The Future of NLP is Yellow

How NLP Can Sustainably Change Our Lives and Society

Prologue

The NLP of the future will be tailored to the individual user and will take context variables into account far more than the previous standard interventions in psychology. Standard formats are used to learn from and discover the basics. After that, practitioners learn to adapt NLP specifically to themselves and their lives. This will give NLP an even greater appeal for people who seek growth and development. The application of NLP in various fields such as schools, kindergartens, healthcare, and professional life will be worked out in much greater detail. The skepticism of science and politics needs to be overcome. Through a more consistent use of modeling strategies, many more concrete fields of application will open up. NLP will become an integral companion to a holistic lifestyle. Individually tailored mini-interventions will help each of us live more of our potential: personal development, maintenance and optimization of our own health, improved communication, achieving goals, etc. Once a critical threshold is crossed, and more trainers, coaches, and users openly stand by NLP, we will witness its rapid expansion, reaching large groups of people, and eventually achieving a level of dissemination that we can only dream of today. Then “NLP for Everyone!” will become possible.

Summary:

This article describes where I see the future of NLP. In doing so, I would also like to reposition NLP. Up until now, NLP has been a toolbox full of methods for optimizing communication and an effective tool for coaching and therapy.

For me, NLP is above all a method for the personal development of each and every individual. It helps more and more people to reach their own form of enlightenment and to realize their best possible potential in the sense of the integral model, making their contribution to the good of humanity.

This is about integrating NLP into one’s own life and thereby evolving further as a human being. My goal in this is to inspire people to activate their full potential for the benefit of everyone and the planet.

My Background

When I entered the NLP scene in the 1990s, NLP was a highly effective therapeutic tool. In 1995, I attended my Practitioner training in Landau in the Palatinate. It was led by two clinical psychologists. I was in my early 20s at the time. The next youngest participant was 35 and still studying psychology. Many of the other participants were experienced psychotherapists.

Everywhere you heard and read back then: “NLP was created by modeling the best therapists of their time at work.”

Personally, I initially came from a related but slightly different background. At the age of 15, I had started studying the theories of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and then Carl Gustav Jung. Jung fascinated me the most, especially his concept of individuation. Individuation refers to the process of becoming whole, discovering and unfolding one's own uniqueness. I read Hermann Hesse’s books enthusiastically: Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and many others. It was a path to myself and the search for a deeply personal meaning in life. I felt that the deepest of all mysteries was hidden within ourselves. There was something inside me wanting to get out into the world. The idea that there was a reason I was born into this world – a task, a quest, a calling. Back then, I wrote in my diary: “From today on, I will take away the task of raising me from my parents and take over my own education.”

At that time, some thought experiments began in my head. I gathered the heads of state and leaders of religions in a room and had them discuss how to transform this world into paradise. I assumed that must be a common goal for everyone present. I quickly realized that it wouldn’t work if different religions (including the Christianity of my childhood) claimed that they, and only they, had found the one true path. Suddenly, someone like the Dalai Lama was very appealing to me because he said, “The heart of all religions is one.” And I understood him to mean that the commonalities at the core of their teachings were far more important than the differences on the periphery, which manifested in different rituals, customs, books, and stories.

After graduating from high school, I was fortunate to be one of the last classes that was still required to do 15 months of community service. I cared for the elderly in their final days and looked after children with disabilities. Whenever I had a night shift and there was nothing going on, I read psychology books. I was fascinated by how we humans deal with life’s varied challenges in such different ways. I saw elderly people nearing the end of their lives, who complained about everything, spending the entire day lamenting and shouting. But there were also people like Mrs. Bludra, who was nearly 100 years old and visibly enjoyed life every single day. When we brought her meals, she would often share stories from her long, exciting, and fulfilling life. She knew she had truly lived! She had done all that needed doing, savoring life to the fullest, and now simply enjoyed each day she was given, filled with joy.

I also witnessed amazing things with the children who had disabilities. Some of them were happier than the children without disabilities. They looked forward to every day, taking each moment as it came. How could that be? Why could children who seemed to have everything be less happy than those with disabilities who were severely limited? The answer had to lie somewhere within us – in our thoughts and attitudes.

