Robert Dilts - Neuro–Linguistic Programming - Volume I. The Study of the Structure of Subjective Experience

It will also be extremely helpful to establish a feedback network between relevant personnel, group members, and any other people or elements involved in the operation, so that they can get feedback on the outcomes of their operations and so you can get feedback on the effectiveness of the operations you have installed. (How close to completion is the project? Was the product ordered? Delivered? Received? What changes or operations still need to be made to accomplish the desired state? Who will be taking on what task?) Redundancy in feedback and the type of feedback will also be very important. Operations may be slowed down and information may be lost if the appropriate feedback is not employed. Often, installing the procedure so that direct auditory and visual contact is available between members participating in the operation can streamline the feedback and operation processes.

One of the authors was once consulting for a corporation that had just installed a computer system into their operation, with which to record, store and send orders for their product. Shortly after the installation of the new system, however, the company's number of "lost orders" increased dramatically. The "lost orders" were a great mystery to everyone. The author then observed the operation of the new computer system. The computer performed three basic operations: (1) storing the name, address and order of the person or company requesting the product, (2) sending this information to the terminal of the distributor of the product, and (3) informing the computer operator of the receipt of the order at the terminal of the distributor. In order to first get the computer to take in and store the information about the purchaser, however, a specific format had to be employed to enter the information. When the format was followed and the computer took in the information it would print out the feedback: "accepted/done." Different feedback would be given for the successful completion of the other operations. What the author realized, was that, because of the ambiguity of the word "done," many of the employees who were naive about the operation of computers would enter orders and assume the computer feedback "accepted/done" meant that the order was sent and received and that the job was completed. When the situation was remedied by changing the feedback to read: "stored," "sent," and "received by_," the number of

"lost orders" declined dramatically.

Another common task facing business is the selection or training of personnel to occupy vacated positions within their organizations. The decision to recuit or train is an important one which we discussed earlier. One input which an effective manager will require in order to make that decision intelligently is a job description. The higher the quality of information regarding the actual behavior required to be effective in a job position, the higher the quality of decision that manager will be able to make regarding the recuitment/training issue. (This is isomorphic to getting a full 4-tuple representation of the desired state in individual strategy installation.) One technique designed by one of the authors to elicit high quality information about actual job requirements is given below. Provide first line supervisors with forms (see example form A on the next page) to be distributed to personnel who they supervise. These forms are to be filled out in context (i.e. the employee is to fill out the form while working in position). To insure this, the supervisor will keep as privileged information the specific times the employees are to fill in the forms. The supervisor is responsible for:

1. Providing their employees with the form and its accompanying reframe, 3 days in a row. (See procedure 1)

2. Informing employees to fill forms in at the times designated (known only to the supervisor — these times will be randomized throughout the working day) during a three day period.

3. Collecting forms and checking them for intelligibility/legibility.

The point of having employees fill out forms in context is, of course, to minimize the slippage between their actual behavior and the words they use in attempting to report it on the form. After this initial information is gathered (assuming a move refined description is appropriate), the following steps would be appropriate:

1. Have first line supervisors compile a list of the six most frequently occurring activities/tasks as reported by their employees (spot check to keep them honest).

2. Design a form whereby the activity/task is placed in context by having each employee select a specific example of each one of the six most frequent activities/tasks and describe what they had to do to get ready to do that task efficiently (typically not more than 5 minutes before starting the task) and what they had to do to insure the task was completed, followed up on (e.g., File information with whom?, Positive receipt procedures to be used?, Information routed to whom?)

Each of you when you first came to work at your present job experienced both a sense of excitement as you faced something new and a sense of uncertainty about what was expected of you— what exactly you were supposed to do. These are a normal part of fitting yourself into a new job. We, here at company X, are interested in promoting that sense of excitement while reducing the frustration which sometimes accompanies the uncertainty. We are doing this by asking you experienced employees to take a minute breather several times a day for the next few days, and jot down where you are and what specifically you are doing. By doing this, you can help us help your future co-workers and help us help you when you move into any new position. Please indicate with as few words as possible where you are and what specific activity/task you are involved in at the times when your supervisor indicates. For example:

Interference to the installation or start-up of an operation in an organization can be treated essentially the same way as it is with an individual strategy.

If the operation does not achieve the outcome, the first thing to check is the calibration of the operation — that is, are they all doing what they are supposed to be doing? If they are not, change their behavior so that they are, making use of the meta-outcomes to reframe your intervention (as described earlier). If they are, and you are still not getting your outcome, then you can essentially follow the same TOTE sequence diagramed earlier in this chapter to test and modify the specific procedures and the outcomes of those procedures.

Another important check to make is on the rapport between the members of the organization that are interacting with one another to carry out the installed operation. How do the employees react to one another? If you find that you have rapport problems, one very effective way to resolve them is to teach the employees, managers and executives about representational systems, strategies, pacing, anchoring, and so on, and help them to develop the tools of rapport building.

If there are specific conflicts, breaks in rapport to the point of precipitating crises, you may wish to use the arbitration and negotiation strategy described below.

The processes of arbitration and negotiation provide a good example of the application of NLP principles to the handling of interference in organizations. The steps of the procedure are a slight modification of the reframing TOTE (they are very similar, in fact, to the procedure used with the two conflicting parts of the overweight client in the transcript presented earlier in this chapter).