Metaprogram Categories
http://www.jobeq.com/categories.php
The iWAM questionnaire measures an individual's attitudes and motivations within
the context of the workplace. This test includes 48 metaprogram parameters, which
are the series of mental filters which determine how one behaves what one pays
attention to during observation. This page is an explanation of which metaprograms
the iWAM measures. Each of the 48 parameters is measured and rated separately,
but for simplicity we have grouped them here under 15 headers (some categories
have the technical name in brackets):
1. Action Level
The end of the 20th Century showed an incredible boom in venture capital
investment. Almost anyone with an idea could find funding to start an Internet-based
company. They were the good old days for entrepreneurs. This period valued
enormously proactive behavior: the idea was to be first, start a company and execute
the idea, before anyone else would. Getting funding sometimes was a matter of days,
with the entrepreneur choosing the venture capital to work with. Compare this with
the conservative attitude of most bankers. They wait until a company comes with a
well-organized proposal with a high probability of success. Even then the banker will
be asking additional guarantees. The total time to get a loan approved may become
months. Some say that if the procedures are followed by the book, a bank will only
give a loan to companies that don't need it.
What's the difference between the two kinds of funding? Speed and Risk are two
important parameters. Venture capital investment is very proactive; speed is the key.
The expected market return and the number of investments was seen as the way to
spread the risk: if one out of 10 funded companies succeeded and was introduced to
the stock market, the VC investor is content. A banker is more reactive: speed is not
important; certainty (no risks) is the key. A banker takes the time to thing through
each aspect of the credit decision.
One can ask similar questions for each individual. Is a person proactive or reactive?
How fast does the person start taking action? How much patience does this person
have?
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The following articles are in-depth studies of global trends among certain
metaprograms:
Article 1: Action Direction: Goals and Problems
Article 2: Task Attitude - Options vs Procedures
Article 3: Work Environment & Work Responsability
Article 4: Rules and Conformity
This page contains a description of each of the 48 metaprogram patterns that the
iWAM questionnaire measures. The following descriptions help you interpret the
results of your iWAM Profile Survey Graphic Report. If you have questions or
concerns, please contact your LAB Profile Consultant.
The first 16 scales, the operational factors, are presented as binary patterns. For each
pair, the first scale is explained in normal type. The other scale is shown in italics.
OF1: Action Level: This person has a tendency to initiate. This person has a
lot of patience.
OF2: Action Direction: This person has a capability to remain focused on a
goal and maintain that focus over time. This person is motivated by finding
and correcting problems.
OF3: Evaluation Reference: This person wants to decide for themself. They
provide their own motivation. This person prefers to get the advice and
opinions of others.
OF4: Task Attitude: This person is always looking for a better way; an
alternative. This person is highly efficient when following procedures.
OF5: Task Orientation (Scope): This person works with and thinks about
large 'chunks' of information. This person is detail oriented.
OF6: Communication Sort (Interaction): This person is focused on
nonverbal communication. This person is focused on the content of the
message itself.
OF7: Work Environment Type: This person wants to work with people
around. They want to work alone.
OF8: Work Assignment Type: These people want sole responsibility for the
work they perform. This person wants to share the responsibility with others,
and prefers team projects.
The work approach indicates how one distributes the available time and energy over
the following kinds of tasks:
Wa1: Use: This person simply begins the task; they work best when they can
get the first step out of the way immediately.
Wa2: Concept: This person completely develops an idea or theory; needs
time to think things through.
Wa3: Structure: This person organizes the resources; establishes lists and
identifies the relationships.
The Temporal Processing patterns indicate how persons are oriented when thinking
about time.
TP1:Past: This person concentrates on the past and uses experience to help
make decisions.
TP2:Present: This person concentrates on the present, the 'now' and tends
to be practical.
TP3:Future: This person concentrates on the future and tends to be a
dreamer.
The following 8 patterns indicate how a person is convinced. The first four represent
the channels by which they gather information, and the second four are related to
how the person massages that data to be convinced.
Co1: See: people must be able to see something to get convinced.
Co2: Hear: people must hear how, or hear about something in order to be
convinced.
Co3: Read: people must read information or instructions to become
convinced.
Co4: Do: people must actually do it in order to be convinced about
something.
Co5: Number of Examples: people must have the data a particular number
of times for them to be convinced.
Co6: Automatic: people only need a small amount or even partial
information and they quickly project the rest of the information. Then, they
decide based on what their projections.
Co7: Consistent: people are never quite convinced. They need to get
information every single time to remain somewhat convinced.
