Greg Petroff and I recently launched unfinishe, a consultancy that helps leaders of small and medium-sized businesses use AI more strategically. This is a big change for me, since it requires that I explain what I do in new ways. The latest conversation on the Traction Heroes podcast helped.
Harry read a passage from the book Tools for Dreamers by Robert B. Dilts, Todd Epstein, and Robert W. Dilts. I’ll only cite the core section here, a framework of hierarchical levels of learning and change:
- Environmental factors determine the external opportunities or constraints a person has to react to. Answer to the questions where? and when?
- Behavior is made up of the specific actions or reactions taken within the environment. Answer to the question what?
- Capabilities guide and give direction to behavioral actions through a mental map, plan or strategy. Answer to the question how?
- Beliefs and values provide the reinforcement (motivation and permission) that supports or denies capabilities. Answer to the question why?
- Identity factors determine overall purpose (mission) and shape beliefs and values through our sense of self. Answer to the question who?
(Emphasis in the original.)
Harry later noted there’s a sixth level not present in the book: “connection to living things or spirit.”
How would you use such a framework? A practical — and in my case, timely — application is telling your story to others. Many people do this chronologically: “First I studied this, then I worked on this, and then I worked on this other thing…” But that’s boring.
A better way is to talk about what you do, why you do it, for whom, where, etc. If you know your interlocutors’ interests, you can tell a story that resonates with them.
By the way, the “interlocutor” might be yourself. This is a good framework for introspection — especially when you’re going through periods of change, as I am.