Good NLP training makes a difference
Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is a set of practices that allow people to communicate more effectively with themselves and with other people. If you've ever surprised yourself - or failed yourself - you understand that you are a collection of abilities, forces, ideas and experiences. When all parts of you communicate effectively with each other, you can accomplish remarkable things. In the same way, when you communicate effectively with other people, you can get great results for yourself, your organization or your community. NLP are tools that make it easier to get great results.
NLP is not regulated, hierarchical, controlled or controllable. As a field, it includes great models from a variety of disciplines and an astonishing variety of quite bad stuff.
Fortunately, the good stuff in NLP teaches calibration - the ability to notice and assign meaning to differences. This lens applies calibration to NLP itself as it asks the question: what, specifically, is happening here and what I can I do with it?
NLP is not regulated, hierarchical, controlled or controllable. As a field, it includes great models from a variety of disciplines and an astonishing variety of quite bad stuff.
Fortunately, the good stuff in NLP teaches calibration - the ability to notice and assign meaning to differences. This lens applies calibration to NLP itself as it asks the question: what, specifically, is happening here and what I can I do with it?
What is NLP and How Does it Work?
Neuro (Thought + Physiology) Linguistic (Language) Programming (Patterns)
Neurolinguistic programming is a description of what most people call "thinking": it says that people produce results by combining thoughts with sensory perceptions in patterns. Many forms of psychology consider these patterns as basic to human experience. There are many ways to change these patterns in order to change the results of these patterns.When NLP was founded, there were many other models that explained how people think. There are fewer models now. Neuroscience has moved a long way toward proving that brain cells fire in patterns to create "thoughts". So the ideas of mainstream NLP fit well with contemporary science.
Much of NLP is not mainstream. Many people become involved with NLP because, for one reason or another, they are unhappy with mainstream thinking. That can lead to practices that have more passion and more flexibility than the mainstream. It can also lead to excess and flakiness - in NLP as in every other field.
At its best, neurolinguistic programming is a set of practices that make people more aware of the connections between their thinking, sensory perception and physiology, language and actions. It is a way of exploring the complex integration of attention, intention, conscious awareness and unconscious processes that make up the human mind. At its best, it insists on being judged by usefulness - not truth (which is unknowable), not authority (which is right only until proven wrong), and not convention (which condemns us to doing the same thing and getting the same results forever).
As you explore the resources linked to this lens, take a look at the parts of NLP that connect well with reputable thinkers in neuroscience, philosophy, linguistics, and the arts. You will find a wealth of ideas, practices, and perspectives. Each of them will contribute to your ability to define what you want, identify it in the world and replicate it in your experience.
You can use NLP to learn from the success of others to get what you want and to like what you get.
A "moving" introduction to NLP
Enjoy this brief Quicktime slideshow
This is the way we teach NLP at NLP Canada Training INc.
- NLPCT Intro to NLP
- Training for a well-conditioned mind.
Credentials and Competencies
Don't ask about hours: ask about results
The problem with recognizing learning through credentials is that it creates a muddy line. Some people pursue learning and earn credentials as a result. Other people end up chasing the credential (learning optional). At the one extreme, people pursue doctoral degrees in academic disciplines. At the other, people buy degrees from matchbook covers. There's a lot of mud in the middle.
Today I had a conversation with a prospective client who was, understandably, confused about NLP credentials. It's hard for people to understand that NLP exists outside of governing bodies, peer review or structured, international consensus. If you set out to develop a set of practices that effect change, the only way to judge them is by whether or not they reliably promote the change they promise. There are no tests, no contests and no meaningful stamps of approval.
There are, of course, lots of efforts to create tests and contests and stamps of approval. People create official-looking stamps for various organizations or associations and encourage their members to disseminate them as if they were meaningful beyond the group they represent.
We quite often train people who followed all the rules and paid for training that follows guidelines. The problem is that too many of them are unable to demonstrate effectively any of the competencies of those credentials. They sometimes know about a variety of techniques. They are not good at getting the results that those techniques are supposed to get.
