NLP At Work : The Difference That Makes the Difference in Business

At first I thought it was for someone else. Then I thought my

colleague had dreamt up a nickname for me, Jones. Eventually

I realized he was answering a question I had asked him in an

email several days earlier (for the surname of a mutual

contact). In Brian’s shoes he read my question and, treating it

like a regular conversation – answered the question and

closed the message. However, if he had put himself in my

shoes he might have realized that a lot of emails had flowed

through the ether between the time I had sent him this

question and getting his answer, and the original question was

not at the forefront of my thinking.

I cannot make him put himself in my shoes, but I can learn

to put myself in his shoes in order to think about how I can

learn from this and save myself time in the future.

Perceptual positions thinking works in our design of

anything that involves other people. It is interesting how

computer games have developed in their use of these different

positions. And what is also interesting is the preference people

have for the different positions in their choice of game. For

example, there are first person games (usually first person

shootouts) in which you are associated into the shoes of the

key player. Consequently you are likely to experience the

emotions of being that player. And there are “command and

conquer” games where you take a third position and manage

many players or situations from an overseeing position.

The closest to second position would be RPG (role playing

games) in which you advise and instruct one of the players in the

game but from an overseeing position, so it is a mix of second

and third position thinking. If you play or know people who play

computer games they probably have a preference for which kind

of game (depending on the position they adopt) is their favorite.

We can help others to appreciate situations and services by

taking them through any one or all of the perceptual positions.

For example, the author of the following article is helping us

appreciate some of the design features of a website by putting

us in the shoes of the web page user.

“Browsing the shops one day, imagine you walk into a

department store called, say, Inter-Net Universal Superstores.

There’s no proper signposting and you can’t find an information

312 NLP AT WORK

I can learn to put myself in

others’ shoes

Computer games use different

perceptual positions

We can help others to

appreciate situations