http://nlp-experts.org/ What are the real benefits of NLP? 7 Podcasts and transcripts including directors and senior managers from AstraZeneca, The John Lewis Partnership and Kaplan Financial en Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:55:41 GMT vBulletin 60 http://nlp-experts.org/images/misc/rss.png http://nlp-experts.org/ http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/382-nlp-case-studies-request-further-examples.html Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:29:48 GMT *NLP Case Study Request* Are you an NLP professional? A gifted NLP amateur? Have you any case studies you would like to share? Would like to be... NLP Case Study Request

Are you an NLP professional? A gifted NLP amateur? Have you any case studies you would like to share? Would like to be interviewd for a podcast case study for this forum?

If you would be happy to answer these questions:

Current Situation

What was the original problem, challenge or opportunity your client faced? What impact was it having? What would be the implication over time if the client didn't move forward?

Your outcome?

Knowing the above what were your outcome (s) for the intervention?

Action

What did you actually do? In what sequence? What responses from your client were you aware of?

Result

What was the end result? How did you test that the intervention was successful?

What else

What were the current and longer term implications for the client? What will it enable them to achieve that they wouldn't have been able to achieve?

Learnings

What was important to you about the intervention? What did you learn from it?

It you would like to take part complete our contact form http://nlp-seminars.co.uk/seminar/contact/ putting the words 'case study' in the 'additional information' box. or email me at michaelbeale@ppimk.com (you will have to respond to the spam arrest email)

Your full contact details will be included in any podcast we publish, and you will have our greatest thanks! ]]> NLP Benefits michaelbeale@ppimk.com http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/382-nlp-case-studies-request-further-examples.html http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/103-richard-sanders-interview.html Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:19:41 GMT *NLP Benefits - Richard Sanders* The benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Richard Sanders, Group Strategy Director at the John... NLP Benefits - Richard Sanders

The benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Richard Sanders, Group Strategy Director at the John Lewis Partnership.



http://www.nlp-expert.co.uk/NLP/Richard-NLP.mp3

(Please allow up to 2 minutes for the MP3 file to download if you want to listen to the discussion)

Draft Transcript

Michael : I'm delighted that you're going to be speaking to us about some of your experiences of using NLP. Would you give us a brief introduction about yourself?

Richard : I'm Richard Sanders, and my work title is the Group Strategy Director at the John Lewis Partnership, and that encompasses John Lewis and Waitrose.

I’ve got a daughter, another one of them coming in a few weeks. That's taking up a lot of my thinking time at the moment.

And my career today has largely been as a business and change consultant for most of the last ten years - that was mostly in operations - actually factory management was where I started.

Michael : And during your career and now, what are some of the sorts of challenges that you've faced?

Richard : I think a lot of them would be around, certainly, influencing people as a consultant. Winning pieces of work as a consultant has been a challenge that comes to all consultants at one point or another. It came to me two-to-three years in my career there. And that was something where you really have to learn lots of new tools and approaches.

I think making decisions and helping other people to make decisions is an ongoing challenge. And a lot of my thinking time is spent actually developing solutions for problems and helping them make decisions that they perhaps already know the answers to.

Michael : Now moving on to NLP. How would you describe your experience with NLP?

Richard : I had a fairly odd introduction to NLP and a fairly rapid one.

I had been working as a consultant for three or four years and was looking for a way to channel my development, my influencing skills, listening skills, and came across NLP there, really from scratch. So I did the practitioner course as quickly as I could.

Having done the first session I realised that I had a number of the skills I needed, in part, already - and then built on that with the practitioner course, and then started to use that directly in my consulting career, and since then in my corporate career as well.

Michael : And what sort of things do you actually use?

Richard : I think it’s across the whole spectrum of NLP, certainly in language and the observation part that goes with that. I'm definitely aware of the reference system and the language that people use with me and mirroring back. Body language is another area that I'm very aware of, and again using very basic techniques to mirror.

Some other techniques that come in there are actually around the written use of NLP. Writing reports, writing emails certainly. There's as much of an application there to get people to do what you need them to do, as anywhere else. On some levels you call that common sense for language, but actually a lot of it is picked up from the framework of NLP.

Michael : Sometimes when people hear things about NLP, and they hear things like mirroring, they think of manipulation - I have to say, that's not my view myself - but what's your view of this with communication?

Richard : I certainly don't see it as manipulation. I think in the workplace there are so many barriers in terms of making logical decisions - history and politics, and personal preconceptions about a situation - Maybe you've tried a project before that's failed.

The way I see NLP is unlocking some of that baggage, or at least understanding it - which can then help people get to the right answers - the logical answers.

Michael : So it almost ties in with what you've said before about helping people get the right answer.

Richard : Definitely. I was just thinking about the pictures that I have in my head. I definitely consider myself to be breaking down this big granite block, and the answer's in there somewhere, it's always been there - it's not that you have to create it from fresh, it’s that you’re chipping away at what other people or history has put in place that prevents the solution from being obvious.

Michael : What sort of things has NLP helped you do?

Richard : There are lots of examples. Depending on which time period we talk about, you have different projects. So again I'd go into my consulting proofs for some more obvious, less sensitive answers. There are some recently, but they're a bit more sensitive.

In my history, those projects where you're dealing with highly sensitive issues, where the organisation structure changes, changing of ownership of business's - what NLP has allowed me to do is to get past these individuals who have these big preconceptions about a situation, to help me understand where they're coming from and also the reference system that would work particularly well to articulate to them a different view of the future - or at least to make sense of what they're articulating to me, and kind of play that back.

So it’s given me the framework to break down some of the less tangible issues, as some people would see them - I actually see them as pretty tangible - and put them into an approach, and work with that approach to get a decision made.

So a specific example could be that we've decided to close down certain business units. The fact that some companies have elected to buy other companies - the big business changes that have quite a considerable people-impact associated with them. It tends to be those areas where NLP comes to the fall because they're the ones that have got the difficult baggage's, as I’ve said, associated with them.

Michael : I don't want to give the impression that NLP is the only thing out there, looking back on your career, around this topic of communication, and change, and getting things done - what other things have helped you be this successful?

