Chapter 19: Dipping into Modelling 309
Refi ning for simplicity
The question for the modeller to decide is which elements of the exemplar’s
behaviour are an essential part of the model, and which are just an interesting
piece of information. Does the golfer’s pre-match ritual make the difference
to the winning shot? You need to isolate at least three occasions when the
desired behaviour is present, so that you can spot common patterns between
them. This approach may mean choosing at least three exemplars, or if you
want one person’s particular way of doing something, at least three separate
instances.
You have to be willing to stay for longer than usual in the space of ‘not
knowing’, absorbing the details you’ve gathered, and then to ‘chunk up’ to
the essential elements of what needs to be your model (you can read more
about chunking in Chapter 16.) When you have your model, try it on for size
to work out what is essential to have and what you can safely leave out.
You also need to check that someone else’s model fits with your values and
whether you may need to do some work on your own beliefs. Here, you could
enlist the support of an NLP coach if you’re developing a model to make
changes in your own life.
Fran Burgess of the Northern School of NLP suggests that writing a book is
just like the process of modelling. You have all the data and are left with the
question of how to sort the data and the structure has to emerge. Modellers,
like writers, need to be willing to delve into a tremendous amount of detail in
order to find the apparent simplicity of what finally emerges in their work.
Writers work in their unique way and the actual writing part – of words to
paper – is a tiny part of the overall publication process. Yet many people
don’t realise this fact when they attempt to model an author and extract the
essential core elements to the model. When Kate writes books, she starts
with gathering masses of information, reading other books on and around the
subject, surfing the net, going to events, interviewing people, and creating
flipcharts of ideas and visual computer maps that break down the structure
of chapters, before getting into a project plan with dates and deliverables.
The neat finished product often belies the volume of books, paperwork and
computer files involved in her office and home.
When Romilla writes, she does some things in the same way as Kate, going
out and meeting people and brainstorming ideas to a flipchart, and others in
a very different way. She likes to listen to CDs and tapes, and prefers to tape
conversations, absorbing the information before she writes. Both of us have
our antennae tuned for months and plenty of unconscious processing goes
on when a book is in our heads.