The One with the Most Choices... Wins!
NLP draws strength from three presuppositions in particular to help us operate from positions of increased possibilities:
- Having a choice is always better than not having a choice.
- People always make the best choice they can at the time.
- The law of requisite variety that states that in any cybernetic system the element or person in the system with the widest range of behaviours or variability of choice will control the system.
Be the Queen
Using the metaphor of chess, it is always better to be the queen than a pawn, knight, bishop or rook. There are limits on what you can do but it's better to be able to advance or retreat in any direction as required by the game of life.
Choice Among Strategies
In life, as in Chess, the game is always changing. So we need to be equipped with many strategies, including:
- Know when to Get Out
- Know when to Give In
- Know when to Take Over
- Know when to Trade Off
- Go for the Breakthrough
Breakthrough Thinking
What is breakthrough thinking? Simply put, it's thinking that leads to a positive outcome that you have not thought about before. That would make it a breakthrough for you, or your relationship, or your team.
So, what makes breakthrough thinking so rare and special is that we typically rumage around in our prior experience for what has worked in similar situations. We do the same things over and over, and when those same things do not work, we try to do them harder and harder.
Part of the role of an NLP practitioner is to exercise the muscles of breakthrough thinking in ourselves and in our clients, so that it is there when we need it on the really important matters. As opposed to other strategies, like getting out, giving in, or taking over, breakthrough thinking requires more energy and cooperation to implement, but it's benefits are longer lasting.
