Dianne Lowther. Change Management.

Since I first took over the practice group, in 1998, we have been lucky to enjoy many talented speakers on various subjects, either allied to NLP, or in which we can use our NLP skills to draw out a useful nugget or two. This year seems to me to have been the best yet. Maybe, at last, I’ve got the hang of clear briefing for the speakers, or perhaps the group has self selected to provide a fertile mix of learning styles and enthusiasm to spur our speakers towards relaxed excellence.
In our year of “Innovation” Dianne showed us how being clear and precise can be of most value in a difficult area. Managing Change both for ourselves and for others. Nothing complicated, nothing ‘clever’ just simple use of NLP basics.
Anyone who has undergone some NLP training, or been exposed to it by a Therapist or friend, will have some idea about ‘change’. Its usually accompanied by some discomfort. The level of discomfort grows exponentially with the lack of personal control over the change taking place. Making changes for yourself can be challenging. Helping others (forcing) to make changes , particularly if they are happy with things as they are now, can be more than challenging, hence Dianne’s references to “pushing water uphill”, “walking through treacle”, and “herding cats”.
Dianne started the evening by sharing her experience of ‘difficult’ change management projects. Then she asked us to share our views on the NLP techniques that would be most useful for Managing Change. At this point, having settled comfortably into my chair, I usually find I’ve totally forgotten any NLP jargon and hope fervently the rest of the group is awake and eager, or I have recently read something that allows me to show off my new knowledge. This time it was the latter as I had been studying ‘Sleight of Mouth patterns for conversational change’. So that was one of the items written on the list. Along with, ‘State management’, ‘Belief change’, ‘Perceptual positions’, ‘Values / Hierarchy’, ‘Logical levels’, and ‘Time lines’. Didn’t we do well? No! The tools Dianne had in mind were even simpler. “Outcomes”, “Convincer strategies”, “Representational systems”, and “Metaprograms”.
Starting with outcomes she shared with us a useful reminder about practice. To get the hang of a new habit or learning it will only become a new habit if it is practiced regularly and diligently. When Dianne first learnt about ‘well formed outcomes’ she practiced getting 5 a day. Every phone call, before she made it, she considered her outcome and checked it for ‘well formedness’.
(Its easy to be interested by a new idea or concept and then to stay in ‘the comfort zone’ of no change. Having spent a lot of time and money on my own personal development I find myself wondering about the extra benefits I might have gained by truly ‘practicing’ new concepts that attracted me, until I had them ‘in the muscle’).
When considering change and dealing in ‘change management’ its vital to check the well formedness of all outcomes and to discover the ‘secondary gain’ of the current situation. If change is not moving forwards ask “what’s stopping this?” Dianne checked with us the conditions for ‘well formedness’.
1) State the outcome positively.
2) Keep it within your own control.
3) Be as specific as possible.
4) Think about what sensory based evidence you will need to know you have got it.
5) Check the ecology of achieving it for yourself and others.
So with ‘outcomes’ firmly in hand on to ‘convincer’ strategies.
These are most obvious when making buying decisions. For instance.. How do you buy new clothes? Do you have to go into three shops before returning to the first one? Do you have to ‘feel’ the material? Check the price against an ‘inside’ allowance? Try it on? Ask a friend? Or do you just rush in, buy the first thing you come to, rush home, throw it in the bottom of the wardrobe and leave it there with all the others?
Dianne explained that this was about knowing for yourself which of your own representational systems (see, hear, smell, taste, feel) needs to be satisfied and how many times it needs this before a decision to change can take place. This is difficult enough on a personal level. It gets progressively harder when attempting to ‘Manage’ change in an organisation or in someone else.
Get a large enough group together and patterns begin to emerge. In any collection of humanity there are always those who like to be first to try anything new. They don’t take much convincing and Dianne termed them “Early Adopters”. These people will self select to be first on a new course, or to use a new piece of equipment. Then in increasing levels of convincing come the rest of us, followed at some distance by those who refuse to be convinced of anything, “Consistent Convincers”. Time for a PLAY! We split into smaller groups to explore our own ‘convincer’ strategy in relation to a major purchase. I used some of the major purchases for our house extension (staircase, roof trusses) to explore my own strategy and discovered it was important for me to have enough information to explain my pending decision to Jenny, so she could understand it, for me to be convinced! Others had different strategies, all of us learnt something useful about ourselves. We re-grouped, shared our discoveries and broke for a drink.
In the second half Dianne led us on to discuss Meta-programs. There are loads of these, but before we could dazzle her with our wide knowledge of just how many she shared her experience from managing change by once again focussing us on the four main ones that help change take place.
1) Towards ....... Away From.
2) Sameness ..... Difference.
3) Internal ........ External.
4) Procedures .... Options.
Meta-programs are to do with how we are motivated to make change. For example ‘Towards’ something new and excitng, or ‘Away From’ something we no longer want, or from pain!
(This can also be thought of as ‘Carrot’ or ‘Stick’. All our laws in this country involve plenty of ‘Stick’ and not much ‘Carrot’!)
We split up again and played with ‘holding’ different meta-programs from each other to explore the ‘language’ we would need to communicate effectively with someone ‘holding’ a different program to ourselves.
All too soon the evening ended. We felt we had really practiced something useful and re-discovered some plain truths about the nature of change. Thank you Dianne for a well structured and clear evening, in which we also had some fun!
To read some of Dianne’s articles on ‘Change Management’ and to find out about her NLP training follow this link. Brilliant Minds. Its well worth a visit as I’ve just checked the link and enjoyed her article on ‘Convincers’.
 

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