1.2. A New Model

Neurolinguistic programming is a natural extension of this evolutionary process—a new model. It is important to realize that models such as those described in Section 1 are not simply "out there" somewhere, external to us as individuals. Rather, politics, religion, psychology and the other models are ways of looking at, talking about and feeling about the same experiential domain: human behavior. NLP differs from other models of behavior in that it is specifically a model of our behavior as model–makers. It is what we call a meta–model, a model of the modeling process itself.

Implicit in NLP as a meta–model is its broad range of practical applications. From individual interactions to group, corporate and system dynamics of any kind, the behavioral parameters can be identified, organized and programmed to obtain specific objectives. When the confusions and complexities of life experience are examined, sorted and untangled, what remains is a set of behavioral elements and rules that aren't so difficult to understand after all. In this book we will describe techniques and applications derived from NLP and designed for use in behavioral interactions in any area of human endeavor.

1.3 The Structure of Models

The construction of all models requires the identification and representation of 1) a set of structural elements and 2) a syntax. The structural elements are the "building blocks" of a model. The syntax is the set of rules or directives that describe how the building blocks may be put together.

In linguistic models, for example, the structural elements are typically words: written and/or spoken vocabularies. The syntax is the set of grammatical rules that dictate how the various words may be fitted together. The English language has a relatively small vocabulary (about 36,000 words), yet throughout the history of English speaking people, millions of different sentences have been uttered and millions of different ideas have been put into words. This is possible because the words may be assembled in different orders, sequences and forms which provide particular contexts in which words can evoke unique meaning and significance. All the books ever written in the English language are composed of the same words used over and over in different orders; the words, in turn, are assembled from the same twenty–six letters of the alphabet.

To be a fluent speaker of the language, one does not have to memorize all possible word combinations accepted as being well–formed sentences. That would be impossible. Yet somehow, we know that certain sequences of words constitute understandable sentences while others do not. For example, consider the previous sentence with the words reversed:

Not do others while sentences understandable constitute words of sequences certain that know we somehow yet.

Although each word may be easily understood, this sequence doesn't impress us as a meaningful sentence. Since the words are precisely the same set presented previously in a different order, we may conclude that the condition of well–formedness must be attributed to the order or sequence in which we see or hear the words. Given a finite vocabulary and a small set of generating principles, a syntax, it is possible to create an infinite number of well–formed sentences by changing the order of the words in an appropriate manner. To learn a language, it is necessary only to learn its vocabulary and syntax.[7]

In particle physics, electrons, protons, neutrons and other subatomic entities make up the set of structural elements; the syntax is the set of rules of possible interactions among various combinations of particles. In a similar manner, models such as banking, government, art, agriculture and film production are constructed of a set of structural elements and a syntax.

Neurolinguistic programming shows us that the complexities of human behavior, like the infinite number of possible well–formed sentences in a language, can be reduced to a finite number of structural elements and a syntax. In the context of the NLP model we maintain that all behavior — from learning, remembering and motivation to making a choice, communication and change —is the result of systematically ordered sequences of sensory representations. Many of the problems and phenomena that have baffled behavioral scientists in the past can be understood, predicted and changed by using the NLP model. To accomplish this, we join the magician on his stage, so to speak, and begin to poke around the mirrors and other apparatus of the thaumaturgical art to gain a

new perspective on what happens before, during and after the waving of that magic wand which generates such a fascinating array of experiences for us all.

Because certain aspects of the structural elements and syntax of every model are experienced (or defined) as being within or beyond human control, every model contains within itself another behavioral model that identifies the possibilities and limitations of human behavior with respect to desired goals or outcomes.

Borrowing a flow chart from decision theory, we can represent this model visually as:

We will assume that the people concerned with the model represented by this diagram agree that environmental variables include all dimensions of experience beyond their control and that decision variables include all dimensions of experience within their control. For example, an executive planning committee would agree that they could decide when and where to build a new manufacturing plant toward achieving the outcome of increased production and sales; they would also agree that production and sales would be affected by inflation, government monetary policy, competition and consumer demand, which lie outside their control.

Again, the magician knows that under the watchful eyes of an attentive audience, on a stage of limited size, he can't possibly "make" an elephant weighing several tons disappear — unless he utilizes those same constraints (environmental variables) effectively in achieving his outcome — the disappearing act. Outcomes depend on contributions from both environmental variables and decision variables.

In fact, one of the major historical trends in the evolution of models of behavior is the transformation or utilization of experiences once regarded as environmental variables into decision variables. This trend is particularly evident in recent technological advances in the computer sciences and in manned space travel — more effective models operating to expand the potentials of human behavior.

Just as the computer and information processing industries have advanced tremendously in the past twenty five years due to the new technology provided by the semiconductor (the processing capacity of what once used to require a machine that filled a large room is now available from a chip no bigger than the head of a pin), so too we intend that the behavioral professions and sciences will advance in the coming decades as the result of the new technology provided by neurolinguistic programming.