When I teach Business Communications courses to college students, I tell them that the way to judge a communication in business is by whether or not it gets the results they intend. Grammar, format and rhetorical strategies increase their odds of getting what they want. They are not the ends: they are some of the means to the end.
Credentials without competence are a lie. Credentials earned over a few days or weeks of study are unlikely to measure any significant skill sets. Skills are built by deliberate, attentive practice over time. We all know this. Whether or not we believe that it takes 5 years of full-time practice to master a skill, we believe that mastery of meaningful patterns of thinking will take more than a few days.
It seems to me that a basic presupposition of NLP is that the meaning of a pattern of behaviour is the result it gets. I judge the quality of the work I do as a trainer by the quality of the feedback I get back from students - feedback in the results they get as well as the way they choose to frame their experience, and feedback in the patterns with which they maintain their relationship with me and my work over months and years.
If I were willing to be judged by someone else's stamp of approval, I would have stayed in the academic mainstream, where those stamps are offered according to predictable (if not always good) standards and processes. As far as I can tell, my desire to be judged by results instead of by authorities gives me much in common with the founders of NLP. NLP was not developed by followers seeking a credential - it was developed and practiced by the kind of people who want to be known by their results - not by a stamp of approval.
Today I had a conversation with a prospective client who was, understandably, confused about NLP credentials. It's hard for people to understand that NLP exists outside of governing bodies, peer review or structured, international consensus. If you set out to develop a set of practices that effect change, the only way to judge them is by whether or not they reliably promote the change they promise. There are no tests, no contests and no meaningful stamps of approval.
There are, of course, lots of efforts to create tests and contests and stamps of approval. People create official-looking stamps for various organizations or associations and encourage their members to disseminate them as if they were meaningful beyond the group they represent.
We quite often train people who followed all the rules and paid for training that follows guidelines. The problem is that too many of them are unable to demonstrate effectively any of the competencies of those credentials. They sometimes know about a variety of techniques. They are not good at getting the results that those techniques are supposed to get.
When I teach Business Communications courses to college students, I tell them that the way to judge a communication in business is by whether or not it gets the results they intend. Grammar, format and rhetorical strategies increase their odds of getting what they want. They are not the ends: they are some of the means to the end.
Credentials without competence are a lie. Credentials earned over a few days or weeks of study are unlikely to measure any significant skill sets. Skills are built by deliberate, attentive practice over time. We all know this. Whether or not we believe that it takes 5 years of full-time practice to master a skill, we believe that mastery of meaningful patterns of thinking will take more than a few days.
It seems to me that a basic presupposition of NLP is that the meaning of a pattern of behaviour is the result it gets. I judge the quality of the work I do as a trainer by the quality of the feedback I get back from students - feedback in the results they get as well as the way they choose to frame their experience, and feedback in the patterns with which they maintain their relationship with me and my work over months and years.
If I were willing to be judged by someone else's stamp of approval, I would have stayed in the academic mainstream, where those stamps are offered according to predictable (if not always good) standards and processes. As far as I can tell, my desire to be judged by results instead of by authorities gives me much in common with the founders of NLP. NLP was not developed by followers seeking a credential - it was developed and practiced by the kind of people who want to be known by their results - not by a stamp of approval.
5 Great Reasons to Practice NLP
It's not enough to read about NLP or even to take a course in it. NLP is a set of practices designed to get results - you have to practice to get the results!
- When practiced well, NLP builds results through focus and integrity. You don't have to sell your soul to do what you want to do.
- NLP builds connections between human beings for the purposes of moving forward together.
- NLP is best practiced precisely when you need it most - it demands to be used on the fly in the thick of the moment.
- When practiced ethically, NLP makes you feel great by making the people around you feel great, too. Everyone wins.
- NLP explores the common ground between work and play. It drives results through a combination of relaxed focus and intense effort.
