META-EXPERIENCES

IN THE META PLACE

                                                         

Above and beyond your everyday experiences are meta-experiences.  These are
the experiences of your mind.  And when I say "mind," I mean all of the
known and unknown aspects of consciousness itself.  Here are just some of
the higher or meta-experiences in your mind:

           Your memories.  What you "hold in mind" and take with you and
use as your internal reference system-your library of what you've learned
about what things mean, what things there are, what to focus on.

           Your knowledge.  What you "know" or think you know.  The ideas
that you have become aware of in your home, culture, school, life
experiences.  As one aspect of a meta-experience, your knowledge informs you
about lots of things.

           Your beliefs.  All of the things that you "hold real and true."
They may not be real or  true, but you believe them anyway and have all
sorts of experiences both in your mind and in your outside life because of
them.  Why?  Because every belief sets up a self-organizing and
self-fulfilling process.

           Your imaginations.  Your powers of imagining, fantasizing,
pretending, thinking of possibilities, playing around with "what if...?" is
your ability to create all sorts of internal meta-experiences-some very
creative and productive, some that create pathology.

           Your decisions.  You make choices, everyday you make lots of
choices, little ones and big ones and cumulatively, your choices generate
the over-all meta-experience of your life orientation-the direction of your
life.  In your decisions, you forecast how to live, where to go, and a
thousand other inner experiences.

           Your intentions.  Within intentionality are your choices, your
decisions, and also your values-what you care about, what's important to
you.  And this is the source of inside-out motivation, the energy and
vitality to live with vigor and passion-more really important
meta-experiences.

 

Well, you get the idea, do you not?  Inside your mind-your wonderful
consciousness by which your self-reflexivity operates-there are a hundred or
a thousand meta-experiences.  And they are all at your command when you
learn how to use the meta-functions.  In Neuro-Semantics we have been using
the old NLP idea of "going meta" for two and half decades and since 2002 we
have used The Matrix Model to sort out the human system.  And it has worked
pretty well.  We modeled numerous experiences using the Matrix Model
including stuttering.  But now we have something even better.  Something
that takes the Matrix Model further, deeper, and higher- The Meta Place.

 

While the Matrix Model gave us three key dimensions of the Meta Place, that
is just the beginning.  It gave us meaning, intention, and self (identity in
five aspects).  But there is so much more.  And what it provides is a
dynamic structuring of consciousness so that you can follow consciousness in
a conversation and thereby come to understand another person at a much, much
deeper level.  What is meta to our everyday experiences at the primary
level?  If at the primary level of experience we have immediate thoughts and
feelings (a state) as we respond (or react) to some trigger in the outside
world-what is higher than that?  What meta-experience do you first have and
then have, etc.?

 

           You first represent the outside experience.  You create, as it
were, a movie in your mind and use the representational systems-visual,
auditory, kinesthetic, etc.

           You then edit your inner cinema.  With all of the cinematic
features that are available to you, you customize your movie sometimes
making it wonderful, sometimes horrible.

           You then draw conclusions.   You never just represent-you
construct beliefs about things and once you do that, every higher meta-level
is some form or aspect of a belief.  You believe something is important-a
value.  You believe you should do something-a decision.

           You construct your identity.  You invent a self-image that
includes your worth, your skills, your social self, your temporal self, your
roles, etc.

           You learn and remember.  You encode and store learnings into
your memory banks which become your Background Knowledge, which when fully
habituated become your automatic programs.

           You anticipate and predict.  Your mind as a prediction machine
is always trying to figure out "what's next?"  "what's coming?"  It's a
survival mechanism.  This is the foundation for thinking strategically,
thinking consequently, and for hoping.

           You meta-state or set frames all the way up.  By this
self-reflexive function you then layer thoughts upon thoughts to create
complex understanding and belief systems.  You create value hierarchies,
belief hierarchies, decision hierarchies, etc.

           You set multiple intentions.  Now you are creating your life
orientation, your future direction, and the management of your attentions.

 

Your meta-mind is rich!  It is also chaotic and for most people
unstructured.  And because people do not have a sense of structure of their
mind, they don't know how to use it effectively.  To do that, they need to
develop an ability to use the meta-functions.

 

              Want more?  Check out Meta-Therapy and look for the newest
book, The Meta Place.

