NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming, Training, Train the Trainer, tips, techniques

All about NLP

2013-06-27T22:31:00.003-07:00

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP):

NLP is a simple, skillful method for studying what is going inside a person. It is a very practical technology based on an ability to produce your desired results, thus allowing you to become proficient at creating your future.

With NLP You Learn To:

Change, adopt or eliminate behaviors, as you desire, providing you the ability to choose your mental, emotional, and physical states of well-being.

Have consistent personal happiness and professional success

Enhance ability to empower yourself for optimum results.

Eliminate any negative emotions or limiting decisions, identify and change limiting beliefs, inspire yourself with a compelling future that will have much better chances of coming true.

Create patterns of excellence.

NLP helps you Learn:

Correcting Perception
Aligning Goals
Powerful Persuasion
Consistency and Focus
Lifting Team spirit
Modeling Excellence
Emotional Freedom
Keeping High Esteem
Being Whole & Complete

Set of SKILLS that You Learn in NLP:

Analyzing Perceptions
Language of Brain
Setting Anchors
Creating Field of Commitment
Breaking Mental Patterns
Dissolving Past blocks
Non-verbal cues
Linguistic Models
Meta Programs
New Behavior Generator
Mental Maps
Swish Pattern
Stacking Resources
Outcome Conditions
Utilizing Strategies
Modeling Framework
Tracking Time lines

NLP Benefits:

Whether you're already succeeding in your profession, having some difficulties, or if you're transitioning into a new position, NLP can help you achieve, maintain and enhance excellence. Managers and Entrepreneurs use the information to develop strong teamwork and relationships, and to foster positive interpersonal skills. Salespeople learn to build deep levels of rapport, elicit and fulfill the criteria and values of clients, and develop effective methods for handling buyer's objections so the sales relationship is long-term and mutually satisfying. Trainers and Educators learn new paradigms for inspiring and engaging students, as well as effective techniques for dealing with challenging learning environments. . Mental Health Professionals learn new skills and techniques that supplement their repertoire, and gain additional insights into helping clients make the changes that support their own process of healing. Medical Professionals learn techniques to better elicit information from clients, and to help the client be more comfortable with and receptive to treatment, thus supporting them to heal in a more responsive fashion.

NLP - A tool for Manager

2010-10-10T19:55:00.001-07:00

Arthur C. Clarke, “Any sufficient advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic “. NLP school of thought was started by a computer engineer Richard Bandler and a psychologist Dr. John Grindler with the concept that every perception can be programmed. As explained by Tom Butler-Bowdon in 50 Best Self Help classic, if “People work perfectly, program thoughts, action and feeling, they get a new life.” For e.g.: A TV have a picture tube inside it. The soap operas that we view on TV are not because of the picture tube. The tube shows every details as it is received from the broadcasting station and the satelite through the transmitting waves. It stands same with our brain, here our brain is the picture tube and it shows us every incident as it received or recorded. NLP facilitates the programming of the brain so that no matter whatever message it records and we chose our responses and remain poised.

It focuses on how mind works on the possibility to find a solution. It is referred as ‘Personal congruence ‘ which can align desires and values to capability. As mentioned by Dr. Fathi El Nadi, “The people who are most effective are the ones who have a map of the world that allows them to perceive the greatest number of available choices and perspectives. NLP is a way of enriching the choices that you have and perceive as available in the world around you. Excellence comes from having many choices. Wisdom comes from having multiple perspectives.”. He defined NLP in two parts. Firstly, the Map is not the territory. As human beings, we can never know reality. We can only know our perceptions of reality. Secondly, Life and ‘Mind’ are Systemic Processes. The processes that take place within a human being and between human beings and their environment are systemic.

This is implemented to bring in a marked change through its implementation in managerial counselling. The Brown-bag, Speak to your HR and other forums including problem solving for the employee implements NLP. This is necessarily a tool used to connect an employee to the solution. This allows the employee to voice concern and find a solution from within. During the counselling program, the HR manager can ask questions about the concern raised by the employee seeking solution from the situation by choosing the response. This process takes an entire stock of events by probing. It helps the employee to introspect beyond the current limitations by removing the limiting factor assumed. It often finds a connection with a similar event that had happened earlier. Figure out how the solution was configured at that point of time and bring back the employee to the current situation and implement it. Other than counselling, NLP is used in profiling candidates during recruitment. Certain areas such as questing on the candidates motivation to do a task when assigned, thinking styles used by a candidate while discussing how to get a project done, relating to things, jobs, people or experiences , handling stress at work , concept of time used by the candidate and etc.

