NLP Training 1 - What is NLP? - NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Training

michaelbeale@ppimk.com · #1 (**permalink**) 02-21-2009, 04:36 PM

michaelbeale@ppimk.com · #2 (**permalink**) 02-26-2009, 07:53 AM

Transcript - Draft

Liam : So Michael, briefly, what is NLP?

Michael : NLP is an exploration of how we think, how we communicate and how we change.

Liam : Could you expand on that a little bit?

Michael : I think that it's the kernel, the basic ability of the skills that enable us to do almost anything else - so anybody that spends their time exploring these skills will become better at almost everything that they do.

Liam : OK. And why do people do NLP?

Michael : I think that they do it for a number of reasons. I think that some people have hit a glass ceiling, or they've come across a glass ceiling and they almost want some experiences of new ways of communicating that will enable them to smash through it to get to whatever it is that they want to achieve.

Some people just really enjoy it. It's about studying how people do things well, and people are naturally interested in improving what they do and seeing how people do things well.

Liam : How did you get involved in NLP?

Michael : It was about ten years ago, I went through a little patch where I felt that life wasn't go quite how I thought it ought to be. It wasn't so much that anything was wrong - it was just that I was putting an awful lot of effort in but I didn't seem to be getting anywhere - and a friend of mine suggested that I read some books and go on an NLP course. I was very lucky that I had a training manager who offered to fund for me to go on an NLP course - and I haven't looked back since.

Liam : What are some of the elements that make up NLP?

Michael : You can describe NLP as being three different things. Firstly it is about attitude, what kind of state I am in - whether I am happy, whether I am enthusiastic, whether I'm curious, whether I'm pissed off, whether I'm disappointed. Because the state that I am in will allow me to access different resources - and if I am in a positive state I will have far more opportunities open to me than if I am in a negative state. So we're looking at states and attitudes.

The second thing is about modelling. It's about finding out about the people who do things well, and how that they do them. So NLP is very much about being curious about others so we can find out about what they do and find new ways of replicating it.

Now, if you have a good attitude and you continue modelling people, you will end up with a heap of techniques. Techniques are how you transfer what you have learned to other people.

Liam : What is the significance of NLP to things like seduction or hypnosis?

Michael : There's a great tie up between NLP and hypnosis, because one of the original people that Bandler and Grinder modelled when they started NLP off was a very, very, very good hypnotist. But I think that it's useful to give a definition of hypnosis, because everybody has a slightly different version of what hypnosis is - I would describe hypnosis as 'Being able to lead people into useful states.' So you actually lead people into situations where they can unlock their creativity much more.

The seduction thing I think is quite fun. The seduction guys, a little bit like NLP, have been exploring what works in that context, and I think that they've come up with some very interesting stuff. You might like their approach or you might not like their approach - but I think that NLPer's can learn a lot from what they've done , just as they could learn an awful lot from NLPers.

Liam : Is there anything else that you would like to add or reiterate about NLP?

Michael : I think that the important thing to emphasise is that things like NLP are coming into their time. If you look back ten years, twenty years at the times that we were still making stuff as far as work goes we needed a lot of manual dexterity - and that's still important, still nice to have - but to succeed in life today it's really the mind-type skills that we need. It's things like creativity, it's getting into the right state, it's about tenacity - and people that study and learn about NLP will end up with a real advantage.

Liam : Michael Beale, thank you.

Michael : Thank you.