When I began studying psychology, I enthusiastically immersed myself in everything I could learn about it. In addition, I read everything I could find in the library about NLP and other approaches. I studied the great wisdom teachers and motivational trainers. I started my day with affirmations and ended it with goal visualizations. I lived in a 9m² room for five years, spending some of the best years of my life reading, studying, and experimenting.

There were 123 students in my dormitory, and every day there was at least one person facing an issue with which I could help. I could easily find my “test subjects” in the halls and common rooms of the dorm and then lure them onto my couch. Most of the time, these were not therapeutic cases but students who were just facing certain life challenges: heartbreak, exam anxiety, failing an exam, or having to give a presentation.

NLP for Healthy Individuals

It was then that I experienced Tony Robbins at a seminar for the first time. I was electrified. Tony used NLP in its pure form, although his goal was less about therapy and more about enabling completely “normal” people to achieve peak performance. That ignited my enthusiasm. I could identify with that.

When my first book “Way up – Living Your Own Dream” was published in 1998, I was in the middle of my NLP Trainer training. Some of the participants read the book, and their feedback was overwhelming. They had never realized that NLP could be applied so positively to healthy individuals. Until then, NLP had been more of a therapy method, which at best could also be used for self-therapy. From that point on, NLP became for me: “Psychology for Healthy People.”

NLP in Self-Application

I began applying NLP to myself more and more often. When I then discovered the work of Robert Dilts on what he called the Neurological Levels, it became clear: NLP is a tool to shape one’s own life. It’s a means to help a person become the individual that they, and anyone else, want to be. In Dilts’s model, in addition to the levels of behavior and capabilities (strategies) that were already well-known in NLP, it is primarily about the higher levels of beliefs/values, identity, and spirituality/vision/belonging. I was downright fascinated by work at these levels. I began to imagine who I might someday become and created a vision of the kind of person I dreamed of being.

I developed a morning routine for myself in which I combined exercises designed to train my mind, reconnect me with my visions, and allow me to regularly work on myself and my “shadow” aspects. This included both meditation and physical activity, as well as continued learning. For many years, as a student, I would get up at 5:45 a.m. each morning—at a time when most students were still asleep. That helped me realize how much we can deliberately change and develop if we are willing to complete the necessary training for it. It wasn’t until much later that I understood many people get to know NLP in a seminar but don’t really apply it in their own lives.

By that I mean that they learn a technique in a seminar, might practice it once or twice in a peer group or with a friend, but only very rarely—and almost never—on themselves. NLP works and has outstanding effects when it is applied regularly. Many people, however, use it more like a crisis intervention tool. Admittedly, that’s certainly an option. But my concern is to spread NLP as something that helps people become their best and lead a life according to their own vision. This doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. On the contrary: there are significant differences!

The psychologist and fellow trainer Joerg-Friedrich Gampper (he runs the “Happiness Camps” and the Bremen NLP location for Landsiedel) once called NLP in an interview “a means for becoming truly human.” Indeed, it’s about not simply drifting through life but also being able to use everything that defines us as human beings. So much has been discovered in NLP and other disciplines about how to live a happier and more fulfilling life, how not to turn our existence into a living hell or even annihilate one another, but rather to meet the challenges of our time together, peacefully and harmoniously.

The Graves Model in Connection with NLP

In 1998, I first heard about the Graves Levels by American college professor Clare Graves, but I paid them little attention. Apparently, I didn’t yet recognize the potential this model held. It was only a few years later, when I encountered the model again in a different context, that I was hooked. Since then, together with the expansions by Ken Wilber and Don Beck, it has become my favorite model. This model describes the development of both humans and their values. Depending on where we stand in our development, we have different values. It thus provides a series of explanations as to why people think and act differently, why they pursue different goals, and why they consider something good or bad.

At the same time, it is a developmental model that describes in what order a natural development takes place, which needs arise first, and which come after. As a model that focuses on change, NLP can help us intervene positively in development on almost all levels. While the Graves Model describes developmental levels and shows us where we are and which style of thinking currently dominates us, NLP describes HOW to change this WHAT. The two approaches thus complement each other beautifully.