The employee needs to realise the objectiveness involved this process. Every bias to deduce the result needs to be erased. This process would stand defeated, if the employee feels that the HR is using a prejudice towards the reporting lead or any other party. This requires practising openness by the HR and acceptance by the employee. In a situation filled with dissonance, this stands the biggest barrier. The employee may end up with a feeling of being brainwashed. The HR needs to set a two way communication to ensure the results drawn from the NLP session implemented successfully. The trust building will stand as the process of prime importance in this scenario.

How does NLP anchoring works?

2010-01-09T04:41:00.000-08:00

How does NLP anchoring works?

Ever heard of Russian physiologist & psychologist Ivan Pavlov? He is most well known for his findings on human and animal conditioning. While doing a research on dogs’ digestion, he discovered this phenomenon. When it came to meal time, Pavlov would use bells to call his dogs to the food. After repeating this numerous times, he found that even without any food, the dogs would salivate from hearing the sound of the bell.
By doing so, Pavlov associated the ringing sound of the bell to food. And the numerous repetitions have conditioned the dogs to respond to the ringing bell just like how they respond to food.
This is how NLP anchoring works. By conditioning responses to unique NLP anchors, we are able to deliberately get into specific states just by triggering the unique NLP anchor. Just like Pavlov’s dogs.
So NLP anchors are really a stimulus for us to get into whatever states we want. Similarly as Pavlov uses the ringing bell sound to act as a stimulus, with NLP anchoring, we can set certain anchors to act as the stimulus to certain states. And after many repetitions, the association between the NLP anchor and the state will be conditioned.
How to set NLP anchors?
The premise of setting NLP anchors is basically the same as Pavlov and his dogs. You set an NLP anchor by associating a unique trigger to a certain state. When in that state, trigger a unique anchor to associate the anchor and the state together.
After repeating that process numerous times, that state will be conditioned to the anchor. Subsequently when you trigger that anchor later on, it will bring you to that state.
Here’s an example. When you are in happy state, anchor that feeling to a unique trigger, let’s say a light pinch on the palm of your left hand. Repeat that process numerous times. Once it is conditioned, each time you pinch your left palm you will be in a state of happiness.
The steps below are the way to set NLP anchors. Let’s say you want to set an anchor for happiness.

1. Get yourself into a happy state. Think of a past experiences when you were happy. Construct happy thoughts and images. Visualize yourself and your loved ones smiling, laughing etc.

2. At the peak of your state, at the most intense feeling happiness, fire off a unique anchor. Let’s say to pinch your left palm. Fire off the anchor a few more times (means pinching your palm a few more times) as long as you are still in that peak state.

3. Change to a neutral state. Break your state by standing up, moving around, shaking yourself out of it. Then repeat the process again. After numerous repetitions, the state will be anchored into you.

A fairly simple process although getting into the desired state in the first place may prove to be a problem for some people. The best way to get into the desired state would be to remember and re-live the memory of past experiences when you were in that state. When there isn’t any relevant past experiences, constructing images or sounds of situations with that experience may help.

Another NLP method may help to get you into a desired state as well. NLP submodalities involves mapping the blueprint of feelings & states, so that whenever you run the blueprint, it will get you into that state.

Your anchors can be a touch at a specific area, a pinch, pressure (pushing in), saying a word or making a sound, looking at a certain image, listening to a sound, a certain music, song, ring a bell etc. It can be anything that our sensory cells can pick up.
However a point to note is that anchors that are made of any type of physical touch is usually a stronger compared against the sounds or visual triggers because biologically a physical touch or pressure has a stronger sensory impact on the body.
The effectiveness of an NLP anchor that you set depends on the following ;
• The intensity of the state – the stronger the intensity the better. Likewise if you set the anchor in a low intensity state, the effect will weak.
• Timing of the anchor – The timing of triggering the anchor is just as important. To be most effective, only trigger the anchor at the peak moment of the state. At it’s most intense moment.
• Uniqueness of the anchor – Make sure your anchor is unique. Something that you don’t normally do, see or hear everyday. For example actions like scratching, snapping your fingers or clapping hands are pretty common and we do it quite often. Use something really unique which isn’t part of your daily routine or gestures.
• Number of repetitions – Naturally the more repetitions you make, the more conditioned the anchor becomes. So make sure you do enough repetitions to make it conditioned.

NLP Anchoring

2010-01-09T04:37:00.001-08:00

Learn NLP Anchoring Techniques

NLP anchoring is one of the most popular NLP techniques out there because of it’s power and immediate impact. With it you can choose to deliberately put yourself in any chosen state such as happiness, energetic, confident, cheerful, creative, calm etc in the blink of an eye.