Richard : I think that's right. I’ve used NLP, as I’ve said, as a framework, not the be-all and end-all. It’s just a good way of compartmentalising some things that we all think are common sense, and are basic skills.

I think other things with communication are about prioritisation. It’s about taking ten words and replacing them with five. I have to be careful that I don't waffle now that I’ve said that.

But it’s the famous elevator pitch or the elevator speech. It’s really being hard with yourself about condensing your messages, summarizing issues, and only addressing the most important elements of a certain problem, and realising that you can’t afford to address everything all at once because you'll lose your impact doing it that way.

It’s "hand in glove" with NLP, but there are some very practical frameworks that go well with NLP that really accelerate the learning and the impact.

Michael : Are you happy to mention some of them?

Richard : I think some of them are really simple. I’ve been on business courses for communications where you have to boil down your pitch or your project into ten words.

And the argument for those courses is that if you can’t get it across in ten words, then you haven't understood it well enough. And I think that's very much in lone with congruent goals and vision exercises with NLP, but it’s very direct, you don't have to understand the rest of NLP to get that.

So that's one thing I really value. The other things are really from consultancy and not from training courses. But in consultancy a very key thing is the “So what?” question.

So if you write a page or you have a discussion and you get to the end of that page or discussion, you ask yourself the question "So what?".

And you have to think of the impact, of the implication, of what you've just done. And that forces you to land actual actions, and to come out with a succinct reason for the actions that you've just made. And in the case of written communication, the case of the “So what?” question is really brutal. If you put it down and really push yourself to say "Well, what does that mean?"

You find out that a lot of the communication that you create doesn't address the “So what?” question - it doesn't actually have an impact on the problem or project that you're working on.

So that's a great discipline. The mantra that I hold with me all the time is "So what?"

Michael : Before I ask for your contact details or anything else that you'd like to mention - is there anything else that you'd like to say abut NLP?

Richard : Yes. I'd encourage people to treat it as a tool, to keep on reading about it - but also to read around the subject. I was interested in it before, but there was something that I found post-NLP, and that was storytelling. And I know that there are books that link storytelling and NLP, and that's nothing new, but actually going back to folk tales, myths - and actually seeing the power of something like that is something that I got into.

I actually did a course in storytelling for sort of therapeutic purposes and I got into it in a bizarre way. I started with storytelling for business that actually turned out to be an NHS course.

And that is really compelling. And if you go into a new area like I’ve done - about nine months ago into John Lewis Partnership - you can propagate stories, in a very natural way, about how to operate and how you now expect things to happen. It’s a really good mechanism for communication that goes really well with NLP and that I would recommend to anybody to look into.

Michael : Excellent. You've given us your experience for ten-eleven minutes - is there anything that you'd like to plug?

Richard : I'd just say - John Lewis and Waitrose, I don't think that I can stretch NLP into what we're doing there - but we're continuing to improve the offers that we give there, and I'm interested in their longer term strategy - and with visions and strategies NLP is really up to form with that.

But no, I'd just encourage people into the shops. I guess that's a direct plug!

Michael : That's absolutely fine. And your contact details - if you're prepared to give them?

Richard : Yes, absolutely. My hotmail address, which is richard_sanders@hotmail.com

Michael : Thank you very much for your time.

Richard : No problem at all, thank you. ]]> NLP Benefits michaelbeale@ppimk.com http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/103-richard-sanders-interview.html http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/37-tom-oconnor-interview.html Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:16:55 GMT NLP Benefits - Tom O'Connor

The benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Tom O?Connor of Inside Leap, September 2007



(Please allow up to 2 minutes for the MP3 to download if you want to listen to this discussion)

http://www.nlp-expert.co.uk/nlp/tom.mp3


TOM: You're most welcome, Michael.

MICHAEL: And really to kick it off could you give a brief introduction about yourself and what you do.

TOM: I'm Tom O'Connor and I'm the Managing Director of Inside Leap. Inside Leap is an innovative graduate career and professional performance company.

So for people in the NLP field what that basically means is taking a lot of NLP and applying it into context of helping graduates secure jobs with leading financial services and other employers. And also, brining the communication and some of the best skills of what NLP's got into the context of professional performance, to help people improve how they perform in companies and also rapidly develop the sort of skills to be able to perform and get to the next level of their career.

MICHAEL: That's excellent. Because it leads me into the next question: What experience do you have of NLP yourself?

TOM: I'm a trainer of NLP from the Society of NLP and I've been studying and learning NLP and practicing NLP for ten years now. And during that time I've done a number of trainings.

Most of the time the types of training I do are more NLP specific applications, anything from the point of view of professional context, dealing with motivation to talking about talent from a training point of view, teaching graduates and all post-graduate people how to anchor and fundamental NLP skills that they can use in their professional work environment.*

MICHAEL: And how has NLP helped you?

TOM: Dramatically. NLP, personally for me has been a fantastic set of skills I initially came across from Anthony Robbins. I was reading a book that Tony Robbins put together and I suppose doing NLP for many years before that.

One of the keys things that NLP did was be able to give a lot of terminology and also some fantastic and brilliant tools and techniques. Along with the attitude NLP has had a massive impact on my own life personally and enabled me to make some quite dramatic shifts for myself. NLP has also enabled me help my family.

My mother, for example, suffered excessive brain damage and spent four months in hospital two years ago and my NLP skills and learning dramatically assisted in context of having her being able to differentiate between what was real and not real.

Being able to manage in the context of my own family, and as you know yourself Michael, when you're dealing with something as emotive as that, when you're about to meet somebody you love in a very traumatic situation, having the skills to be able to constantly influence, buffer and manoeuvre people's consciousness in a positive way can have dramatic benefits. So for me personally, in that context it was extremely good.

MICHAEL: That leads onto the next question. If you were to look onto your own career in three ways which of these would you say NLP has helped more: building on your existing career, enabling you to different or wider things within your current carrer, or actually enabling you to do something totally different.

TOM: It's probably a mix between the second and last one. I initially started working in a strict technology environment having nothing really to do with people in the sense of people in a therapeutic change or also a professional training context. Where I am now is in a dramatically different space. It's been a kind of evolution as to somewhere I wanted to head. It would definitely be a mix between the last two.

