New code of NLP

NLP
TOPICS   History NLP and science Methods Positive/Negative
METHODS   Meta model Milton model Anchoring Metaphor Reframing Rep. systems Submodalities Perceptual positions Meta-programs
USES   Therapy
DEVELOPERS   Richard Bandler John Grinder Robert Dilts Steve Andreas Judith DeLozier Stephen Gilligan
INFLUENCES   Fritz Perls Milton H. Erickson Virginia Satir Syntax Gregory Bateson Alfred Korzybski
LISTS   Topics Bibliography Studies
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New code of Neuro-linguistic programming (New code of NLP) is a revised framework for the teaching and delivery of NLP patterns. It was developed by John Grinder in the early and mid-80's. Grinder is credited as the co-founder (with Richard Bandler) of the original ("classic") NLP. Grinder has described the new code as an attempt to address several design flaws that were observed in the classic coding. Judith DeLozier, Grinder's associate at the time, is also credited as a co-creator of the new code in some of its aspects.

Principles

Early in the 1980s John Grinder surveyed the terrain of the field he co-created and was somewhat disappointed at the level of personal incongruence in NLP Practitioners. Grinder saw NLP-trained people who were able to weave spells of magic for their clients and yet these people who had access to powerful patterning of change were failing miserably in applying NLP in their own lives. Grinder states:

The New Code is a set of patterns developed in the mid - 80s by myself John Grinder with contributions initially by Judith Delozier and subsequently by Carmen Bostic St. Clair. The motivations for the creation of the New Code are multiple and include a recognition that the coding of patterning I accomplished with Richard Bandler in the creation of NLP contained a number of serious coding flaws. In the late 70s I noticed (JG) a significant number of NLP trained practitioners who were stunningly effective in doing change work with clients yet these same practitioners had chosen not to, or lacked the choice to, apply the patterns of NLP successfully to themselves. I therefore set out with the intention of designing a set of patterns that would both correct the coding flaws of the Classic code (roughly my collaborative work with Bandler from 1974 through 1978) that could not be effectively presented unless the presenter was congruent with self application. ^[1]

John Grinder freely admits that currently there is no full congruency through self-application of NLP to people trained in NLP. As a result of John Grinder and Carmen Bostic’s continued quest to bring excellence to the field, the New Code has been developed to significantly advance the quality of change work in NLP.

As the New Code emerged it became clear that something different was present. What was different was designer models which occurred as a natural consequence of deep extended modelling and training activities of experts, and partially explicated design variables underlying the classic code. The re-coding of NLP offered Grinder an opportunity to correct what he deemed to be flaws in the classic code patterning. The New Code takes the design variables of classic code formats to the extreme- for example the resource states in the New Code are created by a game or task that activates a content-free high performance state which has no historical experiences attached. One of the key aspects of New Code change formats is the verification and selection of behavioural changes by calibrating with the unconscious mind using explicit kinaesthetic signals.

Properties / design goals of the New Code

1. Explicit involvement of the client's unconscious mind for selecting desired states, resources and new behaviors.
2. The new behavior must satisfy the original positive intention(s).
3. The change occurs at the level of state and/or intention, rather than the level of behavior.

Grinder and Bostic ^[2] name the following most substantial patterns contained in the new code:

1. Multiple Perceptual positions, especially triple description (1st, 2nd and 3rd position).
2. Explicit Framing (outcome, intention, consequences with relevancy challenges).
3. Ordering relationships including hierarchies such as the model of logical levels (not to be confused with Robert Dilts' Neurological levels).
4. Timelines (which, according to Grinder, were developed initially as an exercise in a joint seminar presented by Grinder and Dilts in the early '80s.
5. The Verbal Package (a streamlined version of Meta model (NLP)) with reduced questions, explicit framing and the more refined verbal distinctions such as those named by the terms description, interpretation and evaluation.
6. A single four-steps format for change with a variable 3rd step. The 3rd step usually includes new code games, designed to induce the high performance state. These games include: the Alphabet game, the NASA game and variants of Roger Tabb's trampoline exercises.
7. Sanctuary: A process for working with an unwanted state that either creeps up on you so slowly that you are not aware of it until you are experiencing it deeply or so quickly you lose control
8. Multiple forms of involuntary signals for unconscious communication.
9. Characterological adjectives.

Books

• Grinder, John & Judith DeLozier (1987). Turtles All the Way Down: Prerequisites to Personal Genius. Scots Valley, CA: Grinder & Associates.. ISBN 1-55552-022-7. 

• Grinder, John & Carmen Bostic St Clair (2001.). Whispering in the Wind. CA: J & C Enterprises.. p. -. ISBN 0-9717223-0-7. 

External links

• Whispering in the Wind book website
• Short video clip by John Grinder about the New Code of NLP
• An article by Judith DeLozier about new coding

Notes and references

1. ^ Quote obtained by Michael Carroll with permission of John Grinder
2. ^ Grinder, John & Carmen Bostic St Clair (2001.). Whispering in the Wind. CA: J & C Enterprises.