NLP Essentials: Flexibility!

The circle, its circumference and the point on which you stand and look at the centre - that is one point of view. When you move along the circumference, another vantage point is available, from where a different point of view can be accessed. As many points on the circumference there are, that many lines can be drawn towards the centre point, each representing a different perspective. So, at any point of time, if we were to consider pondering over an issue, we can see how impoverished our one viewpoint about that issue is.

It doesn't matter who I am, how important I am, what's my stature. I am still just one dot on the circumference and a single line of radius to the centre. If we draw a line from each of the points on the circumference to the centre, that will seemingly fill up the circle. If we zoomed in, there might still be some space between the lines, ergo, still some perspectives that might be lacking to inform us fully and wholly on the issue. Even if we managed to pack the circle with lines of radii, then it would appear that the circle is fully shaded and there is no perspective that's left unexplored.

However, we fail to notice that this is merely restricted by the boundary of the circumference. If the circumference were to increase, that is if we widened the scope of the issue being observed, new gaps between the lines will emerge. From being close, zoomed in and highly associated, we might find ourselves holding our perspective with a bit of looseness allowing for new input to fill in gaps created in our perspective due to the widening of scope.

So, with the same issue at the centre, a wider field emerges that shows how any of the viewpoints or perspectives held before, no longer hold, and need to be shifted. If we reduced the original circumference, the reverse happens, which is, we have to leave some information out, to accommodate our response to the reduced scope of the issue.

Conversations I hear these days are about how "Gen Z" folks that join the workforce are "this" and "that"! You can use any word in place of "this" or "that" and you would have heard those descriptions being used with reference to young people born at a certain point in time. The labels attached to so-called "Gen Z" people are from a perspective of someone who is some earlier generation! And from the perspective of that generation, the "Gen Z" population might appear as impulsive, indecisive, confused or entitled, depending on who is dishing out that perspective. If we looked at them from a wider frame of time, they would appear no different that the youngsters in the 60s or 70s. Even those youngsters were given labels, and hence were misunderstood by the observant elders back then, as being brash and arrogant. I remember when I scored a certain grade of marks in my tenth grade, one uncle commented, "Only that much, must have watched too much TV!" But another uncle jumped into the conversation and said, "Despite watching TV, he scored these grades. I wonder if you would have scored these many if you had a TV back when you were in school!" There was some silence, but the second uncle had just shifted the circumference of the circle, to allow another perspective to emerge!

The circle and its changing circumference teach us how important it is to shift perspectives. We can't be fixed at a vantage point and consider only that as the "right" perspective. If we aren't shifting as per the changing scope of things around us, we aren't being flexible to respond to what's happening in the world. And the world, the people, the circumstances around us are indeed constantly shifting.

Which circumference are we sitting on? The one that's constantly increasing or decreasing, or the one we are comfortably stuck on!

*************************************************************************************************

My name is Nikhil Damle and I am an internationally certified NLP Trainer (INLPTA/ABNLP/ANLP CIC), a corporate workshop facilitator and a business coach.

I am keen that you pick up skills in Neuro Linguistic Programming as these are essential in everyday living and excellence. When applied and put to practice, these skills enhance your perception and ability to access a wider range of choices and enhance performance and outcomes for yourself and those around you!

If investing in yourself, your own growth and creating fulfilment is important for you, then acquiring a full range of NLP skills, might be an option to consider. At Iridium Coaching and Learning, our courses are focused on delivering high quality NLP skills and depth of practice to each of our participants. There are open NLP courses for individuals, and customized offerings for organizations.

*************************************************************************************************