MICHAEL: Now, I don't want to make NLP the complete meaning of life, death and the universe. So let me ask you: to be as successful as you are now, what other things in addition to NLP have helped you?

TOM: One is perseverance, another is learning, firstly and foremost you're a human being. Basically, what I mean, is that you put in your own package and your own problems and also strengths and talents.

So for me and my team, it's allowed me to amplify some of the core strengths I already have, being able to create a ferocious appetite for learning, which I've always had has been very important. I've also very strong people and personal skills, which I had long before I ame into NLP.
*
The other things which are really important are a definite sense of curiosity and a constant willingness to push boundaries. It's also about being willing to look beyond what you're doing and being open to the fact that you're probably wrong about your own thinking and understanding.

MICHAEL: I like that. If somebody listening to this was interested in doing NLP but they hadn't done any training yet, what advice would you give them?

TOM: First is to get really clear about what their outcome is. What is it they want. My own personal experience, I've seen a lot of people go into NLP and possibly doing a practitioner without having a clear outcome in mind. They just like the coolness of it. I think that's a disadvantage of coming into NLP and trying to learn it for new, partly because you don't have something you what to play at afterwards.

It's very important when you learn NLP skills, even within a fantastic training environment is that, take the time out, save the training process to outward behaviour. And so if you want to get really good at NLP, already have in mind how you're going to use it, where are you going to use it.

Initially start small but then you can burst from beyond that, once you've got that down. But if you're just going in to expect somebody to just dump a load of information and think it's going to be unconscious installation all of that, I think that that's a mistake if you're a new person coming into NLP. Secondly is pick a good trainer.

Evaluate the trainer in advance and find out do they really care about the field of NLP? Do they care about their own standards? And, in addition to that, are they able to express it in a way that makes sense for your learning. That's what I'd say to anyone that wanted to start in NLP.

MICHAEL: OK, moving on from that, if somebody had just finished an NLP training, what advice would you give them or what would you ask them to think about?

TOM: Someone said to me the same thing Richard Bandler said to me once when I was speaking to him about NLPers and that is to be distrustful of believing yourself to be right if you can't make that shift whether it's for yourself or for others.

Meaning that first if you're finishing NLP, whether it's practitioner or master practitioner, you've got to get out there and practice, you've got to use it.

And so if you have done that, get out and use it, and when you run into the natural limitations of your knowledge base, your skill-set, look to stretch beyond it. I've seen too many NLPers who've been trained by excellent trainers, come out, then they identify with EFT or some other type of emotional freedom which often have their strengths.

They don't invest the time to really begin to master, and it is a beginning to master, not master, the process of NLP. So they end up moving on to the next thing before they really have got NLP down, and by that I mean is having a strong level of competency with it.

So if you have, if you are, practitioner, master practitioner, make sure you take the time to output it. And hey, if you do something that doesn't work than look what you can do, what needs to change in order for you to get the result that you want, rather than thinking this particular technique doesn't work, this isn't working, or NLP isn't working, which are extremely limiting beliefs.

MICHAEL: Before I ask you to give your contact details so people who choose could know where to contact you, is there anything else you'd add about NLP or any other pieces of advice or view or direction you'd give anybody that's either started doing NLP or is already doing it?

TOM: For me personally, I think NLP and applying it your life is a very personal thing. If you're coming into the field there are a lot of great trainers out there and great people that you can learn from. The art is to make sure you find what works and make it your own. Nobody owns, so to speak, the exclusive rights on everything that is NLP.

Obviously, Dr Bandler and John Grinder, created the field and have come up with so much from it, but in order for the field to be able to expand and go beyond, we all need to take responsibility for saying what are we going to add, how are we going to take NLP and expand its reach.

And also, from our own personal point of view, with looking at where can we develop new techniques and skills ourselves that would benefit ourselves and others. And one final thing, certainly if you're a new person in NLP, as can happen you might become fearful of applying your tool or you don't want to put somebody into a trance because only its trainer can do that. So allow yourself to make mistakes. If you don't allow yourself to make mistakes and lots of them then you're going to restrict your learning massively and you're barely going to touch the surface of what's the potential of using and applying NLP.

MICHAEL: Thanks for that, Tom. Where can people contact you?

TOM: People who would like to contact me are free to go to www.insideleap.co.uk and you can find contact details there.

We've recently launched a ne product called NLP modelling the masters and you can check that out if you're interested. Ten master trainers, excellent product, find out more at http://www.modeling-the-masters.com and thanks so much for listening. ]]> NLP Benefits michaelbeale@ppimk.com http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/37-tom-oconnor-interview.html http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/36-therese-ahern-interview.html Tue, 05 Feb 2008 09:01:11 GMT *NLP Benefits - Therese Ahern* The Benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Therse Ahern, Business Coach, August 2007. Image:... NLP Benefits - Therese Ahern

The Benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Therse Ahern, Business Coach, August 2007.



(Please allow 2 minutes for the MP3 file download if you would like to listen to the interview)

http://www.nlp-expert.co.uk/nlp/theresa.mp3

Michael: Welcome Therese. Would you please say what your focus is?

Therese: I'm a business coach, and as such, I work with groups of people who are going through some type of change -- either an expansionary change or contracting change. That's my area of focus.

Michael: What types of people do you work with?

Therese: Generally large or small enterprises, like an administration of say between 20 to 50 or more, or very large corporations, and sections of large companies.

Michael: What experience do you have yourself of NLP?

Therese: I have completed my Practitioners training here in Australia with a gentleman called Jeffrey Dugan, and last year completed my Master Practitioner training with Robert Dilts in Santa Cruz, in America.

Michael: How do you find that NLP has helped you?

Therese: Well first of all, the fact that it's modeled on other people's behaviors and successes is a really useful tool for me because immediately we start the training and discussions about looking at historical cases of what people have done. And it takes us right away from the discussion of why, which can be a very circular and time consuming.

Michael: Interesting, I like that.

Therese: Secondly, because there are models and because there are actual techniques that can either be used directly, or adapted for a business situation, there is much more interaction. Because it's not only my talking at them, I can get people up to do exercises, and I can actually sort of look for outcomes, or get people to set their own outcomes, and then we can all measure whether got what they wanted at the end of their training.

