Basics of the Diamond Technique

The Diamond Technique is a very nice addition to other NLP techniques. It can be used both as a problem-solving technique and as a creativity technique. Its goal is not necessarily to solve problems, but rather to dissolve them, i.e., to gain entirely new viewpoints and insights that often result in the problem being seen or understood differently.

Diamond Technique: Level I

Here, the basic Diamond is first introduced. Later, this can be expanded into complex Diamond networks.

1. Step: From Problem to Goal

The starting point of the Diamond Technique is a problem or a limitation. This results in a goal to be achieved. This goal should be well-formed, i.e., for example, positive, concrete, and under one's own control.

• Is it within your power to achieve the goal?
• What can you do to achieve your goal?
• If you had already achieved the goal, what would that mean for you?
• Can that be? ....

At the beginning of the Diamond Technique, there is always a sentence (e.g., "I lose at chess") and a corresponding counter-sentence is formed (e.g., "I win at chess"). This counter-sentence usually represents a negation of the sentence.

In this context, two types of negations can be distinguished:

Negation 1: lose - not lose
Negation 2: lose - win

A first-level negation would contradict the first criterion of well-formedness, as a goal must be formulated positively. The counter-sentence does not always need to be a classic negation - it can also simply consist of a juxtaposition of two different moments.

2. Step: Discovery of both - and - also

What does both the sentence and the counter-sentence include? However, this is still expressed very complicatedly. More understandably, the next question of the Diamond is:

"What do the problem and the goal have in common?"

"What is the commonality of losing and winning?"

Answering this question requires entering a completely new dimension of problem understanding. In doing so, the client dissociates from their problem.

The clear assignments of good and bad are questioned and loosened by this point. This already happens through the mere form of this question, without it needing to be specifically addressed. Thus, an important step towards problem resolution is taken.

Problem-Solution: To reach the goal within the existing framework of the problem.
Problem-Resolution: to leave the existing framework.
Referring to the example of losing and winning in chess, a both-and could consist of the fact that it is a game in which someone wins and someone loses, or it ends in a draw - thus always a zero-sum game.

3. Step: The discovery of neither-nor

What is neither the problem nor the solution?
What lies beyond the sentence and the counter-sentence?
What lies beyond problem and solution?

Referring to the example of chess, it could be that the game was fun, regardless of whether one lost or won. This position allows for a relativization of the problem and opens the view for new things. Through this position, the Diamond Technique can also be well understood as a creativity method.

A figure with these four elements is referred to as a Diamond. The Diamond Technique consists of creating such Diamonds. After one has fully immersed oneself in each of the four points, one can also proceed to switch from one of the Diamond points to the next.

II. Level of the Diamond Technique

The possibilities of the Diamond Technique increase manifold when the following two questions are added:

• What does this enable?
• What does this prevent (dis-enable)?

The question of enabling is known from the Core Transformation . There, one asks in essence: What is X good for? Because many things - especially negative ones - only make sense in their function. Therefore, it is important to ask what the problem is good for.

The question of preventions - the "dis-enablings", if you will - is familiar in NLP from the so-called Ecology Check . When a well-formed goal has been developed there, it is also standardly asked whether there are any negative effects of the change.

These two questions of the second level can be asked at each of the four points of the Diamond.

Summary

Start with a problem:

Often, it will be the case that both the problem and the goal are now completely reassessed. Then it may sometimes make sense to start again with a basic diamond using the new perspective of the problem and the corresponding goal. In many cases, however, this is no longer necessary. For often, a problem resolution will have occurred. Typical signs are:

• new perspectives and viewpoints regarding the original problem
• a much friendlier approach to one's own problems
• a significantly increased flexibility and sovereignty in dealing with problems
• the problem is no longer perceived as a problem at all (but rather as an opportunity, a challenge, or even as a resource)

Exercise suggestions:

Diamond map

"The problems of today are the solutions of yesterday! The solutions of today will be the problems of tomorrow."

If you add another diamond to the left of a basic diamond, the following image emerges:

Now there is a new point on the left, referred to here as the old problem (AP). The problem (P) is no longer just the problem, but suddenly also a solution to an old problem. A new question arises: For which problem was the current problem a solution? In this way, further diamonds can be connected on the left.

This ambiguity of diamond points increases even more when we also consider the extensions in the other directions. One can just as well take the both-and or neither-nor point as the starting point of a new diamond. The point becomes the sentence for which we seek the counter-sentence and subsequently both-and and neither-nor.

However, it happens that points are doubly occupied, e.g., if one expands the diamond from the both-and point, the counter-sentence point of the old diamond is simultaneously the neither-nor point of the new diamond. With the increasing expansion of the basic diamond, each point acquires multiple functions.

The linguistic form does not have to be identical - rather, the different terms can be the starting point for the question of how the terms are related for the user and what connections exist.

The multiple occupations represent both a strength and a weakness of the diamond technique. The weakness lies in the danger of confusion and sometimes in the lack of substantive coverage of terms. However, the great strength of multiple occupations lies in the high clarity of the complex relationship and the "relativization" of terms. The resulting network makes it very clear that no point represents something absolute by itself.

One can view the diamond technique as a special form of reframing that is, as the creation of a new frame. This is certainly true to a very high degree. Much suggests that the effectiveness of the diamond is based on the principles of reframing. After all, it enables the respondent to see the original problem in a completely new light and from a completely different perspective.

However, the diamond technique goes beyond previous reframing methods. It not only creates a new frame, which then makes the old image appear changed, but it also makes the frames themselves and the emergence of these frames visible to the respondent. The client thus gains access to their own creation of meanings - and thus also to their change.

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