Now you can Capture and Accurately Map either Expertise or Problems with equal precision – either to Create Genius-Level Training, to Create Ideal Solutions, to Resolve Complex Problems, and to Formulate Far Better Questions.

And… NLP students can finally integrate all of NLP into a reliable and easy-to-display Mapping System.

 

GeniusMapping™.

What NLP didn’t know it was missing.

Dear Coaches, NLP Students, Business Consultants, and “Expertise Sponges” of all kinds,

Globally, since 1975, perhaps a million NLP students around the world have heard those same words, “the map is not the territory.”

This metaphor behind the idea of mapping other people’s cognition — whether from examples of excellence, or in masterful changework to help people change what haunts them — is still taught to every NLP Practitioner student the world over.  Further, this mapping concept is the basis of most personality-type assessments!

But perhaps less than 1% of NLP Students ever actually understand what it means to build a map, or ever learn a functional system to do any form of mapping — that can actually be shared.

“The Map is not the Territory” shouldn’t just be a metaphor.  In learning NLP, we should be able to make easily-understood actual maps… and be able to share them!

Perhaps you too have noticed that…

The absence of (consistent) effective mental modeling skills out there is one of NLP’s most fundamental dysfunctions.

As a trainer of NLP since 1997 — for 24 years — I truly believe that, and, I’ve spent a significant amount of time and effort working to change that.

Our field’s first modelers, the co-founders of NLP, including not just Richard Bandler and John Grinder, but also Frank Pucelik, did the earliest NLP modeling, with the goal in mind of capturing aspects of expertise they’d witnessed from extraordinary changework artists like Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir, Milton H. Erickson, and others.

The second wave of emerging NLP Students and Trainers in the late 1970’s were mostly therapists of one sort or another, and could best be called NLP’s Contributors, or Co-Contributors.  This wave was also known for producing trainers who knew about and knew how to model, albeit not precisely how Bandler, Grinder, and Pucelik did it.

Much of the early NLP Modeling efforts involved mimicry and rote repetition.

That got them part of the way, but their results didn’t improve and speed up until they began collaborating and formalizing both what they were capturing (content…) and their methods for how they were capturing and analyzing their observations (process…).

The end goals of the co-founders, at the time, were mostly to replicate excellence in rapid changework, in fast therapy.  They didn’t realize at the time that the methodology they were developing for capturing human excellence would be such a valuable end-result in and of itself.

The first wave of NLP students that followed the co-founders were not only interested in replicating excellence and learning the results of the co-founders’ early modeling, but also increasingly in the modeling process.  Because they knew that if they were to learn modeling skills, they could then model other skills, and acquire other expertise rapidly.

After all, give a man a fish, and he eats for a day.

Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.

Right?

So, most of the changework techniques in NLP we know and love today, are themselves the results of modeling (e.g., the Swish pattern, the Fast Phobia Cure, Values Elicitation, State Chaining, the New Behavior Generator, 6-Step Reframing, etc etc etc ad infinitum!).  These have been described as NLP Techniques, but truly, a more accurate description comes from Richard Bandler, namely, that these techniques are what was left behind in the wake (a boating metaphor) of NLP modelers moving forward with modeling.

And while its great to learn these techniques… when you learn modeling, you elevate even further, and enable two extraordinary results:

1. With effective modeling skills, you truly become an expertise sponge, a talent sponge.  An accelerated learner. So much so, that when you happen to meet with extraordinary people, you can capture some of their gifts extremely rapidly.
2. With effective modeling skills, you distinguish yourself from hundreds of thousands of “intuitive” coaches or therapists, and become a *surgically* effective coach or changework artist.  Because you’ll be building very accurate maps of how clients think and feel, and why.  Your interventions will be targeted, effective, and often far more permanent than the “intuitive coaches” could ever hope to achieve.

So why is the NLP student-sphere full of people who can’t model or map expertise?

