A. MindSkills Technique (‘Protocol’) (Original Guideline Notes for a Simple Example)

How to Improve Your Self-Image
(Authentic, Successful, Professional, Wealthy, Happy, etc?) All your actions, feelings, behaviours and abilities must be consistent with your newly created image.

1. Relax - Take a deep breath, and begin feeling . . . totally calm, grounded and centred.
2. Most successful you - Imagine standing in front of you . . . the most authentic you.
3. Detail - Pay careful attention to how you look, move and talk with others. Notice how you act and behave consistent with your self-image.
4. Boost – Intensify or alter pictures and sounds to get right effect.
5. Fully step into - Adjust until feels comfortable. Notice what you see, hear and feel when living authentically.
6. Practice the future – Now go to an unspecified time in the future and . . . see, hear and feel your authentic self (do three times). Then taking all the time you need come back to now.

Source: Matt and Buzz: on: High Performance Coaching. David Norman. 2006. P 80. www.MattAndBuzz.com/Business.

B. MindSkills Technique (‘Protocol’) (Simple Example - With Basic Design Criteria and Analysis)

(Authentic, Successful, Professional, Wealthy, Happy, etc?) (20. Anchor, 21. Values, 22. Stacking and, 23. Headings) All your actions, feelings, behaviours and abilities must be consistent with your newly created image.

1. Relax - Take a deep breath (1. Embedded command) and (2. Conjunction) begin (3. Presupposition of time) feeling (4. K Predicate/5. Denominalisation) . . . totally (6. Semantically charged) calm, grounded and centred. (7. Stacking presuppositions of truth/4. K Predicates) (Ki)
2. Most ideal you - Imagine standing in front of you (1. Embedded command, 8. Temporal verb and 9. Presuppositions of creative visualisation (hallucination) ability, 10. Dissociation) . . . the most authentic (create anchor) you (Ve/i)
3. Detail - Pay careful attention (7. Presupposition) to how you look, move and talk with others (11. VKA Predicate stacking). Notice how you act and behave consistent with your self-image (12. Integrity alignment – ecology check)
4. Boost – Intensify or alter pictures and sounds to get right effect (13. Adjusting qualities of seeing and hearing) (SMd (+Vi/+At)).
5. Fully step into - Adjust until feels comfortable (14. Ability to consciously alter various characteristics of pictures and sounds to ‘feel right’) then fully step into the image (15. Associated). Notice what you see, hear and feel when living authentically (fire anchor) (16. Awareness of qualities/submodalities of seeing, hearing and feeling) (Vi => At => Ki => Ke/i)
6. Practice the future – Now go to an unspecified time in the future (8. Temporal verb/Bring to present and suggest future direction) and . . . see, hear and feel your authentic (fire anchor) self (16. Awareness of qualities/submodalities of seeing, hearing and feeling/6. Semantically charged) (do three times). (17. embed scenarios/Top up convincer metaprogramme). Then taking all the time you need come back to now (18. Reorientation suggestion and embedded command for returning to present).

Basic guide/taxonomy to linguistic neurology and why it matters?
This is just a few examples of the many hundreds of language patterns needed to design and prototype elegant and effective ‘protocol’ architectures. The steps required and their sequencing is important, as are the words chosen and syntax (many are subtle yet are deeply profound) used to stack, layer and sequence the way in which the brain will interpret the guidelines in learning how to accomplish the chosen outcome.