The term NLP anchors came about by liking the impact of the technique to that of a ship’s anchor. What is the use of a ship anchor? It is to keep a ship in place when it is not sailing. This is to prevent the ocean waves from pushing the ship away. The anchor locks the ship in a specific location.

In the same way, NLP anchors does to us what a ship anchor does to a ship. It keeps us in a certain place (or rather a certain state for a more accurate depiction). By setting up NLP anchors to different states/mood, whenever we trigger that anchor we will immediately be brought to that state.

Self Confidence

2009-12-19T08:21:00.000-08:00

Self confidence is a mental habit. Once you start using it, your self confidence builds more self confidence.

Confidence: A feeling of assurance, especially of self-assurance.

Confidence, or the lack of it, is a huge factor in peoples lives. One of the most common questions people ask is how they can have more confidence. What they are really asking is how they can have confidence at times when they do not. They feel that they could achieve what they want at those times if they felt confident. Confidence is a resourceful state of mind, whereas feeling unconfident generally gets in the way of taking action and finding solutions.

Confident and unconfident are two sides of the same coin.

Like a coin, only one side at a time is evident. Whenever un-confidence is felt, it indicates that confidence is present. Ironically, when a person feels unconfident they are quite confident that they feel unconfident. There are plenty of things they are confident about, that have brought them to the conclusion that they are unconfident about something.

To Feel Self Confidence: Stop thinking about what you can't do. Focusing on what you are confident you can do, puts you into a confident and resourceful state of mind.

Confidence, self assurance, is perceived as a feeling. The confident feeling and accompanying behavioral response are the same no matter what it is in reference to. To feel and behave confidently, mentally make an inventory of what you are confident you can do. Now confidently make a list of things you are confident you want to be able to do. Focusing on what you are confident you can do, will assist you to begin confidently learning to do what you want to be able to do confidently. You can be confident of that!

NLP - neuro-linguistic programming - free training introduction, NLP principles and techniques guide

2009-03-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

NLP - neuro-linguistic programming - free training introduction, NLP principles and techniques guide

This free introduction to NLP is provided by Robert Smith MBA, a leading international practitioner in neuro-linguistic programming and NLP Master Trainer. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) was created in the early 1970s by Richard Bandler, a computer scientist and Gestalt therapist, and Dr John Grinder, a linguist and therapist. Bandler and Grinder invented a process known as 'modelling' that enabled them to study three of the world's greatest therapists: Dr Milton Erickson, father of modern hypnotherapy; Fritz Perls, creator of Gestalt therapy; and Virginia Satir, the mother of modern-day family therapy. They wanted to know what made these therapists effective and to train others in their methods. What is offered today as NLP is the product of this modelling process.

how does nlp optimise individual and organizational performance?

Neuro-Linguistic Programming is an extremely powerful concept. It is said by many to contain the most accessible, positive and useful aspects of modern psychology, and so can be helpful in virtually every aspect of personal and inter-personal relations. NLP has many beneficial uses for self-development, and for businesses and organizations; for example NLP enables better communications in customer service, and all types of selling. NLP enables better awareness and control of oneself, better appreciation of the other person's feelings and behavioural style, which in turn enables better empathy and cooperation. NLP improves understanding in all one-to-one communications, especially interviewing and appraisals (whether used by the interviewer or the interviewee). NLP certainly features strongly in facilitative selling. NLP is an enabling tool of Emotional Intelligence (EQ), which is an aspect of multiple intelligence theory. Neuro-Linguistic Programming can also be very helpful for stress management and developing self-belief and assertiveness and confidence. The empathic caring principles of NLP also assist the practical application of ethical and moral considerations (notably achieving detachment and objectivity), and using loving and compassionate ideas (simply, helping people) in work and life generally. These few examples illustrate the significance of NLP as a concept for personal and organizational development.

The experience of undergoing NLP training is a life-changing one for many people, and its techniques offer substantial advantages to people performing most roles in organizations:

Directors and executives
Managers at all levels
Sales people
Administrators
Engineering and technical staff
Customer care operatives
Receptionists
Secretarial staff
Trainers
HR and counselling staff

NLP techniques help particularly by making it possible for people to:

Set clear goals and define realistic strategies
Coach new and existing staff to help them gain greater satisfaction from their contribution
Understand and reduce stress and conflict
Improve new customer relationship-building and sales performance
Enhance the skills of customer care staff and reduce customer loss
Improve people's effectiveness, productivity and thereby profitability

nlp operational principles

NLP consists of a set of powerful techniques for rapid and effective behavioural modification, and an operational philosophy to guide their use. It is based on four operational principles, which below these headings are explained in more detail.

