Exploring Questions that Drive Change

REPLAY BELOW – Live Conversation with

Alan Whitton (Fighters Mind) and James Tripp

(Want to become more personally influential? Want to help others empower themselves? Neuro-Linguistic Influencer!)

httpv://youtu.be/4D7payOA2mI

Replay of Webinar and notes to accompany video below!

UPDATE:

Hi All

If you missed the live call (21st August 2012),  the replay and download are available below! You will also find, at the end of this post some additional notes that support the ‘Essence of Change Question Set’ (discussed in the video above), which I’ve included to help you get the most out of it (it is a deceptively simple but highly impactful  little tool!). The note take a slightly different frame than the video, but it is essentially the same process.

I Hope you enjoy and play with the questions – if you are into changework, you should get a lot out of this!

J

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

Hello Hypnoheads!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to catch up with my good friend Alan Whitton and chat about our favourite subject – changework and personal coaching. It was a great conversation, largely focusing on the power of questions to drive change… we ended up kicking backwards and forwards our favourite ‘change-driving questions‘ we use with clients and dissecting how and why they work.

Anyhows, subsequent to the conversation Al asked if I would put something down on audio around the subject for the people subscribed to his newsletter, and I counter suggested that we put it out as a live broadcast teleseminar. So here it is.

It’s a bit short notice, I know, but we just wanted to get it out there whilst the topic is still fresh!

But why ‘dirty’ questions?

Knowing what a fan I am of Clean Language, Al suggested that we steer into different territory and ‘go dirty’. Fine by me (and the truth is, ‘Clean’ isn’t all that ‘clean’ anyway).

So, this is going to be a fantastic exploration and dissection of questions that drive change… And although we have said 3, the truth is that we really have little intent of limiting ourselves in any way.

And I hope you can join us on the call!

All the very best

James

REPLAY – 3 Dirty Questions that Drive Change

[S3AUDIO file=’3DirtyQuestions.mp3′]

[S3FILE file=’3DirtyQuestions.mp3′]

SUPPORTING NOTES FOR THE VIDEO – THE ‘ESSENCE OF CHANGE’ QUESTION SET

What follows is a brief ‘protocol’ for eliciting and orientating from clients not only to ‘difference’ but also the difference that difference makes! Although there is no ‘induction’ or even closed eyes (though there may be) it really is pure hypnosis in action.

For me, hypnosis is:

The use of language and communication to direct attention and seed ideas, for the purpose of altering a persons perception of reality. By that formulation, what follows is pure hypnosis (…without trance! :-D)

The aim here is to elicit difference, and model out the difference that difference makes. It is an excellent process for orientating the client to start paying attention to useful feedback and difference – a life skill.

It also serves to connect the client more vividly to the new perspectives and the value within the work. This is good for both assisting change AND for ensuring credit where credit is due regarding the work (some say this doesn’t matter, but it is certainly more healthy for your business to do so!)

The ‘reference structure’ that sits behind this is:

1. ‘What?’
2. ‘So What?’
3. ‘Now What?

…and it unpacks as follows:

1 – ‘What?’ represents “The difference…”

Q: What do you know know that you didn’t know before?

or

Q: What do you notice that is different?

The former I use if the framing has been more ‘conversational’, the latter if we have been doing more ‘formal’ process.

Feedback the ‘key elements’ to the client “and… x and y and Z”

2 – ‘So what?’ represents “…that makes the Difference.”

Q: And when you know that, what difference does knowing that make?

or

Q: As you notice that, what difference does that make… having that?

Again – Feedback the ‘key elements’ to the client “and… a and b and c”

You can repeat this step several times, modelling out the differences offered by the client with Clean Language .

3 – ‘Now what?’ represents the ‘Clean’ (…ish) future pace.

Q: And when you have all that (can feed in some of the clients language), and you think about taking that with you into the future, what do you notice that is different … when you think about that now?

AND/OR

Q: And is there a specific time or place coming up over the next few days and weeks where you’ll have an opportunity to explore with that difference, and notice what it is that you notice…“yes”

…and as you think about that now, what could be different for you in that situation.

Additional Notes

Always feedback the clients ‘resource language’ wherever possible. The aim is to elicit and ‘leverage out’ difference as cleanly as possible. The more it comes from the client, the more commited they will be to working (both consciously and unconsciously) with the new perspectives and material.

You don’t have to wait for the end of the session to do this – you can utilise it anytime difference emerges (especially steps 1 and 2)! Imagine this…You are running an NLP ‘Fast Phobia” pattern – you have dissociated the client and they are looking up at the screen, ssing the beginning frame of the ‘movie’. Instead of just proceeding, you say…

“And as you look up there and see that… just notice what you notice… the sense, the sensation… and how is that different, seeing that there like that?”‘

Maybe they say “I don’t know… easier”“Easier” you say; “and what kind of easier is that, when you have that… easier”

“just… calmer” They say (you can model out with the CL

You: “Just calmer… and when you notice that… just calmer… and easier… and calmer, what difference does that make… having that calmer and easier”

I invite you, as you go through these formulations, to consider how attention is being directed, and what ideas are being seeded (clue: ‘noticing’, ‘experimenting’, ‘opportunity’, ‘difference’). There is nothing accidental here – it is all strategic and designed to revive/develop the clients natural learning and change faculties. In the simplest terms it is ‘hypnotic language’ for facilitating and modelling out the change in the now, but it is also seeding an attitude and perspective that supports ongoing change

The examples given here have been kept simple so as to illustrate the basic structure and only suggest at the possibilities – if you have Clean Language and other facilitation skills you can do a lot more with this. And you’ll probably never finish up the ‘Fast Phobia’ pattern at all (and won’t need to!)

Final note: the above is a mash up of Ericksonian and Grovian (Clean) language patterning. When you learn the two separately and thoroughly, they can come together and harmonise beautifully.

I hope you enjoy playing with these ideas, and would love to get hear of your experiences in doing so!

All the very best

James Tripp

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