 L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

ISNS Executive Director

P.O. Box 8

Clifton Colorado 81520 USA

(970) 523-7877

 From: L. Michael Hall

2022 Neurons #32

August 8, 2022

Super-charging Your Attitude #8

 

PICK AN ATTITUDE,

ANY ATTITUDE

 

Knowing that you can choose an attitude, develop it, be coached for it,
super-charge it, etc. what attitudes would you like to plan to add to your
personal repertoire of attitudes which will, in turn, enrich your life? Now
that you know that you can meta-state an attitude into existence, you know
that you are not stuck with or in your attitudes-they are yours, you create
them and you can recreate them.   So what attitudes would you like to
develop and set in your mind (in your meta place)?

 
Courage                            Resilience                Optimism
Playfulness       

                                                    Seeing opportunities
Seizing opportunities     Openness           Humor

                                                    Magnanimity
Forgiveness             Humility        Patience

                                                    Self-reliance
Entrepreneurship  Appreciation         Authenticity

                                                    Bias for action
Uninsultable           Decisive        Disciplined

 

There is the attitude for learning.  It is an attitude of being curious and
playful, of being open and receptive, it is an attitude of wanting to know
and to discover.  While that may sound mundane, that is actually an
incredibly powerful attitude to have. It is the secret ingredient in
successful people and creative people who live on the cutting-edge of new
developments.  If you have a closed attitude, "I have learned enough."  "I
already know that!"  "What else is there to learn?" you cut yourself off
from the human adventure itself.

 

There is the attitude of experimenting.  This is an attitude of trying
things to see what happens, it is an adventurous spirit that keeps you
learning, keeps you young at heart.  It is the epitome of the scientific
attitude itself.  This leads to more tentative attitudes about the
assertions we make and less rigidity about our beliefs.  And that, in turn,
leads to being more reasonable with each other and more humble in our
approach.

 

There is the descriptive attitude.  This attitude drives expert
communicators, researchers, and inventors.  Their attitude is always to seek
to describe precisely and specifically whatever presents itself as it
presents itself to the experiencing observer.  This attitude results in as
much "objectivity" as is possible for us subjective-thinkers and feelers.

 

There is the ecological attitude.  As described in NLP, this attitude is
about being holistic and integrative, about thinking and working
systemically. 

 

There is the empowerment or enrichment attitude. This attitude is governed
by the question and focus, "Is this empowering?  Will this enrich life?
Will this bring you closer?"  It is an attitude that leads to an active
style of responding because one thinks, "I can always do something; I am
never a victim at the mercy of outside forces.  If I can't change the
outside world, I can always adjust my attitude on the inside." Consequently
this enables a more tough-minded attitude about life. 

 

There is the compassionate and caring attitude.  This is an attitude that
sees others first as people, as human being, and only later in terms of
roles, status, position, views, skin color, etc.

It operates from the principle of equality of persons, mutuality, and a
win/win attitude.  It is the attitude of the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as
you want them to do unto you" (Matthew 7:12). 

 

There is, of course, the positive optimistic attitude.  This is the attitude
of looking for the silver lining in things, for solutions, for strengths,
for win/win deals.  This is the attitude of approaching life with a yes
which then enables you to embrace life rather than fight it.

 

There is the attitude of ownership of one's attitude.  Viktor Frankl said
this is "the ultimate freedom," the freedom to choose your own attitude.
"If one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still
choose his attitude." (Frankl, 1984, p.  148). 

 

There is the paradoxical attitude.   This is a fun one and can be both
shocking and delightfully surprising.  Counter-intuitively your attitude to
is embrace the very thing that your first response is to reject.  Strange
enough, frequently that then becomes the solution.  The very symptom that we
want to get away from only goes away after you embrace it.  This has been
proven true so often that, in therapy, it is called "prescribing the
symptom."  And, as a paradoxical intervention, it emerges from a
meta-stating process.

 

And what else?  There is the attitude of acceptance, of acknowledging what
is.  The attitude of

creative and positive defiance when standing up stubbornly for a value or
belief can make a difference.  There is the attitude of cheerfulness and
appreciation.  There is the philosophical attitude wherein you recognize and
accept the limitations of life.  There is the attitude of good will.  There
are dozens upon dozens of attitudes that you could choose that would upgrade
the very quality of your life and they are there, in your meta place, just
waiting for you!

