October 1, 2024
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Modelling is the very foundation of the genius of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).
Imagine someone in your field of interest that performs an ability, behaviour or skill with real excellence, not just good, really exceptional and you learn how to model that ability, behaviour or skill and install it in yourself! How extremely useful would that be? Then picture yourself taking the modelled ability, behaviour or skill and teaching it to other people.
The genius of modelling lies in the fact that by utilising a modelling system, you can learn any given behaviour, ability or skill in less than half the time it took the expert to learn the skill in the first instance. NLP modelling starts from the premise that everyone is equal in their capability, the difference is in the motivation, values, beliefs and attitudes that drive someone who performs with excellence.
All NLP comes from modelling. Nothing in NLP comes from NLP, it comes from somewhere else. By modelling experts and instances of real excellence, Richard Bandler and John Grinder, the creators of NLP, have generated a powerful approach to the understanding of language and of human behaviour, to help us to think more purposefully.
The undeniable genius of NLP is de-nominalisation. NLP takes ‘things’ which are often referred to as nouns and turns them back into step by step processes so that they can be learned and used time and time again, by anyone. De-nominalisation is the difference between having and doing. For example, “I have depression” treating depression as a noun, is very different from “I am depressed”, bringing depression back to something that is being done. The thinking that would sit behind each of these phrases is very different.
The first thing to bring into sharp focus when modelling an expert, is that modelling mediocrity will give you an excellent model of mediocrity. Successful modelling only happens when you model excellence. For example, let’s say you have a really excellent sales person in your business. They are smashing their targets week on week and getting lots of repeat custom. Wouldn’t it be essential to your bottom line if all your sales people had the same sales skills and generated the same success? Modelling the excellent sales person in the cognitive manner and then installing the modelled thinking in the wider team would accomplish just that.
So how can you begin to model? We begin with putting the ability, skill or behaviour under the microscope through elicitation. Firstly we elicit the beliefs and values of the expert in the context of the target ability, behaviour or skill. This allows us to recognise what is important to them. The contextual values provide the emotional energy and give us the answer to the question ‘why?’ We also elicit the expert’s strategies, the important submodalities (how they encode and give meaning to the activity internally) and filter patterns, their physiology, their mental syntax and possibly their Meta Programmes (Internal preferences) too.
Key to successful modelling is separating the essential from the idiosyncratic. By doing this we can reduce the modelled behaviour, ability or skill down into the elements which need to be there and remove those things which are completely unimportant and have no direct bearing on the results. For example, when you watch tennis players get ready to send or receive a ball, it is necessary to their skill to ceremoniously wipe their brow, ruffle their shirt and make their shorts comfortable before making or receiving a serve, or is that simply habit and completely idiosyncratic in nature? (Watch Rafael Nadal!)
A large behaviour should be chunked down into individual functions to avoid the model becoming unwieldy and impossible to utilise. We also need to know how the expert provides themselves with feedback. How do they know when they are performing correctly and how do they know that adjustments are needed?
This is a cognitive, chunked down, conscious approach to modelling and once all the details are elicited, then we can go ahead and install them in ourselves. From there, we can design a training to teach the ability, behaviour or skill to others, then we can train others, then we can train trainers. The possibilities for your practice are endless, whether you use your NLP in business, sports, coaching, personal development or education.
In summary, the Cognitive Approach to Modelling:
1. Break down the ability, skill or behaviour into components.
2. Elicit the Physiology, strategies, values and beliefs involved.
3. Carry out a contrastive analysis to discover what’s needed and what isn’t.
4. Do a sensitivity analysis to enable you to remove the idiosyncrasies.
5. Install the ability, skill or behaviour in yourself.
6. Get the same results as the experts!
Modelling techniques begin at our Enhanced NLP Coach Practitioner Certification Training and are put into practice during our Enhanced NLP Master Coach Practitioner Certification Programme. You will not only learn how to model successfully, you will actively model our world famous board break with a one inch punch and complete your own modelling project, so you will know that you are an excellent modeller of excellence.
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