New Year’s Resolutions – Well-formed Outcomes continued
Moving on from my last blog about using the NLP Well-formed Outcomes principles for setting New Year’s Resolutions, let’s look at the final concepts to really structure enduring and sustainable change.
We have already noted that Resolutions should be:
1. Stated in the Positive
2. Described in Sensory-based Language
3. Self-initiated and Self-maintained
Our next criterion is:
4. Appropriately contextualised: Our lives contain many different contexts and interactions with widely varying qualities and characteristics. If we initiate a change across the board, so to speak, it may be that the change serves us well in one or more particular contexts but is not appropriate in others. An example that is exaggerated a little for effect would be someone deciding to be tougher and more assertive in their interactions with others. This might be appropriate in their business and professional life but might cause friction and damage relationships if applied to their new born baby. Another example might be that someone decides no longer to eat desserts as they wish to modify their diet. They might decide, however, to make an exception for business lunches with clients or family celebrations. Useful questions to contextualise change would be – in what situations do I want this change and in what situations do I not desire it? Where, when and with whom do I want this change? Do I want this change all the time, with everyone and everywhere without limitations? The answers to these questions can help to more appropriately delineate the contexts within which change is and isn’t desired.
5. Maintain the positives of the previous situation: When people desire change and set Resolutions it is likely that they will want to do things that are different from what they have been doing. It is unlikely, however, that the previous state of affairs will have persisted as long as it did if it didn’t have at least some benefits, even if these have been diminishing or have become outweighed by the negatives. Identifying what positive pay-offs have been provided by the previous situation and carrying them forward (albeit in a different form) can make change more fluid as nothing is being “lost” so to speak. Again, a very simple example might be a smoker who realises that his smoking behaviour enabled him to take time away from his work desk to clear his mind. Such a person may be able to find a way to take similar mind-clearing breaks by going for fifteen minutes a couple of times a day to a quiet place in the office for a brief period of meditation (our Working with Natural Rhythms course looks at how regular, brief periods of ‘down-time’ can have a remarkable rejuvenating effect on staff that can be seen in performance improvements).
6. Identify and access the required resources: In NLP terms a resource is anything that is needed to achieve something – it really is more or less as simple as that. A resource can be a physical thing such as a tool, location, vehicle, book, computer or the like. It can be time. It can be knowledge or information. It can be advice, support and guidance. It can be experience from the past – personal experience or the experience of a mentor. It can be emotional states or attitudes, such as confidence, determination, joy or courage. Identifying the resources you require to make your Resolutions real can start you on a search to locate, remember, create, borrow or receive them as a gift from a sponsor or mentor. They can then be crafted into the form that is required to make change real.
7. Ecological for the system: Ecology is often thought of these days as related to the environment but really ecology is an awareness of consequences. We live in systems – social systems, inter-personal systems, intra-personal systems etc, and a change in one small part of the system is likely to influence the system as a whole. Applying Systems Thinking is an important business skills that we teach at Watt Works. Consider what other aspects of the systems you are part of will be influenced by the changes you are planning. Are those influences acceptable or will they generate unforeseen problems? An example might be someone who is planning to double their salary this year. Considering the impact of this change upon other systems might flag up the fact that it will reduce the amount of time s/he can spend with the children. A person who plans to become smoke free might wish to consider how this decision will influence their relationships with their friends/partners who still smoke. Becoming aware in advance of the ecology of the change we propose can help to identify potential problems in advance and steps can then be taken to amend the Resolutions or to actively manage the systemic changes that will result.
That brings us to the end of our whistle-stop tour of Well-formed Outcomes. When you are setting your New Year’s Resolutions, it may be useful to use these principles as a template for their structure. We wish you all the best for 2011 and please bear in mind that if you feel you need extra one-to-one guidance or support Watt Works offers skilled and experienced Coaching to work with you in pursuit of your goals.
The process of setting Well-formed Outcomes is just one of the fundamental NLP skills that we cover on our NLP for Business courses in Cheshire and London.
Tags: New Year's Resolutions, NLP, Systems Thinking, Well formed Outcomes
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