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

ISNS Executive Director

P.O. Box 8

Clifton Colorado 81520 USA

 From: L. Michael Hall

2022 Neurons #31      

August 1, 2022

Super-charging Your Attitude #7

 

SUPER-CHARGE YOUR ATTITUDE

 

In the last post, we explored the art regarding how to coach a more positive
and self-enhancing attitude.  That's part of the art of mastering your
attitude, but there is more to it than that.  The focus there was on
changing an attitude, here I want to turn attention to super-charging your
attitude so that the attitude you choose to develop becomes something
incredibly powerful in your personality.

 

The amazing thing about an attitude is that it can define your whole
personality and that's because of what an attitude is.  An attitude is a
gestalt state that operates not only as a frame of mind, but one of your
highest frames of mind.  It isn't only two or three levels up, it is usually
near the very top in your meta place.  Because an attitude is a holistic
experience, it defines and orients all of your mind-body-emotion experience.
An attitude includes your mental stance, your emotional stance, your
physical stance, and your physiology.  The following pattern was developed
for the Living Personal Genius (LPG) training program.

 

Jonas said he had an wimpy attitude and wanted a stronger and more
definitive one.  While he said he believed in being proactive and not
passive, yet he often did not take the initiative to make things happen.  He
planned to, he prepared to, but then he hesitated and frequently missed
opportunities.  As we talked, he said that he guessed he needed to do
something to "kick his attitude into high gear."  From that cue, I began
exploring various component of proactivity with him.

"What do you believe about time, doing things ahead of time, acting, taking
risks, yourself as 'a proactive person,' your values regarding proactivity,
etc.?"

 

He said the conversation helped. It refreshed his beliefs and his state.
"But still there's something missing."  "How do you experience your personal
authority for acting?"  He didn't know what I was getting at. 

"I'm talk about your 'locus of control,' that locus or circle.  You could be
standing in the middle of it, or it could be outside of you so you look to
others for approval or information.  Or you could be on the border, partly
in and partly out."  Jonas, do you have permission to be fully inside?" 

 

He did not.  That was the missing resource.  So when we added that to all of
the other frames of mind, that freed him to fully step into proactivity and
own it as his own.

 

The Pattern:

1) Intention: Identify the attitudes that you want to intensify (or juice
up).

Choose the context.  Where, when, and with whom do you want to charge-up
your attitude?  What is your current attitude?  How robust is it?

What attitude would you like which would enhance you as a person?

What one attitude would you like to develop and program into yourself?

 

2) Identify your value hierarchy for the attitude.

Why is that attitude important?  How is it valuable for you?  (Repeat 5
times)

What would it allow you to do or to experience?  How important is it?

 

3) Identify your representations of this super-charged attitude.

How do you represent this attitude on the screen of your mind?  What do you
see and hear?  What do you say to yourself that accesses it?

How do you evaluate it?   What emotions do you associate with it?

 

3) Identify the qualities and properties of this attitude.

What references (images, sounds, memories, imaginations) do you need to
access to access this attitude?  As you do so, amplify it until has
sufficient charge.  Then enjoy feeling the energy of this attitude.

What other qualities or properties would you like to have in this attitude?

How much is the attitude super-charged now?

             

4) State:

As you access this attitude, what state/s are you experiencing?

              How strong and robust is this state?  Does it need to be
stronger?  If so, amplify it.

How compelling and memorable is this for you?

As you now apply this attitude to yourself and notice how it changes things
for you, what do you discover?

 

5) Explore the other dimensions of the matrices (Others, Self, World).

Who else has this attitude?  Who can you model as an exemplar?

Who will you become with this attitude?  How will it affect your identity
and sense of self?

 

6) Appropriate this attitude for all of your tomorrows.

How much would you like to take this attitude with you into your future?

As you anticipate experiencing it in the weeks and months to come, how is
that?

              Are you fully aligned with it?  Does any part of you object to
it?

 

7) Make an executive decision for this new upgraded attitude.

Are you now willing to make an executive decision that this shall be your
attitude in that context?             

 

              Here's to you develop kick-ass attitudes that will turn your
opportunities into actualities!




 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

From: L. Michael Hall

2019 Neurons #9

February 25, 2019



FAST AND SLOW THINKING



An excellent book on cognitive illusions and biases is Daniel Kahneman's
Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011).  On the surface the book is about economics
and the economic theory that Kahneman, along with Amos Tversky,
created-Prospect Theory.  Yet there is much more in the book than that-
primarily the application of a particular psychology of thinking.  And this
particular psychology of thinking explains why we humans find it difficult
to think statistically and why we over-rely on our associative meanings,
intuitions, and are so susceptible to numerous cognitive illusions and
biases.