The Problem has many causes.  Here are some of them:

	The Magic Bullet Lie.  Many trainers ‘sold their souls’ to fill courses, and have offered shorter and shorter courses promising the same levels of results.  Certification courses that used to take weeks are now offered in 7 days or even less.  This is not because you can get deeper skills in NLP faster than you could 2 decades ago; It’s because people are impatient, and newly graduating trainers have lowered the skill-level bar in order to fill seminar seats.  NLP students today don’t realize that what passes for ‘popular NLP’ today wouldn’t pass as “skilled” by most experienced and skilled trainers.  Tragically, students are being sold a bill of goods, and given a false sense of competence.  Many of these trainers never even learned how to model, so of course, they don’t even train modeling.
	The Complacency/Laziness Trap: Not every NLP student wants to do the work required to learn to become a talent sponge and a modeler of expertise.  This is a high class of skill.  It takes a certain level of commitment.  Neither Complacent nor Lazy will get you there.
	The Dirty Little Secret of NLP’s Fractured-Profession:  NLP has several different schools of thought, multiple methods of modeling that each have their pros and cons.  In short, there is no single mapping and modeling system in NLP that provides an umbrella for modeling in NLP, and again, most trainers can’t even model their way out of a paper bag.
	Adding INSULT to INJURY:  No one does things the same way.  There are too many fiefdoms in NLP, where nobody is training the same thing. Many trainers today talk about maps and modeling, and then train everyone to vaguely rely on intuition.  So there’s no agreed-upon common way of measuring or using intuition, so when someone seeks a consultant or NLP Practitioner, they can expect anything from genius to dangerous stupidity, irresponsibility, and poor training.  And there is simply no good public metric available to the average NLP Client, for measuring the likelihood of where their  hired NLP Practitioner will be, on that skilled-to-dysfunctional spectrum.

 

Are there (or have there been) any good modeling training courses?

Yes!  There are some great modelers out there who have developed courses.

 

And then… there’s GeniusMapping™.

GeniusMapping™ (or, as it used to be known in our earlier courses, Knowledge Engineering) helps us create models that anyone can follow.  If I map something using GeniusMapping™, absolutely anyone can then use that model and put it into action, without any training.  In other words, that map is understandable and trackable by people who haven’t taken and don’t need to have taken GeniusMapping™, to understand the map, or unpack the results that were acquired from the GeniusMapping™ process.

So what’s the magic?  How basically does it work?

The basic principle behind GeniusMapping™ is that you’ll acquire a way of unpacking other people’s language, including their rules, their decisions, beliefs, values, and strategies, all using one deceptively simple cognitive structure.  A 3-part structure that can be represented by:

      CONDITIONS –> RESULTS

…where that cause-effect statement satisfies some emotional value.

      IF (Conditions) –> THEN (Results)… WHICH MEANS… (Value)

That may find that sounds familiar.  If so, here’s why:

When Robert Dilts taught Sleight of Mouth [SoM], he posited the same structure.  If you’ve seen his [SoM] videos (1987), you’ll likely recognize this instantly, as I did.  I’d actually spent an entire decade using the same format in the AI field of “Knowledge Engineering”, mapping extensive expert decision systems, and belief systems.  So we’re using that structure because it has been found extremely useful and relevant in multiple fields oriented towards capturing cognitive patterns.

The biggest difference is that while Dilts focused mostly on teaching people how to change single beliefs, I’ve been using this system to map larger belief systems, and if someone needs any changes to their beliefs or belief systems, to create better behavioral patterns and more, then GeniusMapping™ is an ideally-suited skillset for helping them achieve these results.  Which means… relief, satisfaction, joy, inspiration, and much more.

Who am I, and how did my background lead to GeniusMapping™?

I’m Jonathan Altfeld, and I’ve had two careers, so far.

From 1991 to 1997, I was a professional modeler of expertise in the Artificial Intelligence field.  I built Expert Systems software, to replicate expert decision-making.  I was also a published, award-winning Knowledge Engineer, with a paper published and a talk given at the “Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence” conference in 1996.

