NLP Communication Model

NLP Communication Model

This is a model of how we communicate with ourselves and with others. It is based in Cognitive Psychology and was developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder.

	Filters	to produce
	that	Internal Representation
External Events are perceived through	Delete Generalise & Distort		and create Behaviour
	according to	State
	Meta-Programs	Physiology
	Values	which interact
	Beliefs
	Decisions
	Memories

NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) explains how we process information coming to us from the world around us. Cognition of an external event occurs as we experience it through the senses visual, auditory, kinaesthetic (feeling) olfactory (smell), and gustatory (taste). Before we make an internal representation of the event, we:

Delete - when we selectively pay attention to some aspects of our experience and not others;

Distort - when we make shifts in our experience of sensory data by making misrepresentations of reality; and

Generalise - when we draw global conclusions based on one or more experiences.

This happens as the information passes through our internal processing filters, which are:

Meta-Programs - the most unconscious of the internal processing filters. They have no content in themselves but, by deletion and distortion, filter the content of our experience by either adding to or subtracting from our generalisations. We use them to maintain our identities. Knowing someone's Meta-Programs means that you can predict their states, therefore their behaviour and their action. This is not to label people; just to recognise that is the way a person processes information.

Values - are unconscious filters with content. They evaluate between what we feel is right and wrong. They provide the primary motivating force to our action, what we are moving towards or away from. They are arranged in a hierarchy, typically with the most important ones at the top. Values can change with context, that means we may have one set of values for career or business, another for relationships or family. They are interrelated to our models of the world; if we communicate with ourselves or others and run up against a different model of the world and a different set of values, there is likely to be conflict.

Beliefs - are convictions or acceptance that certain things are true or real. They are also generalisations about the world. If you are trying to model your behaviour on somebody else, you need to know what beliefs lie behind that behaviour. Beliefs affect your ability to have or do want you want. If you don't believe that you can do or have what you want, then you probably won't get the opportunity to find out.

Attitudes - are collections of values and beliefs around a particular subject. We are usually quite conscious of them and know that is the way we feel about something. It is easier to change values than attitudes, because values are less conscious and more abstract.

Memories - are who we are and deeply affect perception and personality. As some people get older, their reactions in the present are almost entirely reactions to collections of memories around a particular subject or emotion.

Decisions - relate to memories and can affect our whole life, especially limiting decisions. Many decisions are unconscious or were made at an early age and then forgotten. Where decisions are not re-evaluated as our values change, they can affect our lives in ways that we had not originally intended.

These filters determine what information is retained as we make an internal representation of any event. It is our internal representation, that is our internal pictures, sounds dialogue and feelings that causes us to be in a particular state, e.g. sad or happy, motivated, challenged or excited and creates a particular physiology.

All behaviour is state related, so these filters determine our action, because what is retained or deleted will have a major effect on the internal representation.

Remember that in this model, the internal representation is not the reality. Our experience is something that we literally construct inside ourselves. We experience external reality only indirectly since we are always deleting, distorting and generalising.

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