What is the first step in eliciting a strategy?

The first step in eliciting a strategy is discovery. This phase involves identifying and understanding the specific mental processes and patterns that an individual uses to achieve their goals. During the discovery phase, a practitioner actively engages with the individual to uncover their existing strategies, including the sensory modalities they use—such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic experiences—and the sequences they follow in their thought processes.

This step is crucial as it sets the foundation for all subsequent actions in the strategy elicitation process. By effectively discovering how a person thinks and organizes information, a practitioner can provide more tailored interventions, helping the individual to optimize or modify their strategies for better outcomes. Following the discovery phase, practitioners can then move on to utilization, design and change, and installation, all of which build on the insights gained during the discovery process.