Co8: Period of Time: people need to have the data remain consistent for
period of time for them to be convinced.
The Interest Filters of the person indicate what the person needs to work with or
manipulate to feel successful. It is what must be in the environment.
IF1: People: A High People person works best with people and their feelings.
IF2: Tools: A High Tools person works best with tangible tools and
instruments.
IF3: Systems: A High Systems person works best with the process of things.
IF4: Information: A High Information person works best with facts and
knowledge.
IF5: Money: A High Money person is concerned about money and keeping
score.
IF6: Place: A High Place person is concerned about the geographic or
social/political position.
IF7: Time: A High Time person is concerned about allotting time and keeping
schedule
IF8: Activity: A High Activity person focuses on activity and needs to
manipulate activities.
What are Metaprograms and why are they important?
Metaprograms are the series of mental filters which determine how one behaves
based on how one thinks and what one pays attention to during observation. For
instance: Do you focus on the information or on people? Do you like to look at the big
picture or are you a detail-minded person?
Think of it like the wiring in your brain. Every person is wired a little differently, and
this affects the way they see and act in the world. Understanding how people are
wired can have profitable rewards in the field of HRM.
Among other things, metaprograms can be used to determine whether a person will
be motivated by certain jobs, environments, or input. This is the reason that
measuring metaprograms can be useful during recruitment, coaching, and training
people.
“Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”-William James
How does jobEQ utilize Metaprograms?
jobEQ’s most popular product, the iWAM questionnaire, measures 48 metaprogram
patterns - far more variables than competing tests. Our feedback reports explain the
results, and how they relate to and predict employee behavior. Instead of saying a
person is either "proactive" or "reactive," these reports detail exactly how proactive
and reactive a person is. Measuring items on a scale such as this gives you an
incredible amount of information about the person and how he or she compares to
others. Rather than just putting people into one of a few categories, the iWAM gives
you more possible profiles than there are people on the Earth. Since everyone is
unique, this makes perfect sense.
Once you see exactly which metaprograms jobEQ measures, you will begin to
understand how much they could affect a person's behavior at work. We have
organized the metaprograms into 16 Categories, each of which can be accurately and
objectively measured by iWAM.
The word chunking comes from a famous 1956 paper by George A. Miller, The
Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two : Some Limits on our Capacity for
Processing Information. At a time when information theory was beginning to be
applied in psychology, Miller observed that whereas some human cognitive tasks fit
the model of a "channel capacity" characterized by a roughly constant capacity in
bits, short-term memory did not. A variety of studies could be summarized by saying
that short term memory had a capacity of about "seven plus-or-minus two" chunks.
Miller wrote that "With binary items the span is about nine and, although it drops to
about five with monosyllabic English words, the difference is far less than the
hypothesis of constant information would require. The span of immediate memory
seems to be almost independent of the number of bits per chunk, at least over the
range that has been examined to date." Miller acknowledged that "we are not very
definite about what constitutes a chunk of information."
Miller noted that according to this theory, it should be possible to effectively increase
short-term memory for low-information-content items by mentally recoding them into
a smaller number of high-information-content items. "A man just beginning to learn
radio-telegraphic code hears each dit and dah as a separate chunk. Soon he is able
to organize these sounds into letters and then he can deal with the letters as chunks.
Then the letters organize themselves as words, which are still larger chunks, and he
begins to hear whole phrases." Thus, a telegrapher can effectively "remember"
several dozen dits and dahs as a single phrase. Naive subjects can only remember
about nine binary items, but Miller reports a 1954 experiment in which people were
trained to listen to a string of binary digits and (in one case) mentally group them
into groups of five, recode each group into a name (e.g "twenty-one" for 10101), and
remember the names. With sufficient drill, people found it possible to remember as
many as forty binary digits. Miller wrote:
"It is a little dramatic to watch a person get 40 binary digits in a row and then repeat
them back without error. However, if you think of this merely as a mnemonic trick for
extending the memory span, you will miss the more important point that is implicit in
nearly all such mnemonic devices. The point is that recoding is an extremely
powerful weapon for increasing the amount of information that we can deal with".
The S.C.O.R.E. Model
Most NLP is oriented around defining a present state and a desired state, and then
identifying and applying a technique that will hopefully help someone get to their
desired state. The S.C.O.R.E. Model enriches that description by adding a few more
simple distinctions. The letters stand for Symptoms, Causes, Outcomes, Resources
and Effects. These elements represent the minimum amount of information that
needs to be addressed by any process of change or healing.