The development of the last few years, which can be traced using the Graves Levels, has taken place in parallel in the NLP world. As society has progressed, NLP has increasingly emerged as a tool for the higher Graves Levels. Early on, many NLP enthusiasts were particularly interested in using NLP as a success method to make themselves more effective and successful (the “Orange” level). Over time, more and more people reached the “Green” stage through NLP, where humanistic values become central. Many people benefited from having their own individual perspectives appreciated. Then more and more systemic thinking emerged in the world. Systemic constellations sprang up like mushrooms, and more and more people recognized the importance of considering the broader system in any transformation process. This was the beginning of “Yellow” thinking coming onto the horizon.

I suspect that in the last two decades, we’ve seen such explosive growth here because the people who regularly attend seminars and continue their professional development are likely those who can most readily access higher developmental levels—at least in terms of cognitive understanding of these levels. Trainers and coaches typically attend many seminars, read relatively many books and magazines to stay informed about new developments, and are probably the most willing to try new ways of doing things.

A Brief Introduction to the Graves Model

A thorough introduction to the Graves Model goes far beyond the scope of these remarks. Those interested should consult my other publications on this topic. Here, I will offer only a very concise description of the model.

The Graves Model is often depicted as a spiral to make it clear that development unfolds progressively and is open-ended at the top. Both individuals and humanity as a whole move through these phases step by step. Of course, some people remain on one level and no longer develop. Some even fall back to a previous level. Each developmental stage corresponds to certain environmental factors. For instance, conditions like peace, laws, and stability must be in place for certain developmental levels to be reached and lived out.

On the first level (AN, Beige), much like in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it’s about existential basic needs: food, water, warmth, and sexuality. Humans are driven by instincts and genetic factors. Their goal is survival.

On the second level (BO, Purple), by joining larger groups such as tribes, people achieve greater security. Tribes offer protection against other tribes or various dangers. Rituals emerge, and early forms of cause-and-effect thinking develop. Nature gods are believed to be everywhere, and people strive to live in harmony with them. The individual must submit to the tribe’s principles. Authority is held by the council of elders or the shaman, who proclaims the will of the gods.

On the third level (CP, Red), a strong ego-consciousness awakens. It revolves around power and fulfilling one’s own needs, even at the expense of others. If necessary, aggression is used. Entire peoples are ravaged by war and incorporated into one’s own civilization. On an individual level, people do everything possible to satisfy their own needs. They are powerful, impulsive, and heroic.

The third level develops into the fourth level (DQ, Blue). This level is about laws and principles. The violent rule of the “Red” world is curbed by a clear social order. The first monotheistic religions arise, aiming to provide humanity with morals and laws for a good life. Those on this level learn to curb impulsiveness and do something now that will bear fruit later. Many people dedicate themselves to a higher purpose and do what needs to be done in their position. Our current “Blue” world provides education, police, military, logistics, and quality management.

On the fifth level (ER, Orange), the focus is on moving forward. Natural sciences enable people to achieve astonishing technological advances. Economic principles lead to enormous growth. The goal is to act strategically and make progress. On the individual level, Orange is evident in our performance-oriented thinking, but also in a materialistic attitude. People try to set themselves apart from others through brands and ownership.

On the sixth level (FS, Green), human beings return to fundamental values related to friends, people in general, dialogue, and relationships. The humanistic idea emerges that all people are equal and valuable in their individual uniqueness. There are different opinions, but all of them should be heard and taken into account when finding solutions.

After these six levels, there is a kind of quantum leap. Up to this point, each developmental level believes its views are the only right ones. It’s only from the next level onward that it becomes possible to integrate the strengths of each level and draw upon them as needed. The next level (GT, Yellow) becomes necessary because we can’t solve the planet’s current problems using only the earlier levels. We need many people to adopt the mindset, skills, and abilities of the Yellow level to address these challenges.

Description of the Yellow Level

At the Yellow level, we recognize that there are many different perspectives on reality, each contributing something of value. Every perspective reveals certain aspects and pushes others into the background. In Integral Theory, we also say that every perspective is true but only partially. This is beautifully illustrated by one of my favorite stories: four blind men are asked to describe an elephant. The first blind man touches the elephant’s leg and says, “The elephant is round and stands firmly on the ground.” The second touches the elephant’s belly, the third its tusk, and the fourth its trunk. They all have a different view and believe theirs to be true. All of them are partially right, but none are entirely correct.

