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First Published in Personal Success Magazine, September
1993
NLP: The Science of Excellence … The Art of Change
Penny Tompkins and James Lawley
NLP has a number of maxims, two of which are:
"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got!"
"If what you're doing isn't working -- do something else!"
"Yes, but how?" you might ask.
Unlike other approaches that tell you WHAT you need to do, NLP is a
HOW TO technology. It tells and shows you HOW TO achieve what you
want and HOW TO become the person you want to achieve your goals. So
you can have the personal success you want now!
With NLP we have choice about what we want to change, and how we want
to change it.
My first introduction to NLP was from a friend in the States whose
sales had jumped 40% in one year after training in NLP.
After some research, I decided to take an NLP training myself,
thinking "If this stuff works, everyone would be doing it." In order
to test the principles of NLP and convince myself of its merit, I
decided to apply the techniques to my weight - a long-standing
problem. Having dieted all my life I was convinced 'dieting makes you
fat'. So eating and body size had to have something to do with the
mind. I threw away my scales. I safely and effortlessly lost three
stone, and have weighed 9 stone for the last two years.
How did it work? Through applying NLP and examining my beliefs,
capabilities, and behaviours around my eating. A key part of this
process, which surprised me, was realising I benefited by being
over-weight. Once in this was in my awareness, NLP provided the tools
by which I could satisfy these benefits in healthier and slimmer
ways. The methods I applied to get to my natural body size can be
applied to many areas: creating confidence, motivation, sales,
improved memory, athletic performance, learning strategies --
anything humans do and want to know HOW TO do better. There is a
saying, "If it works, it must be NLP!"
IN THE BEGINNING
In the early 1970's, while Tom Peters was studying excellence in
organisations and looking for winning strategies, a linguist, John
Grinder, and a mathematician, Richard Bandler, were studying
individuals who were excellent communicators and technicians of
personal change.
"What is the difference between somebody who is merely competent and
somebody who excels at the same skill?" was the question asked by
Grinder and Bandler. The answers produced NLP: The Science of
Excellence...The Art of Change.
ANTHONY ROBBINS
More and more people are coming to realise the impact NLP can make in
their lives. For example, leading peak performance manager, Anthony
Robbins says, "I think a major person, a role model, was a gentleman
called Dr. John Grinder, who created a science of change, which was
called neuro-linguistic programming. It was one of the things that
gave me my competitive edge. I think the number one edge I have is
the technology of change."
Others, too, have recognised the power of NLP. Time Magazine reports:
"NLP has untapped potential for treating individual problems and has
become an all-purpose self-improvement programme and technology."
WHAT IS NLP?
NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming and encompasses the three
most influential components involved in producing human experience:
neurology, language and patterning.
We are in contact with the external world through our five senses:
sight, hearing, feelings, smell and taste. Our neurology takes
external stimuli and represents them to us with a matching set of
"internal representations." These form our subjective experience. Our
internal world is made up of the pictures we see in our "mind's eye".
It is the conversations, dialogues or arguments we have with
ourselves in our thinking. It is our feelings and emotions over which
we used to think we had no control.
The important point to realise is that our experience is created by
combinations of these internal representations which form repeating
patterns or "programmes." These patterns (or habits) run over and
over again unless they are interrupted or redirected. It is like a
record playing the same song unless it is rerecorded.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
Nobel Prizewinner, Professor Gerald Edelman has spent thirty years
researching how the brain functions. He concludes that the ten
billion or more brain and nerve cells we have arrange themselves into
groups in order to form "maps" that respond to our experience. These
maps allow us to make sense of the world and ourselves. Connections
between the cells that are frequently stimulated will survive and
thrive; others atrophy or become diverted to other tasks "It is," he
says, "a simple case of contacts that work best work again."
A phobia is a good example of how the brain works. A particular
situation or trigger (heights, spiders, and so on) produces a
particularly strong physical response (sweaty palms, fast breathing,
panic, etc). The brain learns quickly and thereafter, every time the
person is presented with the same stimulus, their body knows to have
the same response. The amazing thing is, people with phobias NEVER
forget to have this response. This is the perfect one-time learning
strategy!
