[Neurons] 2014 "Neurons" Meta Reflections #13

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2014 #13

March 31, 2014

Cleaning up Language Series #2

 

 

CLEANING UP IMPRECISION

 

Living life in language as we do is simultaneously a tremendous benefit and
value and a challenge and a problem.  The central problem that mostly
challenges us is the lack of precision.  And so many aspects of our language
creates and encourages this lack of precision.  Further, the problem is
deeper than just our words.  Not only are our languages not precise, but so
also the way we think and reason-that also is not precise.  Living in vague
and fluffy language, we start to take on those traits in our reasoning and
thinking.  Consequently, the linguistic maps we construct for moving through
life provides us some very poor and inadequate "maps" when navigating the
seas of experience.

 

How then do we clean up our language?  There are two models in NLP that work
wonders for this: The Meta-Model of Language and the Representation Model.
While this is true, there are many, many NLP trainers who don't know this.
That's why many simply do not even teach the Meta-Model.  They don't present
it and they don't use it in their own communications.

 

The Meta-Model.   The genius of NLP's Meta-Model of Language is that it
enables us to question to challenge a person's linguistic structures to get
inside the person's mental model of the world to get more precise
information.  As such it provides a powerful tool for cleaning up our
language.  What was discovered from the extraordinary conversation skills of
Fritz Perls and Virginia Satir in the early days of NLP became the original
eleven distinctions and then in 1997 at Richard Bandler's bidding, I added
more from Korzybski, Ellis, and Erickson.  Today the extended Meta-Model has
22 linguistic distinctions and corresponding questions for creating clarity
and precision.  These are in the book, Communication Magic (2001).

 

Recently a young lady said the following when I asked her about her specific
wealth creation plan.  What is your plan?

            "I just want to be a success in my career and help people,
because contributing in that way really fulfills my purpose."

 

Well, that's imprecise-to say the least!  I commented: "So you want to be
successful in helping people, and can you tell me what you will be doing to
help people that will be a contribution?"

"My contribution will change their lives, that's what I'll be doing."

 

Now I'm guessing that her answered sounded specific to her in her head, but
what was said on the outside was fluffy, vague, and imprecise.  So I tried
again.  "Okay, so changing lives is the contribution that you'll be making.
And what kind of change will you be facilitating- remedial change or
generative?  Will it be change of behavior and performance, of person for
developmental change or will it be transformation change of a new direction
or paradigm?"

"Yes, that's what I want to do and then I'll be successful in my wealth
creation."

 

Obviously I was not getting through.  Using the Meta-Model to diagnose this
conversation, she was using unspecified verbs and nouns and lots of
nominalizations (success, contribution, purpose, change, help).  And
apparently she was not even aware of her over-generalized language.  "What
will be your speciality in working with change, what will your clients
change?  What will they change from?  What will they change to?"

"The changes that they need to make so that they can be more successful,
that's the kind." 

 

Having gotten no where with her, I commended to her.  "In spite of all of
your answers I still do not have a clue as to what you are talking about.
If you want to communicate your thoughts so that I understand you or others
understand you, you will need to change your imprecise language.  You'll
have to make your verbs more specific and detail what your nominalizations
mean.  Right now your language strikes me as so vague, indefinite; it is
sloppy and fluffy."

 

Speaking generally or in a global fashion at best can present the big idea
and create inspiration for it, but because the language is vague, it lacks
precision.  The Meta-Model enables us to clean up our fluffy imprecise
language by directing us to question for specificity: who specifically are
you talking about?  What do you mean specifically by the X?  When did that
happen specifically?  

 

Yes you can drive people crazy with this.  And some people can get really
frustrated because making what they're talking about specific may be a skill
they have not yet learned.  In that case, the "specifically what do you
mean?" can keep underscoring an incompetency and they will say the questions
make them feel dumb!  Of course, they are creating that state to the
stimulus of the questions, yet without the ability to detail things, they
will genuinely not know that.  Be careful.  

 

The Representational Model.  In addition to the Meta-Model of Language, the
Representational Model of specific sights, sounds, sensations, smells, and
tastes also helps with the clarity of specificity.  These sensory
representations give more specificity.  They are often called the VAK which
is shorthand for vision, auditory, and kinesthetic.  The skill of using
these distinctions begins with the ability to representationally track a
person's words to a movie that you play in your mind.  When a word or idea
is presented and I cannot represent it in my mind, that's when to get more
specific information.  Ask for details that will enable you to complete the
mental movie.  Doing this fills in the mental movie much like a screenplay
writer fills in the details of a video-shot so that the producer and
director knows when the set is set up and ready to go.

 

To speak in this way is to speak descriptively rather than evaluatively.
That is the foundation for being a professional communicator.  To not be
able to recognize that distinction or make that distinction is to not be
able to be professional as a communicator, but sloppy speaker.  Ready to
begin to clean up your fluffy and/or sloppy language habits?  Try these
foundational NLP models.  If you want to become a professional communicator,
get NLP practitioner training.  You can find the content of it in the books,
User's Manual of the Brain - Volume I the Practitioner level; Volume II the
Master Practitioner level.  For the highest quality of training - use a
Neuro-Semantic Trainer!

 

 

 

 

 

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--- The Early Bird Price Break of 30% off the door price --- expires April
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in the USA

            And forms were sent out last week on this egroup, Neurons.

            Write to me at meta at acsol.net for a registration form.

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

                Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

                Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

                1 970-523-7877 

                Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net


     

    

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