Symptoms are typically the most noticeable and conscious aspects of a presenting
problem or problem state.
Causes are the underlying elements responsible for creating and maintaining the
symptoms. They are usually less obvious than the symptoms they produce.
Outcomes are the particular goals or desired states that would take the place of the
symptoms.
Resources are the underlying elements responsible for removing the causes of the
symptoms and for manifesting and maintaining the desired outcomes.
Effects are the longer term results of achieving a particular outcome. Specific
outcomes are generally stepping stones to get to a longer term effect.
Positive effects are often the reason or motivation for establishing a particular
outcome to begin with.
Negative effects can create resistance or ecological problems.
Techniques are sequential structures for identifying, accessing and applying
particular resources to a particular set of symptoms, causes and outcomes. A
technique is not in and of itself a resource. A technique is only effective to the extent
that it accesses and applies the resources which are appropriate to address the the
whole system defined by the other S.C.O.R.E. elements.
Toward vs. Away From - Direction –- “Either they move toward a goal, or away from
problems.”
Internal vs. External- Source – “Does the person find motivation in external
sources, or in internal standards and beliefs.”
Options vs. Procedures- Reason.– “Is there a continual quest for alternatives, or is
there a preference to follow established procedures?”
Sameness vs. Sameness with Exceptions vs.Difference vs.Sameness with
Exception and Difference - Decision Factors.– “Does the motivation come from a
search for ‘difference’ or ‘sameness’?”
Examples of Influencing Language
This section gives examples of the types of language that might be most appropriate
in presenting information and ideas to forest landowners with various motivation
traits. Keep in mind that the purpose of using influencing language is not to “trick” or
“persuade” someone to do something; the purpose is, rather, to present ideas in a
way that focuses listener’s energy on the content of the message.
Level What language might appeal to a proactive or reactive audience learning
about
fuels reduction? Since the majority of the audience may be equally proactive and
reactive in a given context, both types of language may need to be used to influence
them. Proactive – Wildfire is a real and present danger in your area. You can take
positive steps to protect your home and surroundings.
Create a defensible space now; don’t wait for the fire season. We can show you how
to take control of the situation. Reactive – Have you considered what might happen
if a wildfire occurred in your area? Think about this: if a wildfire should burn your
property, your buildings could be replaced but how long would it take to replace your
trees? Current research indicates that 100 feet of defensible space may be needed on
level parcels, and up to 400 feet downslope on steep parcels.
This may be the right time to analyze how you can create a defensible space on your
property. We can assist you in developing a plan to increase your safety and to
preserve the forest setting where you live.
Criteria Criteria are not easy to illustrate because they are very personal. However,
Charvet (1995) gives us the following description of influencing language for this
motivational trait. “Unskilled sales people just pitch their product (usually using their
own Criteria) without much regard to what their prospective customer actually
wants…Many market researchers investigate people’s Criteria so that the exact
phrasing of an advertising campaign can match what is most important to the groups
they wish to influence…If you want to get and keep someone’s interest you will need
to link what you are proposing with their Criteria. You will need to be careful to deliver
what you promise when you use someone’s Criteria to persuade them. Otherwise
their disappointment and
anger will likely be directed at you.”
Direction What kinds of Direction triggers would motivate a person to come to a
resource
agency or RCD for technical advice or financial assistance?
Toward – New landowners might come because they have a goal, a mental picture,
of what they want their property to look like. They may be looking for ways to realize
their goal. A rancher might come because he wants to increase the quality of grazing
for his cattle, or increase his hay production. A timber owner might want to increase
the production and profit of his operation.
Words and phrases that appeal to people with a Toward orientation in a given context
include:
“attain; obtain; have; get; include; achieve; enable you to; benefits; advantages;
here’s what you would accomplish” (Charvet, 1995) Away From – A homeowner may
seek help with fuels reduction in order to avoid the possibility of having his property
burned to ashes. Someone planning a timber harvest might want help in filing the
paperwork in order to avoid a fine. A rancher might want to solve the problem of how
to get rid of chaparral on his land. A farmer might want to know how to install a fish
screen to prevent having his water supply cut off.
Words and phrases that appeal to people with an Away From orientation in a given
context include:
“won’t have to; solve; prevent; avoid; fix; not have to deal with; get rid of; it’s not
perfect; let’s find out what’s wrong; there’ll be no problems” (Charvet, 1995)
Sometimes an Away From orientation may initially sound like a Toward orientation.
For example, people may want “freedom,” which sounds like a toward orientation.
