First published on www.cleanlanguage.co.uk, 19 July 2006. Last updated 27 March 2019.

How to do a Modelling Project - Section 1

Penny Tompkins and James Lawley

Contents

Section 1: Introduction

Section 2: Learning how to do a Modelling Project

Section 3: Defining a Modelling Project

Section 4: Stage 1: Preparing to do a Modelling Project

Section 6: Stage 3: Constructing a Model

Section 7: Stage 4: Testing Your Model

Section 8: Stage 5: Acquiring the Model

Section 9: References

Some of our other articles about modelling on this site:

Introducing Modelling to Organisations (Rapport Issue 40, Summer 1998)

What is Therapeutic Modelling? (ReSource Magazine Issue 8, April 2006)

Coaching In-the-moment (2007)

Modelling: Top-down and Bottom-up (2010)

Modelling Robert Dilts Modelling (2010)

Modelling the Written Word (2010)

Modelling Shared Reality (Kwalon Vol 3, October 2012)

Pointing to a New Modelling Perspective (Acuity Vol. 4, October 2013)

A Modellers Perspective (2014)

Introduction

The following is an in-depth summary of over 25 years experience of modelling: formal projects, informally, therapeutically and training modelling. These ideas are presented as background information and a checklist for conducting a full-scale modelling project. There are many, many less formal ways to make use of modelling.

Modelling Methodologies



There is not one way to model. The list below contains over a dozen modelling methodologies that to varying degrees we have had first-hand experience – although we would not claim to be experts in any (ok, maybe Symbolic Modelling!).



We have loosely classified the methodologies under the three headings (Sensory-Physical, Conceptual-Perceptual, Metaphoric-Symbolic). We first introduced these in our article Meta,  Milton and Metaphor: Models of Subjective Experience (1996):

Sensory-Physical

Unconscious Uptake / Assimilation	John Grinder	Book: Whispering in the Wind (Grinder & Bostic St Clair, 2001) Videos: On Modelling (2008) and More about Modelling (2008) Unconscious Assimilation (2010) The Know Nothing State (2011) 5 Steps to Modelling Geniuses (2012) Article: Thompson & Collingwood (2013) NLP Magazine #09 inspiritive.com.au/nlp-research/modelling-mirror-neurons.htm
Deep Trance Identification	Steve Gilligan	Article: Interview with Steve Gilligan Book: Generative Trance: The Experience of Creative Flow (Gilligan, 2012)
Somatic Modelling	Judith DeLozier	Book: NLP II: The Next Generation: Enriching the Study of the Structure of Subjective Experience (Dilts & Delozier, 2010)

Conceptual-Perceptual

'Teach Me'	Richard Bandler	Book: Magic in Action (Bandler, 1992)
Analytic Modelling	Robert Dilts & Todd Epstein	Book: Tools For Dreamers (Dilts & Epstein, 1991) Books Strategies of Genius Volumes I, II & III (Dilts, 1994/1995) Book: Modelling with NLP (Dilts, 1998). Article:Overview of Modeling in NLP (Dilts, 1998).
Experiential Array	David Gordon & Graham Dawes	Book & DVD: Expanding Your World: Modeling the Structure of Experience (Gordon & Dawes, 2005) Website: expandyourworld.net
Developmental Behavioural Modelling	John McWhirter	Article: Re-modelling NLP: Part Fourteen: Re-Modelling Modelling (McWhirter, Rapport 59, 2002)
Cognitive Behavioral Modelling	Charles Faulkner	Article: Modelling an Expert; The missing piece in Knowledge Management (Faulkner & Modrall, 1998)
Meta-Levels	L Michael Hall	Book: Going Meta: Advanced Modelling Using Meta-Levels (Hall, 1997/2001)
Advanced Behavioral Modeling	Wyatt Woodsmall	Book: The Science of Advanced Behavioral Modeling (1998) and a set of 16 DVDs from a 2003 training Article: Modeling With NLP: Capturing and Transferring Expertise in Organizations (Feustel & Woodsmall, 2001)

Metaphoric-Symbolic

Design Human Engineering	Richard Bandler	Book: Persuasion Engineering: Sales & Business Sales & Behavior (Bandler & La Valle, 1996)
Population Modelling	Lucas Derks	Book: Social Panoramas: Changing the Unconscious Landscape with NLP and Psychotherapy (Derks, 2005)
Symbolic Modelling	James Lawley & Penny Tompkins	Book: Metaphors in Mind: Transformation through Symbolic Modelling (Lawley & Tompkins, 2000) Website: cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/categories/Modelling/ including an extensive report with video clips of their Modelling Robert Dilts Modelling (2010).
Modelling Shared Reality	Stefan Ouboter	Article: Modelling Shared Reality: avoiding unintended influence in qualitative research (van Helsdingen & Lawley, Kwalon Vol 3, October 2012)