NLP Workbook: A practical guide to achieving the results you want. Joseph O’Connor

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Evidence for having achieved the outcome. How will you know that you have got it?

       Ask:

      ‘How will I know that I am on course towards my outcome? What am I going to measure?’

      ‘How will I know when I have achieved this outcome? What will I see, hear or feel?’

      3 Specifics: Where, when and with whom?

       Where do you want the outcome? Where specifically? There may be places and situations where you do not want it. You may want to increase productivity, but only in certain departments. You may want to buy a house, but not if interest rates rise beyond a certain point.

      When do you want it? You may need to meet a deadline or you may not want the outcome before a specific date, because other elements would not be in place to take advantage of it. Ask:

      ‘Where specifically do I want this?’

      ‘When specifically do I want this?’

      ‘In what context do I want this?’

      4 Resources: What resources do you have?

       List your resources. They will fall into five categories, some more relevant than others, depending on your outcome:

      

Objects. Examples would be office equipment, buildings and technology. There may be books you can read, television and video programmes you can see, tapes you can listen to.

      

People. For example, family, friends, acquaintances, your business colleagues, other business contacts.

      

Role models. Do you know anyone who has already succeeded in getting the outcome? Whom can you talk to? Has someone written about their experience?

      

Personal qualities. What qualities do you have or need to develop to achieve the outcome? Think of all your personal skills and capabilities.

      

Money. Do you have enough? Can you raise enough?

      5 Control: Can you start and maintain this outcome?

       How much is under your direct control? What can you do and what do others have to do to get this outcome? Who will help you? How can you motivate them to actually want to help you rather than feeling they have to help you? Ask:

       ‘What can I do directly to get this outcome?’

       ‘How can I persuade others to help me? What can I offer them that will make them want to help?’

      6 Ecology: What are the wider consequences?

       Here are some wider systemic questions to consider:

      

What time and effort will this outcome need? Everything has an ‘opportunity cost’. Spending time and effort on one thing leaves others neglected.

      

Who else is affected and how will they feel? Take different perspectives. In your business life consider your boss, your customers, your suppliers and the people you manage. In your personal life consider your spouse, your friends and your children. When you think about the ecology of the outcome, you may want to change it or think of a different way to get it.

      

What will you have to give up when you achieve this outcome? It is said that you can have anything you want if you are prepared to pay for it (and not necessarily in money).

      

What is good about the present situation? What do you want to keep? Losing valuable aspects of the present situation is the greatest cause of resistance to change both for individuals and organizations.

      

What else could happen when you get your outcome? There are always secondary consequences and sometimes these become more of a problem than the initial situation. (King Midas’s golden touch comes to mind…)

      7 Identity: Is this outcome in keeping with who you are?

       You can apply this at both the individual and organizational level. First the individual level. Suppose you want to manage a project. Being involved with this project might mean a great deal of time away from home. It might mean dropping other projects. It might take you away from your main career path. Although you would like to be involved, on balance it just does not suit you. You might ask, ‘What does working on this project accomplish for me?’ If the answer is to gain valuable experience, then there may be other projects, or training and consulting might be preferable.

      The same is true at the organizational level. Each company has a certain culture and a set of core values that define its identity. Company outcomes need to be aligned with this corporate self. Many companies come unstuck through diversifying into areas in which they are inexperienced and which do not fit their identity.

      Many a company has a strong identity that is characteristic of its founder and this can work to its advantage. Richard Branson of Virgin started an airline, which was very different from his original music business, but he and Virgin are identified with innovation, so the move was profitable.

      8 How do your outcomes fit together?

       How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

      If the outcome is too large, list all the obstacles that prevent you from getting it and set smaller outcomes to get over these barriers. Ask, ‘What prevents me from achieving this outcome?’

      When you are knee deep in crocodiles, it’s hard to remember you went in to drain the swamp.

      When the outcome is too small to be motivating and you feel bogged down with details, ask yourself, ‘What does this small outcome get for me?’ Connect the details to the larger, more motivating outcome of which it is part.

      9 Action plan: What to do next?

       Once you have put your plan through these questions, then you are ready to act, or perhaps delegate. When delegating in a business project, give your people the wider picture, so they can connect their tasks with the larger project. Make sure they know how to think outcomes through for themselves. This will ensure that their tasks are aligned with yours.

      Remember the story of the two builders? Both were asked what they were doing. The first said, ‘I’m laying bricks.’ The second said, ‘I’m building a wonderful building.’

      Guess

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