NLP Secret Meta Model Question – Nigel Hetherington
NLP Practitioning January 12th, 2012This is for me one of the most important
Distinctions I have shared in my newsletters.
This is so powerful yet simple you may not initially
Fully appreciate the significance of this question.
This is a distinction and equally a ‘Meta Model’
Question that was created by one of my good
Friends and original NLP trainers. This is from
Mike Treasure, who is one of the currently unsung yet
Oceanically deep NLP developers and practitioners.
When Bandler and Grinder first began teaching
What is know as the first NLP model, The Meta Model
The story goes they taught it without any explicit
Use of rapport ( Rapport is said to have come from
The third NLP Model ) and the results were very interesting.
Friends and families fell out with each other. People got
Punched and kicked. Small kittens were scorned and it is
Said that some cried and created work for therapists.
Relationships were rocked to their foundations. Not just
Because of a lack of rapport but as well a lack of understanding
The purpose behind the Meta Model interventions …
The Meta Model of Bandler and Grinder is a linguistic tool
Kit. It is designed to uncover Deep Structure and at the
Same time force a re-evaluation of ‘unhelpful’ and ’stuck’
States or thought process. It is an amazing tool, when
It is used well. It can also be a rapport killing problem creator.
I invite you to check your own experience of being
Meta Modelled by people. When applied without
Skill or purpose or rapport The Meta Model can
Become a very sharp scalpel making incisions and
Cuts where not are required, invited or needed.
The Meta Model and honest rapport not to
Mention compassion go hand in hand. But Please
Note I say compassion not empathy. No need to
Feel other peoples pain in order for you to help!
Now, having set the scene here is Mike Treasures
Excellent and Secret in the sense of only known
To a very few, Meta Model Question. Ask this of
Yourself BEFORE you go wielding the Meta scalpel.
“Can I say the same is true about me?”
This is a wonderful way to help people stop making
Unrefined incisions, Uncaring cuts and being a Slasher.
Asking yourself this before hand will really help you
With Rapport, Compassion and the Intention behind
Your Meta Modelling : Meta Meddling : Metal Mudding
Try this self reflexive Secret Meta Model Question and
Improve your 2nd and 3rd Position’s ( META ) too …
January 12th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Dear Mr Hetherington,
I don’t care whether you publish this or not – this is for you, primarily, and not so much your readers.
I agree with your sentiments about using the Meta Model without rapport or compassion – but you must stop using, as an explanation, that tired old concept, the ‘Deep Structure’.
That concept belongs in the linguistics of the early 70s. It was changed into something with much less scope in 1978, reduced even further in 1981, and then pretty much eliminated altogether in 1986.
And there was certainly was nothing left of it in 1993.
Why on earth are you still trotting it out as an explanation? 18 years later? You’re misleading your blog readers and your students.
And someday, somebody in your class might call you on it.
Getting up-to-date isn’t that hard. I published a more modern version of the Meta Model a few years ago. You can get it on the internet.
Go to: theletterworthpress.com/nlpworld/7-3ROBBIE.PDF
It will costs you US $5 to download – and I don’t get any of that money – I submitted the paper to the magazine pro bono.
What you may note is that the questions – and the need for courtesy remain the same. But the linguistics and cognitive psychology basis is different.
For the sake of the people who learn from you, I hope you read it.
January 12th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Eric Robbie is a well respected developer in our field of NLP. I have invited Eric for a phone conversation with me and will post our outcome when he replies …
January 14th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
Hello Eric
I have read your paper and found it very interesting and educational.
Your paper is something I will require reading some more times to
get a more deeper feel for your models.
It is really detailed and technical, which requires some level of more
Basic principles understanding first.
There is nothing misleading about still using the terms ‘deep structure’ and
’surface structure’ as explanatory models as way of highlighting differences
in levels of experience and ways of representing experience. I am not teaching
Chomsky’s TS simply borrowing some terms that make for easy of application.
Using the DS and SS terminology without getting into linguistics and stick diagrams
I find makes a very simple and almost immediate way to understand what the
remedial therapeutic application of Meta Modeling is attempting to do. That is reframe.
I think most of the trainers I know will suggest exploring CE and CEc in data
gathering linguistic analysis first. Course another model is to notice the nonverbals,
Yet another model right. There is Chris Halls ‘underlying menu’ model, which does
it slightly different aswell. There is Micheal Breens take ( he alludes to predicate calculus too ).
Appreciate you bringing your paper to my attention.
It was certainly worth me reading it.