To understand the ‘Logical Levels of Change’ model, let’s take the example of a person who has a problem with his boss. Things used to be OK at work, but as time goes on he feels like the boss is picking on him more and more.
He decides to escape from this oppressive environment by getting a new job. At his new workplace everything is fine for a while, but soon his new boss seems to be giving him a hard time too. So he quits again, and again things turn sour after a short ‘honeymoon period’.
By this time you may be thinking that either this guy is exceptionally unlucky, or… maybe it’s something that he’s doing – his behaviour – that would alienate even the most understanding boss.
If that’s the case, then changing the environment isn’t going to help him, even though that’s the level where he’s experiencing the symptoms of the problem and where he’s locating the cause (the various bosses). The only way tol get a permanent resolution to the problem may be by changing his behaviour.
But what if he only knows one way to behave? If he’s going to change, he may need to acquire some new skills or capabilities – perhaps get some training in communication skills or assertiveness.
Even this may not resolve the problem permanently. If his new skills are not important to him, if he doesn’t value them, then he’s not going to keep up the new behaviours for very long. This is still more true if he holds a belief like ‘this is not how a real man behaves’. So he may need to adjust his values or his beliefs in order to achieve lasting change.
That’s not going to be easy, if the belief is core to his identity. In fact, sometimes the only thing that has enough leverage to bring about such an identity-level rethink would be if the change is required by something that is more important to him than he is to himself – like a ‘road to Damascus’ religious conversion, or dedicating himself fully to a political or social cause. Changes at this spiritual or purpose level may be powerful enough to lead to changes in every aspect of of a person’s life.
What Is the Logical Levels of Change Model?
The model (originated by NLP pioneer Robert Dilts) posits six levels at which change can occur.
(Note: the ‘Logical Levels’ model is most often represented in diagram form as a pyramid shape with six levels, but in my experience this sometimes leads people to confuse it with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.)
These are the levels, with some key questions for each one:
Spirit (Purpose): What am I here for? What am I part of that is greater or more important than me?
Identity: Who am I?
Values and Beliefs: What is important to me? What motivates me? What do I believe, about myself, other people, and how the world works?
Capabilities: What am I able to do? What skills do I have?
Behaviour: What am I doing?
Environment: Where do I operate? What is around me?
Dilts suggests that each level organises and influences the ones below it. A change at a lower level may change the levels above, but it is far more likely that change at a higher level will change the levels below it.
Some Implications for Coaching
What are the implications of this model for coaching? If we’re aiming to help our client make sustainable changes at a particular level in the model, we also have to pay attention to at least one level above, and quite possibly higher.
For any given change that the client says they want to make, it may be valuable to explore these questions:
- Are they in the right place, with the right support, with access to what they need to make the change? (Environment)
- To what extent is the change already happening, at least partially, or has it happened sometimes in the past? (Behaviour)
- Do they know how to make the change, or will they have to acquire some new skills to do it? (Capabilities)
- Is the change important enough to them to keep it up over time, or if they encounter obstacles? (Values)
- Do they believe they are capable of making and sustaining the change? What do they believe will be the consequences (good and bad)? Do they believe they deserve to make the change? (Beliefs)
- How consistent is the change with their sense of self? Who do they need to be in order to make the change happen? (Identity)
- What is the highest purpose of making the change? (Spirit/Purpose)
Checking the Levels Are Aligned
For sustainable change, it’s important that all the levels are aligned. Other people can only see your behaviour and the effects of that behaviour on your environment, so that’s all they have to make guesses about your capabilities, your values and beliefs, who you are, and your purpose. If you say (or believe) that you are a good person and your aim is to help others, but your behaviour indicates otherwise, what are people going to believe – what you say, or what you do?
How do we make sure the levels are aligned? Starting with the Dream, or the provocative proposition derived from it, at the Identity or Spirit/Purpose level, you can go down the levels asking questions like these:
Identity: Who do I need to be to fulfil my Dream?
Beliefs and Values: What do I need to believe to fulfil my Dream (about myself, about other people, about the way the world works)?
Capabilities: What skills do I need to fulfil my Dream?
Behaviour: What do I need to do, or not do, to fulfil my Dream?
Environment: Where do I need to be to fulfil my Dream? What external resources do I need? Who do I need to get support from?
Coming up in Part 2: I’ll share the way that I use the Logical Levels model in a coaching intervention, plus some of the similarities between this model and the Appreciative approach