An e-book free for download
- Getting to Know Yourself Better
- What can you expect when you choose to get to know yourself better? This short ebook explores what it means to know yourself and offers fresh perspectives and practical ideas for getting the most out of your self-exploration.
Understanding Mind/Body Connections with NLP
NLP is a set of practices that allow people to make choices about how they learn and how they influence others. Within NLP, learning and influence are two sides of the same coin: when you are influenced, you learn. Learning takes place through the integration of three related kinds of experience: sensory experience (bringing information in); noticing and manipulating this experience (thinking); and using words to represent, extend or change experience.In other words, in order to change yourself or someone else, you need to consider how people represent their experience of the world through their bodies and their words. Human beings "think" with their senses and physiology, with their neurology, and with language. NLP practices integrate all three elements of thought.
Emotions become 'feelings' when they are represented in the body as sensation and response. You know what emotion you are feeling by the physical sensations you experience while you are feeling it. Emotions are part of state. State is the sum total of our experience of the world at a given moment in time. It includes thinking, feeling, breathing, and using language. Our ability to act (performance) is supported by our state, which is supported by our physiology, which is supported by our breathing.
All NLP practices follow from these core principles. These core principles are increasingly the basic paradigm of human experience as it is considered by neuroscience, education, philosophy, and psychology. There have been times in the past when it was radical to include physiology and emotion as elements of thought. Current models and current research across disciplines now supports the complex and integrated nature of human thought.
When NLP practices involve a distinction between conscious attention and unconscious processes, they also have the support of a huge body of research in cognition, neuroscience and psychology which is working towards models of the role of conscious attention within the complex process that constitute the human self.
Great information on applying NLP
Short articles for reading and republishing on the web.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byLinks to my other websites
The sites listed below all offer free resources on nlp, integrated thinking, coaching, training and influence.
- NLP Canada Training Inc.
- This is my company website. Check out the resources page for one-page articles to read online or download. All articles are presented with the understanding that you can copy or share them as long as you attribute them to the author and do not sell them.
- The Evolution of NLP
- This is a whitepaper I have prepared that outlines some of the presuppositions, practices and challenges of NLP, New Code NLP and Integrated Thinking.
- 5 Reasons to Think about Thinking
- This is a lens for people who like to think and to explore how thinking makes a difference. In many ways, it answers the question: What do you learn when you learn NLP?
- ntgr8
- This is my blog, updated several times each week. It offers different ways to think about goals, rapport, communication, language, learning, coaching, managing, selling and whatever is in my attention at the time I write.
What are NLP Practitioners and who issues certificates?
Read this before registering for any program in NLP
- NLP Practitioners are people who practice NLP. They may practice NLP to influence other people or they may practice NLP to model high performers or to create and maintain their own high performance states. Often, NLP Practitioners have taken a programme of study that "certifies" them as a practitioner of NLP. They may also be "certified" as a master practitioner or trainer.
- Certificates are issued when people successfully complete a program at an organization that teaches NLP. They are issued by the organization. Each certificate reflects a particular organization's presentation of NLP. There is no governing body nationally or internationally. There are no universal standards for certification.
- Am I qualified to practice NLP? Yes. Everyone practices NLP: some people do it consciously and some people do it automatically. NLP is a set of games, exercises, and information designed to replicate the way human beings think, communicate and perform when they are at their best. Everyone is also able to use NLP techniques and games to help other people think, communicate and perform differently or more reliably.
- In Ontario, Canada (where I live and work), NLP can be used by qualified psychotherapists but NLP does not qualify you to be a psychotherapist.In Ontario, the term "therapist" can only be used by designated professionals, and only qualified therapists can provide "therapy" as defined by the law. NLP can be (and is!) used to provide coaching, counselling, training, and support in a wide variety of contexts.
