Make Good Decisions

Michael, who is now a very successful entrepreneur was finding it difficult to decide between starting his own business based on his own unique talents or to take another role in the City. He felt that he wanted to start his own business and yet he wasn’t sure about the risk that this involved. Once he decided everything else came easy.

So, we used this step by step process with Michael to enable him to choose between his different options. You can use this same process to make better decisions :

Step 1 : Discover your decision criteria

Imagine that you are about to decide between 3 options. For example whether to seek a challenge in your current role, or to find a different job or to set up your own business. To find out your decision criteria make a list numbered 1 to 10 and ask yourself the question “what’s important to me in choosing my future work direction” and write down the answers.

Step 2 : Compare the different options in your mind

Neuroscience has confirmed that when you think about making a decision in your mind you use sensory based comparisons. The most important aspect of making good decisions is to use your senses to take account of the consequences of each decision in the short and long term. So, in your imagination make a comparison, between option 1, option 2 and option 3 in your mind. Notice what you see, hear and feel for each of the options: NOW, 3 months from now, 6 months from now and a year from now and become aware of as many fine distinctions as you can between the 3 options. Be specific on dates i.e. 1st June 2010, 1st September 2010; 1st December 2010; 1st June 2011 in this example. Make the images and sounds into 3 movies in your mind.

Step 3 : Compare the Options with a “known” good decision

Remember a decision that you have already taken that you knew was a good decision before you took it. Notice what you see, hear and feel in detail and compare this to each of the 3 options. The option that most closely matches this decision is the one for you.

Record the differences between a good decision and a decision that did not work for you here for your future reference so that you know the sensory comparison that you are making in your mind :

Sensory Content of Decisions: Good Decision Decision that did not work for you

Visual

Bright/dim

Colour/Black and White

Moving/Still

3D/Flat

Focus

Associated/Disassociated

Size

Distance

Location

Shape

Number of images

Bordered/borderless

Auditory

volume

Tone

Tempo

Rhythm

Pitch

Pace

Timbre

Direction

Intensity

Distance

Location

Harmony

Stereo

Number of sounds

Kinaesthetic

Location in body

Breathing Rate

Pulse Rate

Pressure

Tactile Sensations

Direction

Intensity

Weight

Scope

Movement

Step 4 : Help your Customer Make A Good Decision

Good sales people realise that their role is to help the Customer make a good decision. Here’s how you can prepare to do this. Imagine that you are going to help your customer/employer make a decision for an investment in your services, whether you are aiming to become employed or to sell your services as a business. Start by remembering the process that you use to decide yourself. See what you saw, hear what you heard and feel what you felt when you made a really good decision and you knew it was a good decision before you made it. Pay attention to the fine sensory distinctions between your good decision and a decision that did not work for you.Use these distinctions to amplify the “good decision” state and make it stronger.

Step 5 : Create a Powerful Association in your Mind

Create a powerful association in your mind between the good decision state and your decision strategy by paying particular attention to the voice tone, tempo and rhythm that you use when talking yourself into that good decision and make sure that you sound persuasive. Notice how you look when you are making that good decision and step into the image. Notice how you feel and create a gesture to use when you start your decision strategy to access this state. Start to consider what information the people making the decision require and how you are going to package and sequence it for them. How do you find out what information the decision maker requires? Well, you can create great questions to ask her using the six forms of question immortalised by Rudyard Kipling “I keep six honest serving men, they taught me all I knew, their names are what and why and when and how and where and who” and pay particular attention to the sensory information that you receive.

Enjoy.

Tags: Business Coaching, Business NLP Brighton, NLP Business Practitioner, selling skills

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 at 12:33 pm by NLP with Whole Being and is filed under NLP in Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.