As you install the strategy you will also want to test its ecological fit. (This can be done by finding the outcome sequitur). If you try to install a strategy that is somehow inappropriate or maladaptive for the client you will encounter interference phenomena such as resistance to the strategy or "sabotage" of the installation process.
6.1 Installation Through Anchoring.
In the Utilization Section of this book we discussed how anchors could be used to establish and elicit either full 4-tuple representations of an experience, or could be used to selectively access one particular portion of a 4-tuple. The use of anchors in strategy installation involves the anchoring of a selective sequence of individual representations over time. Just as anchors may be used to access either one or more parts or the whole of a 4-tuple, in the utilization of strategies, so may they be used to access either parts or the whole of a particular strategy sequence for installation purposes. An entire strategy sequence may be anchored with a single anchor, or the programmer may selectively anchor single steps or subroutines (synesthesia patterns).
A major difference, however, between the use of anchoring in utilization procedures and the use of anchoring in installation is that, in utilization, you want to use anchoring for controlling the content of particular strategy steps. In installation you want to control the strategy step itself. What you will want to anchor for installation purposes, then, is not any particular content, but rather the act of using the particular representational system required for the step. You will want to establish your anchors so that they gain access to the use of a particular representational system, or established sequence of representational systems.
As we discuss the various methods of utilizing anchors in installation procedures we will be using the symbol, "∮" to represent an anchor. This symbol means that an anchor has been established for whatever bracketed representational system or sequence follows it. ∮ [Vi] indicates that an anchor has been established that initiates access to internal activity of the visual representational system. It will be assumed that the anchor indicated by the symbol is unspecified with respect to which representational system it has been established through, unless this is specified by a superscript, if ∮ Ke would indicate a tactile kinesthetic anchor (such as a touch or squeeze), ∮ Aed would indicate a verbal anchor (a word), ∮ Vc would indicate an anchor in the form of a constructed visual image and so on.
6.11 Anchoring An Entire Strategy Sequence.
If your strategy design calls for the use of a particular strategy sequence or subroutine already available in some form in the client's existing repertoire of strategies, it is possible to anchor that entire existing sequence with one anchor, so that it may be inserted as an entire unit into the new sequence you are designing. It may also be inserted into some situation where it was not available previously as a resource — so that it becomes wired to the contextual stimuli that make up the situation and allows for another possible choice of behavior within that context. It is installed as a resource into situations where the client desires a choice of outcomes.
In such cases the strategy is generally taken from a context in which it occurs naturally and is installed in a context in which it does not occur or has not previously occurred. In performing this operation it is important to be sure that you separate the strategy sequence itself from the trigger that has formerly initiated the strategy sequence within the context you are extracting it from. We can show this process visually in the following way:
Step 1 shows that some external visual stimulus in Context A naturally initiates the strategy sequence Aid . .. . Ke . This sequence is anchored in its entirety by the anchor.
In step 2 the strategy unit is anchored into Context B where, formerly, some external auditory stimulus had initiated a
loop. This allows the individual the choice of accessing the strategy from Context A in Context B so that it may serve as a resource.
In our seminars we often demonstrate this process by anchoring an individual's entire motivation strategy. The individual is asked to think of a time when he motivated himself to do something he did not particularly want to do. The steps in this strategy are then elicited through questioning and observation, and each step is anchored with the same kinesthetic anchor on one of the individual's knees. Some behavior is then suggested or proposed that the individual does not particularly care to do (for example, to walk across the room and lift a chair over his head, or to pick up a pencil that has been thrown on the floor). The individual is questioned a number of times to establish that he really does not want to complete the behavior. The motivation strategy is then triggered by "firing" off the anchor. When the strategy has been well anchored, the individual will automatically reaccess the strategy sequence for motivation, applying it to the ongoing context. In many cases the individual will spontaneously begin to perform the task that, seconds before, he had not been motivated to do. If the anchor is released before the individual has completed the behavior he will often stop in mid-reach, remaining immobile until the anchor is replaced.
Subroutines may be extracted from larger strategies and sequenced in the same fashion:
In the preceding diagram, two existing synesthesia patterns that occur in different contexts have been anchored together to form a new strategy. One strategy segment has been tacked to the end of another, through anchoring, to form a new sequence. In one synesthesia sequence (Vi - Ki) the individual derives visceral feelings from internal images. The other (Aid - Ke) is one in which the individual initiates physical action through internal dialogue. Since synesthesia patterns tend to automatically carry through their own processes once initiated, the important part of this installation procedure is to tie the person's internal dialogue into his feelings.
This method of anchoring may also be used to streamline an inappropriately long strategy by anchoring the last few steps, or the last operation, to some earlier step in the sequence. In this way a number of middle steps can be bypassed, or potentially crippling loops can be short circuited, as shown in the diagram below.
An example of how to employ such a procedure is demonstrated in a case in which one of the authors was working with a man who had a long, cumbersome and inefficient decision making strategy. This individual would spend hours or even days in deliberation, putting off decisions for so long that he would invariably end up passing by key opportunities, which would cause him to feel bad. As a consequence he would become deeply agitated and angry with himself for having wasted so much time. The author redesigned his decision strategy such that the individual would take into consideration the possibilities of missing key opportunities and wasting time (this becomes a representation of the outcome sequitur for the outcome of not making a decision on time) at a much earlier point in his strategy. This helped provide a motivation for the individual to speed up the strategy process by considering the possible outcomes of over deliberation, and served as a resource to provide a time check in the decision process. The inclusion of this test for negative feelings served as a decision point in the strategy at an earlier stage.