- Certification programs in NLP vary enormously in content, length, and quality. Some are "franchise" style programs that replicate a program developed by a successful trainer (it's easy to spot programs derived from Tad James; many programs bear a stamp of approval from Richard Bandler; Robert Dilts also has a particular school of training). These programs are not necessarily better or worse than independent programs. You will need to do research to find a reputable program that meets your own interests and needs.
- Many individuals and companies have come together in associations that have tried to become regulated, governing bodies. Generally, these are best understood as advocacy or marketing associations. They are not governing bodies. They sometimes provide helpful guides to core skills or competencies for NLP practitioners at several levels. It's a good idea to go through these lists and ask about them when you are investigating training companies.
- You may find statements about the minimum number of classroom hours necessary to be trained as an NLP Practitioner. These are almost exclusively based on two misunderstandings.
The first is that Classic Code is the only NLP (or the only true NLP). New Code NLP offers the potential for more elegant training in the processes by working differently with unconscious competence, and New Code courses may (potentially - with the right instructors) offer more competence in fewer hours. The second misunderstanding is that hours in the classroom are a standard for competence. Practice does not make perfect. Attentive practice makes perfect. Results are the only way to judge competence.
Choosing Your Training
There are many, many people out there who are training some form of NLP. To get good training, you need to meet the trainers, meet people they have trained, and explore where their training fits into the spectrum of training and applications offered.
- One Guide to Choosing Your Training
- Every guide has blindspots. There is no reference in this guide to New Code NLP, and most of the "reputable" associations listed do not include the thinking and training of John Grinder.
New Code NLP is an evolution that effectively teaches principles. It takes fewer classroom hours for more learning because graduates can easily derive and practice specific techniques on their own time.
Good places to buy books
When you click through to Amazon and purchase a book from this page, a portion of the price goes to roomtoread.org (through the Squidoo charities program). But I also buy my books from the booksellers listed below. And I encourage everyone to drop into their local independent bookseller and buy a book from someone who truly loves books.
- Chapters/Indigo
- A Canadian online bookseller
- ABE
- A large international network of independent booksellers. Find used and out-of-print books at good prices.
- Alibris
- Another great international network of booksellers where you will find good prices on out-of-print and used books.
- Cavershams
- Located near the University of Toronto campus, Cavershams says it is North America's largest mental health bookstore. A huge online selection of books on nlp, hypnosis and related topics.
Some reading for beginners
Safe places to start with NLP
Introductions to NLP and to influence through storytelling (called metaphors in NLP & Ericksonian hypnosis)
The Elements of Nlp (The "Elements of..." Series)
Amazon Price: (as of 07/04/2009) 
Develop Your NLP Skills (3rd edition)
Amazon Price: $12.21 (as of 07/04/2009)
An Introduction to NLP: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People
Amazon Price: (as of 07/04/2009)
My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 07/04/2009)
Tales for Coaching: Using Stories and Metaphors With Individuals & Small Groups (Creating success)
Amazon Price: $29.95 (as of 07/04/2009)
Websites for Thinking with More of Your Brain
Not NLP - just based on the same principles as NLP
Use these links to explore current science, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and business thinkers that share some of the presuppositions of NLP about how the human mind gets tangible results.
- Malcolm Gladwell: blink
- Malcolm Gladwell wrote blink to explore the evolutionary advantages of making snap judgments and the conditions under which 2 second judgments are reliable. In NLP, we call these judgments "calibrations."
- Paul Ekman
- This is the homepage of the world's foremost expert on facial expression. Find out how well-equipped you are to read other people's facial and vocal expression accurately, and to notice when they change, are hidden, or differ from someone's words.
- Steven Johnson
- I'm a big fan of Steven Johnson's books - they are clear, accessible and entertaining. When you understand that human beings are emergent systems (complex systems with characteristics that are more than the sum of their parts) you will understand the overlap between the work he describes and the practices of NLP.
- Changing the Brain
- This is a one page introduction to a terrific book that ties the biology of the brain to actual teaching strategies. The parent site has lots of interesting perspectives on teaching and influence - check out the accelerated learning article for more overlap with NLP practice.
