MindSonar Certification Training

Listen to a recording of the teleseminar that Tim Hallbom and Jaap Hollander conducted that explains what MindSonar is, and how it will help you with your work. (There were some technical difficulties with the recording at first, these clear up within the first couple of minutes.)

MindSonar is a thinking and behavioral profile analysis tool that measures people’s metaprograms, their criteria (what they find important), the hierarchy in their criteria and what type of criteria they are. MindSonar is like an x-ray machine for the mind, a psychological test that measures how people think. It is for human thinking as what the x-ray machine is for the human skeleton. Do you think you know how someone thinks? With MindSonar you can be sure.

MindSonar measures how people think; how they feel, what they do, the things they achieve, their limitations, their relationships, their motivation ... it sorts their thinking style and brings an understanding to their thinking. In MindSonar, the word ‘thinking’ refers to a combination of self-talk, images, and feelings (emotions and sensations), what is important (criteria and values), and what is true (beliefs or convictions). It is assumed—and this is different from most other psychological tests—that someone’s meta-programs and criteria will be different in different situations. For instance, when someone is leading a team, he or she may be thinking completely differently from when they are playing with their children. Therefore MindSonar always measures someone’s thinking style for a specific context.

So, if you had an x-ray machine for the mind, what would you do with it? Click here to read about some of the famous projects MindSonar Professionals have been involved with and what they have done with it.

If you are a trainer, a consultant, a HRM professional or coach, you are a people worker. And if you are a people worker, MindSonar helps you do a great job. It is being used by consultants with top companies and major government organizations in Europe for leadership assessing, team building and managing. It is also being used by consultants, coaches, therapists, and trainers to improve their work.

MPA MindSonar is used by:

• Team Builders and Organizational Developers
• HRM Professionals
• Hiring and Executive Search Professionals
• Coaches and Consultants
• Mentors
• Managers
• Trainers and Instructors
• Mediators
• Therapists
• Marketeers

Professionals using MindSonar can help any organization understand exactly how key people like managers, employees and customers think. How does MindSonar measure metaprograms (thinking styles) and how can it support organizations and individuals? Click here to read about the famous projects MindSonar professionals have been involved in. After reading these projects, take a moment and think how this can benefit you and your practice. Not only will it give you a new powerful tool that your competition has yet to discover, it will give you instant credibility when selling your services to individuals and organizations.

Employing the MindSonar test with your clients gives you a special and unique position in your field.

Here's How it Works:

Questions

MPA MindSonar presents the respondent with seventy-six questions and two tasks (criteria sorting and criteria categorization). It also registers the time it takes the respondent to finish each test item.

Audio explanation

The program starts by explaining (in text and audio) how the system works, what the respondent may expect, and the importance of answering the questions based on how they think rather than how they would like to think or ought to think. Next, the program asks the respondent to identify the context in which he or she wants their meta-profile to be measured. Alternatively, this context may be predefined by the professional using the system, in which case the program simply states the context.

Anchoring

Once the context has been defined, the respondent is asked to concentrate on that context for a few moments while a piece of music is played. This process is repeated twice later on, thereby anchoring awareness of the context to that particular piece of music. The respondent can change the music if they wish. A wide range of music styles is offered to choose from. Later on during the questionnaire, the program will play the same music, firing the anchor, to stimulate continued awareness of the context.

Identification

Next, the program asks for identifying and demographic information: name, birth date, educational level, work area, work function level, and marital status.

Criteria

Then the program asks the respondent to define four things they find important in the chosen context (four criteria) and then to order their criteria from most to least important (hierarchy of criteria). He or she is then shown the four criteria and asked to define the opposites (e.g., the opposite of “vigor” might be “weakness” for a given respondent). Different respondents will define different opposites for the same criteria, thereby clarifying the meaning (complex equivalence) of that criterion.