1. Know what outcome you want to achieve. (See nlp principle 1 - achieving outcomes.)

2. Have sufficient sensory acuity (acuity means clear understanding) to know if you are moving towards or away from your outcome (See nlp principle 2 - sensory awareness.)

3. Have sufficient flexibility of behaviour so that you can vary your behaviour until you get your outcome. (See nlp principle 3 - changing behaviour.)

4. Take action now. (See nlp principle 4 - time for action)

It is important to have specific outcomes. Many people do not have conscious outcomes and wander randomly through life. NLP stresses the importance of living with conscious purpose. In order to achieve outcomes it is necessary to act and speak in certain ways. NLP teaches a series of linguistic and behavioural patterns that have proved highly effective in enabling people to change the beliefs and behaviours of other people.

In using any of these patterns NLP stresses the importance of continuous calibration of the person or people you are interacting with in order to see if what you are doing is working. If it is not working it is important to do something different. The idea is to vary your behaviour until you get the results you want.

This variation in behaviour is not random. It involves the systematic application of NLP patterns. It is also important to take action, since nothing ever happens until someone takes the initiative. In short, NLP is about thinking, observing and doing to get what you want out of life.

nlp principle 1 - achieving outcomes

The importance of knowing your outcome cannot be stressed enough. Many people do not have conscious outcomes. Others have no idea what they want but know what they don't want. Their life is based on moving away from those things they don't want. NLP stresses the importance of moving towards those things you want. Without outcomes life becomes a process of wandering aimlessly. Once an outcome is determined you can begin to focus on achieving that outcome.

NLP lists certain well-formedness conditions that outcomes should meet. The first of these is that the outcome needs to be stated in positive terms. This means that the outcome must be what you want and not what you don't want to happen. Outcomes must be capable of being satisfied. It is both logically and practically impossible to give someone the negation of an experience. You can't engage in the process of 'not doing'. You can only engage in the process of doing.

The second well-formedness condition for outcomes is that the outcome must be testable and demonstrable in sensory experience. There must be an evidence procedure. Unless this is the case, there is no way to measure progress towards the achievement of the outcome. With an evidence procedure for the outcome it is possible to determine whether or not you are making progress towards achieving the outcome.

Third, the desired state must be sensory specific. You must be able to say what you would look like, sound like and feel like if you achieved the outcome.

Fourth, the outcome or desired state must be initiated and maintained by the subject. This places the locus (ie position) of control and responsibility for achieving the outcome with the subject and not with someone else. It is not a well-formed outcome when someone else does something or changes in some way. All you can do is have an outcome in which you can change yourself or your behaviour so as to bring about a change in someone else.

Fifth, the outcome must be appropriately and explicitly contextualised. This means that outcomes must not be stated as universals. You must never want either 'all the time' of 'never', but only under specific circumstances. In NLP we always strive to create more choice and never to take choice or reduce the number of possible responses. The goal instead is to make the choices or responses available in the appropriate circumstances.

Sixth, the desired outcome must preserve any positive product of the present state. If this is not the case then symptom substitution may occur.

Seventh and finally, the outcome or desired state must be ecologically sound. You should consider the consequences for yourself and for other people and not pursue outcomes that lead to harm to yourself or other people.

nlp principle 2 - sensory awareness

Once you know your outcome you must next have sufficient sensory acuity to know if you are moving towards it or not. NLP teaches the ability to calibrate or 'read' people. This involves the ability to interpret changes in muscle tone, skin colour and shininess, lower lip size and breathing rate and location. The NLP practitioner uses these and other indications to determine what effect they are having on other people. This information serves as feedback as to whether the other person is in the desired state. An important and often overlooked point is to know to stop when the other person is in the state that you desire.

nlp principle 3 - changing behaviour

The third operational principle of NLP is to vary your behaviour until you get the response you want.

If what you are doing isn't working, then you need to do something else. You should use your sensory acuity to determine if what you are doing is leading you in the desired direction of not. It what you are doing is leading towards your outcome, then you should continue. If, on the other hand, what you are doing is leading away from your goals, then you should do something else.

nlp principle 4 - time for action

The fourth and final operational principle of NLP is to take action now. There is no place for the slogan 'Complacency rules, and I don't care.' NLP is about taking action now to change behaviour for yourself and for others, now and in the future. So, to use another catchphrase: 'Don't delay; act today.'

nlp presuppositions

There are certain presuppositions underlying NLP. These are things that are presupposed in effective communication. Some of these are as follows. Below these headings each presupposition is explained in more detail.

1. The meaning of a communication is the response you get.

2. The map is not the territory.

3. Language is a secondary representation of experience.

4. Mind and body are parts of the same cybernetic system and affect each other.

5. The law of requisite variety (also known as the first law of cybernetics - cybernetics is the science of systems and controls in animals, including humans, and machines) states that in any cybernetic system the element or person in the system with the widest range of behaviours or variability of choice will control the system.

