METAPROGRAMS,   LOGICAL LEVELS,   'DRIVERS'   
PART 2 
PLUS THE ENNEAGRAM	

"Drivers are ... states of mind that contribute to ... thoughts, feelings and behaviours." 
Most of our actions result from mental and emotional habits that shape our beliefs, fantasies, passions and perceptions. These habits of thought and action will depend partly the logical levels of  " ... environment ... actions ... skills and capabilities ... beliefs and values ... sense of self, and ... relationship ...", and partly on Ego States. Also, significantly, on our personality types. 

ENNEAGRAMS
The ENNEAGRAM, a model of 9 personality Types, combines very easily with NLP and with Transactional Analysis (TA).
Each of the 9 Types has a particular bias or passion linked to a set of firmly established, though not immutable, ideas about the world. 
The illusory curtain created by these driving passions and fixed ideas reduces objectivity and distorts our map of 'Reality'. It can be fascinating to comprehend how other 'Types'  distort, and liberating to perceive the 'veil of illusion' we create for ourselves when we delete and generalise.  
It is also illuminating to understand how we move from one Type of thoughts and feelings to another depending on whether we feel safe or threatened. 
The ENNEAGRAM is drawn as a nine pointed star, with interlocking lines and arrows  illustrating how we may relax our defenses or become primed for defensive action. For example,  if the Perfectionist, Type One, feels threatened, s/he will move toward Type four thoughts, feelings and behaviours. On the other hand, if s/he feel safe, s/he may relax and move away from Type one in the direction of  Type seven patterns.  





1  Perfectionist   
2  Giver
3  Performer
4 Romantic
5  Observer  	          
6  Loyalist  		           
7  Generalist  	
8  Controller 
9  Mediator          


Thus we will adapt our behaviour and feelings to project or to protect different facets of our personality, depending on logical levels, go States, Drivers, Contextualised Strategies, interpretations and many other stimuli.

TO SEE OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US 
Our boss, for example, may see us as compliant and malleable or as  rebellious rabble rousers. Spouses may tune into our tired and lacklustre expressions of affection. Children could feel we're cold and insensitive. Cronies may think we're the life and soul of the party. Local shop-keepers may whisper that a  warm, caring heart beats beneath the bluff, tough surface. Illicit lovers warm to the romantic heartthrob they always yearned for - and readily believe we have insensitive spouses (isn't it interesting how often the person with whom somebody cheats is willing to trust the cheat?).

DIFFERENT MAPS
We will evaluate people's actions according to our Type bias, and whether we feel  threatened or thrilled by those people. This, of course, will depend on respective Beliefs, Values, Capabilities, Strategies, Identity, Relationship, Drivers, Rackets, Passions and, quite possibly, the weather forecast! (Is that SAD?) 
So, each will have a different version of the 'truth'; NLPers know that the map is not the territory.   Chameleon-ability merely indicates that we are all multitudinous. Different situations or contexts invite different responses - and yet, even though NLP is helpful in giving people more effective, updated strategies for living, NLPers and NLPless can both continue to act dysfunctionally, over and over, regardless of context.

Healthily, our new behaviours will include sensory acuity, calibration, pacing and rapport building - in awareness and from choice - i.e. from the inside out. 
Less than healthy is when we live from the outside in, when we merely reflect the world or echo its platitudes, reacting unconsciously as we wander, half asleep, through the bustling market place. Acting on instinct rather than in awareness, we allow the world to determine our sense of and expression of Self.  That old familiar Cause/Effect violation, folks, when we feel like puppets controlled by others. Our physical, mental and emotional states determined or undermined by other people's whims and wishes. 
We may feel compelled - Driven to Please, Try Hard, Be Strong, Hurry Up, Be Perfect, to preserve their good will, or avoid their ill intent.  Habit prevails and we hope for change in others because, despite the pain of habit, change in ourselves seems even more frightening.
By combining the 9 types with the Drivers, and recognising our Fundamental Filters (MetaPrograms), we can Generate new behaviour for ourselves and more easily create self defined and beneficial, win/win relationships.

CHILDHOOD LEGACIES
The Drivers are pre-adolescence decisions, survival strategies, focusing on three areas: self preservation, relationship with groups, and one to one (intimate) transactions.  
They are designed to avoid [move AWAY FROM] pain (exclusion, abandonment, punishment) or to buy [move TOWARD] love (approval, acceptance, inclusion).

SURVIVAL and SUB-TYPES
Passions (the Kinaesthetic aspect of Drivers),  result in predictable patterns of  behaviour, each an indication of the individual's survival needs. Understanding this may increase our compassion for, as well as understanding of our own and other people's behaviour and motivation.  Everything really does make sense - we really are doing the best we know how, in the situation as we interpret it!

