Modeling With NLP

Thomas Jeffe rson once said, " If [\\ 0 indivi duals ge t wgethe r and exchange a dollar, the" each walk away with onc dollar. If the same indi,idual!; get together and exchange an idea, they both walk away with m o ideas." In many ways, this stateme nt expresses the vastly generative potential or ';cconomics" of modeling. ~ l ode l in g is the process of ta king a complex cvent or phenome non and breaking it into ~m a ll enough chunks SO that it can be recapiru lated or applied in some way. Bc ha,ioral model ing involves obse rving and mapping the successfu l proccsscs wh ic h underlie an exceptional performance of some eype. The purpose of behavior modeling is to create a pragmatic map or ' model' of a particular be ha vior which can be used to reproduce or simulate some as pect of that pcrformance by anyone who is mOtivated co do so. Th e abili ty to mode l effective ly opens the door to many possibilities that have prc"'iously been unava ilable to humankind. In add ition to providing a methodology which (.w an be uscd co make ideas more explicit and casie r [Q commliniC'Jtc, modeling ca n transform the way we " ic\\ and pe rcei\c one anOthcr. If we see someone who does something bener than oursch'es, for example, instead of looking at th at person and feeling inadequate, jealoll,), or ~ u s pi cio ll S, wc Can go OUl and model how they do wh ,n they do. Thcn, wc t OO ca n havc the ca pabi l i ~ that the other person possesses. The field of :"\'e uro- Linguistic Programming (XLP) has d e n~ l oped out of the modeling of the beh aviors and thinking processes of c'\ceptional peopl e from many fiel ds. NLP modeling procedures involve finding out abollC the me ntal \ rrarcgics ("XClI ro" ) a person is using by analY-l ing that pcr,on 's language patterns (" Lin guistic" ) and non·\'erbal respon ses. Th e rC\ lIl tS of th is a nal ys i ~ are rhen put into srcp· by·step strategies or proccdures ("Programm ing") rhat may be used [0 transfer the ski ll to other people, and apply it to othe r CO IHC XC;. The purpose of :"lLP modeling is to put ''''hat has been obse rved and described inro action in a way th .. t is productive and enriching. In fact, the worldwide sllccess of :"\LP a\ a technology for creating and managi ng change comes from its foundation in the modeling process. Th is book is about the :\LP modeling proce~s and its applica tions. The fi m part of this book is devoted to defining the principles and tools necessary for effective modeling (the "e pistemology," methodology and technology of:--':LP ). 1"e second part of rhe lxx>k illustrates the application of N I... P modeling procedures to th e study of effective leade rship. It pro\ Ides exa mples of ho'" i'\ LP was appl ied to identify specific cognitive, linguistic and he ha\-iora l