1. Embedded command – analogically marking out a portion of a sentence ("Take a deep breath") conveys a suggestion. When used in vocally communicating/coaching the sentence may be structured as a question yet will use a tonality inflection that dips down (command tonality) at the end of the sentence.
2. Conjunction – ("And"), as, or and but, because, and so on. The connective "And" provides an easy flow for the merging of two or more suggestions. To minimize the possibility of resistance to new information can set-up a ‘yes-set’ (that creates neurological inertia) combining pacing and leading by using a sequence of ‘undeniably truthful’ statements followed by (an even unrelated) change suggestion. The conjunction "But" means the imagery created after ‘but’ is stronger and more memorable than before (cognitive ‘recency effect’ bias) thus the syntax can be important.
3. Presupposition of time – ("begin") assumes you are ‘in the now’ and ready to start.
4. K Predicate – ("Feeling") – Specifically suggested (not a visual or hearing word!) a kinsethetic (K) word that will access a feeling or sensation memory that is tactile (felt on the skin), is proprioceptive (sensation in the muscles or tendons) or an emotion, mood or state?
5. Denominalisation – ("Feeling") – is a verb (and also a predicate) when transposed into ‘pictures and sounds in the mind – and feelings’ the characteristics are typically represented on an ‘intensity continuum’ and display process, movement and energy – ideal for precipitating openness to effective communications, learning and change. Many business words are ‘nominalisations’ (eg. change, communications, leadership, talent, problems, learn, development, transformation, performance, and so on!) that are verbs that have become a noun, accompanied by imagery that is dichotomous, static or stuck unwittingly impeding change. Since you either have them/it or you don’t! By simply ‘denominalising’ a static noun back into an action verb by typically adding ING, eg. relax to relaxing. The experience and multi-sensory representations are also typically different. In sales, negotiating, meetings, and so on, can be especially useful in unfreezing a fixed position, eg. "The decision I made . . . " can be challenged to unfreeze "What was important when you were deciding? Likewise you can freeze a decision from, "My thinking on this issue . . ." can be frozen to "What are your thoughts when you will be ready . . . "
6. Semantically charged – ("totally") – is a word that increases the intensity of the sentence. Other words in this category include; powerfully, absolutely, honestly and driven.
7. Stacking presuppositions of truth – ("calm, grounded and centred – is the linguistic equivalent of an assumption that is presumed to be unquestionable, factual or true.
8. Temporal verb – ("Imagine standing in front of you") – brings person into the present or ‘in the moment.’ Very useful in shifting subjective experience eg. I talked/was talking, I talk/am talking, I will talk/will be talking . . . with them. Also valuable when needing to re-access/relive a past memory of a problem or garnering resources (eg. confidence, optimism, success, etc.) to take into the future. For example, reorientating a person to the past ("can you think of a time when you were . . . ?") (technically called ‘revivication’ - (fiction writers refer to this as a ‘flash back’), and bring into the present ("and as you think of that now?") and the future ("can you go to a time in the future when . . .?"). Also, although grammatically incorrect can elegantly and instantly shift a problem linguistically from a present memory into the past thus: "that is a real problem, wasn’t it" (present tense with past tag question). Tag question - shifts uncertainty of question into certainty of statement.
9. Presuppositions of creative visualisation ability – assumes a person can construct an imaginary and stable picture or movie in their ‘minds-eye’ (hallucination). This may represent their perception of ‘reality’ recalled from memory or is an imaginary construct of how they would like their self-image to be (cognitive consonance).
10. Dissociation – involves looking at yourself (having possibly ‘stepped out’) in a detached manner - like watching yourself in a home movie. This has the important quality of diminishing the emotional intensity (compared to ‘looking through your own eyes’). This makes it easy to make changes and adjustments to the image and accompanying sounds. Before ‘stepping into’ the picture or movie to gain a full multi-sensory experience. Being ‘associated’ means being fully in the experience and seeing things from first position through your own eyes, ears and feelings.
11. Stacking Ve+Ke+Atd/e predicates – ("how you look, move and talk with others") - direct multi-sensory suggestions to imagine "look" (Ve - visual external) in your ‘minds-eye, ’ sequenced with a kinesthetic predicate "move" (Ki – Kinesthetic external) and the words and sounds "talk" (Atd/i – Auditory tonal, detached-digital/words and external). Also the direct suggestion to ‘pay careful attention to’ will compel the brain to search out finer details and qualities (called submodalities) or the senses/modalities.
12. Integrity alignment – ("Notice how you act and behave consistent with your self-image") – is an ‘ecology check’ a suggestion to check out within yourself that nothing objects to creating this new image and everything is aligned with who you are (identity), your values and beliefs and is okay to continue.
