Let us explore the concept of precision. How precise are you in communicating something to somebody? A lot of the time, people think they communicate effectively, but actually fail to realize that the communication contains a lot of presumptions. To weed out presumptions, we need to chunk downwards, and be as specific as we can in order to get our message across.



The Meta Model is a method of gaining precision in your communication, by allowing you to uncover the deep structure of experience. Most of the time, we tend to take communication for granted because many assumptions are made.

We make assumptions so that people understand us. I am assuming that you understand me through this medium. However, we know logically that there cannot be a hundred percent understanding.

Yet, we still put our blind faith in this assumption. The reason why we do this is because our daily world does not require that much precision. Communication is vague enough. So, we understand each other. It is only as precise as we need it to be. If you said, "Let us meet up at three p.m. at the usual place". You and I can assume that the usual place is a place we often go to.

However, if you and I knew that the usual place was a coffee shop around the corner, then we had a mental picture. This is what we call a deletion of the deep structure. The surface structure simply says, Let us meet at three p.m. at the usual place.

There is some kind of common knowledge that is shared between the both of us that allows us to eventually meet at three p.m. But no matter how close we are, we are always affected by the ways our filters delete, distort and generalize information.

For instance, if one of your past memories is that, every boss you have worked for has always insulted you on a day-to-day basis and attacked you verbally even though you produce high quality work, then the next job you apply for, will most likely be more careful and precisely selected due to that past memory.

Some people believe, that making such drastic decision, such as selectively choosing your boss after having one bad experience, is a bad decision. However, you would have probably have figured out by now, that any decision made by anyone, is right for that particular moment in time because we believe people are resourceful and that they learn over time.

Most of the time, our communication requires specifying. It requires the listener to be highly active and to request for more information. By gathering more information, this information can then be used to make our interaction more fruitful.