Meta Programs/Complex Meta Programs

Question 1

What is the Direction Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 1

Determines whether a person moves toward outcomes or away from consequences.
Question: What do you want in a car (job/relationship)? What’s important to you about _________?
a. Toward
b. Toward with a little away
c. Away with a little toward
d. Away

Question 2

What is the Reason Filter , what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 2

Tells you if a person acts as though they have a choice in life. Also known as a Modal Operator Filter.
Question: Why are you choosing to do what you’re doing?
a. Possibility
b. Necessity
c. Both

Question 3

What is the Frame of Reference Filter , what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 3

This is how people judge the results of their actions, how they are doing on a job, or example.
Question: How do you know when you’re doing a good job?
a. Internal
b. External
c. Balanced
d. Internal with External Check
e. External with Internal Check

Question 4

What is the Convincer Representational Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 4

Convincer filters are what someone uses to become certain or confident that something is true. The Convincer Representational System tells which primary representational system a person uses to know that someone else is doing a good job.
Question: How do you know when someone else is good at what they do?
a. See it
b. Hear about it
c. Read about it
d. Do it with them

Question 5

What is the Convincer Demonstrator Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 5

Convincer filters are what someone uses to become certain or confident that something is true. The Convincer Demonstrator Filter is the time sequence for being convinced.
Question: How often does someone have to demonstrate competence to you before you’re convinced?
a. Automatic
b. Number of Times
c. Period of Time
d. Consistent

Question 6

What is the Management Direction Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 6

Allows you to predict the suitability of a person to self-manage or manage others. Also tells if a person has the ability or desire to manage others and to affiliate with others.
Question:
1. Do you know what you need to be a success at a job?
2. Do you know what someone else needs to do?
3. Do you find it easy or not so easy to tell them?
a. Self and others
b. Self only
c. Others only
d. Self but not others

Question 7

What is the Action Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 7

Predicts how quickly a person will act, and how much energy they will put into their life’s goals.
Question: When you come into a situation do you usually act quickly or do you do a complete study o all the consequences and then act?
a. Active
b. Reflective
c. Both
d. Inactive

Question 8

What is the Affiliation Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 8

Tells a person’s need for affiliation or need for group interaction, and how to assign them tasking.
Question: Tell me about a work situation in which you were the happiest, a one-time event.
a. Independent Player
b. Team Player
c. Management Player

Question 9

What is the Work Preference Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 9

Indicates a person’s preference for working with things, systems, or people.
Question: Tell me about a work situation in which you were the happiest, a one-time event.
a. Things
b. Systems
c. People

Question 10

What is the Primary Interest Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 10

Find if a person is primarily interested in people, places, things, activities, or information.
Question: What’s your favorite restaurant? Tell me about it.
a. People
b. Place
c. Things
d. Activity
c. Information

Question 11

What is the Chunk Size Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 11

Tells how people best receive and incorporate information.
Question: If we were going to do a project together, would you want to know the big picture first, or the details first? Would you really need to know the….(ask the other)?
a. Specific
b. Global
c. Specific to Global
d. Global to Specific

Question 12

What is the Relationship Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 12

Also called Matching and Mismatching, this is a deletion filter. One of the systems we use in the process of understanding and deciding.
Question: What is the relationship between these three coins/shapes/etc? What is the relationship between what you’re doing this year on the job and what you did at this time last year?
a. Sameness
b. Sameness with exception
c. Sameness and differences equally
d. Differences with exception
e. Differences

Question 13

What is the Emotional Stress Response, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 13

Predicts how people will respond to stressful situations.
Question: Tell me about a work situation (a one-time event) that gave you trouble.
a. Dissociated - may seem cold, lacking kinesthetic response. Good in high-stress situations
b. Associated - Will relive the feelings of the event, will show physiologically.
c. Choice - may show emotional response, but is able to choose whether or not to associate.

Question 14

What is the Time Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 14

Time has these characteristics: direction, duration, orientation, and continuity.  Our feeling is that three time filters exist and may deserve further exploration.
Time Orientation Filter
a. Past - 
b. Present
c. Future
d. Atemporal
Time Storage (Playback) Filter
a. Through time
b. In time
Time Access Filter
a. Random Access
b. Sequential Access

Question 15

What is the Modal Operator Sequence, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 15

Modal operators are words that talk of possibility or necessity. Modal operator sequence is the sequence of Modal Operators that acts as an undeniable motivator to a person.
Modal Operators: Can/Can’t, Will/Won’t, It’s Possible/It’s Impossible, Could/Couldn’t, Would/Wouldn’t, May/May Not, Must/Must Not, Should/Shouldn’t, Have To/ Don’t Have To, Necessary/ Not Necessary, Need to/Don’t Need to
Question: What was the last thing you said to yourself just before you got up?
Question for the practitioner: do THEY produce the modal operator, or does it have to come from an external source?

Question 16

What is the Attention Direction Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 16

Deals with how you show other people that you are concerned about their response to you. It is about how other people perceive your paying attention to them.
Question: No question, just observation.
a. self
b. others

Question 17

What is the Goal Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 17

Indicates if a person is a “perfectionist”. Tells how far a person will go to achieve their goals.
Question: No question, just look at goals and see if a person moves for:
a. Perfection - tend to be dissatisfied with their performance.
b. Optimization - Do they do the best with what they’ve got? Do they use it as justification for not doing better?

Question 18

What is the Comparison Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 18

How a person decides how they’re doing.
Question: How are you doing at ________? How do you know?
a. Quantitative - Numbers
b. Qualitative - Good/Bad
c. Nature of comparison - Self-to-self (past/present/future/ideal), self-to-others (He’s got more than I do), others-to-others (gossip)

Question 19

What is the Knowledge Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 19

Question: When you decide you can do something, from where do you get that knowledge? (Also, knowledge that something is so.)

a. Modeling/Concepts
b. Demonstration
c. Experience - they’ve done it or seen it
d. Authority

Question 20

What is the Completion Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 20

Tells if a person has a high or low need for completion.
Question: if we were going to do a project together, would you be more interested in the startup phase, where you were generating energy for the BEGINNING of the project, or in the MIDDLE of the project, or in the END, where you were involved in shutting it down? Is there a part of the project you’d rather not be involved in?
Using a relationship as an example, some people are great at starting and being in a relationship, but not at ending a bad relationship.

Question 21

What is the Closure Filter, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 21

Tells how much closure a person needs in dealing with others, or dealing with information.
Question: Once you have started receiving information that has, for example, four steps, how important is it to you that you receive all four pieces?
Important because the mind tends to forget details of communication when it attains closure.
What you are saying will remain memorable when there are some open loops.

Question 22

What is the Information Processing Style, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 22

Question: When you need to work through a problem or challenge in your life, is it absolutely necessary for you to: talk about it with someone else, or think about it yourself only?

a. External
b. Internal

Question 23

What is the Listening Style, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 23

Question: If someone you knew quite well said to you, “I’m thirsty,” would you: Find the comment interesting, but probably do nothing about it, or would you feel really compelled to do something about it?
a. Literal
b. Inferential
NOTE: A literal listener may not know when an inferential speaker compliments them. An Inferential listener may think that any question is a request for action.

Question 24

What is the Speaking Style, what question is used to elicit, what categories can a person fall into?

Answer 24

If you felt that someone around you was not performing as well as they should, would you: come to the point and tell them directly, or would you hint, imply, and give them clues.
a. Literal
b. Inferential
NOTE: A literal listener may not know when an inferential speaker compliments them. An Inferential listener may think that any question is a request for action.