Michael: If I take the question a little further, and ask how has it helped you either with your existing career, or building on your current career to allow you to do something else -- *or move into something totally different, where do you think it's actually given you more help?

Therese: It's helped me in all of those areas. What it's done is given me a tool for my own personal development. So what it's really done is made me see that regardless of whether I am coaching or training or actually doing a consultancy role, the learning is really about me, not about other people.

Michael: I am curious what other things have helped you to become good at what you do?

Therese: OK I have a long time interest and study of Buddhism. And more from a philosophical study than from a religious view point. And many of the beliefs and assumptions taken in NLP are very consistent with Buddhist type of thinking.

I have also had quite a journey in personal development like the traditional type of counseling as well as transactional analysis. I have studied Freud and some of the greats like Carl Jung; I have done a lot of study of Jung.

I come from a family where my elder sister is a psychiatrist and she is much older than me so it's almost as though I have been involved in personal development by osmosis from a very young age.

Michael: How would compare and contrast NLP to some of the other things you have mentioned?

Therese: For me, NLP gives me a tool to use. One of the problems with traditional psychology as I see it is that it can really remain a mental, cerebral type of thing and maybe not necessarily have action that's an outcome of the thinking. With NLP, there is invariably some type of action, some type of model, some type of intervention.

Michael: If someone was thinking about taking up NLP and using it in the sort of business context you were talking about, what advice would you give them as to how they might get the best value from it?

Therese: If they were ready to develop themselves as a person and open their heart, because in many ways NLP is a heart thing, then it will be a fantastic journey. However if they were looking for a tool that could be applied strictly in the same way in every circumstance, they might find NLP a disappointing journey.

Michael: I like that. Can you explain that a little bit more?

Therese: OK, you do really need, I believe -- and it's not only my perspective as we know -- some compassion to accept that behind every behavior there is a positive intention. It's really a bit like the great Buddhist philosopher Thich Nhat Hanh says, that we really have to embrace all the murderers and all the terrible people in ourselves before we can truly have compassion. NLP is a bit like that.

To be able to find the positive intention behind somebody's apparently extreme behavior like bulimia or anorexia or something, we really have to open our heart and have compassion which NLP describes as staying in position or getting into a meta position. We have to have compassion and be open-hearted, because any kind of judgment will restrict the learning.

Michael: Let's take your other point that somebody who is looking at NLP purely for some very hard techniques might be disappointed. Just put a few more words around that.

Therese: NLP is not an exact science. It's more like an experimental science. And because the case studies and the models have been based on human beings, who are never ever the same from moment to moment, we have to look at the big picture, chunk up the model, as we say in NLP, and the person, and then chunk it down as much as we need to for the individual. Which means it has to be different from time to time for each individual, and even from time to time for the same individual, because as the unconscious or the subconscious unravels itself, then we have more information coming.

Which means that we as practitioners have to be adaptable enough to change to the new information.

Michael: OK, excellent. Is there anything else you would like to add? I appreciate that we are talking about a huge subject in a very short space of time.

Therese: Yes. I went to America and I was so enthused, and in some ways thought I had found "it." Even though our teachers and lecturers cautioned us very much about having thoughts of having found "it" we all still grasped onto it.

So what I observed between myself and all my colleagues is that we all went away and we all kind of crashed for about six months. Seemed to be almost in proportion to how high we got about this. So we are now finding ourselves six to nine months later regrouping and starting to share our experiences and actual work experiences through an NLP forum.

So I guess the caution I am giving is that NLP is a tool that is to be used along side of your life experiences and along side of all your other learnings.

It's not the be all and end all for everything, but it's a wonderful tool if you see it as an experimental science.

Michael: Brilliant. If anybody wants to contact you, can you provide some contact information?

Therese: Yes, the best way to contact me is via email at therese@workedup.com.au *The domain name is www.workedup.com.au

Michael: Thank you very much indeed. ]]> NLP Benefits michaelbeale@ppimk.com http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/36-therese-ahern-interview.html http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/35-dean-bennett-interview.html Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:14:56 GMT *NLP Benefits - Dean Bennett* The Benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Dean Bennett, September 2007. Image:... NLP Benefits - Dean Bennett

The Benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Dean Bennett, September 2007.



(Leave up to 2 minutes to download the MP3 file if you want to listen to the discussion)

http://www.nlp-expert.co.uk/nlp/dean.mp3

Michael: Would you please begin by introducing yourself?

Dean: My name is Dean Bennett. I work for myself freelance as a learning and development consultant, which means I either work directly with corporates or as an associate with various other consultancies, providing expertise to them

Michael: Is that in the UK or wider?

Dean: I work across the UK, in Europe, in Asia and into the States as well.*

Michael: And what do you do?

Dean: Generally I am focusing on personal performance, right through time management to visioning the future, understanding yourself and where you are going, interpersonal skill, communications, influencing, through to networking and building communities, and then taking that into the context of either management, leadership or understanding wider organizational cultures.

Michael: What sort of companies do you work with?

Dean: I work with Atos Consulting, who are a French-based company that bought out the KPMG consulting arm after the Sarbanes-Oxley rules came in, with Acteva a healthcare supplier; I have a history of having been employed by Barclays Bank and also right down to an individual in Essex who is a hypno-therapist.

Michael: What experience with NLP do you have?

Dean: An interesting question. If I think about it in hindsight, my experience with NLP has probably been a large part of my life. Generally the skills, the tools, the models have always been around and for me NLP pulls those together into a structure.

More formally I first came across NLP about 18 or 19 years ago, at a couple of sessions at a place called Ruffy Park. It was about two and a half years ago when I really started looking more seriously at it. And since then I have gone through Practitioner and Master Practitioner - my formal qualifications.

Michael: How do you think NLP has helped you, with particular regard to your existing career, or the career you had at that time, building on that career, or enabling you to do different things?

Dean: I think it has worked in a series of ways, Michael, and it's worked in the sense of giving me a framework. One of the things I like about NLP is that it provides a structural framework, to work from rather than to work to. It gives some kind of structure, some kind of logic, a way of hanging other things off it. It also helps in the sense of a common language.

Michael: I'm interested in that. How does a common language help?