The hierarchy (top two positions) is tested in the following way. The respondent is asked whether or not he or she would accept a small loss of criterion #2 in return for a large gain in criterion #1. For example, say someone has defined as their top criterion: ‘creativity’ and they have defined the opposite as ‘dullness’. Their second criteria-opposite pair is connectedness – loneliness. Now they are offered the following deal: Are they willing to accept a little loneliness (opposite #2) in return for a lot of creativity (criterion #1)? If creativity is really more important to them than connectedness, they will accept the offer. If the respondent does not accept the offer, they are directed back to their list of criteria and encouraged to make changes. Sometimes criteria are either components of or conditions for other criteria. MindSonar resolves this by encouraging respondents to combine criteria. For instance, if a respondent believes that they can only be creative together with other people, they cannot accept some loneliness to get a lot more creativity, because the loneliness will then in turn decrease their creativity. The respondent is then advised to combine “creativity” and “connectedness” into one new criterion (for instance: “creative communication”). This enables them to create a “clean” set of criteria (without direct dependencies) which can then be sorted.

Graves (Spiral Dynamics)

Next, the respondent is shown one criterion and seven groups of two words representing seven Graves categories. After doing the Graves categorization, the respondent is presented with seventy-six questions related to meta-programs. The number of questions per meta-program varies between four and seven, depending on how many questions are needed to achieve the desired statistical reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.7 or higher).

Six types of test items for meta-programs

1. Identification items: Photographs showing people thinking different things (in text balloons). The respondents indicate which person thinks most like them.
2. Symbolic items: The respondent chooses from a set of symbols.
3. Avoidance items: An avoidance question is asked , “What do you want to prevent?”.
4. Keyword items: The respondent chooses from different key word combinations.
5. Proverb items: The respondent chooses from two or three proverbs.
6. Straightforward items: The respondent is asked directly about the meta-program in question, “Do you think more like this or more like this?”.

Response times

MindSonar also measures response times, how long it takes the respondent to answer the questions. Response times are taken to be indicative of the extent to which the respondent is certain about their answer.

The Development of MindSonar

The first measuring tool for metaprograms was called the LAB profile. It was initially developed in 1981 by Rodger Bailey. The LAB profile (Language and Behavior Profile) is a structured interview in which the interviewer records the answers of the participant verbatim. After the interview the interviewer sorts the recorded answers based on criteria which identify which metaprogram is expressed in the text.

In 1995, Jaap Hollander developed the first computer test for measuring metaprograms. This test was originally called ‘Meta-Profile Analysis’ (MPA). In 2007, the name was changed to ‘MPA MindSonar’, partly to be able to use the name as an international brand name (‘analysis’ is spelled differently in different languages). From 2011 on, the addition ‘MPA’ was gradually removed and the name MindSonar remained.

These were the reasons for developing a computer version:

• Standardized Administration of the Test. 
In Bailey’s structured interview (Language And Behavior Profile) the participant is susceptible to non-verbal cues from the interviewer. Administering the test by computer removes this influence and makes the test more objective.
• Standardized Scoring
. The scoring of the Language And Behavior Profile leaves room for different interpretations of the same words by different interviewers. Administering the test by computer removes this undesirable variation in interpretations.
• Improving Efficiency. 
It takes 60 mtp 90 minutes to administer the Language And Behavior Profile. Taking a computer test, while it dos take time from the respondent of course, does not take any time from the supervisor (team builder, coach, HRM-professional, whatever) at all, except for the time spent preparing the participant for the test. This is a significant advantage, especially when there is a large number of respondents involved.
• Selecting the Original Test Items. 
For the original Metaprofile Analysis test, several of the metaprograms used in 1995 in NLP were selected. Jaap Hollander based this selection on informal discussions with colleagues who used NLP and who had experience with metaprograms. He came up with questions for these metaprograms, which were later refined through expert validation, in-depth interviews and statistical analysis.

Your Trainer

Jaap Hollander

Drs. Jaap Hollander (1952) psychologist, NLP-trainer, co-founder of the Institute for Eclectic Psychology, IEP, Holland’s oldest NLP institute (more than 10.000 people trained). Author of ten books, subjects ranging from NLP in general to modelling trance rituals in Brazil. Latest addition: 'Provocative Therapy' (Crown House Publishing, London, November 2012). Teaches mostly in Europe. Developed Nano Tech Power Deck, MindSonar (analysis of thinking styles) and MindMentor (on line robot coach, presently dormant). Was on Dutch Quote top 500 business advisors list for 5 years in a row. Married to Anneke Meijer (psychologist, co-founder IEP).