13. Qualities – ("Intensify or alter pictures and sounds to get right effect") – involves adjusting the finer distinctions or submodalities of seeing and hearing senses that can be used to adjust or boost sensations, feelings and emotions. Submodalities (SMd) – are the qualities, characteristics and finer distinctions of a persons Modalities of inner-pictures or movies, sounds and feelings (plus smell and taste).
14. Ability to consciously alter various characteristics of pictures and sounds to ‘feel right’ – ("Adjust until feels comfortable") – suggests being fully aware of the visual and auditory (submodalities) qualities and the ability to shift or move them around, like making the picture bigger, brighter and more colourful for example and noticing the feelings typically strengthen and intensify.
15. Associated – ("then fully step into the image") – now seeing things through your own eyes you will fully experience the ‘new you’ and by ‘trying it on’ will get a sense how it feels. If it feels unfamiliar or different this means you are stretching and testing your own boundaries of how you would expect to be when you are already this new person.
16. Awareness of qualities/submodalities of seeing, hearing and feeling – ("Notice what you see, hear and feel when living authentically") – passive awareness of your subjective reality embedded in sensory-based predicates that suggest seeing, hearing and feeling. Together with firing the ‘authentic’ anchor.
17. Embed scenarios – run mental rehearsal whilst creating three different scenarios is called Future pacing – this mental practice suggestion in all modalities is designed to embed the new self-image in your neurology. 70% of peoples ‘convincer’ metaprogramme is three times. A Metaprogramme is a mental filter (out of dozens) of natural preferences that people unconsciously apply to their perception, how they think, behave and act. 70% of people require three examples to be convinced of something. Most people notice marked improvements in confidence and belief that the new scenario can become a reality with each scenario.
18. Reorientation ("Then taking all the time you need come back to now") - suggestion for the person to continue internal processing to their satisfaction before needing to return to the now. Enables a person to step out of the imaginary fantasy they have created to reprogramme themselves (having established new neural pathways) and be back in the present whenever they are ready.
19. Anchor – the word choice of ‘Authentic’ (or if used; Successful, Professional, Wealthy, Happy, etc?) can serve as a word/auditory trigger when creating an anchor and is fired off to re-access a memory capable of activating all senses (called a ‘4-tuple’ of VAKO/G).
20. Values – are typically arranged in a hierarchy of importance. Values are elicited in a specific context like career (or in this case the ‘neurological level’ below ‘identity’ used for anchoring), and are a persons unconscious blueprint for how they spend their time, what motivates them and how committed they are. Each value is expressed in multi-sensory terms, has meaning attached to it, sets priorities, has a supporting belief system and can demonstrate how a person actually lives each value. Since values are very powerful determinates of behaviour they can be realigned to automatically reshape results, performance and behaviour.
21. Stacking, Layering and Sequencing – the process of psycho/semantic/neuro-linguistic language patterns (and non-verbal techniques used in personal communication) as outlined above are used to design and create a new or modified strategy communicated through the subjective reality of one’s inner-world of pictures, sounds, feelings and words. Stacking (intensifying/amplifying) – seeing (V), hearing (A) and feeling (K) plus being aware and shifting submodalities, predicates, associated/dissociated, semantically charged, analogically marked out, and so on. Layering – (mixing and matching) instructions, suggestions, presuppositions, embedded commands, temporal shifts, and so on. Sequencing (semantics, syntax and steps) – linguistic and multi-sensory syntax ordering plus each step in the process to follow.
22. Headings - are provided because they can be especially useful when reading through each step (and/or when coaching) and help to easily locate where in the process you have got to when pausing or needing time to recall a memory or intensify an experience. Also can be convenient places to break state or to ‘stop’ where you are.

Appendix
Comprehensive listing of thinking qualities (submodalities)

Whilst largely unconscious all our thinking (intrapersonal) and communicating with others (interpersonal) relies on accessing our inner-senses or modalities of seeing (visual), hearing (auditory), feeling (kinesthetic), smell (olfactory) and taste (gustatory). The finer distinctions, qualities or characteristics of our subjective reality are most commonly called submodalities (or by some authors as metamodalities).

Also the senses of SMELL (Olfactory) AND TASTE (Gustatory) are modalities though are generally absent or less important in most business contexts.

The fields of traditional psychology, creative visualisation and sports psychology use ‘visualisation’. This is typically applied in a very elementary manner and does not explicitly recognise the powerful finer distinctions that seriously limit its effectiveness. By fully understanding the faster, deeper and lasting changes that can be accomplished using a more sophisticated, elegant, developed and advanced human change technology will deliver better results.