This story is often told in the NLP context to show that each of us has our individual model of reality, different from that of others. The basis for our model is our experiences and our senses. Our perception is subject to numerous filtering mechanisms that allow only certain contents to enter our conscious awareness.

The Map Is Not the Territory

As early as 1938, Alfred Korzybski phrased in neuro-linguistic training the statement: “The map is not the territory.” Since then, generations of NLP practitioners have learned this during their training. Each of us has created our own model of the world and thinks and acts within that model. NLP helps us gain the flexibility to “think outside the box” by recognizing and overcoming the boundaries of our own model. If we internalize this idea, we can recognize many truths as partial truths that are valid in certain areas but not universally. With a broad overview, we can create models that allow us to categorize other models. Ken Wilber’s 4-Quadrant Model and AQAL Theory are good examples of this. A model like that ends discussions about which model is better or worse, because it explains the domain in which each approach has the advantage. It’s a magnificent step forward in humanity’s evolution.

In Clare Graves’s developmental model, the Yellow level begins what is called the second tier. It is the first level at which people can appreciate and value the various previous levels. Once someone reaches the Yellow developmental level, they have a comprehensive understanding of the concerns of the earlier levels as well as their special abilities. The task now is to balance these levels with each other, using their strengths while ensuring that the unhealthy side of any developmental level (e.g. Nazism, the Crusades) does not come too much to the fore.

At the Yellow level, however, we also recognize that not all perspectives are equally valuable in every context. Some are more accurate and profound than others. “Green flatland” is transcended here, which most people at the Green developmental stage don’t like at all. After all, everyone is supposed to be equal in Green! Who would dare (even if limited to a certain context or area of application) to claim that their perspective is more important or better than someone else’s? Hence the famous statement: “If Green sees Yellow, Green sees Red!” Green overlooks the fact that it imposes its own standpoint on others, namely that everyone is the same.

Green would like to treat all people the same. However, that oversimplifies a complex matter. Let’s imagine for a moment that the United States treats all European countries the same, because from its perspective, they all stand side-by-side on equal footing. Italy, Greece, Germany, and Great Britain would each be treated exactly the same, without taking the unique character of these countries into account.

Not long ago, during a seminar, a realization struck me like lightning. The speaker mentioned the Golden Rule: “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” How many times I had tried that and failed. Suddenly it became clear: the sentence must be rephrased: “Treat others as they want to be treated.” We humans are different, and we don’t all want to be treated the same way. (In Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory, apart from developmental levels, there’s also a distinction made regarding different “types.”)

Holarchy

At Yellow, we recognize that earlier levels are included in newer, more complex levels. This is called a holarchy. The previous developmental stage is contained within, but we go beyond it. This is often illustrated with the following example: An atom consists, among other things, of multiple electrons. A cell consists of multiple atoms. An organism consists of very many cells, and so on. Or consider the example of brain development: The oldest part of the brain is the brainstem. Then the limbic system developed on top of it, and above that is the neocortex. In each developmental step, the underlying levels are included, and a new, more complex layer is built upon them.

A perspective that takes the entire ecosystem into account is deeper than one that only considers its own people. Meanwhile, an ethno-centric perspective has more depth than an ego-centric one.

Each stage of development is important and will always reappear on this planet. This is the natural course of evolution. Therefore, each level deserves attention and care. Yellow tries to create a balance among these worldviews, which is why Yellow is often called a “Spiral Wizard.” This worldview thus has both depth and breadth. Yellow aims to adopt more comprehensive and multi-layered perspectives in order to see complex, interconnected systems and deal with them more effectively. The term “systems” here refers to various types of systems, such as relationships or global organizations.

With its systemic, networked, and complex thinking, Yellow achieves a major developmental advantage, enabling it to find more creative solutions.

Some describe the leap to Yellow as a quantum leap for humanity. It is no longer only about deficiency needs but also about needs of being. On this level, a person can draw from abundance. Problems become creative challenges, and solutions are sought that cause no harm and ideally lead to everyone benefiting (the Win-Win-Win principle).

Those who have reached this level can enjoy the wonders of the world and live responsibly and authentically as the person they are. They have a healthy self-focus while also caring about the well-being of others.

