232 Part III: Opening the Toolkit
Georgina used the information switch to break down what she would
have to do to live her dream of becoming a scriptwriter. Consequently,
she started evening classes in scriptwriting and working with projects
for the students for a local college at the weekends. She is now at the
stage where she’s planning to work part-time for production companies
so that she can spend more time following her dream.
✓ Function switch: Imagine that you can change any component in the
system within which you’re experiencing a restriction: for example,
you aren’t progressing at work or your marriage is a little bumpy. What
would you change and how would this change affect the outcome?
Colin worked as an animal nurse in a busy veterinary practice; he loved
his job but felt as though something was missing in his life. He sat down
and used his imagination to see what element he would change. As a
result, Colin’s unconscious mind had him recognise that he wanted
to do good where he was really needed by animals, and by people
unable to afford expensive veterinary treatment. Colin now works at
an animal sanctuary in India, still loves what he’s doing, and feels com-
pletely fulfilled.
Resolving Bigger Confl icts
The previous sections in this chapter provide you with a pretty good idea of
intrapersonal conflicts (within a person) and how to begin resolving them.
You may also like to think about extrapolating and extending this model. You
can apply the same principles of solving intrapersonal conflict to relation-
ships and negotiations between two people, within a team, family, or social
group, and between different companies and organisations. Here are some
examples of these bigger conflicts:
✓ Interpersonal conflict: Where two or more people have differing needs
that can’t be satisfied at the same time.
✓ Intragroup conflict: Between two or more people within the group, for
example, members of a team or department.
✓ Intergroup conflict: Between two or more groups of people, as in gang
warfare or companies battling for market leadership.
In all these situations, you can use the process outlined in the following exer-
cise to negotiate a successful outcome.
This exercise is based on the NLP process for integrating conflicting parts
that we describe in the sections ‘Trying the visual squash technique’ and
‘Reframing – as if’, earlier in this chapter:
