Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) provides many useful tools and techniques for increasing the effectiveness of interpersonal communications. Some of the techniques of NLP are founded on a linguistic meta-model - a model of how people construct internal models of their experiences. Thus, because effective communicating and meta-modeling are important parts of domain modeling, domain modelers may find the axioms from Practical Magic useful during their interviews with domain experts.
NLP Axioms:
Implications:
People build models to deal with the complexities of the world in which we live. Models are convenient - each useful for a limited domain and a limited duration. "Convenient" means that models must be both durable and perishable. A model is only useful until a more effective model is constructed. Models evolve and mature and can be replaced over time.
Domain models capture and document the internal models of domain experts. Domain models provide a formal mechanism for transfering and sharing domain expertise.
NLP Axioms:
Implications:
People vary in their models, in the processes they use to build models, and in their ability to build and grasp models. People tend to filter their sensory experience - especially what they see and hear - through their models and through their sensory preferences. For this reason, people who participate in the specification and construction of software systems need to compare their models. Domain analysis and modeling can help people to compare their internal models and build commonality.
For the domain modeler:
Don't let your analysis and models obscure or inhibit the revelation of the domain expert's models. Relax your preconceptions regarding the domain. Defer to the domain expert. Be an active and open listener. Observe and listen first, question and compare and finally offer suggestions and alternatives later, sometimes only after careful analysis and exploration of the concepts offered by the domain expert.
Clean sensory channels means that you
This process requires patience and practice. Full duplex communication - where you duplicate what you saw and heard - can help you verify that your sensory channels were clean.
NLP Axioms:
Implications:
The principle of requisite variety implies that three or more equally satisfying options are required for true freedom - one option = no choice, two options = dilemma, three or more options = true freedom of choice. "On the one hand, ... On the other hand, ..." This phrasing indicates only a pair of options. Try to find at least a third option and more if possible.
Experience modulates subsequent experience. The more you experience choice, the more you will insist on having more options and freedom of choice. The more you learn about how people build their models, the more options you will have for building yours, the easier it is duplicate theirs and develop rapport.
People often exhibit preferences for one sensory system over others, especially when using their internal resources. Thus, some people are more visually oriented (they "see" what you say), some more auditorily oriented (they hear what you say), some more kinesthetically oriented (they feel something in relation to what you say). Thus, it is important to discuss and document domain models using both diagrams (for the eyes) and narrative explanations (for the ears).
True creativity is difficult. It requires the disciplined elimination of mental ruts. In order to change the characteristics of our models, we must sometimes change the process whereby we build our models. Changing how we think will often lead to changes in what we think. Thus, switching from a prefered sensory mode to one less used will induce a change in how we think.
NLP Axioms:
Implications:
People who participate in the specification and construction of software systems need to compare their internal constructions. Domain descriptions and domain models provide a formal mechanism for people to share and compare their internal constructions.
Robert Dilts, John Grinder, Richard Bandler, Leslie Bandler, Judith DeLozier. Neuro-Linguistic Programming: The Study of the Structure of Subjective Experience. Meta Publications, Cupertino, California, 1980.
Stephen R. Lankton. Practical Magic: The Clinical Applications of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Meta Publications, Cupertino, California, 1979.