• Wondering what concepts healthy minds adopt?
  • Heard the research by Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)?
  • Which concepts do you disagree with, and why?

Here, red10 ‘s Will Sudworth introduces NLP’s research into healthy mindset, in what NLP calls their 16 pre-suppositions.

What is NLP? And what are Pre-suppositions?

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a set of concepts and a set of coaching techniques that helps you have a healthy mind and keep it healthy.

It was developed by pulling together, into an accessible package, all the latest advanced approaches used by psychologists.

 

NEURO Brain
LINGUISTIC Words we use
PROGRAMMING Patterns

I.e.

  • You can hear how your brain is thinking by listening to the word patterns you’re using
  • Using clever visualisation techniques as now used by Olympic athletes, you can recode your brain, and be confident that your thinking has changed as you hear your word patterns change

Key to the NLP approach is what they call their 16 Pre-suppositions. The founders of NLP found that these 16 concepts are adopted by those with the healthiest minds.

What is the list of 16?

Each of the 16 pre-suppositions is a concept.

Each concept has a lot packed within it: you need to wrestle with it to fully understand and adopt it.

Each concept can be life-changing when adopted.

Using the list below, you’ll see a short intro on each supposition. You can deep dive into some of the pre-suppositions by reading a 5 min article on it.

1. Respect for the other person’s model of the world

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that everyone has their own “model of the world”, created through their upbringing and experiences.

  • What is your “model of the world”?
  • What experiences built it?
  • Why is it important to have respect for another person’s model of the world?
5-min read here

2. Behaviour and change are to be evaluated in terms of context and ecology

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that context and ecology really matter, when we look at behaviour and changing it – whether it is our own or other people’s.

  • What is your context?
  • How does it differ from other people’s context?
  • How does their context alter their behaviour and their ability to change it?
  • What do psychologists mean by ‘ecology’?
5-min read here

3. Resistance in a client is a sign of a lack of rapport (There are no resistant clients, only inflexible communicators. Build more rapport, be more flexible).

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that you need to first establish rapport before you can communicate properly.

  • By ‘rapport’ we mean that you’ve both chosen to open the trapdoor on your heads so that info flows 2-way between you.
  • What helps people open the trapdoors on their heads for each other?
  • Why is flexibility in approach so important to building rapport?

4. People are not their behaviours. (Accept the person; change the behaviour)

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that the behaviour is not the person.

This is the most mainstream concept of all of the NLP presuppositions.

It links to “not labelling” people.

e.g. rather than “naughty child” they are a child who yesterday did X.

  • What labels do you give yourself?
  • Do these labels define you?
  • What labels are you in danger of giving to others?
5-min read here

5. Everyone is doing the best they can with the resources they think they have available. (Behaviour is geared to adaption, and present behaviour is the best choice available. Every behaviour is motivated by positive intent)

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that everyone’s behaviour happens for a reason and is the best choice given what they think they know/have at the time.

  • Have you ever said “If only I knew then, what I know now?”
  • How can this concept allow you to be kind to yourself or others?
  • How can this help you think differently about the next decision you’re about to make?

6. Calibrate on behaviour: the most important information about a person is that person’s behaviour

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that given mind-reading isn’t possible, and given that people don’t always mean what they say, the best data we have comes from the actions that people take.

What are you learning about you, from your behaviour?

7. The map is not the territory: the words we use are not the event or the item they represent.

Just like a road on a Google Map may be closed in real-life, people with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that our memory of the past can change and be upgraded.

What did you learn, that changed how you remembered a past event?

What benefits can you get from being open to upgrading your map of the past?

8. You are in charge of your mind and therefore your results. I am in charge of my mind and therefore my results.

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that it isn’t wise to hand-over your life’s steering wheel to someone else, and that equally – it isn’t wise to try and drive someone else’s life.

  • Who is driving your life?
  • Who’s life are you driving?
  • How can you re-contract so that everyone drives only their own life?
5-min read here

9. People have all the resources they need to succeed. There are no unresourceful people, just unresourceful states.

Have you ever been in a low mood? Or feeling like a victim?

Have you noticed how it reduced the opportunities available to you?

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that having a positive mindset makes you resourceful.

5-min read here

10. All procedures should increase wholeness

Have you ever had an internal conflict?

i.e. caught yourself saying “On the one hand I think this, and yet on the other hand I think that?”

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that internal conflicts are not good for us.

11.There is no failure only feedback

Have you heard the story of the invention of the light-bulb?

Did the inventor fail each time, or where they learning each time in order to get to the launchable version?

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that everything is about learning, and there is no need to fear failure because it doesn’t exist.

5-min read here

12. The meaning of communication is the response you get back

Have you ever given a presentation and seen the excitement on people’s faces and bodies?

Or seen the opposite – seen how people were bored?

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that we need to look for people’s responses, learn from them, and adjust.

13. The law of requisite variety: The system/person with the most flexibility of behaviour will control the system

This concept is so important, it has a psychological law of its own.

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that it is the strongest person who is the most flexible. Some people seem to think it is weak if you flex…

14. All procedures should be designed to increase choice

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that choice is important in life.

How do you respond when there are no choices?

15. Change can be quick, easy and lasting. It’s the build-up to change that may take a while or be difficult.

When did you last make a big change in your life?

People with healthy minds seem to hold the concept that the moment of making the decision can be quick and easy – once you are ready.

16. Perception is projection

This is the psychologists formal way of saying “You spot it, you got it”

Which means, if you spot that negative behaviour in someone else, and it annoys you, then the chances are that you’ve got some similar mindset going on in your head.