Chapter 8: Understanding to Be Understood: Meta Programs 127
Looking at meta programs and language patterns
If you’re able to pick up on people’s language, you can discover their pat-
terns of behaviour long before the behaviour becomes apparent. Leslie
Cameron-Bandler, among others, conducted further research into the meta
programs developed by Richard Bandler. She and her student, Rodger Bailey,
established that people who use similar language patterns portray similar
patterns of behaviour. For example, people with an entrepreneurial flare may
have similar patterns – outgoing, good at persuading people, strong belief in
themselves, and so on – even though they may work in very different fields.
Imagine a gathering of the heads of the United Nations without any transla-
tors: very little communication would take place. A similar breakdown in
communication can occur if you’re unaware of the meta programs being
employed by the person with whom you’re trying to communicate. Learning
about meta programs allows you to become proficient in translating the
mental maps that people use to navigate their way around their experiences.
NLP pioneers, Bandler and Grinder, realised that people who use similar lan-
guage patterns develop deeper rapport more quickly than people who use
dissimilar ones. No doubt you’ve heard some non-French speakers complain
that the French are unfriendly. Others who can speak French refute this opin-
ion. Meta programs are a powerful way to establish rapport verbally by hear-
ing the patterns that people are running and then responding with language
that they can understand easily.
To help you understand the type of language that’s characteristic of the vari-
ous meta programs, we include in the following sections phrases that you’re
likely to hear with each meta program.
Exploring meta programs and behaviour
In the Encyclopedia of Systemic NLP and NLP New Coding, Robert Dilts and
Judith DeLozier explain meta programs in terms of two people with the
same decision-making strategies getting different results when presented
with the same information. For example, although both people may make a
picture of the data in their heads, one person may become completely over-
whelmed with the amount of information while the other reaches a quick
decision based on the feelings the pictures produce. (You can find out more
about how people process the information they receive through their senses
in Chapters 6 and 10). The difference lies in the meta programs that each
person is running, which impacts their decision-making strategy.