6. Behaviour is geared towards adaptation.

7. Present behaviour represents the very best choice available to a person.

8. Behaviour is to be evaluated and appreciated or changed as appropriate in the context presented.

9. People have all the resources they need to make the changes they want.

10. 'Possible in the world' or 'possible for me' is only a matter of how.

11. The highest quality information about other people is behavioural.

12. It is useful to make a distinction between behaviour and self.

13. There is no such thing as failure; there is only feedback.

nlp presupposition 1 - meaning equals response

In communication it is usually assumed that you are transferring information to another person. You have information that 'means' something to the other person and you intend for the other person to understand what it is you intend to communicate.

Frequently a person assumes that if they 'say what they mean to say', their responsibility for the communication is over. Effective communicators realise that their responsibility doesn't end when they finish talking. They realise that, for practical purposes, what they communicate is what the other person thinks they say and not what they intend to say. Often the two are quite different.

In communication it is important what the other person thinks you say and how they respond. This requires that the person pays attention to the response they are getting. If it is not the response they want, then they need to vary their own communication until they get the desired response.

There are several major sources of 'misunderstanding' in communication. The first arises from the fact that each person has a different life experience associated with each word in the language. Frequently, what one person means by a word (their complex equivalence for that word) may be something different from what another person means by it. The second misunderstanding arises from the failure to realise that a person's tone of voice and facial expression also communicate information, and that the other person may respond to these as much as they do to what is said. As the old saying goes: 'Actions speak louder than words,' and in NLP people are trained that when the two are in conflict, the person should pay more attention to the actions.

nlp presupposition 2 - map and territory

Good communicators realise that the representations they use to organise their experience of the world ('map') are not the world ('territory').

It is important to distinguish between several semantic levels. First there is the world. Second comes the person's experience of the world. This experience is the person's 'map' or 'model' of the world and is different for each person. Every individual creates a unique model of the world and thus lives in a somewhat different reality from everyone else. You do not operate directly on the world but on your experience of it. This experience may or may not be correct. To the extent that your experience has a similar structure to the world it is correct and this accounts for its usefulness.

A person's experience, map, model or representation of the world determines how they will perceive the world and what choices they will see as available to them. Many NLP techniques involve you changing your representation of the world to make it more useful and to bring it more into line with the way the world actually is.

nlp presupposition 3 - language and experience

Language is a secondary representation of experience.

Language is at a third semantic level. First is the stimulus coming from the word. Second is the person's representation of experience of that stimulus. Third is the person's description of that experience by way of language. Language is not experience but a representation of it. Words are merely arbitrary tokens used to represent things the person sees, hears or feels. People who speak other languages use different words to represent the same things that English speakers see, hear or feel. Also, since each person has a unique set of things that they have seen, heard and felt in their lives, their words have different meanings from each of them.

People are able to communicate effectively to the degree that these meanings are similar. When they are too dissimilar, problems in communication begin to arise.

nlp presupposition 4 - body and mind affect each other

Mind and body are parts of the same cybernetic system and affect each other. There is no separate 'mind' and no separate 'body'. Both words refer to aspects of the same 'whole' or 'gestalt', They act as one and they influence each other in such a way that there is no separation.

Anything that happens in one part of a cybernetic system, such as a human being, will affect all other parts of that system. This means that the way a person thinks affects how they feel and that the condition of their physical body affects how they think. A person's perceptual input, internal thought process, emotional process, physiological response and behavioural output all occur both simultaneously and through time.

In practical terms, this means that a person can change how they think either by directly changing how they think or by changing their physiology or other feelings. Likewise, a person can change their physiology or their emotions by changing how they think. One important corollary of this, which will be explored later, is the importance of visualisation and mental rehearsal in improving the conduct of any activity.

nlp presupposition 5 - widest range of behaviours or choices controls the system

Control in human systems refers to the ability to influence the quality of a person's own and other people's experience in the moment and through time.

The person with the greatest flexibility of behaviour - that is, the number of ways of interacting - will control the system. Choice is always preferable to no choice, and more choice is always preferable to less choice. This also relates to the third general principle of NLP, mentioned previously. This principle is that a person needs to vary their behaviour until they get their desired outcome. If what you are doing is not working, vary the behaviour and do something else. Anything else is better than continuing with what doesn't work. Keep varying your behaviour until you find something that works.

nlp presupposition 6 - behaviour and adaptation

Behaviour is geared towards adaptation. A person's behaviour is determined by the context in which that behaviour originates.