Dean: In most professions or areas, having a jargon can short-cut a lot of understanding and conversations, and also pin things down a bit more. So the fact that you have things like the meta model and presuppositions which mean very specific things in NLP.

A lot of our language is slightly complex for a language-based system, but it does have specific meanings in that context so talking to other practitioners is an easy way of sharing concepts and ideas and moving things on more quickly without having to explain everything in detail every time.

Michael: You talked about structure and common language, is there anything else?

Dean: Well there is a useful set of tools for understanding how individuals deal with themselves, and think about themselves, and also how you interact with other people. So fundamentally, it provides a good solid foundation for the kind of work that I do.

I can bring in other influencing techniques and match them with it. So the actual tools are very powerful. At another level you've got a formal, recognized qualification or accreditation, and that means something in the marketplace I work in, because now it's so widely known.

Michael: Is there anything you are now able to do, you weren't able to do so well before?

Dean: Lots of things probably. Some of the presuppositions, so for instance, like the meaning of the communication response you get. Having that kind of approach enables you to build on ideas and makes things a lot more powerful and fast.

Michael: What, other than NLP, has helped you achieve your successes to-date?
Dean: I think the key for the market that I am in, is experience - the fact that I have been in the corporate world since I was 18. And I have worked in various parts of the corporate culture and environment.

In talking to clients, facing up to senior directors or senior board people at various organizations, there is a certain presence, for want of a better word, purely because that's what I am. Somebody once said to me before I went out on my own, "If they cut you through, you're corporate. You can't help it -- you walk like it, you talk like it, you haven't got a choice - you're just soaked in it."

So that gives context to what you are talking about. That gives you a lot more credibility. Also it means I can explore things with people because I can understand where they are coming from.

And I've got the experience on which to set what they are telling me.

Michael: Would it be fair to say that NLP has enabled you to grow and develop some of the skills you already had?

Dean: Definitely and that's one of the things with NLP. It's based on what's there already, so what it's done is almost like a nurturing tool, in that it takes what's normal and already there, and shows you how to accelerate it.

It is like giving the right fertilizer to a plant or the right nurturing care to something to make it grow better. That's part of the major power of it. And I think there's a danger in making it too complex instead of realizing that what it's doing is taking what you do already, and strengthening it. You can easily get lost in trying to apply things in too complex a way. It should be intuitive and subliminal. And if you try to do too much it doesn't work because you are almost over the top with it.

Michael: What advice would you give somebody who is thinking of taking NLP training?

Dean: The first thing to do is decide whether it suits you. There are many ways of doing things, hundreds of ways. But you need to find one that suits you. So the first thing is to get some understanding of what it is and decide whether it's a style that feels right for you. For most people it should.

The next thing then is do your development work over a period in small bits. I did my practitioner course in a straight seven day event and in a sense it was too much in one time to really absorb it properly. I suggest you do it in modules. Then, take bits to start with and use them. NLP is a practice not a theory so you have to play with it to get it to work.

Michael: If you are giving that advice to someone who is just starting their training is there anything that you would add?

Dean: I think one of the best ways of developing it, is to pick up a project or a specific area in which you want to try and apply it, because then it starts becoming real. So for instance for me at the moment, it's about conversational change. So I can take something like sleight of mouth or some influencing techniques and apply NLP to those. Use it in the context of trying to make a specific difference.

I was working recently with a family member. And this woman had developed a block that had to do with horse riding. This woman had been riding horses since she was tiny, so there was no reason why she should have this block. But the technique worked with a conversation, an hour long conversation. I was very much conscious of the fact that what I wanted to do was not to sit down and do anything particularly onerous or appeared heavy, but to have a chat, and within that chat to bring out various things.

For instance, getting her to visualize what ever the block was, what ever the worry was, and to put it somewhere safe for later. And just talk about things so you have a conversation. Talk about that for awhile, and then: If you held it in your hands what would it be like? So where can you put it so it would be useful rather than get it in your head and worrying? So you do it in a conversational style, trying to take all the techniques, like visioning or chunking up or chunking down, and throw it into conversation making it natural.

At the end, the comment she said was that she knew I'd done something, but couldn't work out what it was. Something had shifted because at the end of it the problem was gone. So that for me was the specific example of how I was trying to take the technology and apply them into my style into a way I wanted to perform.

There is a lot of stuff there that you can pull out of the drawer and use. It's a set of tools and technologies that will apply for the rest of your life and become part of the way you do things. Therefore, find one that works really well and use it.

The easy analogy with people is that musicians only hear seven notes maybe twelve if you consider the sharps and flats. But it's how you put it all together that makes a powerful symphony. So the idea for me is always find one or two things that you can really get to know inside and out, upside down, back to front, like a craftsman knows his tools, and really get to know that one aspect. Or two aspects that fit together. Then add another later. Then add another one later. And build it up in that way so it becomes part of your style, very natural.

Michael: Thank you very much for that. If anyone wants to get in touch, what's the best place to do it?

Dean: My email address is: dean@deanbennett.co.uk The website is www.deanbennett.co.uk that also links to my blog. Also, my mobile is 07917302141.

Michael: Excellent. Thank you very much

Dean: You are every welcome Michael. ]]> NLP Benefits michaelbeale@ppimk.com http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/35-dean-bennett-interview.html http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/31-phil-jones-interview.html Sat, 02 Feb 2008 21:47:29 GMT *NLP Benefits - Phil Jones* The Benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Phil Jones, Business Consultant September 2007. Image:... NLP Benefits - Phil Jones

The Benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Phil Jones, Business Consultant September 2007.



(Please allow up to 2 minutes for the MP3 file to download if you want to listen to the discussion)

http://nlp-expert.co.uk/nlp/phil.mp3

Michael: Hi Phil. Would you please introduce yourself?

Phil: I'm a management consultant and I've been doing that for about 15 - 18 years in various forms. I specialize in business strategy and performance management, particularly around the balanced score card. And a great deal of what I do is not just the hard part of strategy and performance management -- the processes, the technique and the like, but the soft part -- the thinking, the relationships, the culture, how you make strategy actually happen, and how people think about it and talk about it.

Michael: What is the typical profile of your clients?

