Worth a Thousand Words

In case you've never actually seen it in real life, this is a picture of me thinking.

In fact this picture was taken when I was preparing to do a presentation for my colleagues. We were given approximately 30 minutes to create a 30 minute presentation.

For those NLP monkeys in the room, you might notice where the eye are...






This next one was taken a few minutes later. Judy came around to see how each of us was doing to make sure we had a good idea of the subject material and were ready to present.


The presentation itself wasn't difficult - I think we all knew the materials quite well. The challenge was organizing our thoughts to present within the framework of NLPU which in my case is somewhat different than I've been working. That's not to say it was impossible or even a stretch, it is to say however that 30 minutes made the event interesting...





And below you can see myself, Ade (from Nigeria) in the middle and Robert (from Oregon) on the left. Robert reminded me of Anton in a few ways: he could quote Heinlein, was a "recovering" lawyer, and wanted to put a bumper sticker on his car which said, "I found it!!" to reflect his feelings about what NLP did for him.






Now that we're all back home, each of us has been exchanging e-mails planning for the next phase of our affiliation. Not only did we begin the process of affiliation with NLPU, but on a different but related level, we have begun walking the path of affiliating with each other.


All 17 of us are committed to working together to bring our individual and collective vision and mission to each of the countries that we represent....therefore don't be surprised to find some exotic guest trainers coming to NLP Centres Canada sometime soon...

Reset Your Brain Lately?

So I just checked the statistics. Since I posted the message on August 8th (about 3 weeks ago), brains have been reset in all over the world.

We have had visitors from Canada, USA, Phillipines, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Brunei and many others.

If you haven't tried it out, you owe it to yourself (and when you're in a bad state, everyone around you)!

www.resetyourbrain.com

Enjoy!

Santa Cruz Blues

Whew. I'm back.

(Unfortunately my luggage spent an extra couple of days in Baltimore, with my NLPU manuals inside no less, but Air Canada seems to have found them!)

In my last entry I gave a description of the campus of NLPU - a scenic take on the place. Now I want to describe the atmosphere of the actual training.

The purpose of the course was to create an affiliation between NLP Centres CANADA and NLPU (Robert Dilts and Judy Delozier). There were 16 others representing approximately 12 countries sitting around the classroom. Each of us was an NLP Trainer who owned our own training company in our home country.

On the first day, Robert mentioned something that surprised me with its simple truth: sometimes NLP is a bit of a lonely world. When I thought about his comment, it rang true to me: in order to have a deep dialogue on NLP, I either have to speak to someone I trained, or speak to someone who is my competition. The online NLP message boards tend to be (ridiculously) food fights about whether Bandler can take Grinder in an arm wrestle...

So the class was fantastic in at least one way: I made some friends I could make NLP jokes with, like when we were given 30 minutes to prepare a 30 minute presentation for our peers (and Robert and Judy), and I looked at my new pal Klaus in the eye and said, "Klaus, I believe in you. I know you won't **SCREW UP**" (the * representing an anchor)

It was lots of fun.

So the good news is we're moving ahead with training NLPU materials in the coming months. I'm hard at work redoing all our materials, and building the new NLPU training courses at the same time.


I'll post some pictures in the next few days...

NLPworks at NLPU

Just about to begin day 2 of the NLPU affiliate program here at NLP University in Santa Cruz.

NLP Centres CANADA is becoming an affiliate of NLPU (that's some big news) and I'm here to complete the training course and to discuss with Robert Dilts and Judith Delozier how this process will work going forward.

But before I tell you about that, let me tell you about this place, the birthplace of NLP.

UCSC is a college on 1000 acres of land on a mountain overlooking Santa Cruz. From my dorm room (8ft x 10ft for those who are envisioning luxury) I can see a haze about 3kms away which is the Pacific ocean. Yesterday morning when I woke up, looking outside my window I saw 4 tame deer grazing about 25ft from the building I'm in.

Every morning begins coolish with the temps around 14C. The haze is burned off as the morning progresses and we end up with some sun by lunchtime.

Adjacent to the classroom the 17 of us are in (representing about 12 countries) is a stand of ancient and huge redwood trees that tower in the background.