Kahneman begins the book by distinguishing two modes of thinking which he
designates as system 1 and system 2.

System 1 -thinking automatically and quickly with little effort.  It is not
under voluntary control.  It's your first thoughts.  It's you at your
primary level of experience.

System 2 -thinking requires conscious attention, is effortful, and is
associated with focus, concentration, choice, agency (responsibility).  It
is your second thoughts.  It's you at your meta level of experience. 



In terms of Executive Thinking and getting your own Cognitive Make-Over, in
system-1 you are not actually "thinking," you are reacting according to your
programs.  You are on automatic.  It is only when you engage system-2 that
you are thinking.  I have diagramed this in the training manual as a
"thinking" continuum which separates these two dimensions- distinguishing
when you are not thinking and when you truly are thinking.



Now fast thinking is your glory and your agony.  It offers so much- a way to
simplify the world, create coherent stories that raise confidence, detect
patterns (even when there is none, p. 115) and get you to naively trust your
intuitions.  It's easy, it's comfortable, it feels good.  No wonder fast
thinking is very seductive and is also the source of flawed understandings,
inadequate decisions, and misunderstandings.  Here is a warning-with its
biases, it is filled with systemic errors.  So beware of your first
thoughts!  Those fast thoughts coming into your mind does not indicate that
you are actually thinking- you are mainly reacting from whatever belief
programs, understanding programs, etc. that you have received.



It's seductive.  You, like me, are easily seduced by the fast thinking of
system-1.  After all, with it you experience a world that is more tidy,
simple, predictable, and coherent than it really is.  This leads you to
feeling over-confident regarding whatever you are used to thinking (what we
call your comfort zone).  This explains why some people are so resistant to
change- they want to live in a tidy little world that demands little mental
effort.  "System-1 understands sentences by trying to make them true..."
(122).  Beware!  What you have thought are products of a younger self with
less experience than you have now and may be thoughts that have outlived
their usefulness.



The slow thinking of system-2 is very different.  In this kind of thinking
you proceed through a sequence of steps very deliberately and that requires
the effort of attention.  However, as Kahnaman constantly warns, we have a
limited budget of attention so expending mental effort in thinking is
costly.  That's why it is easier to not-think.  He notes that "a coherent
train of thinking requires discipline" (p. 40).  Yet system-2 is capable of
a more systematic and careful approach and is the basis of science,
intelligence, discovery, mindfulness, and wisdom.  System-2 can manage the
systemic errors of system-1 so that you do not fall victim to the built-in
biases.  Or, as we say in Neuro-Semantics, you can best manage and govern
your primary levels via your meta-levels.  That's where you set your
understanding and belief frames.



Your system-1 fast thinking sets you up to be gullible and biased to believe
(p. 81) as you are naturally prone to construct the best story possible
about what happens to you (p. 85).  This is the basis of the narrative bias
that we all suffer from- if you can create a coherent story about something,
that will suffice to convince you.  It is not truth or accuracy that
convinces us- it is coherence and a good story.  That should gives us all
pause-given the stories that the media are constantly creating for us, often
as with the Chicago story the last two weeks, jumping to conclusions before
the facts were in.



For this reason system-1 tends to just ignore or eliminate random events
which do not lend themselves to explanation.  They do not fit a tidy
predictable world.  That's why the presence of luck and probability are
difficult concepts for us to fully understand and incorporate into our
thinking and reasoning about things.  It makes statistical thinking
difficult.



In terms of doubting, that's system-2's priority.  "System-1 is not prone to
doubt.  It suppresses ambiguity and spontaneously constructs stories that
are as coherent as possible." (114).  It is system-2 that's in charge of
doubting and un-believing (81).   And "sustaining doubt is harder work than
sliding into certainty." (114).  Yet doubting and questioning lies at the
essence of thinking.  It is the doubting questions of the Meta-Model that
enables you to be more precise in your communications.  It is the
doubting-questions that gives you a chance to have a second thought before
you jump into things, merely reacting.  It is the ability to
doubtfully-question that makes you a great critical thinker so that you can
activate the executive functions in your brain.



Fast or slow thinking- we need them both.  We need them for different
reasons and purposes.  Yet without awareness of this distinction- without a
meta-awareness (a meta-state) about this, you don't even have a choice.  And
choice is one of your highest executive functions.

