Maps and Models

&
Why They Matter

An Introduction to NLP
Part 1: The Premise
by Charles Faulkner

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

“The Map is not the Territory.”
“And this, essentially is what maps give us, reality, a reality that
exceeds our vision, our reach, the span of our days, a reality we
achieve no other way. We are always mapping the invisible or the
unattainable or the erasable, the future or the past, whatever-is-not-
here-present-to-our-senses-now and, through the gift that the map
gives us, transmuting it into everything it is not …
into the real.”

– Denis Wood
The Power of Maps

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 You don’t believe it?

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 Which one looks right?

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 Well, what about this one?

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 Or this one?

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 Ok, let’s start again.

Mercator Projection
Straight latitude lines show shapes accurately. Good for sailing ships to the new world.
Bonus: Makes northern hemisphere countries look bigger than they actually are.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

Maps represent something…

Cylindrical Projection
Straight latitude lines show continent shapes accurately. Curving longitudes distort.
Bonus: Makes Antarctica the largest continent.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

using the principles of the map…

Gall-Peters Projection
Shows all land and water areas with accurate size proportional to each other.
Makes southern hemisphere countries as big as they are with loss of shape.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

which we assume are in the world…

Dymaxion Projection
Based on a polyhedron, it has less distortion of relative sizes and shapes.
Bonus: There’s no longer any up or down or northern or southern hemispheres.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 not in the map.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 Some Principles of Maps
• Maps highlight some things and hide others.
• Maps have an author, a point of view, a
subject and a theme.
• Maps are made for purposes – sometimes
hidden.
• Maps are in the history they help to create.
• Maps work through codes, icons and words.
• Maps create worlds, not copy them.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 Maps highlight some things
and hide others.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

Maps are made for purposes
– sometimes hidden.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 Maps have an author, a point
of view, a subject and a theme.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

Maps are in the history they
help to create.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 Maps work through codes,
icons and words.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 Maps create worlds,
not copy them.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

From Maps to Mental Models
If our maps of the physical world are so
necessarily selective and approximant, how
much more so are the mental maps or
models we bring to everyday situations?

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 Map Making is World Making
• For a map to work - to fulfill its purpose -
it highlights some things and hides
others if only to make it easier to read.

• These are natural processes known as

Deletion, Distortion and Generalization.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

Deletion, Distortion, Generalization
… increase the significance of
particular information and with it
a sense of order and certainty…

while the sensory rich

experience with all of its
ambiguity and multiple
meanings is forgotten.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

We like order & certainty so much…

• Games have defined places, spaces,

moves and rules.

Games simplify the world.

There are winners & losers.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

we create multiple models of it …
• Sports have carefully constructed fields,
roles, rules of play and time limits.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

in different aspects of our lives…
• Novels, movies and television episodes
have defined characters & orderly plots.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

and then use these models to
make sense of other situations.

• “Marketing needs a new game plan.”

• “Send in Ted. He’s our MVP.”
• “You just have to take a chance.”
• “What have you got to lose?”
• “I don’t see a happy ending here.”
• “It’s your time to shine.”

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

“The Map is not the Territory.”
The Model is not the Situation.
• Human decision-making works by pattern
recognition. We see something we already know.
Something we already have a mental model of.

• We make analogies with the mental models we have

to gain insights into the new situation to take action.

• We need to make sure we are making accurate

analogies and taking worthwhile actions.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 About Our Mental Models
• Mental models are incomplete.
• Our ability to utilize them is very limited.
• Mental models are unstable.
• Mental models are not well defined.
• Mental models are unscientific, even superstitious.
• Mental models are parsimonious. That is, mental
complexity is avoided even for more physical work.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

Mental models are incomplete.
• Business analogies to war leave out the fear, chaos
and human toll.

Sports analogies leave out the long

practice, the regularity of the season,
and often short professional career.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

Our ability to utilize them is limited.
• We make analogies quickly
and look for confirmation.

• We can consciously only

keep track of about 7 plus or
minus 2 items or elements.

• We can mental manipulate

about 3 relationships among
these elements effectively.
© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com
Mental models are unstable.
• Details get deleted with
disuse.

• Which leads to over-

generalization.

• Which further distorts their

effective application.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

Mental models are not well defined.

• Similar names, analogies, types and/or

operations get confused with each other.

• Different levels of detail are applied

without consideration for the situation.

• Efforts go to attempting to make a fit

than seeking out better matched models.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

Mental models are unscientific.
• They use analogies, not
experimentation and testing.

• They “satisfice” - that is, are

good enough for right now.

• The often have superstitious,

or at least unnecessary,
steps and/or elements.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

Mental models are parsimonious.
• Simple is better than accurate.

• Quick is better than thorough.

• Mental complexity is avoided

even for more physical work.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 How did we get here?
• Survival favored quick,
action-oriented solutions
to immediate situations.

• Which meant using simple

mental models and easy
to apply analogies.

• Reflection came later,

if you survived, and you
had the time and interest.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

Now, our situations are complex…

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

and most of our information gained
through maps and models.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 So our ability to manage our
mental maps & models is crucial.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 This is where NLP comes in…
• Short for Neuro-Linguistic Programming –
NLP describes how our mental models are
represented in our senses and language.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 with specific behavioral cues to
detect mental model building…
Literally see which senses their mental models are coded in.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 and strategic questioning to
develop details & connections.
Literally hear how their mental models work and redirect them.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

NLP uses a programming analogy
Because you can always upgrade your “software.”

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

by making finer distinctions…
In what you see, hear, touch, taste, smell and feel

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

on the outside and on the inside…

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

by increasing your awareness of
yours & others mental models…

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 by mastering how language
influences our mental models.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 This is ‘why’ NLP applies to
Management and to Sales
• Management creates and executes strategy
based on the mental models they have of
their business and its environment.

• Sales seeks to fit their company’s products or

services into compelling places in the mental
models of their customers needs and desires.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

As well as decision-making & creativity
• Decisions are determined by what mental
models are used to decide and how much they
correspond to the conditions in the world.

• Creativity in business is about finding

systematic ways to get out of existing mental
models and/or combine them in novel ways.

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 We are all mental modelers.
• What sense of NLP have you gained from this program?
What did you see, hear or feel that lets you know this?
You know, these form your mental model of NLP … so far.

• You might be thinking, “NLP is like … “ This is analogy making.

We’re quick to make models the same, but ignores important
differences – like the different ways there are to map the world.

• Your colleagues have watched this through their own mental models.
Ask them their opinions. The differences you hear are due to their
having different mental models.

• What differences can you detect now?

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com

 “The Map is not the Territory.”
• This is an introduction to a key premise of NLP.
• While efforts have been made to make this
experiential, it is more of a map.
• To experience more of Charles’ work, go to:
shop.nlpco.com/Faulkner

© 2007 Charles Faulkner www.influentialcommunications.com