Listen with Your Senses - to Morgan Freeman

Neurolinguistic Programming, or NLP, teaches us to listen with our senses; that is, to hear the specific words people say that tell us the sensory system they are using.

We speak in seeing, hearing, and feeling terms that actually represent how we are thinking. If you listen with awareness of sensory systems, you can appreciate the diversity of our personal syntax.

This week, the insightful TV interviewer, Charlie Rose, had actor Morgan Freeman on his show, talking about what it was like to play Nelson Mandela in the new movie Invictus.

To the conscious listener, Freeman gave an elegant demonstration of how his senses inform his work.

When asked how he observed Mandela to get into the character, he said it wasn't anything he saw or heard. He asked Mandela if he could hold his hand. He said he could not explain or intellectualize it. He could feel the quiet inside.

Later in the interview, he described getting into another character, a principal who inspired students. Freeman had learned the technique with that principal. He held his hand and could feel huge amount of energy going on inside. Feeling that charge allowed him to step into the role. The change in the actor's demeanor was visible as he spoke of this. Several times he mentioned that he couldn't put what he knows kinesthetically into words (and then, being a brilliant person, he did anyway).

He talked about approaching Clint Eastwood to direct Invictus, and when asked why Eastwood, he said "His feel for storytelling. I don't know how to tell you what that is.. He just knows when a scene is dragging..." giving another example of his strong kinesthetic (feeling) system.

Later, Freeman talked about a peak experience of an acting day with Matt Damon, saying it was the "connection" between them that was so memorable.

Morgan Freeman conveys great depth of emotion as an actor. Listening to him speak and watching how he responds to questions illuminates the personal syntax that makes his talent possible.

You may want to try listening to people's personal syntax with this filter: are they using words that indicate seeing, hearing, feeling? In what sequence? Do not categorize people as either visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. We all use all systems, in different sequences and priorities.

If I say "I have to get a feel for what you are saying before I can picture it," I am really telling you how I think and how I can best receive information at the moment.

Whether you are a manager, colleague, teacher, or parent, it's worth knowing how each person's way of processing - their personal syntax - reveals their talent and special kind of intelligence. The first step is to hear, then to practice flexibility in your own speech, to match the sequences used by the other person.

You can learn more about this in our book Smart Work, or by taking a SYNTAX course, or by researching NLP resources online. Having the distinctions of sensory representations is both entertaining and extremely helpful in making choices as we work and live with other people.

Check it out, especially the next time you have a chance to watch a master talk about his or her work.