              For more on this from Neuro-Semantics:

                                           Executive Thinking (2018)       

                            Meta-States (2012)

                            Cognitive Make-Over Training















L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director

Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                            

               1 970-523-7877

               

Self-actualized means fulfilling one's true potential

Scott Barry Kaufman, a psychologist at Barnard College, Columbia University, has revived Maslow's actualised personality. To be self-actualised means fulfilling one's true potential and becoming one's authentic self. In these "times of increasing divides, selfish concerns, and individualistic pursuits of power, he hopes that rediscovering the principles of self-actualisation may be just the tonic that the modern world is crying out for.”

"To this end, he’s used modern statistical methods to create a test of self-actualisation: the 10 characteristics exhibited by self-actualised people." Why only 10 characteristics when Maslow had 17? Using statistical methods, he found that seven of them were redundant or irrelevant and didn't correlate with the others.

"Next, he reworded some of Maslow’s original language and labelling to compile a modern 30-item questionnaire featuring 3 items tapping each of these 10 remaining characteristics: Continued freshness of appreciation; Acceptance; Authenticity; Equanimity; Purpose; Efficient perception of reality; Humanitarianism; Peak Experiences; Good moral intuition; and Creative Spirit."

He gave the test to 500 people and found that it correlated with the main 5 personality traits (higher extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability, openness and conscientiousness) and self-determination theory ("people with more characteristics of self-actualisation also tended to score higher on curiosity, life-satisfaction, self-acceptance, personal growth and autonomy"). Kaufman writes: "Taken together, this total pattern of data supports Maslow’s contention that self-actualised individuals are more motivated by growth and exploration than by fulfilling deficiencies in basic needs.” 

Contrary to what Maslow believed, Kaufman found that self-actualisation was unrelated to age, gender, and education. However, over 3000 people have now taken the test online and there is a "small, but statistically significant association between older age and having more characteristics of self-actualisation."

Self-actualisation characteristics can be developed deliberately. “A good way to start with that is by first identifying where you stand on those characteristics and assessing your weakest links. Capitalize on your highest characteristics but also don’t forget to intentionally be mindful about what might be blocking your self-actualisation. … Identify your patterns and make a concerted effort to change."

You can take the test yourself on Kaufman's website. 

Warmly to you,

Irena

---

Irena O’Brien, PhD, 

Neuroscience: Un-complicated

Founder and Director

The Neuroscience School

http://neuroscienceschool.com

“GIVING IT YOUR ALL!”

You hear it all the time— “Give it your all!”  “Go for the gold.”  “Second place is for losers.”  “You’ve got to be a 110% person.”  Even book titles argue for this.  For example, in spite of some statements to the contrary within the books, Anthony Robbins’ books “Unlimited Power,” and “Awaken the Giant Within.”  Tony actually tempers this emphasis in the second book as he there argues that when exercising, doing 70% of your best is actually more optimal.

To get through some of the mythology of “Giving it your all” or your best, let’s begin with the most obvious non-sense— the statistic itself.  Statistically it is impossible to give 110 percent of effort.  At the very most, could you actually even give 100 percent?  This may surprise you, but the answer is “No!”  And why not?  Because it is impossible to “give 100% to any one thing.”  After all you also at the same time have to maintain your body, your health, your consciousness, etc.  That will take up some percentage of “your all.”  So when a person speaks about giving more than 100, that person is using extreme language to make an point.  Understanding it in that way makes it poetic, and it is understandable only metaphorically.  To even think for a moment that the person is being literal is a great way to create stress and overwhelm.

The problem with “giving it your all” is that if you did— you would become a highly out-of-balanced person.  And that is definitely not good!  Once you exhaust your all, and there is nothing left to give— you will not be in a very good place physically, mentally, emotionally, or in any other way.  You will certainly not be resourceful.  Being in a state of exhaustion, you be in a state of deficiency and we know that deficiency does not bring the best out in people.  People in deficiency feel threaten and needy which is why they then become desperate.  Think of a person deficient of air under the water.  Think of someone deficit of food, water, sleep, etc.

Hidden behind these ideas of “giving it your all” is the cognitive distortion of all-or-nothing thinking and over-generalization.  And thinking in those ways then leads to the toxic state that we call “perfectionism.”  Now who would be attracted to this?  Who would be seduced by this?  Ah, Type-A personalities!  First-borns.  High achievers.  Those richly rewarded for pushing themselves.  Also those with meta-programs of optimism, or “aggressive” stress response.