Phil: It's usually the Chief Executive, it can be anything -- public sector, private sector; they will usually be a reasonably large corporate. They could be mid size FTSE 100, or International companies. I've worked with FTSE 350s, sole traders, family-owned businesses, city councils, NHS, all sorts of businesses. It's usually the chief executive who is saying, "I need to sort out performance and strategy. Help me sort it out."

Michael: How would you describe your experience with NLP?

Phil: I first encountered NLP probably about 8 to 10 years ago. A lady called Sue Knight appeared on a one-day training course when I was in my KPMG days. She did a session on handling difficult people and I said "Hmm, this is interesting." I happened to resign that day from KPMG, and it wasn't related! (Laughs) I have done my Practitioner and Master Practitioner, and I run an NLP practice group in Cambridge. I've actively tried to use NLP for roughly six, eight, nine years. In 1999 I did Practitioner, and 2004 and 2005 I did Master.

Michael: Following on from that, how do you actually use NLP in your work?

Phil: I don't! (Laughs) I do, but I don't tell people I do.

Michael: What do you actually do?

Phil: A lot of the elements of NLP are about modelling and increasing awareness, and understanding how communication is going on, rather than the techniques like coaching and the like. So a lot of what I am doing with NLP is helping people think differently and uncovering the elements of communication problems that they may be having. So a typical example: I'm in a management team meeting, they are talking about their strategy and perhaps one of them will put a really heavy normalization in. I'll simply say, "So when you say that, what do you mean?" using a meta model pattern.

Michael: Can you give an example of normalization?

Phil: OK. A great normalization is everyone thinks of a dog. You ask people what particular dog it is, and they'll go: Retriever, small Spaniel, puppy, Labrador... The normalisation is actually in a way a generalisation. They are using a general word for some thing, the same way consultants use a broad catch-all in coaching.

Michael: You get them to expand on something they have a "box word" for.

Phil: Correct. "Box word" is a good phrase for what they are doing. Jargon should happen between consenting adults in private. And quite often jargon appears and they haven't become consenting adults. So one use that's extremely powerful is simply: "What do you mean by strategy in this context?" Using that question, I've got 16 different uses of the word strategy. That's not strategies, that's different ways people use it.

Michael: It's around asking good questions. How else do you use NLP?

Phil: Yes, it's around asking good questions, it's also about helping people think better. I have a new way of doing client interviews. I'm looking for the length of time it takes them to answer because that tells me they're thinking and I've asked them something deep. Another good example: if I am doing future thinking I'll explicitly get them to be in the future as if they are there, and look around there, which is a classic future NLP positioning.

Michael: What do you find the advantages of that are?

Phil: For them, it gives them a much richer picture of what they are thinking about and talking about. And for them it means that they are better able to articulate it to others as well. Because much of what I am trying to do is not just get an answer, but to help them to communicate better as a management team, and come out so they, as a management team, are all saying and communicating the same thing.

Michael: OK, I understand that. If I chunk up a bit and you are looking at your use of NLP, would you say that it has helped you with your current career or it's actually enabled you to do something totally different?

Phil: It's more the former two. I have been doing consultancy and it's given it a completely different edge, and a completely different angle. It's widening. One chief executive said, "I could have employed someone to do the team dynamics separately from the strategy, but you did both. And because you did both at the same time, the context created the team dynamic problems which you were able to solve in the content of what is causing them. Whereas if someone were just tackling the team dynamics, it wouldn't have had the context of strategy and how they were working as a management team, and so they would come up with a different kind of answer.

Michael: We've talked a little about NLP. I am interested balancing NLP with other things. You say that NLP has helped you to be as successful as you are in what you do. What other disciplines or other things have helped you achieve the results that you get?

Phil: I think that's a great question because I think NLP gets stuck in its own first position, and there's a great danger in doing that. I read around NLP so things like understanding models of changes and if you look at Chris Arguelles and people like that. I have a Maths degree, so understanding the structure of language and formal languages which comes from modelling computers; I go "Yes, I know that, I did that about 30 years ago." All you are doing is sub-setting it and using it in these discussions. Philosophy comes into this, management of change, economics, just reading around business and what people are thinking about.

Michael: So what's coming over is that you draw on a wide range of things and experiences.

Phil: I think that's really important. And like I say, there is a whole cabinet that seems to think that NLP and anything within NLP started somewhere in the 60's in Southern California. Whereas in fact it was stealing a load of other things, and incorporating them as well as the modelling that NLP does.

Michael: Focusing back to NLP, what has it enabled you to do differently?

Phil: I think there are two answers. One is about modelling. NLP is explicitly about modelling. It's not the trail of techniques that are out there. And therefore, what I am able to do that I couldn't do before, is to get a sense of the model that someone is using, and try it on and understand the beliefs that drive where they come from. That's really, really important, because it forces a question like, what do I have to believe to act like that, which is quite a rich question, as opposed to "They must be an idiot to think like that" is quite a different reaction to "what do I have to believe to think like that?"

I think I was probably very, very blind to what was categorized as "emotional intelligence." There is a whole piece of this that is about heightening my awareness of what is going on around, and the usual conversation and reactions, and that has been extremely powerful. There was one of those moments on a project where I said, "Oh dear, I am missing this big time." At the review afterwards, I said "Look, I screwed up that, and I really think the answer is I start doing NLP courses. Will you fund it?" And the guy said yes, and it sounds like a good answer for me!"

Michael: So you think there's a connection between doing an NLP course and gaining emotional intelligence?

Phil: Yes, but I wouldn't put it quite so strongly. I think it's an awareness that can lead to intelligence. Just because you have the awareness, it won't necessarily lead to intelligence. I was using that as an example of where you can be intellectually smart but not necessarily communicate anything.

Michael: OK, what advice would you give to anybody who was just starting NLP?

Phil: The first thing I would say is they are already using NLP but just don't have the words for it.

Michael: Absolutely.

Phil: The second thing I would say is, go and get some training, but do not go on a fast track, because I think that's impossible. The other thing is find as many NLP teachers as you can. I hear some people who go Practitioner then Master trainer with the same person. NLP is a very wide and varied thing nowadays. There is a ton of different ways. The way Judy Delosa does it is very visceral and not at all cognitive David Gordon is relatively cognitive there's the language school there are so many different ways that people are interpreting NLP. If you go with one camp, you will lose out on the other five.

