1.The Map is Not the Territory.

As human beings, we can never know reality. We can only know our perceptions of reality. We experience and respond to the world around us primarily through our sensory representational systems. It is our 'neuro-linguistic' maps of reality that determine how we behave and that give those behaviors meaning, not reality itself. It is generally not reality that limits us or empowers us, but rather our map of reality.

2. Life and Mind are systematic Processes.

The processes that take place within a human being and between human beings and their environment are systematic . Our bodies, our societies, and our universe form an ecology of complex systems and sub-systems, all of which interact with and mutually influence each other.

3. Communication is redundant:

We are always communicating, and we cannot NOT communicate--at least non-verbally, and words are often the least important part. A frown, a smile, and a look are all communications. Even our thoughts are communications with ourselves, and they are revealed to others through our eyes, voice tones, postures, body movements and physiology.

4. The meaning of the communication is the response it elicits:

In communication, what the other person thinks you say and how they respond are important. This requires that the person is sensory-acute to the response they are getting. If it is not the response they want, then they need to be flexible enough with their own communication until they get the desired response. Effective communicators realize that their responsibility doesn't end when they finish talking. They realize that, for practical purposes, what they communicate is what the other person thinks they say, and not what they intend to say. Often the two are quite different.

5. There is no failure--only feedback:

It is more valuable for a person to view their experience in terms of a learning frame than in terms of a failure frame. If a person doesn't succeed in something, that doesn't mean he has failed. It just means that he has discovered one way to not do that particular thing. The person then needs to vary his behavior until he finds a way to achieve the desired outcome.

6. Flexibility is power:

The person with the greatest flexibility of behavior has the power. The widest range of behaviors or choices controls the system. Control in human systems refers to the ability to influence the quality of a person's own experience and other people's experience in the moment and through time.

7. Chunking:

Anything can be accomplished if the task is broken down into small enough chunks.

8. Modeling:

If one human being can produce a particular result, we as human beings have the ability to model that person and achieve our potential in a far shorter period of time.