In the classroom, we are getting ready to be affiliates of what I consider to be the Harvard of the NLP world, if Harvard represents both excellence in materials, professors, and ethics. Those of you who know me well know that I consider the less-than-ethical side of NLP as a serious detriment to a technology that has produced significant (sometimes miraculous) change in people's lives.

That's why I'm here. Robert and Judy represent, in my opinion, the best of NLP Training.

I'm very happy and proud to be able to present their Practitioner and Master Practitioner courses and materials starting Fall 2006. (For those who are considering the course, upon completion you will receive a certificate signed by me, and another one signed by Robert Dilts)

NLP Centres CANADA will also be licensed to sell the CD Materials that accompany the Practitioner and Master Practitioner training which represent the NLPU Distance Learning Program.


Must run off to class. It's more of a challenge communicating back home with clients and Jennifer (and Jack) than I thought only being 3 hours disjointed from Eastern Time zone, but I'll continue to update as I go.

Reset Your Brain...online

When I began working in computers back in the 1980s, it became necessary from time to time to save everything and reboot the computer. It seemed that the RAM memory would get all cluttered and needed to be cleaned up occasionally.

Fast forward 20ish years and guess what? The little button on the front of your desktop computer is like a bailout switch. If all else fails (and your data has been saved) pressing it will clear out the RAM memory (64k in 1984, 512MB in 2006) and restart the computer reestablishing all the operating parameters but without all the clutter creep that made the computer so slow you had to reboot it.

Hmmm...does that remind you of something? Have there been times in your life when you needed a quick refreshing brain reset? Lots of people do some pretty weird things to achieve the same result. Some work out for a reset. Others take a walk. Some have chocolate (!) or other stimulants, others may have a drink, (or other depressants) but most people just suffer and stay stuck.

Stuck? I'll define stuck as thinking of problems instead of solutions, stuck seeing trees instead of forest, stuck when the brain grinds down and cries "uncle!"

Here's the good news: there is a little NLP process I've renamed Reset Your Brain that I teach in my course. It's a nice quick 5 minute activity that will literally reset your brain. I guarantee that if you have a specific brainlocking problem and do this process faithfully, the problem will at worst fade into insifignance, at best get solved.

On-the-spot. Just-like-that.

Good news is you don't have to take the course to get the reset! A couple of years ago I created an online version of the process. You can find it by clicking the link below.

http://www.resetyourbrain.com

A few seconds after inputting your name and e-mail address, you'll receive instructions on how to do the process and a link to access it.

I've posted it up online as an experiment. I'd appreciate if you could try it out and send me feedback on how it worked for you. (and if you found the instructions a bit clunky, let me know that as well).

Seriously - try it out. You'll be amazed by the results.

The Drug of Measurability

Jennifer and I had brunch with an old friend this past Sunday morning at the Drake Hotel.

The friend is a therapist in Montreal who, while maintaining a private clinical practice also does significant corporate work. In 3 hours the conversation ranged from NLP to EFT and all things psychological, to the PostSecret project to his almost getting punched out by Billy, a longshoreman in Cleveland while on a Labour Relations gig a couple of years back.

One story he told stuck in my head: He explained that his patients often told him their deepest fears and embarrassing things: the fact they can’t perform with their wives, female patients telling about adventures with their lovers (doing things they can’t do with their husbands), etc. One day a patient had bought a house and since the price had come up in the conversation; my friend asked how much he had paid.

The patient said, “But I can’t tell you that!!”

My friend thought it was weird that people could talk about sexual dysfunction and adventures, insecurities, weakness, fears, neuroses, and all sorts of other things with no-one except him, but that one time he asked an innocent question about money – the doors slammed shut.

I have a theory. (quelle surprise!)

Money is measurable. People are not.

The second something about us becomes measurable, we fear our selves are at risk of becoming secondary to the measure.

The second we know how specifically, how much, how many, how long, how far, how big, how small, how LOUD! How expensive, how cheap, how spicy, how bland, how adventurous, how booo-ring anyone is, they are sliced, diced and hung out to dry. We no longer have a human with character, interests, love, life, hunger, thirst. We have a number and we stop reacting to the person and instead interact with the number (as if the number were an surrogate).

I believe that at a deep level, my friend’s patient became uncomfortable because although he had told secrets and fears, the potential full exposure of being measurable was unacceptable. It’s a short hop from being measurable to being know-able and then it’s only a tiny side-slip to judge-able.