IT'S ONLY DIFFICULT!
Drivers serve us (all behaviours have a positive intent), but the rationale for their potency is archaic. 
No longer children, we can make autonomous decisions.  NOW, as adults.  NLP can help us write new scripts, reprogram the neurological links, Change History, achieve more of our incredible potential.
This can be very (but only) difficult. But the load is lightened a little if we can acquire some degree of support or help from outside the system that comprises our  Personality Type (Program in NLP,  Script in TA).  Support may come from a therapist, a book or a course, a Consultant, from knowledgeable friends or colleagues, or from our Higher Selves.

Consider: You can choose to support people when they are struggling to act autonomously (responsibly) rather than automatically (robotically).
Recognising  how our patterns may have an influence on, or be affected by the bias of other Types, we can choose to act from love and generosity rather than impoverished anxiety and limited vision. This can encourage us to think and act more creatively. With higher emotional and mental energies released,  fear and deceit are reduced and we express more of our potential for supportive and empowering actions and reactions.
We can release some of this energy, locked in by the Drivers, when we choose to give ourselves new Permissions.  This means deciding, as grown ups, to live by life affirming rules. Using different Type patterns because we choose to, not because we are Driven or feel compelled to, we become more proactively interdependent (read S. Covey).

PERMISSIONS
Permissions may be 'given', by words or examples, by powerful others, parents or authority figures. They may be decided upon by individual adults making autonomous decisions about how to conduct their affairs henceforth. They can be invited with a whole raft of NLP techniques.
Bear in mind that Drivers are, ultimately, detrimental to a positive, benign and realistic sense of self. This can especially be so in our relationships. Permissions enable us to organise our thoughts, feelings and behaviours to reduce the negative links of the Drivers and Passions in day to day living. We can then create ecological behaviours that lead to Well Formed Outcomes.

".... our thinking ... is contaminated by imposed versions of reality"
We can update the decisions we make, moment by moment instead of endless replays of remembered pictures (Vr),  Auditory memories (Ar) or restimulated negative feeling (-Kr)

The Drivers may serve us, but they do not, in the end, serve us well.  They amplify the Injunctions (Ai), reinforce the Rackety feelings (-K), and vivify our negative hallucinations (Vc).  
The inner Critic's implacability can be infuriating1. We may dig our heels in with rebellious pride2. |We may become deceitful3, envious4, greedy5, fearful6, gluttonous7, excessive8 and lazy9.  
This list of 1 - 9, the Passions, coincide, of course, with the seven deadly sins plus two generic tendencies of deceit (3) and fear (6). These can render us predictable, inflexible, uncreative, stressed, resentful, blaming, ashamed or worse! They can also be mapped onto the 9 Types.
If we recognise the negative physical attributes (-K) of the Drivers, we may see more clearly the redundancy of the old images that we project into the future (VrVc).  These negative Ks are also useful anchors for altered States, enabling us to write ourselves new scripts, and move between Types with more fluidity. Then we can behave with greater integrity whilst remaining congruent with the beliefs and values underpinning the Drivers. 

CHANGES
Remembering that the notion of  Drivers is simply a useful framework, imagine them incessantly chattering on (Ai) in the background of our mind's ear. There are various ways to reframe them from pains in the arse to assets. 

Here are some:
*  Be aware of the Drivers' 4-tuples (V-A-K-D). 
*  Change the content or the submodalities of Ai. 
*  "You must TRY HARD to BE PERFECT!" has a very different impact if it sounds like Donald Duck, or if it has a warm, concerned tonality rather than a cold Critical pitch.
*  TimeLine or Change History work can amend a HURRY UP > PLEASE YOU combination. 
*  Simple, or chained anchoring can reduce the stresses of BE STRONG (It's OK to have feelings!).

The following 'antidotes' or Permissions can release the tension of Drivers.

BE PERFECT  can be adjusted to appropriate ORGANISATION of the work load.

Transmuting BE STRONG by way of  RELIABILITY and RESILIENCE, needn't be an ulcerating process.

HURRY-UP can be relaxed with more EFFICIENCY. Make haste slowly instead of being ruled by the clock.

TRY just as HARD as required, no more. PERSISTENCE pays off, so work smart not Hard.

PLEASE because it gives you pleasure and you want to share what you have - time, money, energy, fun. Have enough FLEXIBILITY to say "No!" without guilt or blame. 

METAMODEL & WFO.
By observation and questioning, having determined the 'main' Driver, Meta-model the above Permissions (i.e.  Organisation, Reliability, Efficiency, Persistence, Flexibility) in the context of Well Formed Outcomes. This approach can be applied in individual, group or intimate contexts. This will help differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate survival behaviours in group,  social or sexual transactions.

TYPES' WORLDVIEWS
This brief article isn't saying that people are fixed and formulated. There are as many variations as there are permutations of all the concepts (and more), and countless ways of responding to the variety. 

Values, which affect behaviours, are implicit in the beliefs. The effects of behaviours will improve or impair skills and capabilities, and will inevitably impact on relationships.  

'Rubber-banding', i.e. snapping back to old hurts (-K), will   'prove' that Rackety behaviours are justified {"See, I knew that would happen!"} and generate more fear. The antagonistic  reactions of other PTs will be weighed against using higher mental and emotional energies (love).

