Dilts Pyramid: Organizing Your Problems Step by Step

If you’re facing constant problems at work, stuck in a “rough patch,” surrounded by negativity, or struggling to connect with others, it’s time to tidy up your inner world. The Logical Levels model—also known as the Dilts Pyramid—is a tried-and-true tool that can help you sort things out, find solutions to complex situations, break old habits, and bring order to your inner life.

This simple and reliable model describes a living system, which could be an individual, a company, or even a society. The model consists of six levels, which you can think of as shelves where different aspects of your inner world are organized.

Let’s take a closer look at each level of the Dilts Pyramid and see how you can use it in practice.

A Bit of Theory

Each “shelf” represents a part of your subjective experience. The levels are interconnected and influence each other to varying degrees, depending on their hierarchy and distance. Changes at a higher level will always cause changes at lower levels, while changes at lower levels have much less impact on the higher ones—or may not affect them at all.

Let’s go through the levels from the bottom up:

• Environment. The base level. This is your surroundings—your world, objects, people, places, dates, deadlines, and everything else around you. It’s what you interact with in your daily life.
• Behavior. The second level includes everything related to your actions (or an organization’s actions). Since actions are performed on or with something or someone, this level is closely tied to the environment.

Our lives mostly play out on these two lower levels—environment and behavior. Most of our goals (pleasure, emotions, attention, self-worth, communication, money, sex, learning new things) boil down to these levels. Requests, demands, and most workplace “manipulation” (orders, commands, instructions) also happen here.

• Capabilities. This level drives and shapes our behavior. It’s the level of experience that underlies how we perceive our environment.
• Beliefs and Values. This level encompasses all of a person’s experience. Beliefs and values are shaped by many factors: family, school, friends, environment, culture, and more. Here, it’s not about excuses for why you didn’t do something—it’s about answers to “How can I achieve this?” and “Why did I do it this way?”
• Identity. The next-to-top level connects to your personal role. This is the role you mainly play—joker, mother, hero, businessperson, friend, lover, child, macho, teacher, etc. The key question here is “Who am I?”—how do I see myself and the world? What beliefs, values, capabilities, and behaviors dominate in each role?
• Mission. The top level is about spirituality and answers questions like “Why? For what purpose? What’s the meaning?” It’s based on your vision of larger systems beyond yourself that surround your roles, values, beliefs, thoughts, actions, or feelings. This is the level of spirit for a person or organization.

Breaking Down a Problem: Simple Questions for Each Level

Let’s see how to use the pyramid in practice, using examples of problems of different “weights”:

• No one loves me, I’m not needed by anyone.
• I can’t get up when my alarm goes off—I keep hitting snooze five or six times.
• I can’t get along with N.

Let’s break down the first problem, moving from the bottom up and answering simple questions to see which level each part of the problem belongs to.

“No One Loves Me”: Sorting It Out by Levels

• Environment. Who should love me? How should they treat me?
  Olya, Nastya, mom, brother, Igor, coworkers, my boss, and of course, Kostya. Others would be nice, too. They should respect me, treat me kindly, accept me as one of their own.
• Behavior. What actions or behaviors do I want to see from others?
  They pay attention to me, listen to me, consider my opinion, ask for my advice, use me as an example, spend time with me, enjoy my company, invite me along.
• Capabilities. What will make people like me? What skills should I develop?
  Listening skills, more knowledge about economics, start cooking tasty treats, start a blog and collect interesting information, read four books in my field and apply what I learn at work. Gradually update my wardrobe to be more classic, learn to walk in heels.
• Beliefs and Values. Why do I want everyone’s love? Why do I want to be needed?
  People who aren’t loved are “bad.” You can’t be bad. Since childhood, I was taught to please the teacher, neighbor, uncle, aunt. People who aren’t loved are outcasts. Plus, I really love attention. I can’t live without it.
• Identity. Who am I, as someone loved and needed by everyone? What role am I playing?
  I am the center of attention and attraction.
• Mission. Why am I doing all this?
  To like myself.

Looking Two Levels Higher

Einstein once said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” He wasn’t talking about the Dilts Pyramid, but his words fit this approach perfectly.

To solve a problem (or at least get it moving), you need to look for solutions at higher levels of the logical system. Most often, the most effective solution is found two levels above where the problem sits.

Let’s look at the other examples:

• I can’t get up when my alarm goes off—I keep hitting snooze. If the main problem is at the behavior level, the best solution is likely at the level of beliefs and values. What value am I fulfilling by not getting up? What values will I fulfill if I start getting up right away?
• I can’t get along with N. If the main problem is at the environment level, look closely at the capabilities level. What skills or experience do I lack that prevent me from connecting with N? What new skills would help?

If you find the main issue in the “No one loves me” example is at the beliefs level, look for solutions at the mission level. Maybe you realize your core issue is your belief about why you need to be liked. You want to be liked for two reasons: simple pleasure, and because you were taught from childhood that it’s important. This leads to making others’ opinions the main motivator in your life.

A solution at the mission level might be to reconsider the value of universal love.

About Breaking Patterns and Dissonance

You can’t just break down established perceptions at the mission level—changes at higher levels happen very slowly. Instead, look for alternative ways to like yourself, and consciously lower the importance of others’ opinions for a while. Find new ways to enjoy yourself: take on a challenging project at work, find a hobby that brings you joy, or simply make yourself the center of your own attention—take care of yourself, treat yourself, praise yourself, notice your successes.

Over time, the importance of others’ opinions will decrease (though it may never disappear completely). Developing new ways to like yourself will shift your focus from trying to please everyone to areas you can control.

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. — Albert Einstein

Once you’ve found a suitable solution, “walk” it down the pyramid from the mission level to check if it aligns with your other levels. If it clashes with your identity, look for another solution or adjust the one you have.

In summary, the Logical Levels Pyramid is a practical tool for breaking down problems into their components, assigning each to a category of your inner self, helping you find the level where it’s easiest to solve the problem, and then checking your solution by running it through the pyramid again.