In 1997, I began looking for training courses and skills that would enable me to become better at acquiring other people’s expertise, and I unexpectedly found NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).  After taking a series of training courses, I started a training business, “Mastery InSight Institute.”  When I entered the field of NLP and became a trainer, I noticed:

1. I was a sponge for NLP, what people call a “Natural,” and while I was already skilled in some areas, I had big gaps in other areas that I needed to fill (so, of course, I worked hard to fill those gaps).
2. Most of the trainers I met and spoke with (as you read in the first sections, above) could talk about modeling, but didn’t know how to explain modeling, let alone, do it.   Yet I was already a successful and well-paid, published modeler of expertise.
3. My background and mastery in acquiring and documenting gifted expert’s decisions-making strategies was in itself a valid and financially proven form of modeling — that lent itself naturally to NLP students who wanted to capture and visually map the mental structures of both expertise, and problems, alike.

So I began training the skills I already had from the field of Artifical Intelligence (specifically, Knowledge Engineering), to NLP students.  I called the course “Knowledge Engineering.”

Incredibly, every trainee found it to be a transformational skill that integrated everything they knew about NLP into a more sensible, structured methodology.

At the core of this skill is mastery of a 3-part device, that I call the “Normalized Belief Structure,” or NBS.  Also known as “If-Then-Means.”

Why is the “If-Then-Means” structure so magical?

The amazing thing about this construct is that it is an effective way of creating a representation of *every* potential human choice point we can unpack.  Whether its a conscious decision or belief/rule… or an unconscious choice we aren’t yet consciously aware that we make, IF-THEN-MEANS can describe it.  After you get super familiar with it, you’ll find it to be just as magical a device as we do.

Its a “normalized belief structure” because it can be used to map any human choice point in our minds.  One size fits all, so to speak.  It can unlock the beauty (and sometimes the mess) of human belief systems.  And when these have been mapped well, these maps can be read, understood, and used by people without needing to have been trained in the GeniusMapping™ process.

More importantly, once enough of these NBS’es have been unpacked and verified, we can unlock groundbreaking insights, profound discoveries about ourselves and other people. Suddenly, when we see well-constructed maps of people’s belief systems, jaw-dropping observations and eureka moments aren’t far behind. You’ll be able to visually notice things like…

• • How NLP Strategies relate to Values Hierarchies.
  • Meta-Patterns across seemingly unrelated strategies.
  • Why using the Meta-Model flippantly or too casually can actually create a “moving target” for change-workers, that makes a permanent desired change in their client’s behavior or thinking… difficult (if not impossible!).
  • Patterns of Decision-Making Difficulties (High granularity of thinking, among other causes)
  • How and why Values are the drives for ALL of our behavior
  • Root causes and triggers for all any/all dysfunction
  • The differences between conscious and unconscious knowledge, and why this is the difference that makes the difference for why people usually can’t adopt “top-10” lists of best practices and then reproduce expert results.
  • And far more.

Here’s what our new Normalized Belief Structure sticky notes look like:

Review these Valued GeniusMapping™ experiences:

Here’s what Carlos Casados, owner of Hypnotherapy Breakthrough in California, and co-founder of the Authenticity Show, has to say about his course experience back in July 2019.	Here’s what Cassie Clouser, the Brand Mythologist, says about what she learned just from having taken part of a GeniusMapping™ course (and will be attending one of the upcoming online courses).
Amy Bell is an NLP Trainer and Coach, based in Melbourne, Australia. She’s also got a Youtube-based “Stay Human” channel, and the SUPERYOU Podcast. Amy is one of very few people authorized to train a “Lite” version of GeniusMapping within her certification courses — both because she’s so good at it, and because she’s an excellent trainer!	Andy Smith is an Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator, Emotional Intelligence Coach, and NLP Trainer, with a global following.  He also hosts the Practical NLP Podcast.  Andy took several KE courses (the early form of GeniusMapping™), then invited me to train KE at one of his NLP Master Track courses. He’s particularly well positioned to share how valuable KE skills are for a wide range of people.
Here’s what James Tripp, founder of “Chaos Wave,” has to say about his course experience back in January 2020. You can also explore James’ Youtube channel, and the James Tripp website.

So how were these skills trained from 1998 to 2014?

These skills were initially trained under the title “Knowledge Engineering,” or “K.E.”  KE was offered as a self-contained 3-day weekend.  Three days, total.