However, what they may actually want is freedom from something, rather than
freedom to do something. That makes the orientation “Away From.” It is crucial to ask
Direction questions more than once to get an accurate idea of what direction actually
motivates an audience (even a single person). The first response is usually Toward,
regardless of their actual
pattern. Agencies often tend to have a Toward orientation. They have a vision of how
things could or should be and they have “good science” to back it up. Landowners
often tend to have an Away From orientation. They want to avoid obstacles or solve
problems that stand in their way. The important thing is not what they plan to do but
why they are motivated to do it. Understanding the Direction of their motivation
makes it easier to get and hold their interest.
Source When presenting a new management practice, how could the information be
phrased to an Internal or External audience to get their attention?
Internal – You might consider the advantages of using this practice. If you try it, you
can decide for yourself if it will work for you.
Here is some information to help you make a decision. If you need more information,
contact these people.
External – Experts at the university have done studies to show that this practice will
have quite an impact. Once you try this practice, your neighbors will notice the
improvements and you will get good feedback. I strongly recommend you give it a
try. These articles will show you what the experts think. Many long-time landowners
have an Internal orientation toward their land and management practices. They want
to make up their own minds about which practices to use. They are looking for
information and will not be swayed by external pressure (in fact, it may make them
resistant). Newer landowners may have a more External orientation, since they may
feel less certain about their own knowledge. Since the majority of the audience will
be either one or the other orientation in a given context, care in wording is essential
in communicating with them.
Reason What language would be most effective in explaining the steps in thinning a
stand
of timber to an audience composed of Options or Procedures people?
Options – There are many ways to go about this. Here is why it is important. Let’s
look at some of the alternative methods you might use. You may find it a challenge to
combine several of them in ways that suit you best. You might come up with new
ideas that work well for you. There are no rules for doing this; come up with the ways
that work best for you. If you want to try something different, let me know and we
may be able to make an exception in your case.
Procedures – The correct three step procedure for thinning a stand to reduce the
hazard of wildfire is: First, remove fuel by thinning crowded trees to leave at least 10
feet between crowns on level ground, and up to 30 feet on steep slopes. Second,
prune shrubs, saplings and the lower branches of trees to more than the
recommended distance to allow for future growth. Finally, dispose of the shrubs and
branches you have cut to reduce the fuel load.
Audiences will be mainly either Options or Procedures in a context. It may be
necessary to use both sorts of language to appeal to an unknown audience. Options
oriented people will want to know what and why. Procedures oriented people will
want to know how.
Decision Factors The following influencing language for each of the four patterns in
this trait is quoted from Charvet (1995). Sameness – The same as; as you already
know; like before; identical
Sameness with Exception – More; better; less; the same except; evolving;
progress; gradual improvement; upgrade Difference – New; totally different;
completely changed; switch; shift; unique; one of a kind; brand new
Sameness with Exception and Difference – use both Sameness with Exception
and Difference language Since the majority of the population has a Sameness with
Exception orientation toward work, that influencing language may be most
appropriate for general audiences. Specific questions may need to be asked to
understand the orientation of an individual.
Why is this important? It is possible, as described by Charvet (1995), to introduce
ideas with language that appeals to people with each combination of motivation
traits and patterns. The use of appropriate language can be effective whether
“marketing” an idea or introducing a lesson in a classroom. Matching language
makes it more likely that a message will be heard.
What is the Best Way to Present Text-Based Information?
Much of the information available to landowners will be printed material including
both text and graphics. The design of this material will have a significant impact on
its acceptance and usability.
One effective form of presenting text-based information is known as structured
writing.
What is the purpose of structured writing? One structured writing approach
described by Horn
(1993), a pioneer who began studying the field in 1965, was based upon research
designed to answer the following question: “How can we make learning easier and
quicker for people in complex, information-rich environments?”
What are the principles of sequencing and formatting? The most visible aspect of
structured writing is its sequencing and format. The principles of sequencing and
format are as follows:
Principle Description
Chunking
Group information into manageable chunks.
Relevance
Place like things together. Exclude unrelated items from each chunk.
Consistency
Use consistent terms within each chunk of informa tion terms in both the chunk and
the label organization
Labeling
Provide the reader with a label for each chunk of information.
Integrated Graphics
Use tables, illustrations, and diagrams as an integral part of the writing.
Accessible detail
Write at the level of detail that will make the document useable for all readers.