Your reality is defined by your perceptions of the world. The behaviour a person exhibits is appropriate to their reality. All of a person's behaviour, whether good or bad, is an adaptation. Everything is useful in some context. All behaviour is or was adaptive, given the context in which it was learned. In another context it may not be appropriate. People need to realise this and change their behaviour when it is appropriate to do so.

nlp presupposition 7 - present behaviour is the best choice

Behind every behaviour is a positive intent. A person makes the best choice available to them at any moment in time, given who the person is and based on all their life experiences and the choices they are aware of. If offered a better choice they will take it.

In order to change someone's inappropriate behaviour it is necessary to give them other choices. Once this is done they will behave accordingly. NLP has techniques for providing these additional choices. Also, in NLP we never take away choices. We only provide more choices and explicitly contextualise the existing choices.

nlp presupposition 8 - context of behaviour

You need to evaluate your behaviour in terms of what you are capable of becoming. You need to strive to become all that you are capable of being.

nlp presupposition 9 - resources to change

People have all they need to make changes they want to make. The task is to locate or access those resources and to make them available in the appropriate context. NLP provides techniques to accomplish this task.

What this means in practice is that people do not need to spend time trying to gain insight into their problems or in developing resources to deal with their problems. They already have all the resources they need to deal with their problems. All that is necessary is to access these resources and transfer them to the current time frame.

nlp presupposition 10 - the how of possibility

If any other human being is capable of performing some behaviour, then it is possible for you to perform it, too. The process of determining 'how' you do it is called 'modelling', and it is the process by which NLP came into being in the first place.

nlp presupposition 11 - behaviour speaks louder than words

Listen to what people say but pay more attention to what they do. If there is any contradiction between the two then rely on the behaviour. Look for behavioural evidence of change and don't just reply on people's words

nlp presupposition 12 - distinguish behaviour and self

It is useful to make a distinction between behaviour and self. In other words, just because someone 'screws up' on something it doesn't mean that they are a 'screw-up'. Behaviour is what a person says, does or feels at any moment in time. This is not a person's self, however. A person's self is greater than their behaviours.

nlp presupposition 13 - feedback, not failure

It is more valuable for a person to view their experience in terms of a learning frame than in terms of a failure frame. If a person doesn't succeed in something, that doesn't mean they have failed. It just means that they have discovered one way not to do that particular thing. The person then needs to vary their behaviour until they find a way to succeed.

nlp techniques and definitions

NLP consists of a set of powerful techniques to effect change. Some of these techniques are as follows, with their definitions:

anchoring

The process of associating an internal response with some external trigger so that the response may be quickly, and sometimes covertly, reaccessed by activating the trigger.

anchors

These may be naturally occurring or set up deliberately. They may be established in all representational systems and serve to control both positive and negative internal states.

stacking anchors

The process of associating a series of events with one specific anchor so as to strengthen the intensity of the subject's response to a specific anchor.

collapsing anchors

A process of neutralising negative states by triggering two incompatible responses at the same time.

chaining anchors

A process by which a series of anchors is created to lead from an undesired state through a series of intermediate states to a desired state.

associated state

Being fully present in a state so as to experience the kinesthetics of it. For past states this involves being in the experience looking from the perspective of the person's own eyes.

dissociated state

Recreating a past experience from the perspective of an onlooker or observer. This means the person does not re-experience the original emotion but instead experiences the emotions of an observer.

double kinesthetic dissociation

The process of watching yourself watching a film of a past experience. This is used in cases of phobias and extreme psychic trauma.

calibration

The process of reading a subject's internal responses in an ongoing interaction by pairing them with observable behavioural cues.

change history

A process of guiding a subject to re-experience a series of past situations by the use of selective anchoring. Resource states are developed for each situation and are installed in the subject's repertoire in order to change the significance of the past events.

rapport

The process of establishing a relationship with a subject that is characterised by harmony, understanding and mutual confidence. This is done by reducing to a minimum the perceived difference at the unconscious level.

reframing

A process used to separate a problematic behaviour from the positive intention to the internal part responsible for that behaviour. New choices of behaviour are established that maintain the positive intent but don't have the problematic by-products.

strategy

A set of explicit mental and behavioural steps used to achieve a specific outcome. This is represented by a specific sequence of representational systems used to carry out the specific steps.

submodalities

The subclassification of external experience. The decomposing into its components of a picture, sound or feeling.

This free NLP article is provided for this website by Robert Smith, and this is gratefully acknowledged. This material can be used freely for personal or organizational development purposes but is not to be sold or published in any form.

