to define the scope and characteristics of the project, to 'grasp' it, if you will.

During the meetings and interviews I was able to detect certain superficial structures of speech that allowed me to ask specific questions. For instance, there were 'nominalizations' (actions that are expressed using nouns rather than verbs, for instance: 'meeting'). The questions are formulated transforming the noun into a verb (for instance: meeting into meet). They produce a change in the deep grammar or even in the set of transformations (that transform deep structures into superficial ones), triggering a change also in the superficial level. When this happens, the communication is enriched and the description of the system (the project, in this case) is specified with more clarity.

The linguistic metamodel thus helps to better specify the scope and objectives of the projects, to figure out certain features and to clarify many others. The techniques are able to trigger discussions and conversations that are useful finally to avoid possible mistakes in communications during the projects.

Copyright © 2007 by Luis E. Bastias.
Copyright © 2007 by The Working Manager, Ltd.
All Rights Reserved.