Using the Outcome Frame and putting myself at Cause*
Wendy Harbutt, Director of Dramatic Improvement
TRAINING : COACHING : FACILITATION : ROLEPLAY
(And delegate on the NLP Business Practitioner at Eynsham Hall Oxfordshire in January)
Above and beyond the value that my NLP learning has added to my coaching practice, and to my work with others, is the value that it has brought to me personally. So being what I call ‘deliciously selfish’ for a moment, I’ll share an epiphany I had whilst on the NLP Business Practitioner programme with Florence.
It came when I was letting my mind consider what I wanted in life, using an Outcome Frame**. I noticed that lots of what I was doing wasn’t really in tune with what I wanted and I found myself thinking through all the reasons for this. I noticed that most of these reasons came in a voice that was ‘at effect’ ie things I was doing because I felt I had to, mostly for others. I realised that I hadn’t really checked that assumption on some significant parts of my own life and so I resolved to do that checking. It may sound trite to say that this moment changed my life, but it’s true. Or rather what I’ve done as a result of that thinking….. is changing my life. Having that clear point of focus has brought a perspective that has simplified my thinking and the result is that I not only feel much clearer, but also feel that what I want to have happen, is possible for me to achieve !
* Cause and Effect… when we put ourselves at cause this means that we take responsibility for what happens to us, when we are at effect we blame others or circumstances. We are at our most powerful when we put ourselves at cause !
** Outcome frame is one of the ‘frames’ of NLP. Framing in NLP terms refers to the way we put things into different contexts to give them different meanings. If we alter the frame, we alter the meaning.
