6.11 Anchoring An Entire Strategy Sequence.
If your strategy design calls for the use of a particular strategy sequence or subroutine already available in some form in the client's existing repertoire of strategies, it is possible to anchor that entire existing sequence with one anchor, so that it may be inserted as an entire unit into the new sequence you are designing. It may also be inserted into some situation where it was not available previously as a resource — so that it becomes wired to the contextual stimuli that make up the situation and allows for another possible choice of behavior within that context. It is installed as a resource into situations where the client desires a choice of outcomes.
In such cases the strategy is generally taken from a context in which it occurs naturally and is installed in a context in which it does not occur or has not previously occurred. In performing this operation it is important to be sure that you separate the strategy sequence itself from the trigger that has formerly initiated the strategy sequence within the context you are extracting it from. We can show this process visually in the following way:
Step 1 shows that some external visual stimulus in Context A naturally initiates the strategy sequence Aid . .. . Ke . This sequence is anchored in its entirety by the anchor.
In step 2 the strategy unit is anchored into Context B where, formerly, some external auditory stimulus had initiated a
loop. This allows the individual the choice of accessing the strategy from Context A in Context B so that it may serve as a resource.
In our seminars we often demonstrate this process by anchoring an individual's entire motivation strategy. The individual is asked to think of a time when he motivated himself to do something he did not particularly want to do. The steps in this strategy are then elicited through questioning and observation, and each step is anchored with the same kinesthetic anchor on one of the individual's knees. Some behavior is then suggested or proposed that the individual does not particularly care to do (for example, to walk across the room and lift a chair over his head, or to pick up a pencil that has been thrown on the floor). The individual is questioned a number of times to establish that he really does not want to complete the behavior. The motivation strategy is then triggered by "firing" off the anchor. When the strategy has been well anchored, the individual will automatically reaccess the strategy sequence for motivation, applying it to the ongoing context. In many cases the individual will spontaneously begin to perform the task that, seconds before, he had not been motivated to do. If the anchor is released before the individual has completed the behavior he will often stop in mid-reach, remaining immobile until the anchor is replaced.
Subroutines may be extracted from larger strategies and sequenced in the same fashion:
In the preceding diagram, two existing synesthesia patterns that occur in different contexts have been anchored together to form a new strategy. One strategy segment has been tacked to the end of another, through anchoring, to form a new sequence. In one synesthesia sequence (Vi - Ki) the individual derives visceral feelings from internal images. The other (Aid - Ke) is one in which the individual initiates physical action through internal dialogue. Since synesthesia patterns tend to automatically carry through their own processes once initiated, the important part of this installation procedure is to tie the person's internal dialogue into his feelings.
This method of anchoring may also be used to streamline an inappropriately long strategy by anchoring the last few steps, or the last operation, to some earlier step in the sequence. In this way a number of middle steps can be bypassed, or potentially crippling loops can be short circuited, as shown in the diagram below.
An example of how to employ such a procedure is demonstrated in a case in which one of the authors was working with a man who had a long, cumbersome and inefficient decision making strategy. This individual would spend hours or even days in deliberation, putting off decisions for so long that he would invariably end up passing by key opportunities, which would cause him to feel bad. As a consequence he would become deeply agitated and angry with himself for having wasted so much time. The author redesigned his decision strategy such that the individual would take into consideration the possibilities of missing key opportunities and wasting time (this becomes a representation of the outcome sequitur for the outcome of not making a decision on time) at a much earlier point in his strategy. This helped provide a motivation for the individual to speed up the strategy process by considering the possible outcomes of over deliberation, and served as a resource to provide a time check in the decision process. The inclusion of this test for negative feelings served as a decision point in the strategy at an earlier stage.
This strategy was installed by asking the person what it was like at the end of his strategy when he began to realize how much time he had wasted and how he may have possibly missed important opportunities. As the man responded, the sequence of representational systems was anchored kinesthetically ( ∮ Ke) with a squeeze on his knee. The individual was then asked to tell the author about a decision that he would soon be required to make, or a decision that he was deliberating on at present. The individual responded by telling the author about some decision he had been trying to make without getting anywhere. As he began to relate some of the details, the author reached over and squeezed his knee. The man stopped in mid-sentence. And, by observing his accessing cues, the author could tell he began to go through the anchored subroutine. Within moments the individual had come up with at least five things, that would bear upon the decision, that he needed to do. The author then repeated the process with a number of other current decisions the person needed to make, squeezing the individual's knee during the first few decisions they discussed, and witholding the anchor for the last three, as a test to make sure the new strategy was now installed. The installation of the new strategy was so successful that the individual is now the owner of the company that, at that time, had employed him as a secretary.
6.12 Anchoring Individual And Unrelated Strategy Steps.
Individual representational steps may be pulled out of totally unrelated strategy sequences, anchored and then reanchored together in sequence to form a new strategy. For instance, a certain form of internal dialogue may be taken from one naturally occurring strategy, the ability to see clearly externally from another and some internal kinesthetic check or test from yet another. These three representational functions may then be anchored together in a variety of orders and sequences to generate new outcomes and experiences for the individual. The programmer may, for instance, anchor first the ability to see clearly externally, then the internal dialogue, thirdly the positive kinesthetic feelings, and finally the ability to see clearly is anchored again so that the individual may exit again to external experience to gather feedback as more input.