NLP FAQ: Someone may be an expert but can’t explain how they do it?

Franis,

Excellent comment. I appreciate you dropping by. It's true that some people may experience difficulty with the model.

That's one of the reasons why I prefer to teach multiple methods of modeling rather than just one.

I also believe that it may not be as much a smoke screen as you might think. I trust that people do their best. If someone is lying, it really doesn't take much to discover that the model doesn't work. The meta modeling skills will provide something that is congruent in that person's model of the world.

It's even more confusing when the person has a manifesto that is not what they are actually doing. It acts like a smoke screen that you have to get through to really learn the skill or get the information or make your own discoveries and insights. It seems that NLP used to be like this with gratuitous buzzword inventions in decades past. It's much better now.

Teaching is definitely a separate skill. Most people can only teach how they were taught and no better - because the learner modeled instead of thought about it while learning! If you want to be a better teacher, think about and experiment with what does and doesn't work to communicate to your students. Of course, then students will think they did it themselves...which is as it should be.

Better to get the skill from a "wounded healer." Because someone who had to work for it who has come a long way to get to the ability will often have a curious, flexible patience for what it takes to change they can pass on as an attitude that can't help but be successful.

Alexander Technique teachers aren't perfect either! We're all knocking on the door of the edge of the unknown of what we have yet to learn - or else we're merely arrogant.

Good answer Stuart