When Graves first encountered Yellow in his research, he noticed that these people approached problems very differently from those he had previously studied. They found solutions more quickly and creatively, often ensuring that the problem would not reoccur in the future. Einstein said something along these lines (paraphrased from memory): “You cannot solve problems with the same thinking that created them. You need a new kind of thinking.”

That is precisely what the Yellow individuals can do. They form the vanguard of humanity on the path to an integral consciousness. NLP can help us in many ways develop the Yellow level of consciousness within ourselves.

The Yellow NLP Practitioner: How Can NLP Help Develop the Yellow Level of Consciousness?

For me, NLP is the method of choice for people on this level. With NLP, problems and challenges can be approached creatively. Here, formats are not used as rigid structures that must be followed step by step in the “Blue” sense. Rather, they serve as frameworks within which change can be created.

In classic NLP basics, such as rapport, the aim is to build a relationship with another person or group. The NLP practitioner imagines how the other person sees the world and uses their own body, through mirroring, to feel what the other person is feeling. Those who practice this frequently will not only significantly develop their empathy and more often sense what others are sensing, but also expand their own thinking and thus their model of the world. This increases flexibility and social competence when dealing with individuals and groups. It also teaches one to shift the focus from the self to the needs, feelings, and desires of others.

The technique of perceptual positions, in which you examine a conflict or situation from multiple perspectives, is an excellent training tool to expand your personal viewpoint. Here, people systematically explore their own viewpoint, then that of the other person, and finally that of an outside observer. By reflecting at a meta-level, it’s possible to see what’s missing and how the three perspectives can be integrated. Of course, a certain level of cognitive maturity is required to use this format effectively. But if the willingness is there to fully immerse oneself in opposing viewpoints with curiosity and goodwill, this method is a revelation and serious training in moving away from a petty, self-centered mindset and recognizing what is systemically necessary for the greater good of many.

A similar goal is pursued by the NLP Mentor Technique. Here, the practitioner chooses at least three mentors from whom they want to learn or gain insight regarding a current life problem. They describe the problem, then stand in the mentor’s place, doing their best to imagine what it’s like to be that mentor, and speak from the mentor’s perspective and wisdom. It’s incredible how many new aspects can emerge and how much it can change one’s view of the problem. The personal horizon broadens, and problem-solving ability increases dramatically, as though the individual now has access to a whole new quality of information that was previously unavailable.

The Diamond Technique is also helpful in this regard. This approach examines a goal, belief, problem, or other issue from numerous angles and perspectives. You start with one statement, develop its opposite, and check it. Then you discover the common ground in “both/and,” and in “neither/nor,” a new perspective emerges. This simple diamond is expanded into a whole network of diamonds, creating complex new viewpoints. The current problem can be viewed as the solution to a previous problem. The current solution becomes the basis for a future problem, and so on. This is an advanced technique that gradually dissolves rigid ideas of right and wrong. We recognize that everything has its purpose; it just depends on where we want to apply it.

In the ecology check, a fundamental NLP technique, it is performed at the beginning or end of almost every NLP change process. Here, questions are asked about the positive or negative consequences of a given change—what impact it might have on the systems surrounding the individual. This could be one’s internal system, the family system, the company system, or even society as a whole. Asking this question systematically and regularly during every change process sharpens our awareness of the systemic consequences of our actions. Through the ecology check, we recognize that, in the sense of a holarchy, we are part of something greater. In this way, we can become more aware of our interconnectedness with the needs and requirements of the larger system around us, and momentarily set aside our own narrow, egoistic desires. If a team in a large organization does not see itself as part of the entire organization, it will act in ways favorable to the team but might not keep the organization’s interests in mind. Such a team would not be loyal and would fail to incorporate the big picture in its deliberations.

Taking this a step further: if an organization sees itself as the measure of all things and does not understand itself as part of something larger, it might do things that cause society significant harm while looking out only for its own advantage—for instance, violating environmental regulations, as happened in the Volkswagen emissions scandal. An organization that is aware of its connection and responsibility to the larger system and perceives itself as part of that system would never think of harming itself in such a way. That would be like poisoning oneself.

If humanity does not view itself as part of the overall ecosystem, it will destroy a crucial part of its own living environment.

Each element should regularly be mindful that it is both a whole (a holon) and also part of something bigger.

Practicing these techniques frequently leads us to incorporate alternative perspectives into our everyday thinking and keeps us from pursuing our individual benefit alone. We might then realize, for example, that although we enjoy eating meat, we should for the good of the planet either eliminate or reduce our meat consumption. Once we grasp a broader context, we are much more inclined to do our part to sustainably and responsibly manage our resources, ensuring that future generations can enjoy this magnificent natural world, and that the current habitats of animals and plants remain in balance.

This shift also changes our mental boundaries. Most people would say that their bodies mark their limit. From experts, we sometimes hear that they “merge” with an object—like a rider merging with a horse, or a golfer becoming one with their club, and possibly even with the ball. In a tantric ritual of union, a man and a woman can suddenly feel as if they’re one. It’s as though there is a field around us that can be expanded.

This occurs quite regularly in NLP’s core transformation. People who practice this often reach a state in which they feel deeply connected with the world. The core state can manifest in different ways, but for many, it is like connecting with a greater wisdom, a plunge into wholeness, love, a sense of “it’s all okay.” We feel connected to something bigger. A mountaineer might describe this as a “summit experience.” When you stand atop a peak and gaze into the distance, you suddenly become one with the mountain, nature, or whatever is around you. In my view, experiencing this feeling is vital if we want to act lovingly and wisely in our surroundings. NLP provides precise “road maps” leading us into this summit experience.

Flexibility

Flexibility is a key principle in NLP. “If what you’re doing isn’t working, do something else,” is one of the most frequently quoted lines in NLP training. It often references Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety.

NLP techniques and models offer a broad range of ways to train one’s own behavioral flexibility. Many people tend to follow the same entrenched tracks and tackle problems in the same way repeatedly. They cannot change their approach even if it repeatedly fails to produce the desired result—a great pity.

Modeling and New Knowledge

NLP emerged by modeling outstanding therapists. Modeling is about learning from others—finding out what makes them exceptional in a particular area and then transferring those abilities so others or the modeler themselves can consciously benefit.

Yellow thinking loves absorbing and integrating new knowledge. NLP has hardly integrated new knowledge in recent years, and there is much to be discovered. Most models still rely on analyses from the early days, focusing mainly on the pioneering therapists Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, and Milton H. Erickson. Meanwhile, the world has kept turning, and wonderful new approaches to human transformation have been developed.

Many of these approaches, even though they stem from NLP or were developed by people in the NLP community, were released under their own names and have become well-known brands in seminars and psychotherapy circles—examples include EMDR, WingWave, and Magic Words.

Even Richard Bandler, one of the co-founders of NLP, has introduced new concepts under new brand names and protected them legally—for instance, Design Human Engineering, Neurosonics, and Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning.

This overlooks the fact that NLP is already a meta-approach capable of describing changes in a wide variety of ways. The NLP map offers plenty of room to integrate numerous other transformational methods.

A first idea of what this can look like is the SOAR model, which combines time (past, present, future), perceptual positions (1, 2, 3), and Dilts’s levels into a three-dimensional structure. There, you can represent every NLP transformation process as a path through space. At the same time, experienced practitioners can see which paths have not yet been translated into specific change techniques, allowing them to develop new formats and strategies on their own.

NLP has developed impressive methods to draw out expertise from specialists, even if they themselves are only semi-aware of their knowledge. Of the many approaches, let me briefly highlight the Meta Model of language. This is a series of questions enabling very in-depth inquiry, capturing the content that has been deleted, generalized, or distorted as it appears in the “surface structure” of an expert’s statement, and returning it to the original “deep structure” from which it came. Asking good questions is a vital skill for uncovering patterns and making them available to the broader public.

NLP in Everyday Life: How Can We Apply NLP Daily for Ourselves?

NLP is so diverse that it can help us in countless everyday situations. Here are some examples:

I wake up and direct my focus immediately to positive emotional states by using focus questions, visualizations, anchors, and possibly my “inner voice,” polished with submodalities.

As soon as I stand up, I change my physiology to adopt a mood suitable for the day ahead. Then I engage openly and consciously in my first conversation with my partner or children, building rapport, calibrating to them, and using questioning techniques from the Meta Model to find out their plans and wishes for the day. If necessary, I might reframe their initial responses so I can continue communicating in a constructive way.