Below are very brief generalisations of the way Personality Types  1, 2, 3, 4, 9 filter the world*.  The following structure is:  
PERSONALITY Type [Driver], BELIEF. "Injunction." {Rackets}, /Strategy/

PERFECTIONIST [BP]. IN AN IMPERFECT WORLD, I WORK TOWARD PERFECTION.  "Don't feel good enough." {feel guilty}, /Vr/-K/Ai/Vc/K/	

GIVER [BS]. BECAUSE PEOPLE RELY ON ME, I AM NEEDED. "Don't ask for your needs to be met." {Unappreciated}, / Ai / Vr /-K/ Vc /Ke/

PERFORMER [TH]. THE WORLD WILL CHAMPION ME BUT I MUST NOT FAIL. "Don't succeed." {Fear of failure}, / Vc / Ai /+k/ Vr / Ai /

ROMANTIC [HU]. OTHERS HAVE WHAT SHOULD BE MINE; I'LL BE ABANDONED. "Don't belong." {Panic}, / Vr /-K/ Ai / Vc /-K/ Vr /

MEDIATOR [PY]. IF I EXPRESS MY DISAGREEMENT, I WON'T BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY SO I'LL TRY TO KEEP THE PEACE . "Don't be yourself." {Embarrassment}, /Ae/ Ai / Vr / Vc /-K/

CASE STUDY: PETER
So, referring back to Peter. He is a Middle Manager, and I worked with him as part of a team and on a 1:1 coaching basis.  Some of my input had a counselling element, of course, but I was emphatically not Peter's therapist. This influenced my input in a number of ways. For example, I did not go into any depth in exploring the issues relating to his father. I did not do any Time Line or Change History work.   Peter may decide that he wants to work on those issues, and we'll discuss whether I'd be the right person (I don't assume that I am).

What other people experienced as bombastic was prompted by Peter wanting to help. He secretly feared being taken advantage of and being ridiculed, often imagining mockery behind his back.
The basic content of his /Ae/ Ai / Vr / Vc /-K/ Strategy was:
A request would be made or a question asked (Ae), and Peter would tell himself (Ai) that he had to Please Others (father Vr). He'd see himself  (Vc) 'failing' and feel the old familiar, uncomfortable feelings (-K) of embarrassment, anxiety, helplessness, fear, resentment, anger. Overwhelmed, he'd attack the questioner. 
Apart from Peter's complex equivalence of One Mistake meaning Complete, Absolute Failure, he had Be Perfect>Please You Drivers (Ai), and clenched teeth and stomach muscles (K) underpinning his "Don't be yourself!" Injunction.  The pattern was so fixed that Peter's Racket would be triggered by an apparently innocuous "How are you today, Pete?"

There were, of course, many choices about what interventions to make. We worked on the following changes, (outlined in no particular order). Some of it was 'first aid', some of it to be practiced over time and between sessions.
Briefly,:
Because Peter's basic values were caring, we looked at how he could demonstrate this to others and care more for himself. Listening and relaxing were two answers.
I taught him, and the team, the Disney approach (Dreamer, Realist, Critic), and they reframed Criticism as "The things we might wish we'd asked ourselves!"
We turned down the sub-modalities of Peter's main Drivers and he learned to drown them out with a "Settle for Good Enough!" message from a Nurturing, rather than a Critical, Parent Ego State. (He's not quite ready yet to ask directly for positive feedback from his team).  
He also used this positive Ai as an anchor for new Vr>Vc to counter the fear of failure Vc.
He, and the group, were introduced to Perceptual Positions, the MetaModel and Well Formed Outcomes. They started putting them into practice. Peter did so particularly when people came to him with requests.  Having listened to them - with lots of recapping - he'd present his ideas or perceptions and invite Criticism.
He started deferring decisions, taking time to investigate and evaluate. This also helped him to relax more.
Because much of this was worked on with the whole team, his former Victims are aware of the vulnerability that lay buried behind the harsh facade.  Some are still not ready to let Peter be other than they have always known him; they're very suspicious of it all. 
Notwithstanding, meetings are more relaxed, more enjoyable, more democratic and more fun - and they're also far more efficient! 



* For more details I particularly recommend Helen Palmer's books.


Books.
The Enneagram in Love and Work. Helen Palmer. Harper 1995
What's My Type? Kathleen Hurley. Harper Collins 1991
Emotions and the Enneagram.  Margaret Keyes. Wingbow Press 1989
Discovering Your Personality Type. Don Richard Riso. Houghton Mifflin 1992
Body Types: The Enneagram of Essence Types. Joel Friedlander. Globe Press 1993
Gurdjieff and Ouspensky Vol. I - V (Enneagram in Vol. II).Maurice Nicoll. Shambala Publications 1984
7 Habits of highly effective people. Steven Covey
The Power to Use NLP. M. J. Mallows