Jane Stubberfield Developing Coaching Skills

By the end of this session you will be able to:  Explain what is meant by representational systems  Identify preferred representational systems  Use predicates to enhance rapport and understanding

EVENTEVENT EVENTEVENT EVENTEVENT Internal Representations Pictures/ Images Sounds Feeling Taste Smell Self talk Filter Delete Generalise Distort I.R.

Visual remembered Auditory remembered Auditory digital Visual constructed Auditory constructed Kinaesthetic (Feelings)

 People will often have one or two preferred representational systems  These are ones that we will use most often and, particularly, in times of stress or pressure  It can be helpful to identify someone’s preferred system so that you can communicate better with them and so that you can understand how they have created their way of thinking  Avoid assuming that someone will always be in their preferred representational system, watching the eye accessing cues and predicates will help you identify which system someone is in at any point in time

 Tend to stand or sit with their heads and/or bodies erects, with their eyes up.  Breathe from the top of their lungs and their upper shoulders and breathe fairly rapidly.  Often sit forward in their chair and tend to be organised, neat, well groomed and orderly. Appearance is important to them.  Memorise by seeing pictures, and are less distracted by noise.  They often have trouble remembering verbal instructions because their minds tend to wander.  Fast talkers.  “A picture is worth a thousands words”.  Use picture descriptions during conversation.  Interested in how things look.  Must see things to understand them.  Likes visually based feedback.  Uses gestures that may be high & quick.

 Typically they will move their eyes sideways.  They breathe from the middle of their chest.  They typically talk to themselves and some even move their lips when they talk to themselves.  They are easily distracted by noise.  They can repeat things back to you easily and learn by listening  Usually like music and talking on the phone.  They memorise by steps, procedures, and sequences (sequentially).  The auditory person likes to be told how they’re doing.  Responds to a certain tone of voice or set of words.  They will be interested in what you have to say  Medium to fast talkers.  Translate conversation to sounds associated with topic.

 They breathe from the bottom of their lungs, so you’ll see their stomach go in and out when they breathe.  They often move and talk very slowly.  They respond to physical rewards and touching.  They also stand closer to people than a visual person does.  They memorise by doing or walking through something.  They will be interested in something if it “feels right”.  They check out their feelings prior to expressing their thoughts.  Very physical people and like to touch during conversation.  They like to walk through something before doing it.  Uses gestures that are low and smooth.

 Spend a fair amount of time talking to themselves.  They will want to know if things “makes sense”.  The auditory digital person can exhibit characteristics of the other major representational systems.  Speak in a clipped, crisp monotone.  Breathing patterns like an auditory, higher up in the chest.  Dissociated from feelings.

 Which is your preferred system?  How do you know?  How would you communicate more effectively to someone you are coaching who is a visual, or auditory, or kinaesthetic or auditory digital representational system?

Visual  See  Appear  Visualise  Reveal  Imagine  Examine  Watch  Light  Dark  Brilliant  Picture  Illustrate  Highlight  Clear Auditory  Hear  Listen  Sound  Resonate  Silence  Harmony  Deaf  Buzz  Accent  Shout  Ring  Tell  Rhythm  Quiet

Kinaesthetic  Feel  Break  Grasp  Solid  Stress  Gentle  Seize  Rough  Push  Hard  Contact  Rub  Concrete  Jump Auditory digital  Consider  Think  Understand  Evaluate  Motivate  Learn  Describe  Process  Know  Connection  Memory  Logic  Resource  Conceive

VisualAuditoryKinaesthetic I see what you meanThat sounds right to meThat feels right to me Look back onThat rings a bellI’ll be in touch Pretty as a pictureSinging of the same hymn sheet Get a grip Showing offLoud and clearJump for joy Clear cutUnheard ofWarm hearted See to itIts music to my earsHang on New perspectiveAll on the same wavelength Cool off

 Write a small story using visual predicates  Translate it into one using auditory predicates  Translate it into kinaesthetic predicates  Translate it into auditory digital predicates

 Find a partner and ask them what their preferred system is.  Find out from them about a project or a problem that they have at work. As you are listening notice what predicates seem to be most prominent, and use those back to them in the questions that you ask. For example they may say. “well I have been working on this project for 2 months now, and I just can’t see that I am going to be able to finish in time?” So you may say, “So when do you see it being finished”, or “What do you picture as a way forward with this”.  Do this for about five minutes and then swap over.

 Representational systems are the way that we store our internal representation of events  We may have preferred representational system, one’s that we use more often or default to  Each system has different characteristics  We can use our knowledge of a person’s preferred system to communicate with them in the best way for them  The words linked to a representational system are called a predicate  Using predicates enhances rapport and helps influence and help people to change

This resource was created by the University of Plymouth, Learning from WOeRk project. This project is funded by HEFCE as part of the HEA/JISC OER release programme.Learning from WOeRk This resource is licensed under the terms of the Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales license ( The resource, where specified below, contains other 3 rd party materials under their own licenses. The licenses and attributions are outlined below: 1.Slide 3: xeolhades (2008) mouth. Open Clip Art (Accessed: 12th April 2011) 2.Slide 3: bitterjug (2009) Eye. Open Clip Art (Accessed: 12th April 2011) 3.Slide 3: rones (2011) Palm by Rones. Open Clip Art (Accessed: 12th April 2011) 4.Slide 3: Ear adapted from: pianoBrad (2011) rejon Avatar 3. Open Clip Art (Accessed: 12th April 2011) 5.Slide 3: Nose adapted from: cgbug (2010) Steven Avatar. Open Clip Art (Accessed: 12th April 2011) 6.The name of the University of Plymouth and its logos are unregistered trade marks of the University. The University reserves all rights to these items beyond their inclusion in these CC resources. 7.The JISC logo, the and the logo of the Higher Education Academy are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution -non-commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK England & Wales license. All reproductions must comply with the terms of that license. Author Jane Stubberfield InstituteUniversity of Plymouth TitleRepresentational Systems Description Date Created March 2011 Educational Level Level 4 Keywords Coaching, Mentoring Creative Commons License Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales Back page originally developed by the OER phase 1 C-Change project ©University of Plymouth, 2010, some rights reserved