- Stumbling on Happiness: Daniel Gilbert | Blog
- Read this blog by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilber to explore how we make the choices that make us happy (or not).
- Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg - Home
- The Wisdom Paradox offers an original perspective on the way the brain handles patterns and the way a rich, attentive mental life builds our resilience.
Talking about NLP
You've just finished a course in NLP. What will you tell people you have been doing?
Focusing on what I want so I can get moving
NLP is a set of practices that focus on getting re more...1 point
Getting better at acquiring tacit knowledge
As the knowledge-based economy grows, it is increa more...1 point
Learning to access high performance states
NLP allows people to use their minds and bodies to more...1 point
Picking up some new communication tools
NLP works from the belief that we get what we want more...0 points
Reading minds and predicting the future
Want to keep what you've learned to yourself? No o more...0 points
ntgr8
a blog that applies NLP
Fetching RSS feed... please stand bySurf selectively
Only recommended sites presented here.
NLP sites are not all created equal. These sites provide context and offer information free of fanaticism (for or against). In alignment with NLP's focus on models of excellence, I am not aiming for balance, but for an emphasis on what works.
Educated surfers will be able to evaluate other sites better after visiting these.
Educated surfers will be able to evaluate other sites better after visiting these.
- Lee Lady's NLP Archive
- Useful for tracing origins and noticing what worked, what lasted, and what has evolved. Not a good starting point, but presented here because it's somewhat less well-known than other legends of the origins.
- Honest Abe's NLP Emporium
- Thorough, interesting and unbiased (or at least, Andy puts any biases up front!). Lots of useful book reviews.
- Robert Dilts site
- Cluttered with the jargon that makes skeptics wince, but the NLP Encyclopedia is useful and an enormous project to have contributed to the development of the field.
- Inspiritive
- Beautiful, clean site filled with resources. One of the few sites to present John Grinder at his most cogent, persuasive and effective.
- NLP Research and Recognition Project
- Still very new, but an effort to bring NLP into the mainstream by conducting rigorous, peer-reviewed research on NLP in education, therapy and health care.
- NLP Connections
- A new forum run by Chris Morris. Wide variety of users but worth a look.
Ericksonian hypnosis and NLP
Neuro-linguistic programming was developed when linguist John Grinder and mathematician Richard Bandler worked together to identify common elements in the way that three brilliant therapists influenced change in their clients. Those therapists were Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson. Of the three, Erickson had the most profound effect on the development of NLP practices to build rapport, model experience, and integrate conscious and unconscious processes in order to achieve change.
Erickson had no models: he invented Ericksonian hypnosis. Through intense, precise observation, he learned to read the experiences of people as they were written in their faces and bodies. He used this reading to develop rapport: a nonverbal connection that allowed him to speak directly to the unconscious minds of his clients.
Erickson believed that trance was a natural phenomena, that the human unconscious was immensely resourceful, and that the natural language of the unconscious was metaphor. He used stories of transformation to teach his clients to produce positive change in their lifes., and he used trance to avoid the distortions and gatekeeping of conscious process. Working directly with the unconscious mind remains the most effective way to induce therapeutic change.
In many situations, however, it is useful to be able to consciously direct change in our own lives. Bandler and Grinder set to work to isolate the patterns of communication that made Erickson effective. Initially, their work focused on the relationship between sensory perception and experience. This work produced Classic Code NLP: practices for altering perception in ways that would change behaviour and produce desired outcomes. At the time, classic code exercises proved effective in training the attention to notice and respond to a wider variety of cues about how thoughts were stored and patterns created.
Classic code practices were cumbersome and manipulative and required a high level of skill and attention on the part of the practitioner if they were to have lasting impact. They did not represent the rich experience and capability of the unconscious mind. Working with an expanded model (choice points rather than problem solving) and with a reliance on the body as metaphor (physiology impacts experience), Grinder and others developed New Code NLP.
