Well, now. I remember a phrase that Richard had used about NLP, and I think specifically about modelling, "taking things too seriously". The emphasis fell, for me, on things (as versus processes). So, you can be sincere about processes, but serious about no things whatsoever. And the most important process is that which controls other processes, so that you actually generate what's needed by yourself as well as others.

Everyone knows metaphors for change, especially producing the kinds of communication that we both use. Transformations occur all over in everyday life. It's fascinating to look at people learn - to walk, to drive a car, to write.

Most people haven't yet started to think about the process that controls that change, and how it can continue to change. Now, that's part of the how that made NLP into DHE. Generative change. Michael told me a story about Gregory Bateson, who at that time was studying dolphins. Maybe I should say studying with dolphins, because I honestly think he learnt more than they did! Anyway, he was interested

that all animals up to that point in time had appeared to learn on a stimulus-response basis. So, present the input, when the animal chooses the correct output, it gets a sweetie. And this works for the vast majority of animals. They gradually learn what they're supposed to do, and do it more. But not dolphins.

Dolphins will do the task they're supposed to do two or three times, getting their one fish each time, then emit what Bateson said sounded like a "funny laugh" and not do the task again. This puzzled animal researchers, and it puzzled Bateson, and as you do when you're puzzled, you start to put the feelers out for research anywhere that might solve your puzzle.

Most of the one year course covered both NLP and DHE, and I was trying to get a feeling as to how the two fit together. As my friend and I chatted in the warm sun, some connections started to come together. I remember that a one of the course participants had told me that confusion came from con ('with') and fusion ('connection'), so that be confused was really a spiritual state. It meant being connected to exactly what was going on, but just not understanding it through the "sphincter" of the conscious (as Michael Breen called it).

Bateson finally found the research that he'd been looking for. The dolphins in this particular experiment were allowed through a gate from a holding pen into the 'learning tank', where a researcher with a bucket of fish was waiting. He continued to wait until the dolphin performed some unique little trick. Perhaps a flick of the tail, perhaps a flap of a fin. Then, he threw in a fish. Well, the dolphin wasn't about to refuse a fish, so he ate it. A few more minutes and quite by accident, the dolphin repeated the manoeuvre. Another fish. Hmmm. Interesting. The dolphin ate the fish. The entire process is repeated for an hour or two, using the same movement, the same reward. The gate is lifted, the dolphin goes back.

Next day, as soon as the gate is lifted, the dolphin rushed in and replicated the same manoeuvre. No fish. He tried again. No fish. Well, he went back to playing in the water as dolphins are wont to do. And soon he performed another little trick, perhaps a clever jump, perhaps a nice dive. He received a fish, which he ate. A little bit later, he performed the same trick, and he got another fish. And the entire process is repeated for the next hour or two. Whenever the dolphin replicates the new movement, he gets a fish. Then the gate was lifted and the dolphin went back. Next day, the gate is lifted and the dolphin rushes in. Quickly he repeated yesterday's new trick. No fish. He tried the day before's. No fish. He tried again. No fish. He went back to playing, and as you might expect (you're learning already, aren't you?), as soon as a new procedure is produced, the dolphins earns a fish. And so it continues.

Every day, the dolphin tried to reproduce yesterday's little trick, and the day before and the day before that. But he got no reward. It's only when he comes up with something completely new that he's rewarded.

Sitting in the park, relaxing, my friend mentioned his father had installed a new thermometer. He was building up his garden, and needed to monitor the temperature outside exactly. The garden was being built from the ground up, but his father was finding it incredibly difficult to get plants that worked together. He always said, "All change comes from nothing", meaning you had remove what was there first before you could start on something new. But he was finding that he needed each of the plants that had been living naturally in his garden to create something new. Although he wanted the vegetable patch to work (he liked to be able use a garden), he saw that it was no good without the soil being just so and the shade that some of his older trees had produced was in fact just what some of his more delicate plants needed. Everything inside the garden depended on everything else. He couldn't see how it would all fit together. And the truth was, he didn't really have a feel for how it would all work. So, he started to do a number of new things. First of all he started to monitor different parts of the garden.

Normally, you can see from a thermometer how hot or cold the area around the thermometer is. But this thermometer was slightly different, the measuring device was outside, but the reading was inside. So, you can tell what the temperature outside is without having to go outside. Pretty cool, eh? It really starts you thinking what you can measure on the inside, and how you can use that: the best kinds of measurements are ones that allow you to make the measurer more precise.

By observing exactly what was going on, my friend's father was able to be a little more precise about how the garden fitted together. And he found it mattered less seeing exactly what did what, but more what fitted into what, and getting a sense of the connections. Writing down his designs still seemed important somehow, but he had so many criteria for success that the garden seemed to grow itself. And he learnt from what was there, and as the garden grew so did his learnings.

Well, some days in to the dolphin experiment -- it might have been the ninth, or it might have been the thirteenth -- the dolphin is in the holding pen, and he's obviously agitated. Maybe he was really distressed, perhaps really happy, or maybe just excited. Anyway, the gate was lifted, and the dolphin rushes in and performs nine new behaviours in a row. Now we're learning on an entirely different level.

Learning processes, and learning to learn. Generating change. Makes you produce new processes that are going to allow you to enjoy processes in new ways.

And sitting on the ground in the warmth just helped me to piece together some of the parts of the curious puzzle.

Last updated: 25 September 1997