“Giving it your all” seduces these people and makes sense to them because it doesn’t sound extreme.  It sounds reasonable.  It sound like an obvious way to live your life.  But as a person becomes unbalanced by “giving 100 percent,” and then needing days (or even weeks) of recovery, they are building an on–and–then–off motivation pattern.  And, when they begin suffering from a manic–depressive oscillation, they try to “solve” things by pushing themselves further and harder.  And if they hear anyone say nearly anything that sounds like a new solution, they jump on that bandwagon — Yes, I need some time management skills.  Yes, I need another adrenalin jump by attending “Date with Destiny” again.   Yes I need X or Y of some new age or alternative medicine.

The real solution?  Ecology.  This is one reason that we in Neuro-Semantics use the ecology questions to run a “quality check” on our activities, our beliefs, decisions, etc.

∙          Does this enhance your life and bring out a healthy balance?

∙          Does it empower you as a person?

∙          Does this reflect your highest spiritual path?

∙          Would you want this for your loved ones?

∙          Would this ruin anything in your life— finances, relationship, health, etc.?

In NLP and Neuro-Semantics we also speak a lot about resources.  We ask if you have certain resources — capacities, beliefs, decisions, understandings, etc.  And while some of these resources are “unlimited” in that they can be constantly replenishing, some resources have numerous limitations— constraints. 

For those that are replenishable— we do have to take time and effort to replenish them.  Take inspiration for example.  Here is an abundance, not-scarce, and unlimited resource.  But you could run out of inspiration.  It happens.  The solution is to constantly keep renewing yourself in the ideas and experiences that put fresh inspiration into you.  This means that while it is potentially an unlimited resources, it is not automatic.  It’s like working out at the gym.  You can’t stay there 8 or 12 hours a day.  You have to go home and rest, you have to get good sleep.  Otherwise, if you “give it your all” and fail to calibrate to your body, you can severely damage yourself.

Other resources require that we understand their constraints.  I may be able to access my courage, but if I don’t know the constraints of when and where and with whom I express my courage, I could be taking risks that endanger limb and life.  So with acceptance, and appreciation, and learning, and many other personal resource states— going at something 100% can be very destructive.

If you are one of those “giving it your all,” “going 110 percent,” and never giving yourself a break persons— take a breath, slowdown, enjoy the moment, come into sensory awareness, reflect on what’s really important.  It will enable you to be more resourceful at being the best you.

More about myths and cognitive distortions, fallacies and biases?  Get the new book, Executive Thinking (2018).  Now available on www.neurosemantics.com

http://www.neurosemantics.com/products/executive-thinking/

OR
http://www.neurosemantics.com/products/  

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

                    Dr. Hall's email: meta@acsol.net 

    

    

Dr. L. Michael Hall writes a post on "Neurons" each Monday.  For a free subscription, sign up on www.neurosemantics.com.   On that website you can click on Meta-Coaching for detailed information and training schedule.   To find a Meta-Coach see www.metacoachfoundation.org.   For Neuro-Semantic Publications --- clink Products, there is also a catalog of books that you can download.   

---

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From: L. Michael Hall

2018 Morpheus # 25

June 6, 2018

While I wrote this article as one in

the series of Decision Making on

Neurons, I thought I should send it

to Meta-Coaches ... so next time you

coach decision— this one is for you.

BEYOND PRO/CON

DECISION-MAKING

In Meta-Coaching we use the Axes of Change as our first and primary model for enabling people to make intelligent, robust, and ecological decisions.  Specifically, we use the second axis, The Decision Axis which is based on the meta-program of reflective— active.  To that end, we invite a client to reflect on the pros and cons of a choice.  What are the advantages if you make that choice?  What are the disadvantages?  Typically this leads to a whole list of reasons why a choice would be beneficial and reasons why a person has to be cautious because it wll have another set of things that will cost the person.

This pro-and-con orientation in decision-making is what we all use.  To a great extent it is how we naturally and inevitably think.  That is, we default to thinking in terms of choices and contrasts, values and dis-values, this or that.  Simultaneously, we also think in terms of the reasons why I am for or against something.  For this reason, it makeptos perfect sense to start by asking for the advantages and disadvantages.  But the Pro/Con list is just the beginning.  There’s much more to do if you are to generate great decisions and especially if you want to create highly intelligent or smart decisions.

