Honest Abe's NLP Glossary : L


	Written and Produced by Andy Bradbury (author of "Develop Your NLP Skills", etc.)
	PART 2 L - Q

This glossary is designed to function at a very basic level, providing brief definitions, not detailed explanations. It will be particulary useful to newcomers who have heard or read very little about NLP so far. By the time you've read a half dozen of the better books you'll already know this stuff off by heart.

If there's anything you don't agree with, or which you think should be added, there is a "mail to" facility at the very end of this page. All constructive comments will be welcome.

The Definitions:

Words in bold font are themselves explained somewhere within the glossary.

M | N | O | P | Q

Leading

Having achieved rapport with someone by matching and pacing their behaviour, you may then be able to change your own behaviour so as to lead that person in the direction you wish them to go

Leveller

One of the five Satir Categories. A 'leveller' responds to situations honestly and openly, even the ones they don't like. Unlike the bahaviour in the other four categories, levelling paves the way for constructive, creative, mutually beneficial relationships and effective resolutions to problem situations.
Virginia Satir estimated that some 4.5 per cent of the people in any group will be levellers.

Lost Performative

An alleged quote where the source is omitted thus making it impossible to determine the value of the statement. For example: "Studies have shown that ...". Which studies? Carried out by whom? When? How many people were involved?
An element of the Meta Model.

Maps, Map Making

See Mental Maps.

Matching

Copying another person's behaviour (voice tone, body language, breathing pattern, etc.) for the purposes of creating and maintaining rapport.
Matching should always be done sparingly and discretely or it may well be spotted and interpreted as 'taking the mickey'.

Mental Maps

We experience the outside world only through our senses. Moreover we can only consciously be aware of a relatively small part of the information our senses are taking in. And even this small body of information is interpreted through mental filters such as deletion, distortion and generalisation, plus the various meta programs we are running at any given time.
Because of all these factors we are always reacting to our perceived view - or mental maps - of external reality rather than to reality itself.
These maps are useful or misleading according to how (more or less) accurate they are. So it is always useful to remember that even a map that is 95% accurate is still a 'map'.

Meta Model

A model, developed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler, which bears a close resemblance to the list of ten "cognitive distortions" found in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy. The meta model identifies commonly occurring language patterns which actually hamper good communication, and shows how they can be tackled to open up clearer, more effective communication.
Grouped under three basic headings - Deletions, Distortions and Generalisations - the meta model covers a variety of misleading language patterns such as: Unspecified nouns, unspecified verbs, unqualified comparisons, unqualified absolutes and unquestioned rules, missing referential indices, etc., etc. These are each described elsewhere in the glossary under the relevant headings: Deletions, Distortions, Generalisations, Nouns, unspecified, Verbs, unspecified,and so on.

Metaphor

Usually taken (in NLP) to mean a story - true or invented - designed to convey a message to the listener in a roundabout way so as to minimise resistence to the message.
In practice a major part of our daily conversation consists of metaphors:
"She was as mad as a wet hen" "I've finally cracked the problem" "It was like taking money from a baby" "You hit the nail on the head" and so on.

Meta Programs

The filters through which we 'strain' our information about the outside world in order to form perceptions. The meta programs we use, and the way in which we use them tend change according to the context and over time.
The original set of some 60 meta programs is said to have been developed by Leslie Cameron-Bandler from the four pairs of characteristics in the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory. This was reduced to about 29 in the Woodsmall & James book Timeline Therapy and the Basis of Personality, and then to 13 by Rodger Bailey - see Shelle Rose Charvet's book Words that Change Minds.
Other core books on meta programs are Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality and People Pattern Power. (PPP is specifically business oriented.) The current short list includes:

Towards / Away from
Proactive / Reactive
Options / Procedures
Sameness-Difference
Frame of Reference (internal-external)
Convincer Mode (or "channel")
Convincer Frequency
Tangible-Intangible
Primary Interest Pattern
Chunk Size (general-specific)
Match-Mismatch
Rule Structure
Working Style

Milton Erickson

See Erickson, Milton

Milton Model

A model of Milton Erickson's therapeutic techniques developed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler. It should be noted that Milton Model is primarily concerned with spoken language rather than written language.
This is just one of several such models based on Erickson's work (see Taproots by William O'Hanlon) and should not be regarded as definitive.

Mirroring

A particular kind of matching. In ordinary matching you move your left leg, then I move my left leg. In mirroring, if you move your left leg I move my right leg.
As in all matching, mirroring should done sparingly and discretely.

Modal Operators 1 (of necessity)

Modal operators are the phrases we use to tell ourselves how things (allegedly) are.
Modal operators of necessity include self-talk phrases like:
"I must do this"
"I should do that"
and so on.

Modal Operators 2 (of possibility)

Modal operators of possibility include self-talk phrases like:
"I can do this"
"I'd never be able to do that"
etc.