Whilst in the Austrian Alps recently we met a woman on a skiing
holiday who had a fear of heights! To get from the hotel to the top
of the mountain required a 20 minute trip in an aerial gondola.
Needless to say she was not enjoying her holiday. By taking her
through the NLP Phobia Cure, in under an hour her fearful response
became just another memory; although she had yet to be convinced. As
luck would have it, the very next day the gondola system broke down
and left her suspended several hundred feet in the air. Much to her
surprise, whilst it was not a pleasant experience, she did not
"remember" to have the old phobic response. NOW she was
convinced!
Just as this automatic patterning works to our disadvantage in a
phobia, it works to our advantage when we tie our shoelaces, drive a
car, or do a million other things without having to think.
So NLP is the exploration of HOW each individual experiences their
own unique set of patterns. With NLP we can identify which patterns
resource and serve us. Then we can choose to add new patterns to our
behaviour and be more productive in those situations where we have
under performed in the past. If we understand how we are the way we
are, we can create choice about how we would like to be in the
future.
THE "LINGUISTIC" IN NLP
Language determines how we influence and communicate with others, and
ourselves. It is how we label our experience and much more.
Empowering language generates empowered behaviour. Likewise, negative
thinking is the result of disempowering thoughts...often out of our
awareness, which limit choice.
Positive or negative thinking is our internal dialogue, or what we
say to ourselves. Try this, say the following one at a time (filling
in the 'X' with something that applies to you): "I need X," "I want
X," and "I CHOOSE X," and notice the difference in your response. So
even changing one word can have a significant influence in your
thinking, and therefore in your behaviour.
It is estimated that 93% of communication is non-verbal. This means
how you say what you say (intonation, volume, speed, etc.) carries
five times more information than the words spoken. And how you use
your body (gestures, facial expressions, posture) is even more
influential. NLP transcends traditional "body language" theory by
showing you how to identify and respond to the TOTAL communication of
another person.
So NLP describes the fundamental dynamics between mind, language and
behaviour.
The same underlying methodology has been applied to decision making
by the Board of one of Britain's leading banks; identifying Walt
Disney's creative strategy; rehabilitating young offenders; training
American Express operators in telephone rapport skills; studying
longevity and to producing impactful advertising.
NLP recognises the importance of physiology in changing and
sustaining internal states. This means, for example, if you are in a
bad mood you have a choice to create a good one for yourself. The
benefits of this are apparent... imagine feeling powerful when you go
to see your bank manager, confident before giving a presentation,
loving when your partner is having an off-day. How will you act
differently? And how will this influence others? When you are more
resourceful other people probably will be too.
Want to try a taste of NLP right now?
Try a little experiment. Look way up at the ceiling or sky, smile,
raise your arms and ... try to be depressed!
Now, lower your head and look down to your right, slump your
shoulders and try to be happy. Tough, isn't it?
Which state of mind did you prefer? You can choose to experience
it, now or any time. And, you don't need to go through your whole day
staring at the ceiling either.
Pick a state you want to feel. By reliving a time when you
experienced these feelings strongly you will be able to have that
state now. Make sure you really are in the situation: See what you
saw then ... hear what you heard then and ... FEEL what you felt
then.... Hold that for a minute and it's your's NOW!
There is obviously more to being in control of your internal states
and ways of responding than this simple exercise. Yet it demonstrates
a measure of self-determination that few ever get to experience.
WHAT IF YOU COULD?
Here's another experiment to try.
Every time you catch someone saying "I can't..." try saying, "What
if you could?". Notice how they HAVE TO consider doing the very
thing they said they couldn't do!
Of course, you can always ask yourself the same question...!
APPLICATIONS OF NLP
Perhaps most easily recognisable, NLP is being used in sports
psychology to help access those states of mind and body needed to
ensure the repetition of peak performance. The key is being able to
reproduce the peak state at the precise moment required. An athlete
can use positive statements like "I'm going to win this race," but if
a little voice in their head is saying "No, way" there's not much
chance of success. With NLP, that voice can be changed to "Go for
it!"
Neuro-Linguistic Programming is being used in education to
teach spelling and highly effective learning strategies to children.
