Making better decisions with NLP (2) – Ecology – checking for knock-on effects

Focusing on the consequences and broadening the scope of your attention in space (how will this decision affect other people and the wider systems of which I am a part?) and time (what may be the longer-term consequences?) helps to minimise unintended consequences.

NB “ecology” as used in NLP refers to looking at the relationship between you (and by extension what you do, the decisions you make and the goals you set) and the wider systems of which you are a part. These would include other areas of your life, your health, your family, people you care about, your job or business, community, and the environment as a whole.

So someone might decide to really focus on making their business a success. A year later, the business is a success but their health is wrecked from all the late nights they’ve pulled, their marriage is in a mess, they have no friends left from trying to sell them stuff they don’t want, and their weight has ballooned from no exercise and living on junk food.

If that person had taken into account the knock-on effects of spending so much time on the business to the detriment of everything else, they could probably have found ways of having the business success that didn’t damage every other part of their life.

© 2007, Andy Smith. All rights reserved.