New Code NLP practices provide extremely resilient processes for change. They depend less on the practitioner and more on the unconsciou
Erickson had no models: he invented Ericksonian hypnosis. Through intense, precise observation, he learned to read the experiences of people as they were written in their faces and bodies. He used this reading to develop rapport: a nonverbal connection that allowed him to speak directly to the unconscious minds of his clients.
Erickson believed that trance was a natural phenomena, that the human unconscious was immensely resourceful, and that the natural language of the unconscious was metaphor. He used stories of transformation to teach his clients to produce positive change in their lifes., and he used trance to avoid the distortions and gatekeeping of conscious process. Working directly with the unconscious mind remains the most effective way to induce therapeutic change.
In many situations, however, it is useful to be able to consciously direct change in our own lives. Bandler and Grinder set to work to isolate the patterns of communication that made Erickson effective. Initially, their work focused on the relationship between sensory perception and experience. This work produced Classic Code NLP: practices for altering perception in ways that would change behaviour and produce desired outcomes. At the time, classic code exercises proved effective in training the attention to notice and respond to a wider variety of cues about how thoughts were stored and patterns created.
Classic code practices were cumbersome and manipulative and required a high level of skill and attention on the part of the practitioner if they were to have lasting impact. They did not represent the rich experience and capability of the unconscious mind. Working with an expanded model (choice points rather than problem solving) and with a reliance on the body as metaphor (physiology impacts experience), Grinder and others developed New Code NLP.
New Code NLP practices provide extremely resilient processes for change. They depend less on the practitioner and more on the unconsciou
Books on Ericksonian Hypnosis
Want to know more about Milton Erickson? Start here.
The origins of NLP
These are some of the core books for NLP practices. They are not a good place to begin and have caused much of the skepticism. The experience they present as books is often like swimming through molasses. This does not mean that the practices they teach are not useful (think of other textbooks even in well-established fields).
Turtles All the Way Down: Prerequisites to Personal Genius
The basis of "New Code" NLP - it's a seminar transcript.
Amazon Price: $21.55 (as of 07/04/2009)
Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming
This is the book that started it all - a seminar transcript.
Amazon Price: (as of 07/04/2009)
The Structure of Magic Volumes 1 & 2 (A Book About Language & Therapy / A Book about Communication & Change, 1 & 2)
Amazon Price: (as of 07/04/2009)
Reframing: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Transformation of Meaning
Amazon Price: (as of 07/04/2009)
Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Volume I (The Study of the Structure of Subjective Experience)
Amazon Price: $22.36 (as of 07/04/2009)
7 Reasons to Explore Something New
NLP is often accused of being "flaky" and "unproven." So what? Everything that is now accepted 'wisdom' began at the edges and worked its way to the centre. Everything at the centre is true only until someone proves otherwise.
Here's 7 reasons to explore a new way of thinking.
Here's 7 reasons to explore a new way of thinking.
- Depending on context, experts can be wrong as often as they are right. That's why there are no sure bets at the racetrack, or in the lab, or on the stockmarket.
- Experts in every field are right until someone generates a better explanation. Science is always changing - so are best practices.
- You have great instincts - when you listen to them. Read and listen widely with your instincts turned up to full volume.
- The way you disagree with something can teach you more about what works than a thousand conventional explanations that generate flabby agreement.
- Although we think in many dimensions, we move through time and space in relatively limited ways. You know you will be able to get back to where you started if that's what you decide you want.
- If you always think what you've always thought, you'll always get what you've always got. [poetic licence]
- Think of the people whose achievements you admire most. Chances are, they did things other people thought were flaky and impractical. Chances are that's how they ended up with those achievements.
Visit an NLP Canada Training Event
mostly in Toronto and occasionally on the road
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by Linda_F
I love to teach people to be wide awake to what they are thinking and communicating. Life is too short to live on auto pilot: we all need to practice... (more)
