Metaprograms
Once people believed that each human being was born with a fixed character, a stable personality, something which characterized his behaviour and made it possible to foresee their future actions. “What can we do? He behaves like that! It's his character..." it's a sentence we have heard thousands of times and that was useful to justify any kinds of facts and misfits. Surely, if a person is likewise structured you cannot change them.
Anyway, now we can truly say: Once there were the "steady and unchangeable characters, now they exists no more since Neuro Linguistic Programming has invented Metaprograms!!! A Metaprogram is only superficially similar to a "character": in fact the former is so flexible and changeable (with proper NLP strategies) as stubborn and unmovable is the latter.
So, what's a Metaprogram? Definition: Metaprograms are behavioural schemes deriving from our personal way of selecting possible choices. Therefore they are the base for our decisions and help us on those crucial moments when it is necessary to act immediately. If a person has an "Away-from" Metaprogram they will decide not to act or, if not, they will have their personal supporting Metaprogram; but we will see everything in detail in a moment...
A Metaprogram collaborates with other strategies (VAKOG, beliefs, generalizations, etc.) to make up our map of the world and, in many cases, as we have seen, it is of great help. Yet, sometimes it can hinder our capacity of making effective choices. Let's make an example: my friend John is a very optimistic, positive, sociable person since he is characterized by a "Towards" Metaprogram. He chooses to spend summer holidays at the sea-side because he "loves sunbathing" and not to "escape from city chaos". Can you understand the difference? John solves problems with direct mediations and negotiations and even when he has to cope with extremely critical situations he can manage to find a pleasant element. His main talent consists in finding something good in all the people he knows, even in the most nasty ones. Now I wonder: how will he react when he meets a wild Bengali tiger? Will he try to find a nice aspects of its personality and, maybe, socialize and negotiate a solution which might be favourable to both parts?
Surely not all the situations ask us to glide from our favourite Metaprogram into the opposite one as soon as possible but, you know, life often requires flexibility and rapid changes of habits. Luckily NLP was invented just to make us more flexible and help us change and reach Excellence. Wow!!
Now I'm going to explain everything in detail: be patient because the total number of known and enlisted metaprograms is about fifty, but we will only describe the most important ones.
“How was the trip to Capri?”
“Nice!”
“What did you see?”
“Capri!”
It is useless to try to get much information from a Chunk up person who is used to interpret reality in big chunks and, therefore, does not love details. If you really like, you can try to extort some more facts by using the Precision Interview technique also called Metamodel (click!).
On the contrary, with a Chunk down type you run the risk of having to find an armchair in order to be in a comfortable listening position. This Metaprogram feels a sadist taste in vivisecting the incidents of their life and in narrating them to a person who does not know them well enough as to avoid the danger.
The Chunk down type won't kill you, if you first get to know him!!!
Honestly, there are some occasion when it is necessary to be a Chunk down: a neuro-surgeon must be Chunk down when explaining surgical steps but, when sitting at the restaurant with friends he'd better not use his favourite Metaprogram if he is going to tell a joke, or he will find himself alone at the restaurant table. Up!
They will end up under the same sun-umbrella in Rimini, Italy, but the first type will go there because "she wants to have a good time in a lively crowded sea-side resort" while the other "can't stand the polluted air and the damp climate of her city". The first person moves towards what they want, the other tries to avoid problems and troubles. The former is nicest but... don't forget the existence of Bengali tigers!!! Up!
People of the first group are attracted by everything which looks uniform and smooth. They are often conformist and are influenced by the latest fad. The second party prefers what is strange and original not because it is the fashion of the moment but "just because nobody has got anything the like". They often look outside clichés and extravagant. They have a certain charm due to their being unpredictable but do not accept their invitation to dinner if you only eat what your mum used to cook when you were a child. Their cuisine is so unpredictable as their personality! Up!
Generally shop-assistants know these typologies very well and know how to influence them; if the customer has an Option Metaprogram they propose them a series of choices that is a lot of articles among which they can choose. If, on the contrary, the customer is a Procedural type, and falls into panicking attack when he has to take a decision the clever seller shows them only one article which is good for them and the customer will be eternally grateful. Yet, in some critical situations even the Procedural type will have to make the effort of finding the best way by themselves without waiting for a ready-made choice. Up!
Someone worries about other people's opinions while others live their lives in perfect happiness and don't give a damn about what people think of them. Is it always convenient to follow one's judgment? Any situation should suggest us whether it is better to listen to what friends are saying and ignoring what our Metaprogram is suggesting, or it is better to keep on walking on our road ignoring rules which were established by others. Blind trusting of a behavioursal strategy is never a wise choice because itself is not a choice actually. Up!
Stableness /change
For some people to spend a week lying down on a beach and sunbathing with nothing to do or a problem to cope with, far from the computer keyboard ticking and the manager's shouts is one of the most distressing experience a human being may live through. These people like changes and need continuous stimuli. "Stable People", on the contrary panic when the idyllic picture they had painted on themselves cracks. NLP may help us be a little less polarized between these two extreme situations and live stableness change as if it were an exciting change or, in the opposite case, it can help us to see changes as challenges and not as problems. Up!
Past/present/future
There are people who live in the past and other people who expect happiness from some obscure event which is still to come. Perhaps the happiest are those ones who peacefully live in the present. But even here some flexibility is required? If tomorrow is the last day for finishing a project it is worthwhile to focus on future, isn't it? And let's not forget that wonderful evening we spent watching a sunset because that can be one of our inner resources (we shall talk about resources later... ) Up!
Active/Passive
Some people seem to master their destiny, others simply put up with events. We should always try to understand on which things we have the so-called "locus of control" and which dangers can only be dispelled by proper magic formulas Up!
If we wish to win the lottery it is crystal clear that we have very little space for action and it would be crazy to buy all the tickets on the market. But if we have to defeat an illness we better try to make all the possible moves and giving up the temptation of falling into fatalism.
So far we have talked about the relevance Metaprograms can have for us human beings, and teachers ARE HUMAN BEINGS, aren't they? Perhaps you are curious to know what they have to do with teaching? Actually they are very useful in teaching since they help us to establish rapport which is the first step in the communication process. And what else are teaching and learning if not two faces of communication? I will come back soon to tell you about rapport but that's enough for now. I truly believe I have consumed all your patience.
See you soon!
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