Did you know that most good spellers use a very similar method to
spell? NLP has discovered the HOW TO of good spelling which can be
taught in under an hour.
Also in education, teachers are learning how children who sort and
store information visually have different learning strategies from
those who sort and store information auditorially or kinesthetically
(internal feelings). Having this information enables teachers to
adjust their language so that what they say can be comprehended by
more children.
In different fields, doctors and barristers are making use of
the same NLP techniques for gathering high quality information from
patients and clients alike.
NLP is also used to study how belief systems influence illness. It is
beginning to be realised that HOW doctors give information can either
be a powerful tool for recovery, or unwittingly introduce a 'thought
virus' into their patients thinking. No where is the maxim, "If you
believe it's possible, or you do not...you're probably right!" more
true as in the area of health.
NLP in personal development focuses on what you want, how you
want to be, and how to find the resources and attributes you already
have to assist you in making changes. NLP offers a radically
different approach to traditional psychotherapy and counselling
methods which tend to focus on the problem and the causes of the
problem, rather than the solution.
It also means dramatic improvements in people's lives can be
accomplished in a relatively short period of time.
One of the more unusual applications is its use in teaching
driving skills. A recent study indicates 66% fewer accidents
in those who had taken a two day NLP training than the control
group.
BENEFITS TO BUSINESS
Whilst NLP is a powerful tool for change at the level of the
individual, the potential benefits to business and organisations can
be nothing less than phenomenal.
A perfect opportunity to measure the effectiveness of NLP in an
organisation was in 1986. After employing an NLP consultant, the U.S.
Army were able to reduce their small arms marksmanship training from
6 weeks to 3 days with no detrimental effect on the pass rate!
In business and industry NLP is already being used to improve sales
performance, decision making, presentation skills, motivation, stress
management, team building, and almost every other area you can think
of. Members of the business community trained in NLP are coached to
excel with their own personal success strategies, as well as to
incorporate proven formulas of excellence from others. How would you
like to have access to Walt Disney's Creative Strategy whenever you
needed?
You can also apply the same powerful NLP tools and techniques on a
macro level within your corporation so the whole organisation will
benefit.
Fiat in Italy is a prime example. For a number of years they have
employed NLP experts to study "natural leaders" in their organisation
so that these special leadership skills can be transferred to others.
Fiat is exploring in detail what business in general is discovering.
A new type of manager and leader is required to see business through
these turbulent economic times and into the next Century. Concepts of
corporate identity, vision, mission, and aligning the individual and
the organisation behind shared values are pointing the way to the
future.
The framework of the individual in business, the larger system (the
political, social, and physical environments) and how these
interrelate and inter-depend, form the basis for the new systemic
approach. This needs to be underpinned with long-term wisdom and
demonstrably living our values. In other words... learning to "walk
our talk." It is in this area that NLP can make a unique
contribution.
AND FINALLY...
There are many, many different NLP techniques you can use to improve
yourself, and others. We can have control and choice over our lives
in ways only dreamed of before NLP. And this article is just a taste
of what is possible.
NLP can enable you to achieve those professional and personal goals
you desire, to keep on the leading edge of the latest technology of
change, to manage your own life, and to have the excellence and
skills of anyone you have ever admired.
As Anthony Robbins is fond of saying, "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?"
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Penny Tompkins & James Lawley
Penny and James are supervising neurolinguistic psychotherapists – first registered with the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy in 1993 – coaches in business, certified NLP trainers, and founders of The Developing Company. They have provided
consultancy to organisations as diverse as GlaxoSmithKline, Yale
University Child Study Center, NASA Goddard Space Center and the
Findhorn Spiritual Community in Northern Scotland.
Their book, Metaphors in Mind was the first comprehensive guide to Symbolic Modelling using the Clean Language of David Grove. An annotated training DVD, A Strange and Strong Sensation demonstrates their work in a live session. James has also written (with Marian Way) the first book dedicated to Clean Space: Insights in Space. Between them Penny and James have published over 200 articles and blogs freely available on their website: cleanlanguage.co.uk.
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The only book
dedicated to
David Grove's
Clean Space
Insights in Space
James Lawley
& Marian Way
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