What potential problems could there be here?  Ah, yes, human reasoning!  And why?  Because when we reason— even if you have been highly trained in effective, clear, rational, systemic reasoning—you still are liable to the cognitive biases and also to the cognitive distortions and fallacies.  If you are not aware of that, check out the newest book from Neuro-Semantics, Executive Thinking: Activating Your Highest Executive Thinking Potentials (2018).

A Well-Formed Decision

NLP introduced the idea of a well-formed outcome some 40 years ago, and from that I developed a Neuro-Semantic Precision Template and from that created a well-formed problem, a well-formed solution, a well-formed innovation (all are now in the book, Creative Solutions, 2017) as well as other well-formed patterns.  So how about a Well-Formed Decision?  Doesn’t that make sense if we want to make great and intelligent decisions?  Given that, here is a list of questions— questions within certain categories — that enable a person to construct a well-formed decision.

The Well-Formed Decision Questions

The Subject of the Decision: First identify the subject of the decision.

              1) What is the decision you want or need to make?  What are your choices?

              2) What will the decision look like or sound like?  When you make it, you will say what?

              3) Why is it important to make this decision?  (Repeat several times with each answer.)

The Contextual Situation of the Decision: Decisions, like every other experience occurs in some context.  Identify the specific context for the decision under consideration.

              4) When do you need to make the decision?  What time factors are involved?

5) In what area of life is this decision relevant? (Where) How does it (or could it) influence other areas of your life?

              6) Is anyone else involved in making the decision?  Are you the sole decider? (Who)

The Required Actions of the Decision: As an experience, you have to do something to make a decision, identify these actions even if they are the micro-actions of thinking and feeling.

7) What do you need to know to make the decision?  What information do you need to gather and from who or where?  How much information do you need?  What else do you need to do to make or take the decision?

The Inner Power (Capacity) for Making the Decision: Given that action is required for a decision, then inner ability is also required.

8) Is the information available now?  How much information is currently available?  If you don’t know, what probably would you estimate?  Is that information within your control to access?  If not, then who has access to it?

              9) Do you have the capacity to get the required information?  To process it?

10) Have you ever made a similar decision in the past?  What did you do that enabled your decision-making?

The Planning Process of Decision-Making: With big decisions and decisions that will forge a new or long-term direction for life, you will probably want to plan it in order to manage it over time.  Identify how you will do this.

11) How do you plan to gather the information and order it so you can make a decision?  If others are involved in the planning, information-gathering, or deciding, what is your plan for integrating them into the process?

12) What cognitive biases, distortions, and fallacies may be in the information you gather?  Do you know how to question, check, and clean out the biases, distortions, and fallacies?  Do you What feedback will you want and/or need to stay on plan?

The Supportive Resources for Deciding: As an experience, it can be supplied with sufficient resources or it can lack them.  Identify the resources that you want to round-out your deciding.have someone on the team who can do that?

13) How will you monitor a long-term decision that requires ongoing observation and action?  

14) Is there anything that can or will stop or interfere with you getting the information, formulating it, and making a decision from it?  What potential risks are there?  What risk management skills do you need?  How much risk is there involved?  What contingency plans have you set up?

15) What resources do you need so that you can do this effectively and intelligently?  What external resources?  What internal resources?

16) How will you test the final decision to make sure it is ecological for you?  How will you determine if it will create any long-term unintended consequences?

Concluding and Deciding: How will you bring closure to the process of decision?

17) How will you know when you are ready to make a decision?  When you make the decision, what will be the convincer for you?  In what representational system?

18) What will be the evidence that you have made a decision and ready to move forward?  Will it be written, stated aloud, confirmed with someone else, or what?

Want more?  Check out the books—

Coaching Change: The Axes of Change (2004/ 2015)

              Creative Solutions: Creativity and Innovation (2017)

Executive Thinking: Activating Your Highest Executive Thinking Potentials (2018).

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

                    Dr. Hall's email: meta@acsol.net 

    

    

Dr. L. Michael Hall writes a post on "Neurons" each Monday.  For a free subscription, sign up on www.neurosemantics.com.   On that website you can click on Meta-Coaching for detailed information and training schedule.   To find a Meta-Coach see www.metacoachfoundation.org.   For Neuro-Semantic Publications --- click Products, there is also a catalog of books that you can download.   

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