Matilda Reminded
How many of you have read the book ‘Matilda’ written by Roald Dahl? If not book, have you watched the original movie? Or have you watched the later made movie or play ‘Matilda the Musical’? It was one of the most phenomenal stories I have come across. Matilda has some powers. Powers of a genius mind. Powers through which she can mentally move or lift objects. Of course it was fictitious but a very appealing and a classic story telling that can transcend us into new wonderful territories.
As the whole story unfolds beautifully, the main thing I can relate to with, now that I am writing this third article on Neuro Linguistic Programming, is the topic is, sub-modalities. I did briefly mention about this topic earlier in the series. In this article I am going to delve into it in with a greater detail.
What are sub-modalities in NLP?
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As defined in the NLP theory, submodalities are the ways in which our brains store memories and information. The important sub-modalities are Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic (VAK).
Our brain stores visual information (V) in the form of its characteristics. For example whether the image is coloured or black and white. Whether it is near or far off. Whether it is a small image or a large image and so on. Similarly our brain stores auditory (A) information in the form of its characteristics (sub-modalities) such as where the sound is coming from, its location. Whether the sound is loud or low, its volume. Whether the sound is soft or harsh and so on. When it comes to Kinesthetic (K), it is all about how our brain stores the information related to the feelings, emotions and also actions we link with it. The feeling also can have a location, association vs dissociation, shape, weight and such attributes which are called as kinesthetic submodalities.
Change through VAK
Coming back to Matilda and the whole context. I came to know of the 'Matilda story first during the dark times of pandemic and covid. My daughter had ‘Matilda’ as part of her Literature curriculum. The online teacher was explaining, with a serious tone, the abusive and careless environment at Matilda’s home. It really created deep fears in my mind (talking about ‘Kinesthetic’). At Matilda's school environment as well, she had Ms Trenchbull as a bad and cruel example of how a principal or head mistress can be.
As the story progressed, I built up some fearful things (or say auditories? feelings?) in my mind. I had no visual associated with that story . As Matilda grows she discovers her self-powers as 6 year old girl and finds her way to deal with the whole thing, finds a kind and appreciative teacher who later becomes her adoptive mother. Matilda also makes many good friends on her way. She discovers she has powers that are named as telekinesis. She can move around things, people, move them far off or around and so forth.
As I look back, I think it was a beautiful portrayal of VAK submodalities. The key was that Matilda held the powers. Not the situation. The analogy here does not mean that using VAK techniques would bestow oneself with Matilda superpowers. The analogy here means that human brain always has choice to utilise our best capabilities to deal with any situation to achieve a desired result. Provided that our actions are backed by our believes that we "can" do some magical or extra-ordinary things in our seemingly ordinary lives.
Though I was afraid of the whole story in the beginning, given it was during pandemic times, later I watched the movie with a thorough sense of enjoyment with my daughter. Later came a sequel ‘Matilda the Musical’, which was equally enjoyable. Especially for the high tech visual auditory and kinesthetic aspects. And then they made theatre version of Matilda the Musical which was yet another visual musical and action packed extravaganza.
I think each of these examples apply to any great story, any great movie or a script or an experience and their lasting impact on human minds.
Now let's take some real life scenarios of visual auditory and kinesthetic submodalities.
Application of visual and kinesthetic submodalities in Health
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I did an experiment of using submodalities as technique to change my perspective on a health issue I faced. I changed the imagery associated to it in my mind and moved it far off. I also changed how I felt about it and brought into action what my new behaviour will be towards handling it. In no way this technique is not a substitute to medical treatments :). I am just emphasising that by being aware of submodalites, I could enhance the way in which I handled the pain I felt in handling the health situation.
Application of auditory submodalities to reading books
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How many of you still like to read physical books? How many of you have shifted seamlessly to audio versions of the books, podcasts? I am sure we have a good mix of both. Until audio books came through, we all were used to read books, only one way of learning or reading a "book". Now with audible and apps like these, we have a new auditory dimension to reading a book say while we are driving a car or walking? There is a whole new submodality of gaining knowledge from a book in a new way, auditory way.
Application of visual submodalities to process modelling
This is an interesting application of submodalities, especially visual during my work. Something that I have been working on for years. Business Analysis, Process modelling, Process Improvement.
Image Credit: Unsplash
Look at the picture above. It’s a long shot. It shows the aircraft from far off. You may call it bird-eye view as well :) It shows the object from distance so we cover wider space. The same principal is applicable while modelling high level processes. In this realm, I need to look at the processes, systems, roles and people, data objects, from far off to see the process at a high-level. It also means not to include the details. Not necessary at this level. When we are up in the sky, do we see little minute details happening on the earth?
Image Credit: Unsplash
Now look at the picture above. Here we are zooming into specific parts of an aircraft. It is a close-up view. It shows far more details of only certain part of the air-craft.
Drawing the same analogy into process modelling, often I need to model specific part of the whole process chain and zoom into its intricate details. Details such as specific data, specific flows, broken down steps and so forth. In this realm I do need to be aware of what submodalities I am mapping. Those would be close up tasks, data, and finer aspects of the target process and not the whole end to end process.
This is a classic example of visual adjustments we need to do to focus out or focus in. Mentally we move the image away, mentally we can bring the image closer and tell our brain to adjust submodalities so that we can model a process at the ‘right’ level.
On an Ending Note
In this article, we discussed NLP submodalities in the context of Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic aspects. I linked it to the story of Matilda, and later tied the concept to a few of the real life scenarios. There is one thing to note, which I will cover later in the series, VAK is not applicable just as it is. None of these techniques are fully applicable until we have a belief that you can make it work and make a difference. Stay tuned.
As a writer, it is never a one directional journey. Please share your thoughts, would love to hear!
Author: Swati Pitre
Swati Pitre, CPRE®, CBAP®, is Sr. Business Analyst, Consultant and Trainer with 25+ years of industry experience across various domains and geographies. Her specialties include Product Development, AI, Process Improvement, BPM, Predictive Analytics, Quality, and Governance. She also undertakes various training courses such as CPRE®/CBAP®/CCBA®/ECBA® Prep Courses, Comprehensive BA Job oriented Course, BPMN, Agile BA Course, and several other customized courses. She is also an enthusiastic Toastmaster/Public Speaker and has completed the Effective Coaching Pathway at Toastmasters International.