Neuro Linguistic Programming

64 Part I: Introducing NLP

Therefore, her well-formed outcome for future client assignments was ‘to

work in a calm, efficient, and commercial way’. Looking at her goal, it may not

initially be apparent that she had control of the outcome because she was

dependent on the clients playing their part. However, in applying the prin-

ciples of the NLP well-formed outcome, she set clearer expectations with dis-

organised clients. Her strategies included arranging meetings in quiet offices

with no distractions, or holding a videoconference rather than visiting the

client site. Her goal involved setting specific boundaries such as defining the

start and end times of meetings and distributing the objectives, agenda, and

actions and information required in writing. Also, by fully itemising the time

spent and billing for every hour wasted – like the legal profession – she also

had a direct impact on making others more efficient.

Initially, Kate’s goal didn’t appear to depend solely on her and therefore, on

the face of it, she may not have been able to satisfy it. By showing flexibility

of behaviour, however, she took responsibility for achieving her goal and

influencing her clients with complete integrity.

Does the goal describe the evidence procedure?

Evidence procedure is another way of asking ‘When do I know that I’ve achieved

my goal?’ Here are some extremely important questions that can help to iden-

tify goals that are too vague, or when you’re unclear on the outcome:

✓ How do I know that I’m getting the desired outcome?

✓ What will I be doing when I get it?

✓ What will I see, hear, and feel when I have it?

On one of Romilla’s workshops, David, an accountant, wanted to become

self-employed. His only stated desire was to earn enough income within three

months. By answering the above questions he discovered that he hadn’t really

worked out what he truly wanted from working for himself. His initial goal,

although stated in the positive, was too vague to help him get anywhere: it

was as bad as saying, ‘I know I don’t want to work for someone else’ (a nega-

tive). Instead, he followed the well-formed outcome process and worked out

Dwelling on the negative can damage your health

Romilla knows at least two people who man-

aged to get themselves sacked from jobs by

unconsciously adopting damaging behaviours

that were out of character. When examining

the situation later, the people realised that

they would have behaved differently if they had

focused their energy on defining the jobs they

wanted and finding better employment. Instead,

they sapped their energy by just not wanting

to be there and fell into destructive, aberrant

behaviours.