The third piece is that you can get a lot from books but only probably after you've started doing courses.

Michael: I agree with that.

Phil: Do read; go back to the original books.

Michael: So that's the advice you would give someone as they are starting their training. Would you give the same or different advice for someone who has finished NLP training? Whatever "finished" means.

Phil: I'm glad you picked up on that! Let me just take that apart. There are a lot of people that come out of Practitioner going, "Wow, that was a life changing experience, I'll go and do it with someone else." And they head off the course to be a coach. I find that immensely sad. Practitioner tends to increase your awareness and teaches you some of the trail of techniques that was left by the modelling of NLP. That's cynical -- I am trying to express a relatively extreme view here.

Michael: That's fine, please continue.

Phil: Masters, if it's done properly, I think, is much more about learning the variety of methods of modelling so you can start to create your own techniques of NLP. One of the things I always ask a coach is: "OK, which model of coaching are you in?" If they look at me blankly at that point, I know they haven't thought about it. If you go to the Council of Hypno-therapists or whatever it is, the people that are accredited, there are twelve to thirteen different "camps". That's not quite the right word, but ways of doing therapy and the like. And therefore I think it's a lack of awareness of what they are dealing with. It's also a concern that they are going to get into things much deeper because they are mucking about with peoples' heads. And they may not have sorted out their own heads. So my advice is to do much more on yourself before you think of doing things on others.

Michael: I would put in a counter point. That in some ways we all coached before we came to NLP. And therefore everyone has some coaching ability.

Phil: I don't disagree with you. It's just that I am trying to make the point that just because you learn to use a hammer, it's not the only tool in the tool box.

Michael: Excellent. Before I ask you to give your contact details is there anything else you would like to say about NLP?

Phil: I would strongly emphasize reading around NLP. The first time I picked up "Finding True Magic," I went, "Oh that's what it's all about!" Gregory Bateson and his material -- there's a lot of people talking about Gregory Bateson and it's very heavy to read and difficult but it is so rich and practical.

Do join practice groups and get out there and practice. The biggest mistake I did in 1999 was not doing anything after Practitioner and just kind of leaving it, as opposed to using it on a day to day basis. I think that's really important. Because the more you can practice it, the better. It's about doing it yourself and helping you understand what you are saying and how you are dealing with things.

The only other thing is a good plug to go on an NLP conference which gives you a wide use of it.

Michael: How can people get in touch with you?

Phil: phil@excitant.co.uk My office number is 0870-420-7978. And they can find me at Excitant Ltd. Better to drop me an email beforehand.

Michael: Thank you.

Phil: It was a pleasure Mike. Lovely to talk with you. ]]> NLP Benefits michaelbeale@ppimk.com http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/31-phil-jones-interview.html http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/23-stuart-pedley-smith-kaplan-financial-interview.html Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:37:23 GMT NLP Benefits Podcast - Stuart Pedley-Smith *The Benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Stuart Pedley-Smith of Kaplan Financial,... NLP Benefits Podcast - Stuart Pedley-Smith

The Benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and Stuart Pedley-Smith of Kaplan Financial, September 2007.



(Please allow 2 minutes to download the MP3 file ifyou want to listen to the discussion)


http://nlp-expert.co.uk/nlp/stuart.mp3


Michael: - Hi Stuart. Thank you very much for agreeing to take part in this discussion.

Stuart: - That’s fine.

Michael: - Firstly would you introduce yourself? Who you are and what you do?

Stuart: - My name is Stuart Pedley-Smith. I work for a company called Kaplan Financial. And what we do is prepare people to sit their final level accountancy exams. And also, more recently look for methods for preparing people for CPD, the continued professional development element of becoming an accountant.

Michael: - What does CPD mean as far as the accountancy profession goes?

Stuart: - The qualification in the exam is only one sort of element of training, all professional bodies have become keen to ensure that their membership remain up to date. So all qualified accountants now are required to undertake a degree of continued professional development to keep up to date with their subject.

Michael: - What experience of NLP do you have?

Stuart: - I’ve been involved in NLP for the best part of ten years now. And I came to do it by being particularly interested in how you can put words and language together to influence people, also as a professional presenter, with a view to influence so not only would they listen to what I would say, but also they would take action.

Michael: - And looking back, how would you say that NLP has helped you in your career?

Stuart: - In my job, and in a certain extent in my career, it’s helped me with a framework. It’s provided - the old clich? I suppose is that we’re doing most of these things anyway. It’s provided me with a framework to identify instinctively what works. You get good at knowing what works by watching people’s reaction. But that’s just called experience. What NLP has done for me is that it’s provided me with an analytical structure to make sense of my experience.

Michael: - And if I were to split it into developing your existing job, enabling you to do something else but within the structure of your existing job, or preparing you to do something new- Which of those areas do you think NLP has helped the most?

Stuart: - I suppose to a certain extent all of them. It’s useful to have a framework in which to sit the things that you’ve done, looking back against it. But also it makes you very much aware of things that are out there that you haven’t tried, so instead of thinking I’ve done this and this works, now that same framework can give you an opportunity to sort of practice something you haven’t even thought about.

Michael: - Has it enabled you to do anything that you didn’t do before?

Stuart: - I’m not sure I’m objective enough to know that but I would say it’s resulted in a change of attitude towards certain things. It’s inspired me to try different things. I’m a little bit more relaxed about, well let’s see if that works and if it doesn’t then I’ve moved forward because I’ve learnt something new.

Michael: - If somebody had an interest in NLP but hadn’t taken any training yet, what advice would you give them?

Stuart: - As you know I came to you for my NLP training, I probably did it the wrong way round and had actually read quite a bit about it before I actually got there. I think that’s more difficult because sometimes it doesn’t come to life from the books. I would say just go on an NLP course or a taster session before they start reading. Or maybe just skim the books initially. I think you need a good book or some good material. But you also need the personal experience that you can only get from an NLP course.

Michael: - And if somebody had just finished their first training, what advice would you give them as far as keeping their skills up to date and making sure they use what they’ve done?