I needed one day to train how to map single beliefs, a second day to train how to begin mapping the connections between multiple beliefs, and then at least a third day, to practice and integrate.

This took students to a bare minimum of competence in beginning to map small belief systems.  And initially, most students were less interested in modeling, and more interested in solving their problems, and we rarely had much time in-class to devote to that subject.

With this skill, students successfully began to see how and where changes or improvements to their beliefs would be possible.  Sometimes, once unconscious belief issues can be seen, people create their own changes without any further intervention.  Sometimes not.

 

In 2003 we started teaching “Belief Craft (BC).”  How did BC affect the training of KE skills?

Belief Craft (BC) was the brain-child of part of my partnership with the awesome Doug O’Brien.  We combined my KE material with Doug’s Sleight of Mouth material.  We initially ran BC twice as a 4-day course.  2.5 days of KE, 1 day of SoM, and a half day of skills integration.  Even as a 4-day course, you can see that BC only allowed students 2.5 days of KE skills development before they were asked to use them, and integrate them with Sleight of Mouth.

Then Doug O’Brien and I shortened BC to a 3-day course, as part of our Master Practitioner training, and that reduced the KE training time even further.  We found that with Master Practitioner students, we could accelerate things and still do justice to the material.  Unfortunately it was also plainly clear that whenever we had a totally new NLP student attending just the BC course, 3 days was not sufficient for deep skills development, when only 1.5 – 2 days of KE was being trained.

I learned, repeatedly, that for people to develop integrated, nuanced and effective KE skills, KE was going to need more than three days of training time.  I decided that when I was ready to teach a more mature version of KE — which I’m now calling GeniusMapping™, I would need to do several things:

(1) Teach the KE skillset more deeply, (2) Provide supervised time for deeper student modeling work, and (3) Offer a certification path for those who want to publicly integrate this skillset into their profession.

So what Core KE Skills must be taught, to enable students to become great at modeling?

1. Listening for Belief Structures.  Knowing how to map what you hear into one or more single beliefs.  Validating each one until you’re confident you’ve accurately mapped them.  You *must* be able to do this accurately and not allow yourself to get distracted by other beliefs or irrelevant content, YET.
2. Listening for key clues about nearby and adjacent Beliefs, learning what clues will lead to red herrings and wasted time, vs. what clues must be investigated.
3. Learning to Drive the Modeling process.  Respect your exemplar’s knowledge, but not their rationalized beliefs *about* their knowledge.  In other words, people don’t know what they know, and they really don’t know how they know it.  THEY drive the content, but YOU drive the modeling.  Always.
4. Learning to ask clean and better questions.  This is counter-intuitive for NLP “Meta-Monsters.”  When people use the Meta Model to challenge linguistic patterns (violations?), they usually miss the fact that what they’re modeling just became a moving target.  If they do that, they’ll never be able to design a perfect intervention — NEVER.  Because any part of their already-mapped beliefs may very well have just changed.  In coaching contexts, we must ask totally clean questions that do not change our exemplars’ maps — at least up until we are finished designing an intervention and are ready to help the other person change their mind!
5. Learning to use our special POST-IT notes to model, and be willing (& practiced, conditioned) to move things around actively.  Don’t get married to assumptions about initial modeling work.  As you learn more about KE, you discover that as you interview exemplars, your perspective and assumptions about an exemplar’s model… must evolve.  Modeling is fluid; use clean language, and embrace the fluidity!  When you use clean language, the exemplar’s model doesn’t change as you model it.  But your model of the exemplar’s model must evolve and refine, as it approaches greater accuracy in representing your exemplar’s beliefs and belief system.
6. Learning to escape a procedural flowchart mindset and make the leap to massively parallel modeling work.  If your mapped belief systems all look like single left-to-right lines, you’re not yet getting it (some will look like straight lines anyway, but they shouldn’t all look like straight lines — see the next image!).  But relax!  I know what to look for, and I know how to help students make each leap at the right time.

Here, 2 GeniusMappers work on improving/verifying a GeniusMap™: