NLP 4 TH GENERATION: Reported by Rachel Hott, PhD with additional commentary from Colette Normandeau.
Rachel Hott wrote this article after she and Steven Leeds attended the NLP Leadership Summit in Alicante, Spain in January 2018. It will be published soon in a book titled, Powered by NLP, Volume 2.
Day 3, January 14 th , 2018, at the NLP Leadership Summit, and 17 of us were choosing to explore what is beyond this latest iteration called NLP. “What will the 4 th generation bring,” we pondered. Simultaneously, 62 other attendees were in groups discussing standards, marketing, branding, an international global body, technology, research and the big picture of what is NLP, and then there we were, saying, “What’s next?”
Everyone I know owns a cell phone ( even the Masai Warriors we met in the remote region of Tanzania). However, not everyone has the same model, yet there are always newer models to purchase. What is the same and what is different about the next new device? Eventually most phones require updates in order to perform at their best. When we discussed what is next, this cell phone metaphor was introduced by Robert Dilts. He acted as co-facilitator for the group and in many ways Robert and his contributions to NLP would be an example of the earliest phone models that have now been updated, perhaps 47 times! Through the initiative of Colette Normandeau (Canada, also co-facilitator, and her partner, Humphrey Conceicao (Singapore), a first NLP 4th generation research event to “Explore Source and beyond” took place in Bali in September 2017. The collective co-creation and collective modeling experiment involved passionate NLP master trainers, trainers and coach from 13 different countries. Robert and Deborah Bacon Dilts, Stephen Gilligan and Judith Delozier were mentors and sponsors of this first collective 4 th generation co-creation event. As first findings have emerged from this occasion, a group of guardians involving Colette, Peter Wrycza PHD, expert modeler Olivier Corchia and Chantal Collin NLP Trainer and coach (Quebec) are putting forth the grounds for the development of this 4th generation. Soon they will be opening to other experienced passionate NLP Master trainers and developers willing to contribute to this long-term research. A next collective modeling session is proposed for 2020. A web site (under construction) and Facebook page for this continued exploration of this 4 th generation has been created. The website is NLP4thgeneration.com and the Facebook page is, NLP 4th Generation.
I was the reporter for this group. When we were selecting groups I could have gone anywhere, and my usual pattern would have been to go to something measurable like research, but I saw Robert and since I hadn’t had a chance to be in a group with him during the conference I thought I might as well see what the NLP 4 th Generation was all about. As I waked over to the group I made up that it was about helping the next generation enter into the NLP world, like a mentoring experience. I soon discovered that this was something more, something that is not easily explained, but I will go forward, with cell phone metaphor in hand, and do my best to explain what may be in store for the next iteration of NLP. As we sat together, Robert explained his view of the 4 NLP iterations. The 1 st generation was based on cognitive intelligence, it included concepts around mind, verbal and behavioral patterns, meta model, strategies, sub modalities and anchoring. The 2 nd was on emotional and somatic intelligence which was dealing with health and beliefs and values. The 3 rd was systemic and relational intelligence, involving work on the field between people and identity, purpose, alignment. Now the 4 th generation, which is looking at something bigger and beyond ourselves a larger field, perhaps calling it Source and the development of a ‘spiritual intelligence.’ Although modeling has been a foundational piece in the development all of the generations, the question now would be: “what do we model regarding this larger Source, this ‘spiritual intelligence’?” If we were to model something closer to the subjective experience of consciousness then that may lead us to the next iteration.
Brian Van der Horst, explained that these concepts have come up in Ken Wilbur’s work around spiral dynamics as well as a similar concept in the Graves Model. Other people started mentioning Sheldrake and the concepts of the unified field. Then Robert introduced Gregory Bateson’s influence regarding modeling and said, the question was to, “Focus our subjective experience in how to make it useful. How do we ultimately replicate the model?” This statement led us to explore, what was emerging and what was emergent already in the NLP field. Something that had been emerging for Robert was ‘conscious leadership,’ and his work with entrepreneurs and has led him into this awareness that the leaders are seeing themselves as part of the whole. He expressed, that “It may be our task to make that awareness practical.”
These questions then arose, “How can NLP be the tool for spiritual gain for tomorrow and to be influential into the world and how do we create game changing in NLP while keeping what works and still go beyond?” From these questions we came back to modeling and the bigger question of whom (or what) do we want to model? Some ideas emerged, communities, spirituality, systems, phenomena, collective fields and energy. These models may come from someone but we do not know if the language is yet developed. It may be coming from the “genius,” Robert says, “which means that it is an emergence that comes out, but it also may be something channeled that is coming through or to.” After 45 minutes exploration we concluded that the 4th generation can be the spiritual gain for NLP and be influential for the world by discovering how to connect to the bigger Source, the source of field and exploring new frontiers and new models for NLP. It will be a wonderful ride and an exciting model. But remember some old phones are still useful so hold onto the NLP basics too.
(After note: At the end of the session I reported our group discussion to the larger group. I spoke somewhere between marketing and standards, and thought to myself, I really should be speaking at the end because our group was about what is beyond, however, I didn’t, I spoke in the middle, and perhaps that is exactly where 4th generation will be, because the intention is to keep the best of NLP and then to go beyond, so somewhere in the middle, integrating all of the iterations and then going out to consciousness seems just right).
4th Generation participants: Rachel Hott, Reporter Robert Dilts, Co-Facilitator Colette Normandeau Co-Facilitator Rita Aleluia Kris Halbom Robbie Steinhouse Marcel Genestar Gilberto C. Cury Leo Angart Peter Freeth Brian Van Der Horst Rob Kamps Luiza Wittmann Tomas (Portugal guest of Luiza) Milan Vuvasionovic Slavica Squire Judith Lowe
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