Consulting Tips and Tools

As an individual, and in a consulting role, I have noticed the importance of keeping my focus on desired results to travel the most productive and pleasant path to success.  When challenges arise, I want to access the widest range of ideas, perspectives, and resources available to me.

When faced with a meaningful challenge to something we have planned or already invested in, it can be all too easy to slip into extended focus on avoiding what is not wanted.  Depending on the potential consequences of the challenge, deeper concerns or fears may be triggered, with their associated emotions.  This is a relatively unresourceful starting point for thinking and action.

How can you stay resourceful in these situations?   Drawing on Neuro-Linguistic Programming modeling tools, Susan and I have identified one “how-to” strategy.  I outline it below both to share it with you and to stimulate comments on strategies that work best for others.

When a challenge or an unexpected event that could throw us off track must be addressed, or when I notice some degree of tension or lack of creativity when considering how to proceed, I have used the following sequence with success:

(1) Imagine as vividly as possible in minds-eye what is wanted, the outcomes and results that are in the process of being achieved.  This picture is rendered in bright colors, sharp images, and in my immediate foreground.  It is as if I am in this scene and experiencing the actual existence or reality of what is wanted right now.

(2)  Notice whether you hear sounds or things people may be saying accompanying this scene (I find that I may not notice these until after step 3).

(3)  Next, surround this picture with the visual thought of being totally supported with all the resources needed to succeed in producing the results desired.  This seems to be a key in accessing relaxation and resourcefulness.

(4)  Consciously notice the sensation of relaxing, enabling greater perspective and a wider range of ideas on how to move forward. At this point I sometimes detect the beginning of a positive sense of expectation.

(5) If there is a sense of getting emotionally “caught” by a concern (signaled by tension or shallower breathing, for example), make a picture of whatever the concern is, put it in black and white, surround it by the much larger picture in color of the positive result(s) desired and the large cache of resources available.  If this composite image is then zoomed away in minds-eye, I find that I very quickly relax and am better able to create one or more pathways to the desired result.

What works best for you when meeting challenges along the way?  As consultants, we are skilled in developing customized solutions for others.  Why not apply that same skill to maintaining one of our most valued professional resources:  The ability to assess challenges objectively and take the action needed to realize desired results.

We invite your comments below (just click on the comment tab), or contact us by email.

Randy

PS  Because the soft skills presented above are not normally discussed in a traditional consulting context, I have been reflecting on relevant material reported elsewhere.  Here is a brief summary:  Review of the classic Encyclopedia of Systemic Neuro-Linguistic Programming and NLP New Coding by Dilts and DeLozier reveals that, as early as Aristotle, sensory modalities (seeing, hearing, touch, smell, taste) and associated qualities such as hot vs. cold, soft vs. hard, quiet vs. loud, bright vs. dark, white vs. black, color vs. only black and white (termed “submodalities” in NLP) have been discussed as a primary means by which humans relate to objects being perceived, and to represent them in memory.  The proactive use of modalities and submodalities in visualization to further the realization of results in traditional cultures has been reported by Serge King, Ph.D. (e.g., in elements of Haipule in the Hawaiian Huna tradition).  Of course, visualization techniques are now commonly associated with coaching for achievement in sports.  Modern research on use of the senses and submodaliities to produce resourceful states and results dates from at least the mid 1970’s (David Gordon, Therapeutic Metaphor 1978, and Todd Epstein’s and Richard Bandler’s work in Pragmagraphics established in 1980), with early antecedent research dating to the English scientist Francis Galton in 1880, the American William James at the turn of the 19th century, and the Russian Ivan Pavlov.

Randy

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Determining What is Needed (Assessment). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.