Then I go to work. I set positive anchors for myself on the commute, for example by listening to music I enjoy or placing images at my workplace. If I have a meeting with someone, I briefly put myself in their shoes, as in the 1-2-3 Meta process. Maybe I also hear the voice of my mentor offering me advice.

Whenever a situation makes me upset, I start to dissociate and change my state. I set clear solution-oriented goals for the day or the task at hand. In interacting with business partners, clients, or my children, I use hypnotic language patterns that give them the freedom to fill in any blanks with their own ideas.

If I experience something particularly pleasant, I anchor it. In conversations with others, I ask helpful, goal-focused questions and give them my full attention, listening sensitively. I pay attention to their sensory channels and meta programs. I note their limiting beliefs and offer them alternatives… and so on. Essentially, all day long there are opportunities to use NLP methods in beneficial ways.

NLP in Various Contexts

Many participants in an NLP training or seminar find it difficult to apply what they learn to new contexts. They can’t easily generalize and come up with new fields of application. Some time ago, an NLP Trainer signed up for my one-day “Selling with NLP” seminar. Since I knew him, I called him and told him that, as an NLP Trainer, he probably wouldn’t learn anything new in a one-day seminar that also included beginners. I listed the topics we’d cover. He insisted on attending, and I didn’t deny him his request. I delivered the seminar as usual. At the end, he enthusiastically thanked me. Initially, I thought he was joking, but then we discussed it in detail. It turned out that he had never made certain connections during his NLP training. He discovered for the first time how to use the 5-4-3-2-1 method for inducing a trance in a sales talk. Nor had he understood that “objection handling” is basically reframing, and that all he needed to do was come up with a reframing for each client objection. He also hadn’t realized he could address different VAKOG types in his sales materials and presentations. He grasped that he could anchor clients with his voice rather than just by touching them. For him, the Meta Model of language—something he had known only as a complex, therapeutic questioning tool—was now a method for dissolving boundaries in a buyer’s worldview. The future pace became an effective remedy against buyer’s remorse, and so on.

Since then, I’ve seen such things happen again and again. I started dedicating more and more time in my trainings to ensuring this kind of context transfer among participants. I no longer let it slide when someone said, “That’s a nice format, but I can’t use it at my workplace.” One participant once said this about 6-Step Reframing, a very classic NLP method. I replied that of course he couldn’t use it exactly as it is. A conversation with “inner parts,” featuring little green men relaxing on one’s hand, is obviously not how you’d phrase it in the workplace. But I then explained how the underlying structure could be presented in a more appropriate way for a typical work conversation—for example, a dialogue with an employee. It might sound roughly like this: “Mr. Meier, so you’re facing problem X. Do you have any idea what caused it to come this far?” [Answer] “Is there a positive reason this problem arose in the first place?” [Answer] “Can you think of creative ways to handle this differently in the future?” [Answer] “Which of those ways seems most suitable?” [Answer] “Then give that a try in the next few weeks—what do you think?” [Answer] “Is there anything else you think speaks against it?” [Answer] “Great, so when do we start? What is the first thing you’ll do?”.

Of course, this is just one possible direction—one that uses no phrases like “go into a trance,” “connect with your part,” “ask your creative part,” or “wait for a signal from your unconscious.”

A few years later, during a Master Trainer Training with Bert Feustel and Wyatt Woodsmall, I learned about the CP3 structure. It piqued my interest because it’s about how to store information for ourselves and then teach it in a way that helps participants transfer methodologies to other contexts. Every NLP format can be broken down into numerous procedures—step-by-step instructions on how to carry out a format. Step one… step two… etc. This is like a precise set of stage directions or a strict recipe. That kind of description is ideal for duplicating a process or for beginners to quickly see good results. But if you only have knowledge and skills at this procedural level, you can’t apply what you’ve learned in new situations. To do that, you need an understanding of the level above it, the process level. You must grasp the structure underlying the procedure. That structure doesn’t specify a single process but the essence of the approach. If, for instance, the procedure states that, when “merging anchors,” you place your left hand on the client’s knee to establish a negative anchor, then on the process level it might simply say: “Set a negative anchor.” Whether that anchor is set through a word, an image, or a touch remains open. Sometimes, in my trainings, I demonstrate multiple procedures for the same process so participants see that once they’ve understood the underlying sequence, they can implement it in numerous concrete ways.