NLP is largely based on practical experience rather than academic theories, and the
NLP pre-suppositions - some unique to NLP, some borrowed from General Semantics,
cybernetics, etc. - are extremely useful as a guide to the thinking behind NLP as a
whole. Because they are usually each expressed in a single sentence they are
sometimes misunderstood as being vague and/or idealistic. In reality they are all
extremely pragmatic.
Some of the best-known NLP pre-suppositions include:
If you go on doing what you're doing now you are very likely to go on getting the
same results as you are getting now
Commentary: The pre-supposition here is that we are each responsible for our own
lives.
Though we may not be able to control what goes on in the world around us, we can
always control how we respond to those events. If we always act/respond in the
same way then the most likely result is that we will maintain the status quo.
This is why making a decision on the basis that "that's the way we've always done it"
is often the prelude to disaster.
If you want something different you must do something different, and keep varying
your behaviour until you get the result that you want
Commentary: The second pre-supposition is that there's a solution to every situation
if you're prepared to keeping on looking until you find it.
This leads us straight into the third presupposition:
The person with the greatest number of choices in a given situation is likely to get
the best outcome
Commentary: This is related to the idea of the BATNA (best alternative to non-
agreement. If you go into a negotiation session with only one outcome in mind - and
you don't achieve that particular outcome then you're up a dead-end street. If, on
the other hand, you have several outcomes in mind (prioritised from "most preferred"
to "least preferred", of course) then it is likely that you will achieve at least one of
your outcomes.
Children have all the resources they need in order to learn very effectively. (If they
didn't how do they learn to walk and talk without taking "lessons"?)
And they need to understand that they have this capability ...
... and how to use it.
In other words, children do need help and guidance. Education, after all, is a living
process, not a static event.
First and foremost, they need to learn how to learn. Just banging the tools down in
front of them and expecting them to get on with it is a total non-starter. By the same
token, however, too much structure and control turns learning into a boring routine
chore. And look what happens then!
What we actually mean is that every behaviour has a positive intention, as far as the
person exhibiting the behaviour is concerned.
This does not mean that the behaviour is the best possible choice (from an objective
point of view). Nor does it mean that the behaviour will have positive benefits for
anyone else.
A classic example of what we might call the inverted positive intention is the
behaviour of the bullying manager who gains re-assurance from hitting on the people
under him/her.
The solution to this kind of inappropriate behaviour is to find a way of satisfying the
intention by more acceptable means. A way, for example, of giving the manager re-
assurance in such a way that he no longer needs to bully his employees to get it.
A map is not the territory it depicts; words are not the things they describe; symbols
are not the things they represent
Commentary: This may well be the single most important pre-supposition in the
whole of NLP (originally developed by Alfred Korzybski, the founder of General
Semantics).
In very simple terms it means that we are always slightly separated from 'reality'. We
draw maps, but the map is not actually the place it depicts and we need to be
responsive to what is actually happening around us rather than complaining that
things aren't as they "ought to be".
Similarly, we need to understand that words are only a kind of shorthand for the
things they describe. To get an inkling of what this means in practice, just look at the
words on a banknote. What exactly does "promise to pay the bearer" really mean?
What would an actual pound or dollar look like, as distinct from a coin or bank note
which represents or symbolises some financial value?
Your mind and your body are indivisable parts of the same system
Commentary: The notion that our body and our brain/mind are separate entities was
a developed within the medical profession around the 1930s and 1940s. If there was
something wrong with your body - from a sniffle to malignant cancer - the only
solution was some kind of physical treatment.
Despite its position (literally) at the head of the central nervous system, in
mainstream medicine it was received wisdom that, for all practical purposes, the
influence of the brain/mind stopped at the neck.
Somewhat ironically, this came about at the very same time General Semantics was
investigating the idea that mental activity had a direct correlation to physiological
activity.
Only in the last couple of decades has practical, scientifically verifiable evidence
come to light that shows beyond reasonable doubt that the immune system, for
example, is integrally linked to brain activity so that, for example, mental stress can
inhibit the performance of the immune system and thus lead to lowering of general
bodily health.
When these differences have been identified they can be communicated to other
people who can then learn to perform with a similar level of skill and excellence.
Having said that, the person learning the skill must have the necessary aptitude, and
be willing to carry out the necessary self-development.
In other words, whilst it is easy enough to model the activity of a world class sprinter,
for example, a person who has only one leg, or is severely overweight or who refuses
to take any physical exercise, is unlikely to be able to translate the modelled
information into a personal skill.
But what happens if we see the situation as feedback rather than failure. A real life
demonstration of how not to do something?
Instead of being wrong we've learned something. Instead of feeling bad we are free
to form a new plan of action and try again.