THE POWER OF META-DETAILING

What do you think when you first look at the title of this post? Unlike other “powers” that I’ve written about, this “power” may strike you as a strange power— the power of meta-detailing? So first of all you may be wondering, what is meta-detailing? It is not just details. If it was that, I would have written “details” or “detailing.” Nor is it just a meta-level awareness, that is, the big picture.

Somehow it is a combination of details and the global perspective. I first put these two words together some years ago, when I actually wrote an entire book to describe and provide examples of meta- detailing. Today in that book, Sub-Modalities Going Meta, meta-detailing is described as one of the key facets of “genius.” And where did I get that idea? From Robert Dilts and his series of books, Strategies of Genius. In fact there’s a whole chapter in that book on Meta-Detailing (see Chapter 17).

So what is meta-detailing?

The meta is the big picture, the gestalt, the overview or generalization while the details are the specifics of that larger image or understanding. In terms of the Meta-Programs Model, the meta is the general or global perspective and the details refer to the specifics. Now structurally in a holistic experience of excellence, the meta will govern the details. This is what we call meta-detailing. The meta provides the larger perspective, the details gives the specifics that pick out the sensory-based data.

Meta-detailing as a process therefore holds two things together in a creative tension. In meta-detailing you are able to focus on the crucial and essential details of a concept (a belief, value, understanding, etc.) which makes it real and actionable. Robert Dilts describes the genius of Walt Disney and how he could take a larger-level concept like “charming” in the animal characters he created in his art and movies (like Mickey Mouse) and detail such “charm” into long eye-lashes and dimples in the cheeks.

To meta-detail, start with a meta-level frame which you want to actualize. You then identify the critical, essential details of that frame which translates the higher into the lower. What does that higher level phenomenon look or sound like when you specify its details?

The meta-detailing process synthesizes the polar ends of the general/specific meta-program. It creates a holistic synergy so that you no longer are pulled apart by the either-or frame. No longer is it a matter of “being either global or detailed.” Now you can be both at the same time. Now you can sequence both so that you can focus in on details from the perspective of some meta-frame. And because of this you can now sort out the trivial details from the details that matter and then zoom in on the relevant details in just the right way.

Whether in your meta-program you are more naturally a “global” thinker or a “specific” thinker, you can expand your meta-program so that you can operate more holistically and synergistically. If you

posit that you have to be one way or the other indicates that you are operating within an either-or framework that views this meta-program (and probably others) as a dichotomous choice. So what’s the solution? Meta-state that either-or frame so that you can operate from a more systemic frame, a both-and frame which moves beyond dichotomizing to synergizing.

[There’s a lot more to say about this. For a pattern for expanding meta-programs, see Figuring Out People and the chapter on changing meta-programs. This is also something that we focus on and deal with in Coaching Mastery, module III of Meta-Coaching, so if you need a coach, search out for a Licensed Meta-Coach!]

Meta-Detailing then stands in contrast with the two polar opposites. First it stands in contrast to the not-so-resourceful experience of “getting lost in details.” Usually this means lost in irrelevant details. And that is a problem. What details are relevant? What details are core, essential, and critically important? The problem with details that are not governed by a meta-level frame is that you can get lost in details that do not matter.

Conversely, meta-detail also stands in contrast to getting lost in abstractions— global and general ideas that may be noble ideas, inspiring ideas, fabulous ideas, etc., but ideas that are so much in La La Land that they could never be actualized in life on planet Earth as we know it.

The power of meta-detailing is that it gives your “genius” state of engagement, focus, and flow a specificity that enables you to make real your higher level concepts. Now you have a laser-beam focus which directs you about what to do, how to do it, where to do it, when to do it, etc.

There’s a story told in NLP circles about the furnace repairman who came into a home, looked over the furnace, and then tapped on a certain pipe two times, and then charged the home owner $100. The home owner was shocked and furious.

“Why are you charging me $100? It only took you two minutes and all you did was tap on a pipe. Give me a detail bill.” So he did: “$1 for tapping. $99 for knowing where to tap, how to tap, and that tapping is the solution.”

That’s meta-detailing. In the communication of change and transformation, meta-detailing is that genius perspective of knowing, seeing, and responding effectively to the critical leverage points where a very small action or intervention can result in very large and effective results. In meta-detailing, you develop a laser-beam focus on the critical details of something, those details which make up “the difference that makes a difference.” And when you can do that, you have the power of precision, the power of leverage, and the power of relevance.