Robert Smith biography - Robert Smith MBA is a widely sought-after international consultant renowned for his enthusiastic motivational and forthright style. He is a Master Trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programming, specialising in leadership development and 'Solution Focused' consultancy. He has over 20 years experience developing leaders in a wide range of settings. Robert's early years of consultancy were mainly working for IBM in Europe, Middle East and Africa on their leadership development programmes. Robert has a remarkable skill set including being a psychotherapist (UKCP registered) and is able, by using the latest psychological methods, to help people remove limiting beliefs relating to achievement and success. Robert has worked with the Motorola MBA intake programme and trained the United Nations peacekeeping force in Bosnia. He also worked closely with the British Foreign Office and the British Armed Forces, and has worked with many of the top organizations in the world including Cable and Wireless, the Civil Aviation Authority, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, TNT and Alstom. In more recent years Robert Smith has become a highly respected international trainer enabling the development of trainers, coaches, consultants and organizational leaders, across more than 40 different nationalities. He now runs a training centre in Turkey as well as maintaining training and coaching activities in the UK.

Robert can be contacted via email: robert-smith at freeuk.com, and also via his website treaclenlptraining.co.uk.

NLP Techniques, Decision Making with Time Line

2009-01-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

NLP Techniques, Decision Making with Time Line

“How to Make Good Decisions that you will Follow Through to Completion the Easy Way”

Colin G Smith - All Rights reserved
FREE NLP Techniques at The NLP ToolBox

So you’ve got some new ideas, goals and plans for the weeks, months and years ahead. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’, so in this short article we are going to discover some Master-Keys to achieving effective outcomes.

Begin With the End in Mind

Choose one of the new outcomes you want and ask yourself the following question:

When you have what you want, what will you see, hear and feel?

Elicit Values

Now ask yourself, “And what’s important about that?”

Repeat this question several times on each answer to discover the deeper motivating values.

Amplify Your Desire to Achieve the Outcome!

Looking at your outcome picture as if it has been achieved begin to increase the size of the picture, make the colours brighter, enhance the colours, bring it in even closer.

That’s right! And imagine being able to perceive more depth in the image. You know make it more Three Dimensional; add more parallax.

Now with this motivating image in mind allow yourself to hear a congruent, motivating voice at the back of your head saying something encouraging.

Note: Tweaking these sensory components such as ’size of image’ are known as sub-modalities in NLP and you can find out much more in “The NLP ToolBox.”

Elicit Your Timeline

Have you ever wondered how your mind knows if a memory is from the recent past or the distant past?

Your mind has to somehow codify memories so it can differentiate between different dates and times.

Although man has been using concepts of time and timelines for centuries, it wasn’t until quite recently that we discovered that people actually map out time in their minds eye.

We all carry around a Timeline from which we access memories and resources and put new ones onto it.

To elicit your Timeline begin by remembering a time you brushed your teeth say 5 years ago.

Notice where that image is located in space. Actually point to it.

Good, now imagine brushing your teeth in the present and notice where you would place that image in space.

Finally imagine brushing your teeth 5 years from now. Allow yourself to become aware of where that image is located in space.

When you look at all three images at once you can imagine connecting a line between them.

So looking at your Timeline now, where is your birth located? And where is 25 years from now?

Great, you’ve just elicited your Timeline!

Discovering the Steps for the Desired Outcome

Here’s a cool thing. Bring to mind your Timeline again and now imagine placing it down and spreading it out across the floor.

So if you’re like me you will have your past going off to the left and your future will go off to the right like this:

|____________________|____________________|
Past Present Future

O
Meta Position

Now step off the Timeline into Meta Position. From this position, looking at the future, move the picture along the Timeline until it’s in a position that feels the most
achievable.

Now walk into that future position and associate fully into that ‘Desired Outcome’ picture.

See what you would see, hear what you would hear and allow that feeling of accomplishment to increase.

Amplify those good feelings even more by spinning the feeling up and down your body. Around and around, up and down faster and faster!!!

Keeping the feelings spinning turn around and look back towards the present. Notice what steps are required to achieve this outcome. Plan backwards from the future to the
Present Position.

Great! Now walk back into the Meta Position and notice any other steps or tweaks that are needed.

Back to the Present

Walk into the Present Position on your Timeline and notice all the steps that lead up to the Desired Outcome.

How’s that feel?

If needed you can of course cycle through the positions again to create a better plan.

Remember, earlier in this article, in the section titled, “Elicit Your Timeline,” you became aware of you actual Timeline that you ‘carry around in your head.’

So go ahead now and imagine the Timeline on the ground, with all the steps, rising up and fitting into your actual Timeline.

This will help to program the planning into your mind and if it’s possible get into action right away on the first step.

To boost your motivation from time to time you can step into the ‘Desired Outcome’ on your Timeline, remember your values for doing so, and feel those good feelings as you look back at the required steps.

