Developing Well-Formed Outcomes with NLP

An outcome is a goal that you develop in such a way that conforms to your subconscious mind. A goal is usually quite general, whereas an outcome is specific to the individual and provides a very clear understanding of what to do. The structure of an outcome should activate our personal resources in such a way that it becomes actionable.

Going through the six questions creates a detailed internal representation in your mind - an important step in creating a belief in your objective. It may not be necessary to go through all of the questions for every objective. Use your discretion and apply the questions that are appropriate at the time.

1) State you outcome positively

You need to be very clear about what it is that you want so that you can remain focused. You should be precise about what you want as ambiguous definitions will not provide you with the direction you need. If you say, ‘I want to be happier’, then a good joke might suffice! However, if you were to say, ‘I want to lose 2 stone’, the intention is clear.

You should also avoid negative statements as your brain cannot process them. If you say, ‘I don’t want to work here anymore’, all your subconscious can here is, ‘work here’. If you start to think, ‘I don’t want…’ consider what you do want instead and write that as your outcome.

A useful technique when coaching is to ask the coachee what the present situation is and follow this up with what the desired future outcome is.

Where are you now? Where do you want to be?

2) State your outcome in sensory terms

The term representational system refers to how we use our five senses of smelling, tasting, hearing, seeing and feeling to represent or experience events. Everyone has a preferred representational system; some are more visual others are more feelings based. Consider what you will see, hear, feel and so on.

As a coach you should quickly establish the preferred representational system of the coachee and adapt your language to suit.

3) Evidence Procedure

Evidence procedure is another way of asking ‘How will you know that you have achieved your goal?’ The following questions should help you to understand this.

How will I know that I have achieved my outcome? What will I be doing once I have achieved it? What will I see, hear, feel etc. when I achieve it?

4) Is it ecological?

This stage is to ensure that the outcome fits in with all areas of your life. You should consider how it will affect your career, family, health etc. What will be gained? What will be lost?

5) Is it self initiated and are you in control of it?

It may be that someone else wants you to change, but it’s really not something that you want. Of course the likelihood of you achieving your outcome in this case is lessened and so you should ensure that the outcome is driven from within.

You may also find that you achieving your outcome is not solely in your control, this could make it difficult for you to achieve your outcome. Try the following questions to help at this stage.

Who is this outcome created for? Is the outcome solely down to me to achieve?

6) Is the context clearly defined?

The context is the way your outcome will happen. When, where how and with who do I want this? Asking these questions will help you define steps that need to be taken to achieve your outcome.

7) What resources are needed?

What people, knowledge, skills, attributes do you need to help you reach your outcome? Some questions to consider…

What resources do I currently have? What resources do I need to acquire? Have I achieved anything like this before? What can I learn from that? What if I act as if I already had the resources I need?

Using this process will ensure you achieve effective results each time.

This is an excerpt from the training course 'Coaching with NLP', which you can purchase and download from our website at Trainer Bubble.

Leadership and Football - a worrying survey

A recent Franklin Covey Harris Poll surveyed 23,000 people in key industries and the results were staggering.

If the results from the poll were for a football team, you would end up with the following scenario:

• Only 4 in 11 players know what the objective of the game is
• 7 in 11 players don't know which goal is theirs
• 9 in 11 players don't care
• 9 in 11 don't know what position they play in the team
• Only 1 player feels that the players would be held accountable for the team's performance
• 1 in 11 are actively trying to score goals for the other team

These are truly sobering facts. The resulting organisational cost doesn't even bear thinking about.

If you want to ensure you are providing your leaders with effective training, take a look at our course 'Leading Effective Teams'. It's only £53, even Leeds United can afford that!

Achieving Your Goals - Keeping things on track

Apparently when riding the underground people look up at the map and check their progress on average every 40 seconds. Most of these people know exactly where they are going and when they will get there, so why do they do it? I suspect the answer has a lot to do with the need to track advancement and ensure that they are indeed reaching their destination, which is a bit strange considering they are on a rail and the likelihood of them not getting there is pretty much zero.

Now let’s translate this to our own goals, whether they are in life, work, sport or whatever, we are consistently told how important they are and I am sure that most people set them in one way or another. However, the question is this…

‘How often do you track your progress and ensure that you are indeed reaching your destination?’

Individuals, businesses and even parents have become great at developing goals and targets, whilst not only ensuring they are smart, but also placing them in a gorgeous laminated folder and filing them under ‘G’. The same can also often be said for business strategies. People seem to enjoy setting them (or more likely feel they have to), but when it comes to implementation something falls down.

Let’s go back to that underground journey. Imagine you realise that you’re on the wrong train and are not going to make your destination. What do you do? Well of course, you would get off and find the next available train that gets you to your stop. Maybe you would need to adapt your journey a bit and perhaps even get more than one train, but it’s far better than staying on the original train and ending up somewhere you don't want to be.

Seems obvious really, doesn’t it? Yet, in business and in life we continually fail to do this very thing. It’s as if we set our goals and then forget we ever did them. Only once we’ve reached our destination (the wrong one) do we turn around and look for someone to blame.

You see it couldn’t be your fault; you set the goal, so the hard part was done, surely? Well no, just as the driver is not to blame for the fact you are on the wrong track, your team, your friends, your enemies are not to blame for your failure to achieve your goal. If you didn’t check your progress, it’s your fault you end up in the wrong place.

Visit Trainer Bubble, where you can download complete course materials on Commerciality, which focuses on developing business goals. At just £53 you can't afford not to!