Participants who learn a technique from their trainer purely on the procedural level suddenly come up against insurmountable obstacles if there’s any deviation from the script—like if placing an anchor on someone’s knee isn’t possible or desired. Suddenly they’re at a loss because they haven’t realized they could anchor in another way.

I’d like to share a metaphor Klaus Grochowiak told me during my NLP Trainer training. It involves Greg Louganis, the legendary American diver born in 1960. After he won at the Olympics, more and more Chinese trainees came to study him, taking photos and videos to emulate his style and train their country’s divers. They succeeded at first, and in the next Olympic Games, the Chinese divers performed well. Four years later, however, when everyone expected them to be the favorites, they failed. What happened? During the first post-modeling Olympics, wind conditions were almost perfect. Four years later, there was a slight breeze. The Chinese had learned how to execute a perfect dive under perfect conditions, but unlike Greg Louganis, they hadn’t learned how to adapt to imperfect conditions or make corrections.

For me, this also applies to using NLP. If the other person reacts perfectly to everything I do, I can succeed with a standard approach. But once something changes, I need deeper insight into what I’m doing.

In CP3, there are two more levels: principles and the concept level (the “C” in CP3). Once I grasp the principles behind a change technique, I can even derive more than one process from them. This opens up many creative possibilities for new transformation paths. The first level, “concept,” involves defining or delineating what something is and what it isn’t.

Since I started bearing CP3 in mind during my seminars, my participants have been able to apply far more content to their daily lives and to all sorts of situations. At the same time, they learn about this abstraction process in general, making it easier for them to identify overarching processes and the universal principles behind methods in other areas of their lives, too.

Our task now is to get this language spoken in as many contexts as possible: schools, childcare facilities, businesses, hospitals, politics, and many more.

NLP in Schools

Teachers begin to understand that different types of students require different teaching methods and tasks.

They are willing to invest time and effort to master effective strategies. This includes, for example, the 4MAT system, which originally comes from pedagogy but can be greatly enhanced with NLP techniques. Another example involves NLP meta programs (e.g., overview vs. detail, toward vs. away from, proactive vs. reactive) or preferred sensory channels (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, olfactory, gustatory).

Teachers start modeling one another’s approaches for successful and motivating teaching methods related to specific subject matter. Online databases emerge in which teachers can download tried-and-tested, creatively prepared lesson plans from colleagues. After using these materials in class, they share their new insights online, and students can add their feedback as well.

The school becomes a place where self-directed learning is possible. Both teachers and students enjoy more flexibility in rearranging material, choosing priorities, and shaping the learning process.

Parents use NLP to help their children overcome fears, reduce aggression, and resolve concentration problems. They understand better how their children “tick” and can help them develop positive beliefs.

NLP in Childcare Centers

Children, guided by NLP-trained caregivers, learn how to develop a positive self-image, what values are, and how to reach their goals. They feel better understood. Through relaxation exercises and other NLP techniques, the children gain resilience and build empowering beliefs. They trust themselves to follow their life’s calling later on.

What Has Been Attempted Already to Shape the Future?

The German Association for Neurolinguistic Programming (DVNLP) has tried to establish good relationships and positive influence on politics. But this project is doomed to fail as long as a broad base of people—and therefore voters—doesn’t support NLP.

Some have tried studies aimed at proving the effectiveness of NLP. Yet even if such studies succeed, they will inevitably be countered with the same old arguments, making it seem almost hopeless to bring about change in this way.

Looking Ahead

I believe we simply need many people who recognize NLP’s value and effectiveness for their own lives and who incorporate it into a holistic, integral lifestyle. When these individuals start acting responsibly within society, they can successfully promote the common good in the Yellow sense.

My aim, therefore, is not only to spread NLP in the sense of coaching but also to help establish another branch focused on using NLP as a tool for human potential development. This allows people to make the most of their chances and possibilities.

We have an approach here with tremendous potential. NLP is a treasure for humanity. Let us uncover this treasure and share it with everyone. Let us encourage development in a holistic sense—development for the individual and development for society.

Become an active participant in the NLP community. Practice NLP every day in your encounters with others. I’d like to conclude with my favorite quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”