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Tip 42 – Finding the right level
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Have you ever been stuck in a negotiation or argument and not been able to find common areas of agreement? Have you ever needed to quickly and easily think laterally? Perhaps you have felt overwhelmed by an activity or needed to get something done, but did not feel enthusiastic about it.
An NLP technique called ‘Chunking’ can help you get past these obstacles.
‘Chunking up’ refers to moving to more general or abstract pieces of information. While ‘Chunking down’ means moving to more specific or detailed information.
Chunking down
Sometimes the person you are talking to is speaking at a very high level, covering general ideas and themes. (Leaders often like to think this way, with grand plans and visions.) Sometimes we deliberately start this way, getting a big picture before diving into detail.
Chunking down is getting more detail about the high-level information you already have. The goal is to find out more, fill in the empty gaps in your picture, test the reality of the situation, and so on.
The more you ask chunking questions, the more you will find further detail. Keep going and you'll soon end up in the weeds. In fact if you go too deep, you can get lost. A tip: try to stay within three chunking levels for most of the time, digging deeper only on topics of particular interest where you want to bottom out the subject. Chunk down by asking questions such as:
- How did you arrive at that?
- Why did that happen?
- What happened about...?
- What, specifically,...
- Tell me more about...
- What is the root cause of all this?
Chunking up
Sometimes the person you are talking to is already down in the details. Some people (most engineers, for example) are happiest when they have their teeth sunk into the grit of a tangible problem. Yet it can also help them if they come up for air some time and see the big picture - and maybe find they were digging in the wrong place...
To chunk up, you are doing the opposite of chunking down - looking for a more generalised understanding. This includes looking for overall purpose, meaning, linkages, etc. Chunk up by asking questions such as:
- What does this mean?
- Let's look at the bigger picture...
- How does that relate to...?
- What are we trying to achieve here?
- Who is this for? What do they really want?
Chunking Up and down
You can use both methods together as a way of building a broad understanding. For example:
- Start at a high level of chunking to define the initial problem.
- Chunk down to find possible project goals.
- Chunk up to review and agree the project.
- Chunk down to build an understanding of the problem.
- Chunk up to look for problems in the overall system.
- Chunk down to find specific actions to address.
- etc.
How and when to use Chunking
- Negotiation and Mediation. Often in negotiations, we continue to explore solutions at a level of thought at which we do not agree. The key is to chunk up until you and the other person agree and then to chunk back down to the details only as fast as you both maintain agreement. Often in negotiation, we assume that the other person wants what we want and this may not be the case.
- Thinking Laterally. This is not always so easy to do, but chunking can help. To think laterally, first chunk up, then chunk down. As an example, suppose you have to take a package to a particular destination and you don’t want to use your car. To identify alternatives, first chunk up, ie what is driving your car an example of? One possible chunk up is a mode of transportation. Now chunking down, you can easy identify many different modes of transportation which are on the same logical level as car ie, bicycle, horse, train, airplane, walking, etc. And you can select the mode that meets your other needs.
- Creating a Passion for your outcome and overcoming disinterest. We get bored often because what we are doing does not excite us. We are mired in the details. If you have an outcome and you are not excited about it, ask yourself the question, “This outcome for what purpose?”, ie chunk up. Get a bigger perspective or the big picture. Having an outcome and not knowing the larger purpose can be de-motivating. By chunking up and down, you can size your outcomes so that they are attainable and you are excited, motivated and passionate about achieving them.
- Addressing Overwhelm. Feeling overwhelmed occurs if what we are thinking of is just too big for us. If this happens, we need to chunk down and be more specific or more realistic. After all, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
A coach can help you chunk in all directions and in many other ways.