Think about it – if someone asked you a question that you are uncomfortable answering, is it because you would be at risk of being measured? Judged?


I believe that to greater and lesser degrees the world of business is stoned on the drug of measurability. I know and respect businesspeople, entrepreneurs, accountants (okay maybe one) and MBAs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: use experts in business systems to solve business problems, and people experts to solve people problems. Those soft soft (not very measurable) skills make or break companies.


Quick story: A former student had a great employee who did fantastic work for him. Energized and diligent. A few months later he was doing terrible work. Sloppy and late. Boss did all the usual tried and true stuff to no avail. He thought through the problem and he realized he had to being recruiting a replacement. This would cost what -$20k? $40k? Money.

He then sat down and just talked to the employee. Found out the problem was a relationship issue. He took 15 minutes and coached the employee with an NLP process he had learned in my course.

You know the rest – the employee is right back doing excellent work again. I wasn't surprised to hear it, but glad as always to know that my students take the stuff they learn and apply it in their lives.

How much money did that save him? He wouldn't say, but he did say this: “Taking your course was the best #$9##ng thing I ever did for my business.”

See – not measurable, but impressive!

:-)

Learn From the Source

NLP Centres CANADA has been in existence since 1981. It was (in one way or another) one of the very first NLP Training centres in Canada (if not THE first) and has trained thousands of people over the years.

I was speaking with a friend yesterday. We were talking about the competitive landscape of the world of NLP in Canada. I mentioned a few training centres and that the principles had all been trained originally by us.

My friend is a marketing genius – he made the point (duh) that I should make this point a little more strongly in our marketing.

In my defense, I did but it’s subtle. If you go to www.nlpworks.com, you will see that the slogan on the top of every page is “Learn From the Source”. The origin of this slogan is, obviously, that if you are looking around for training in Canada, chances are you are choosing between us or someone we trained.  J

 

There are a few changes brewing at NLP Centres CANADA. Those of you on my special list have had a hint of what it is. Rest assured – by the time August is over, the news will be very public. Like all good things in NLP, we are not taking choice away…but will be adding more choices.

‘nuff said.

 

Should you ever have any questions about NLP, suggestions for blog entries or just wish to chat please feel free to contact me at hugh@nlpworks.com

 

 

 

Have You Ever Been Misunderstood?

If you’ve ever tried unsuccessfully to communicate with someone because they were too dumb, or not paying enough attention, or too distracted or whatever, repeat the following 10 times: (this NLP presupposition is my favourite)

The meaning of communication is the response you get.

Here in Canada and everywhere else, communication is always determined by the receiver not the sender.

Imagine how things would go if you had this idea in the front of your brain when you were communicating. Instead of people not getting what you were saying, creating frustration, anger, despair or worse, their lack of understanding would spur flexibility and creativity.

Hmm…that wouldn’t suck would it?

 

This coming week, when you are communicating, notice how your information comes across. If you don’t get the response you were looking for (Oh honey you look just fine in that lime pantsuit!!!), adjust your communication. When you drive from Toronto to Montreal, if you find yourself in Ottawa, you find a way to get to Montreal don’t you?

Same here – when you adjust your communication to accomplish your goals, you find that communication is a process.

In communication, the goal (message) stays fixed but the process (method and medium) must be flexible.

Have You Ever Been Misunderstood?

If you’ve ever tried unsuccessfully to communicate with someone because they were too dumb, or not paying enough attention, or too distracted or whatever, repeat the following 10 times: (this NLP presupposition is my favourite)

The meaning of communication is the response you get.

Here in Canada and everywhere else, communication is always determined by the receiver not the sender.

Imagine how things would go if you had this idea in the front of your brain when you were communicating. Instead of people not getting what you were saying, creating frustration, anger, despair or worse, their lack of understanding would spur flexibility and creativity.

Hmm…that wouldn’t suck would it?

 

This coming week, when you are communicating, notice how your information comes across. If you don’t get the response you were looking for (Oh honey you look just fine in that lime pantsuit!!!), adjust your communication. When you drive from Toronto to Montreal, if you find yourself in Ottawa, you find a way to get to Montreal don’t you?

Same here – when you adjust your communication to accomplish your goals, you find that communication is a process.

In communication, the goal (message) stays fixed but the process (method and medium) must be flexible.