Nested loops

The purpose of using nested loops is to hold the listener's (or listeners') attention whilst you give them information. Using loops also helps to divert attention from the fact that this is a learning experience.
In simple terms, the technique involves telling several stories - but in an unusual manner:

Start story A - about halfway through, break off, give a brief piece of information, then ...
Start story B - about halfway through, break off, give a brief piece of information, then ...
Start story C - about halfway through, break off, give a brief piece of information, then ...
End story C, and ...
End story B, and ...
End story A.

Notes:

There is no "official" limit to how many stories can be nested, but more than 3 or 4 may start to irritate your audience rather than holding their attention.
There is no "official" limit to the length of each story. The important thing is to make each first part long enough to arouse the listener's interest (so they will want to hear the end of the story) and not so long that they lose that interest.
It's a good idea, though not absolutely essential, that each story is related to the information associated with it (some kind of metaphor is recommended). In this way the information won't stand out from the story, and again it makes it less obvious that any "teaching" is going on.
It maybe goes without saying - make the process as seamless as possible. So when you're ready to move from one story to the next you might use a sequence such as:

"... and we decided to get going straight away (break off story A). I've been told that having a good plan is just as important as knowing what your goals are (Information A). Which reminds me of the time ... (start story B) ... etc.

Nominalisation

The process of turning a verb into a noun. For example, "to educate" becomes "education". The important point is that the noun form doesn't actually have a clearcut meaning like the original verb form had. Thus "to educate" implies a process where one or more teachers on one side of the interaction and one or more students on the other side who are in some respect learning as a result of the interaction, and most people asked to define "to educate" would probably come up with an equivalent (i.e. shared) meaning. But if someone says: "I want my children to have a good education," the meaning is more dependent on personal interpretation, and a whole lot less clear. What do they mean by "good"? What do they mean by "an education"? And what do they mean by "a good education"?
Politicians love nominalisations because they can talk and talk without having 'said' anything at all. Just look at the Labour Party's slogan at the 1997 General Election: "Education, education, education!" What on earth did it mean - if anything?

Olfactory (O) 1

Taking in and/or processing information as smells.

Olfactory (O) 2

Someone using olfactory as their preferred thinking style in a given situation - a gardener appreciating his or her flowerbeds, a perfumier selecting a new scent, and so on.
In olfactory mode we might use phrases like:
"That smells fishy"
"His revelations really caused a stink"
"There's just a whiff of something not quite right in her book-keeping"

Outcome (well-formed)

In any activity, your chances of success are greatly improved if you start with a clear outcome. A 'well-formed' outcome has the following properties:

It is stated in the positive
There are clear guidelines for determining when the outcome has been achieved - I will see this, hear that, etc.
The outcome can be achieved by the person setting the outcome without the need for significant aid from other people and with resources they already have, or can acquire.
Is of an achievable size (in some cases a large outcome may need to be broken down into a series of smaller outcomes).
Achieving the outcome will be 'ecological', that is to say, there are no identifiable negative side-effects.

Pacing

Matching some part(s) of a person's behaviour in order to create/build rapport. Pacing may then move on to leading, but not necessarily.

Parts

The way we think about things often suggests that we are made up of a number of 'parts':
"I think so, but part of me still isn't sure"
"I'm in two minds about that"
and so on.
The idea of dealing with problems by negotiating with your metaphorical 'parts' is derived from work done by Perls, Fritz and by Satir, Virginia.

Pattern Interrupt

Part of the "progamming" element of NLP is the idea that we often react to life in stereotyped ways rather than thinking through the specific situation we are in at a given moment in time. Not a particularly original observation, you might say, and you'd be right. What NLP adds to the mix is the idea of pattern interrupts. Most other schools of psychology would recommend offering a person stuck in a particular pattern (of thinking or behaviour) an alternative pattern - "don't do that, do this." NLP takes a slightly different approach, based largely on the work of Milton Erickson, which calls for an interruption of the person's inappropriate pattern so as to allow them to look for an alternative pattern.
A pattern interrupt can be a word or a phrase, such as "STOP - Now!", or some unexpected comment or behaviour which shocks the person into paying more attention to what is going on right here and now.

Perceptions

Our perceptions are our particular view of ourselves and the world. Our perceptions are what make up our maps, and just as 'a map is not the territory it depicts, so our perceptions are a personalised snapshot of one part of reality, they are not reality itself.

Perceptual Positions

The three positions from which we usually view, or could view our interaction with others. Most people spend most of their time in first position. Yet we may be able to understand our interactions with other people more fully - especially if we encounter any problems - if we occasionally take a moment or two to view the transaction from 2nd and/or 3rd position.
See First Position, Second Position and Third Position.

Perls, Fritz

One of the leading developers of gestalt therapy (roughly equivalent in meaning to 'holistic' therapy). His ideas found their way into NLP particularly in the areas of parts and reframing.