While I have discussed “the map isn’t the territory” before, I haven’t really dwelled into the other two important aspects of coaching that I absolutely swear by. NLP practitioners across the board would call these principles “pre-suppositions.”
A pre-supposition is basically an assumption purely for convenience’s sake and that’s perhaps my biggest disagreement because I believe these principles aren’t just there for convenience but to guide a meaningful conversation (between a coach and a client, a manager and an employee or even between a husband and a wife/vice-versa) between two people. (I’m yet to try this out with a group, where the dynamics differ and the focus is on a lot of other different modalities, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be as powerful.)
Three of the most powerful presuppositions that have immensely helped me facilitate transformational experiences include:
- The map is not the territory
- People are more than their behaviour
- Individuals are resourceful
I know I don’t have to get into the specifics since the points above are quite self explanatory. And just being aware of these presuppositions gives you a better perspective to be an effective change agent which may lead to massive transformations.
Of course, you can ignore this and go about doing your business. But I would give it a serious consideration (and I mean that quite literally, you just need to keep these in mind and nothing else — there’s no magical technique out there) if you’re a mentor, consultant, trainer, marketer, speaker or anyone who would like to have some influence.
I think presuppositions are basic and should be part of every darn high-school curriculum and perhaps all the way to the top-most government institutions. I believe we all can use it to communicate better and influence change.