Do you ever have minor conflicts between departments at work? Will the finance team not extend credit to a late paying customer the sales team want to close an order with?
Do the objectives of the nursing team clash with the administration team? We are sure you can think of examples in your own organisation.
Let’s take the example between credit control (finance) and sales. The customer is 90 days overdue with payments and credit control put a stop on future dispatches. The sales team are hungry to meet sales targets and individual bonuses. The conflict begins!
On the NLP Practitioner programme, we teach a subject called Chunking Up and Chunking Down. When I first came across this, I didn’t realise what a game changer this could be in sales, negotiation, communication and leading organisational change.
The premise is that we all neurologically operate at different levels of detail. Directors tend to be bigger picture, whilst IT Risk experts and engineers are better with detail. A good metaphor for this is a jigsaw puzzle. Both have the same picture but the ‘chunked up’ version only has 12 vey large pieces whereas the ‘chunked down’ version has 1000 pieces.
Let’s look at an example of a car. In fact, we will use mine. It is an Audi A6.
To chunk up we ask:
- What is that an example of? CAR
- What is car an example of? VEHICLE
- What is vehicle an example of? TRANSPORT
- What is transport an example of? MOVEMENT
- What is movement an example of? ACTION
- What is action an example of? ENERGY
To chunk down we ask about the detail, power type, leather seats, age, colour, break horsepower, wheel size etc.
Chunking up has many applications – from political and religious conflicts to disputes with families, neighbours and within workplaces. Let’s go back to the Credit Control versus Sales Team example and see how chunking up can work.
Credit Control Team:
- What is the output of what you do? “We make sure we are paid on time.”
- And what is the result of that? “It means that we are financially secure and can operate our business.”
- And what does that enable you to do? “Provide employment and serve current and new customers.”
- And what is the outcome of that? “Profitability”
Sales Team:
- What is the outcome of what you do? “We keep customers happy by supplying products on time.’”
- And what is the result of that? “They repeat business with us resulting in a profit today and tomorrow.”
Both teams have the same highest intention but operate at different neurological levels. Once they realise this, lower level issues tend to become less significant.
And, when you think about it, the same applies to families, communities, and even nations. Most parents, for example, want a comfortable home, access to quality education and healthcare, and a safe supportive environment for their children.
By chunking up, we can find common ground in almost any situation.
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