Joe Pritchard:- Designing a ‘Modelling’ State.
Following our attempts to unravel ‘hidden’ cultural values and limiting beliefs to ‘excellence’ in September, I set Joe the challenge to help us formulate a model to help us model!! What he came up with is infinitely better and for me is immensely exciting.

Joe began the evening by telling us about a modelling course he had been on, where no questions were allowed. The entire modelling process was experiential and kinaesthetic. One of the models was a knitter and Joe found himself in altogether the wrong state to even begin modelling. He was taken to one side and after some conversation with a moderator found a way to get into ‘state’ and model the knitter. (His smart off the shoulder jumper bears out his new found skill)!! :-)
For Joe this evening was something of an experiment, synthesising several techniques to meet the brief he had been given.  As a group we are happy to play with ‘work in progress’ and help develop ideas and ‘techniques’. Indeed I would like to offer NLP-South as a place for NLPers to come and try out their latest ideas and thinking.
Joe explained the process he wanted us to play with, ‘spatially’ setting up a future state for ‘modelling’ or anything else a good future state would help with. Having filled this special space with anticipated goodies he then proposed we stalk the space three times to notice the ‘feelings’ attached to this ‘state’. OK so far but a demonstration would bring the plan to life. Now you know me, always keen to get stuck in, but this time there was no need as Jenny volunteered to be the guinea rabbit. This was great as Jenny is very good at overt communication and therefore provides the audience with maximum information on exactly what is happening. This also helps the practitioner, in this case, Joe, ably assisted on the flip chart by his wife Liz.
So to begin; Joe asked Jenny what it was she wanted to model. “To learn by reading.” Jenny explained that she has preffered styles of learning and reading books or technical papers is not one of them! She would however like to be able to add this to her learning styles. So with something to work on Joe set up the space. Asking Jenny to choose a place, ‘The Zone’, on the floor where all the attributes for learning by reading could be placed, Joe then classified other areas on the floor as ‘Neutral’ and as, the way between, ‘neutral’ and ‘the Zone’. See picture.

The three lines at the bottom represent the ‘stalking’ of the ‘state’.!
Joe then asked Jenny to think of three famous people who embodied the excellence she was seeking. (This is one way of helping people to access the state they require, but does not work for everyone, Jenny being one of those for whom this does not work!). As a good practitioner Joe just worked in Jenny’s model of the world and through questioning elicited the submodalities of her desired state for “learning by reading”. Thinking about people who embodied her ‘state’ brought up the important elements of learning for Jenny. I have included her responses and her stream of consciousness as elicited by Joe, I have not included his questions.
‘Explaining complicated things simply’. ‘Explaining in many ways’. ‘Had enthusiasm’.’Sense a connection between that person and me’. ‘Penny Tompkins and James Lawley - I knew exactly what I had to do to follow their way of training- quite structured in their approach - helped me find the right state for learning’. ‘Interaction with groups - people connect with me - eye contact, rapport - 2 way learning goes on + builds on itself - small group work - growing learning - insight - growing excitement - got understanding - removing distractions - keeping focus - so busy no time for anything else. Outcome - end up with understanding!!’ ‘Interest in people - reading is just words - tech or reference type books are like maths symbols climbing across page - like people - fun with people - sense of fun would help keep me focussed’.
Having filled two sheets of flip chart with notes (by Liz) Joe then asked Jenny which were the key statements she had made. She immediately picked out four.
1) The right state for learning (experienced with Penny & James).
2) Growing excitement. (from working in shared learning groups, e.g. NLP-South).
3) A Sense of FUN. (with people)
4) Ending up with understanding. (major outcome).
Joe checked that these four ‘goodies’ were all Jenny needed in her “zone” and then moved her to the neutral place. (see diagram above).
Reminding Jenny of her awaited ‘goodies’, Joe asked her to begin walking towards the “zone” and to stop as soon as she felt the ‘state’ that was waiting for her ahead. Jenny walked about five paces before she stopped and we could all see that she had begun to ‘feel’ the ‘state’ she had placed ahead of her in the “zone”. Returning to neutral, she ‘stalked’ the “zone” once more and this time only got about two paces forward before stopping! This stalking, until the feeling begins, allowed Jenny to be clear about the ‘state’ she was going to access once she finally reached the “zone”. Joe now instructed her to walk towards the “zone” and stop right at the edge, pause for a moment, and then fully immerse herself in the “zone” and experience the ‘learning state’ ‘the growing excitement’ ‘the sense of fun’ ‘the understanding’. As I said earlier Jenny is overt with her body language and so, many of us got a clear sense of the power she was accessing in her “zone”.
Just time  for a quick wash up and a few questions before the break.
After the break we split into threes and had a play. Some groups managed one person through into their zone, some did two and one group managed all three! In my group we went through the whole process for one of us in about three minutes!! The speed was exactly what this person needed. As always new versions of Joe’s original plan sprung up around the room, the best way to use NLP is to match it to the ‘needs’ of the ‘client’.
All too soon the evening ended and despite many offers Joe and Liz decided they would drive back to Cornwall, or at least part of the way.
For me there was a tremendous learning from this evening. I have been struggling to find the universal elixir of modelling. The model for all to use for modelling. The struggle of course is that such a thing doesn’t exist. There are many modelling ‘techniques’, but no one works for everyone. Joe’s experiment with creating the ideal state for an individual allows us to create our own special state for modelling or learning or whatever we want to achieve in our own unique way.
Thank you Joe (& Liz) for coming so far and being brave enough to play with your ideas and let them develop with us.

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