Stuart: - Try to read or put into practice something every single day. I think that’s difficult if you’re not a member of some practice group. I’m fortunate in that I have a live audience every single day to try things out on. And so I get the opportunity to practice. But I think it’s consciously catching yourself doing things and trying to be your own coach to an extent. But I would say a practice group would be a great idea if somebody’s got something close to them. Failing that read the news letter, take part on the discussion boards. Once you get into the network there are lots of things that come your way.

Michael: - Thanks, before I ask you for your contact details, is there any other piece of advice or any other thoughts that you might just like to give about the subject of NLP?

Stuart: - When I did my NLP, I probably sat there- (the course that you do is modular- which was one of the reasons I was keen to do it). I probably sat there for two modules over a period of six months and I probably sat there looking around the room thinking - this isn’t working for me, I’m not sure I’m getting this, I’m not even sure I should be in the room here. But having persevered and stuck with it and then got back for another module, listened to what people said it really came together.

I was very pleased that I went through the exercises almost without questioning them first, because I think if I questioned them first, with the way I think about things I would have analysed them to death. So go along, do the exercises, give yourself a break in between. Think about how it could be applied and how it does work in the real world. Go back, and you know, do it over a slightly longer period.

I think sometimes if it’s rushed you’ll just go out the other end and go, "Oh, I just finished that" and you’ve never really finished. I’ve certainly not finished…….

Michael: - Would you like to give your contact details so anybody who wanted to could contact you?

Stuart: - Stuart Pedley-Smith. You can contact me on my mobile number which is 07973885307. Or by email on: stuart@pedley-smith.co.uk.

Michael: - OK, thank you very much indeed.

Copyright PPI Business NLP Ltd 2007 ]]> NLP Benefits michaelbeale@ppimk.com http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/23-stuart-pedley-smith-kaplan-financial-interview.html http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/22-james-prior-astrazeneca-interview.html Tue, 29 Jan 2008 20:28:26 GMT *NLP Benefits - James Prior* The Benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and James Prior of AstraZeneca , September 2007. Image:... NLP Benefits - James Prior

The Benefits of NLP - Discussion between Michael Beale and James Prior of AstraZeneca , September 2007.



(Please allow 2 minutes for the MP3 file to download to listen to this interview)

http://nlp-expert.co.uk/nlp/james.mp3

MICHAEL: James, please introduce yourself.

JAMES: My name’s James Prior. I work for AstraZeneca, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. I’m the Organisational Development Partner. My role is really looking after leadership development; it’s also looking after the culture within the business considering where we’re headed as a successful organisation, and looking at the business skills offerings we have.

MICHAEL: That sounds a lot to me.

JAMES: Yes, it’s quite a big role. And obviously I don’t do all that on my own. I have a team of two people as well who help support me in those areas.

MICHAEL: If we can move on from that. What experience of NLP have you had?

JAMES: Over the years quite a bit, working up to my Master Practitioner qualification in coaching, leadership development and change management.

MICHAEL: And how would you say it’s helped you?

JAMES: I think it allowed me to really focus on building rapport and relationships with people. And NLP has both allowed me to pick on audio clues and visual clues. To really get a sense of peoples core values and identity. So that we can shape the offerings we have, so that we know that they’re aimed at the right areas that people want to improve.

MICHAEL: If I looked at it in three areas: Your current career; expanding the scope of your current career; or moving into new areas, which of those things do you think it’s helped more?

JAMES: I think it’s helped me in expanding my career in allowing me to take on new opportunities. I think in the sense that it’s allowed me to build relationships far quicker than if I didn’t have the skills. But it is also about understanding people. It’s allowed me to specialise in the area that I’m very passionate about - leadership. It has big implications for improvement in leadership in many areas. In building relationships and enabling people to see the benefit of communicating really well.

MICHAEL: What else, in addition to NLP, has helped you achieve what you achieved to-date?

JAMES: My drive and ambition is a big motivator for me. As well as taking responsibility for my own development. I come from a philosophy that things don’t come to you, you have to go looking for them. I work very hard on my own personal development programme. Working hard with external supplies like yourself, and working very closely with the company putting core business cases together. This enables me to broaden my career, broaden my experience and allows me to move on through AstraZeneca.

MICHAEL: What sort of things do you do differently now?

JAMES: The biggest area for me is listening to people, really listening, in order to understand people on a number of different levels. This includes body language, tone of voice, use of language and beliefs. This has enabled me to be really challenging in some areas. I think people find me challenging sometimes but in the end they see a huge benefit because it allows them to challenge some of their own behaviours and beliefs.

MICHAEL: If you looked back or you looked at somebody that was just about to start NLP and hadn’t yet been on a first course, what advice would you give them?

JAMES: I’m going to be really honest. I think the first thing I’d advise is just have a go!

I think from a corporate point of view NLP has sometimes some quite bad press. People don’t really understand what it’s about and they fill in the blanks without ever really trying it themselves.

So my advice to people is to actually have a go but also speak to some practitioners who really understand it and use it and have been successful. And then go to some taster evenings, like you do yourself, and really explore for yourself what it’s about.

I think there are some very good books to have a read through.

MICHAEL: If somebody had just finished an NLP training what advice would you give them as to how to use it or take it forward?

JAMES: The biggest advice I would give them is to continuously use it. It’s very easy to slip back into bad habits again when you get back into a work environment particularly if you’re in an organisation.

If you’re setting up on your own use your NLP skills in some form of interpersonal coaching to use those skills as quickly as possible. My other advice is you don’t need to label everything NLP. Use the tools and techniques that you’ve got from the experience and allow people to see the benefit it brings.

MICHAEL: Is there anything you would like to add before I ask for your contact details?

JAMES: The one thing I would say is I found all my NLP training extremely beneficial. And I use a lot of it today. And I would recommend everyone to have a go because they’ll get something from it.

MICHAEL: Can you give your contact details?

JAMES: My mobile number is: 07909934833.

MICHAEL: Thank you very much indeed.

JAMES: Pleasure.

Copyright PPI Business NLP Ltd 2007 ]]> NLP Benefits michaelbeale@ppimk.com http://nlp-experts.org/nlp-benefits/22-james-prior-astrazeneca-interview.html