Meta-Programmes, a key concept in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), are observable distinctions in mental processing. They act as filters for how and what we let into our heads (memes influencing our schemas) from the external world and they shape what comes out from us in terms of language and concepts (our schemas becoming memes to influence others).

Meta-Programmes were conceived in the late 1970s by Leslie Cameron Bandler (then wife of NLP co-developer Richard Bandler), building on Noam Chomsky's groundbreaking work around linguistic patterns reflecting mental filters.

As NLP has grown in scope and complexity, so more and more meta-programmes have been charted to identify more and more distinctions. Leading 'guru' Wyat Woodsmall has reputedly listed over 350 meta-programmes!

However, Rodger Bailey, one of Leslie Cameron Bandler's students, has been hugely influential in whittling down that kind of number to the most serviceable 14. From his 14, the most useful are:-

# Reactive - people respond to situations or changes in the environment/Proactive - people initiate change and like to plan for the future

# People who Move Away From problems avoid things which threaten their success/People who Move Towards are energised by accomplishment, by achieving their goals

# Procedures - people prefer to follow instruction and the accepted way of doing things/Options - people want to have a choice and like to explore what is possible

# Externally-Referenced people rely on feedback to make decisions and function effectively/Internally-Referenced people carry their criteria for making judgements within themselves

# People who process via Sameness are motivated by stability; they often notice similarities/People who process via Difference notice what is different; they have a high capacity for change

# Detail Conscious thinkers have a preference for small 'bite-sized' pieces of information/Big Chunk thinkers prefer a general impression; they think in terms of the key points

# People who are Others-oriented put the needs of other people over their own/ People who are Self-oriented have themselves and their needs as their highest priority

# Co-operative people want to work and share with others – for them, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts/The productivity of Independent people suffers when they have to share work and space with others

# Matchers like to fit in with corporate culture and the prevailing situation or environment/Mismatchers like to take the opposite stance and dislike being told what to 

These, like most - but not all! - meta-programmes, chart two extremes. Fiona Beddoes-Jones has done critical work in establishing that people are rarely fixed at one extreme or the other but travel between the extremes according to circumstances - although most will have a preferred set point. Some NLP 'gurus' now name mid-points - eg: Sameness-with-Difference is increasingly accepted as the mid-point between Sameness and Difference.

                                        Meta-Programmes, Motivation & Temperament
Theoretically a meta-programme can be created by identifying any two extremes in attitude, inclination, behaviour and observable mental processing patterns and then calibrating the shades in between the two extremes.

Preferred position on a meta-programme axis will usually be influenced by the individual's vMEME stack and travel either side of the preferred position will be influenced by shifts in the stack. All 9 of the meta-programmes detailed above relate in their extremes and the shades in between to either the collective or the individual sides of Clare W Graves' Spiral. Some extremes - such as Little Detail - can be linked to specific vMEMES - in this case, BLUE.

While little formal research has been done on the relationship between vMEMES and meta-programmes, it seems fairly safe to work on the presupposition that such meta-programmes are actually produced by the operation of vMEMES or harmonics of vMEMES in the first place. Thus, shifts along meta-programme axes will be caused by vMEMETIC shifts in response to changes in the Life Conditions. 

Since meta-programmes are often more immediately observable than vMEMES, being aware of meta-programmes in operation can help hone in on just which vMEMES are driving someone's behaviour.

The relationship is highly complex, though, as the functioning of meta-programmes and the filtering in/out operation they conduct can in themselves influence vMEMETIC shifts.

It is also worth noting that each vMEME has its own Move Towards and Move Away from meta-programme. For example, the emergence of GREEN Moves Away From the relentless, lonely striving of ORANGE and Towards a community of equals.

Lines of temperament can also be viewed through meta-programme axes. The Introversion-Extraversion and Stable-Unstable Dimensions of Personality mapped by Dr Hans Eysenck appear as meta-programmes in NLP. Eysenck's third Dimension, Impulse Control-Psychoticism, generally doesn't; but conceptually it meets the criteria. Travel along these meta-programme axes is more likely to be the result of operant conditioning experiences.

Meta-Programmes Resources

Click here to learn about Integrated SocioPsychology open workshop programmes, several of which include exercises for linking meta-programmes to vMEMES..

Shelle  Rose Charvet

Leslie Lebeau (Cameron Bandler)

Wyatt Woodsmall

Rodger Bailey

Fiona Beddoes Jones

                                                             Speaking to vMEMES through Meta-Programmes
In whittling down the enormous number of meta-Programmes listed by the likes of Wyatt Woodsmall, Rodger Bailey was concerned with practicality. In making meta-programmes manageable and easy to use, Bailey built upon Chomsky's idea of using language patterns to identify mental filters and developed a whole set of 'linguistic guides' for NLPers to identify meta-programmes.

Bailey also developed a second set of guides he called 'Influencing Language' - the kinds of  concepts, phrases and linguistic patterns that appeal through each meta-programme. For example, with someone running on the Options Meta-Programme, you should talk in terms of opportunities, possibilities and alternatives, etc. More appropriate language for a Procedures meta-programme would include tried and tested, proven methodology, reliable, etc. Bailey's concepts have been popularised by Shelle Rose Charvet who has become arguably the world's leading expert on meta-programmes. NLPers who have become skilled in recognising and using the linguistic structures associated with meta-programmes are expert manipulaters and can make very good counsellors.

If all but the temperament-derived meta-programmes are the distinguishable mental patterns produced by vMEMES and harmonics of vMEMES, then this raises the possibility of being able to use the language patterns associated with individual meta-programmes to speak directly to the underpinning vMEMES.

As yet, this is a much under-researched area but it is one that offers real possibilities of improving our communication skills exponentially.