It’s a principle that the more commercial, ego-led, kick-ass and sock-it-to-’em style of NLP doesn’t tend to recognise.

‘The old behaviour is better’ paragraph – wow this is a very powerful angle you have brought up here & to be honest one I have rarely, in the past, considered when advising people. The tap may indeed be broken and leaking all over the kitchen floor but the person still manages to do the washing up!

I found the whole article incredibly insightful & shows a unique understanding of truly helping someone. How often does ones ego, ‘Map of the world’ or indeed ‘Personality map’ come into play when attempting to give ‘impartial’ or best advice to a third party? probably a lot with most people. However it is understanding the third party’s ego, map etc that is key.

But wait there is a further level to this…as you say we are not actually seeking to ‘advise’ them per se; we want to assist them in coming to their own solutions, only then are we truly giving someone best council. Is there not an NLP belief that people have within themselves the best answers to their own problems anyway!?

The therapist or NLP coach’s own ego must also be kept in check, much better to have the person draw their own conclusions and succeed than get the temporary ego boost of knowing a person will follow YOUR advice.

I can hear John now ‘NLP is selling not telling’

I find the logical levels to be both absurd and very useful.
I think they are absurd in that they are not levels, which implies some kind of top-down or bottom-up hierarchy of influence. Your idea of a personality map is much more useful as a starting point. And the inclusion of mission and vision adds an important dimension.
In my view, the personality map only starts to make real sense when you think for yourself about how the components interact with each other. At the moment, I find it hard to come to any definitive view on this and for that reason I think it is important to discuss with others, but such opportunities are rare.
In terms of usefulness, my own interpretation of the personality map helps me to understand myself and gives me a basis for relating to others. In that sense it is a very useful aid, and even if it is inevitably an approximation, it is better than no map at all.
I would not want to take any dogmatic view of the personality map and how its components interact; rather I think there is huge value in allowing personal thought, practical use, feedback and discussion as an evolving process. (And I think that goes for most things in NLP.)
On the specific point you raise of values driving behaviour, I find that many people have a myriad of incongruent values from which they choose those which suit their purpose (mission and vision perhaps) depending upon the environment in which they find themselves.

Today was the penultimate day of Practitioner Certification Programme and we were discussing this very topic – what influences behaviour. And there are many, many factors which would fill a couple of books and not just an 800 word article.

Looking at ‘behavioural change’ does simplify things a little.

Using the Logical Levels or (in Pegasus NLP) the ‘Personality Map’ we see there are four key influencers of behavour: Beliefs, Values, Identity or self etseem, and Mission or Vision.
See: http://www.nlp-now.co.uk/nlp_logical_levels.htm

These have most influence – and I’d find it difficult to identify a behaviour that wasn’t highly influenced by values…. But I’d love to be proved errant in this.

Changing behaviour is a great topic and, as I’m sure you are well aware, it opens a Pandora’s box; influence & persuassion is a mega-subject.

My own thoughts concur with yours in that people have to find their own solutions if and when they decide that their behaviour is a problem. The role of a coach is to identify possible problem areas, facilitate the process of change and nothing more, and certainly not dishing out advice.

I also agree that a person’s values relate to their behaviour, but I’m not sure that is always the case. Could it be that a person’s identity is incongruent with their values? If so, would not their sense of identity rule the day?

To put it another way, how many times have you heard, ‘I know that what I am doing is wrong, but that’s the way I am.’?
Then there is the matter of environment: time, place and the company you are in. I think this has a massive influence on behaviour.
I’m just scratching at the surface but I’ll leave it at that.