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Reframing - The six steps proces

2008-12-18T23:17:00.000-08:00

Changing behaviours: Self-reframing using a spatial format

Sometimes people have difficulty changing behaviours that no longer appeal to them. Behaviours which are hard to change are often labelled 'habits'. Being able to change any behaviour you choose, when you choose, is a prerequisite to successful living. One effective way of changing behaviour, called reframing, is presented here in a spatial format.

Preparation

Mark out the following three 'positions' as circles on the floor, far enough apart to keep each one separate, and close enough to be able to move from one to another with ease. Mark one circle for 'behaviour', one for 'intent' and one for the 'creative state'.

Build yourself a 'creative state'.

Begin by standing outside the 'creative state' circle and think of a time when you were performing creatively according to your own standards. Note what you saw, heard and felt while reliving that experience. When the memory of your choice is strongly present as if it were happening to you now, step into the 'creative state' circle. Then step out of the space for the creative state, and leave the "creative state" that you have just re-lived, in that space. Keep adding other examples of creative states into the circle, one at a time, until the state in the circle feels strongly creative.

The Process

Stand in the circle that represents 'behaviour' and think of a behaviour that you would like to change, or you find limiting or habitual. Make sure that the behaviour is represented in one or more of the senses, in other words, imagine and/or hear and/or feel the behaviour.
Step back to the circle that represents 'intent', and as you do so ask the question, 'what is the intent, function or purpose of the behaviour?'. When you have a sense of the intent for the behaviour move into the 'creative state' circle.
Ask yourself 'how else can I fulfil the intent for the behaviour?'. While within the 'creative state' allow yourself to generate a range of alternative behaviours that fulfil the intent. When you have plenty of alternatives you can shift back to the circle for 'intent'.
Now you can review the alternatives and select the best three options. Step back into the circle for 'behaviour'.
Test out each of the three options one at a time by imagining using each new behaviour in the original context(s). Check are then any objections to any of the selected options? If so, step back into the circle for 'intent' and repeat the entire process, until all objections are satisfied.

Discussion

This format is based on what is known in the NLP community as a Six Step Reframe. Some students of NLP find difficulty when first learning to use the Six step Reframe on themselves. It requires the unaccompanied subject to split their attention between tracking their own internal states and running the process. To be able to do these tasks simultaneously requires some familiarity with the process.

This approach to six step reframing uses spatial sorting of the process into its components for ease of tracking while leaving the subject free to attend to their internal responses.

This spatial format allows you to use this process by yourself anytime you choose to. It is simply a matter of finding a suitable place where you can run through this process undisturbed.

There are other reframing processes as part of the NLP technology.

Changing behaviours - Self-reframing using a spatial format - Reference:

Collingwood, J.J.P., Collingwood, C.R.J. (2001). The NLP Field Guide; Part 1. A reference manual of Practitioner level patterns.

NLP technique: Overcoming Fear, Worry, Anxiety

2008-12-15T23:17:00.000-08:00

NLP technique: Overcoming Fear/Worry/Anxiety

1. Think of something that you are frightened of or worrying about. Make it something where the feeling is unpleasant, you are not sure what to do, and the feeling is getting in the way of your effective action.

2. Imagine the situation and feel the feeling. Give it a label. It could be “fear”, “fright”, “anxiety” or “worry”.

3. Now imagine that feeling in front of you. Look at it with your mental vision. What does it look, feel and/or sound like?

a. Look
Colour:colour or black and white
Shape: Describe the figure
Depth: two or three dimensional
Size: large or small
Brightness: Bright or dark
Contrast: Well or poorly defined
Focus: Clear or blured
Movement: Still or moving
Speed: fast or slow
Location: up, down, front, left, right etc

b. Sound

Does it have a sound?
Verbal or non verbal: words or sound. If words, what is it saying?
Direction: Stereo or mono
Volume: loud or soft
Tone: Soft or harsh
Clarity: Clear or muffled
Pitch: high or low
Speed: fast or slow
Duration: continuous or discontinuous
Location: up, down, front, left, right etc

c. Feeling

Location: Where in the body is it located?
Texture: large or small
Weight: Light or heavy
Temperature: Hot or cold
Movement: Still or moving

3. Now let it stream past you. Let it go over you, under you, and around you. Let it go through you and as it does, it will become like a wisp of smoke.

4. As it streams around and through you, it will go behind you. Imagine that you can see I behind you disappearing faster and faster into the distance, until it melts into nothingness, as if it is being sucked down one of those enormous wind tunnels. There is nothing left. If you feel a little residue of the feeling, just put it in front of you again, face it, and repeat the process.

5. Now feel you body solid and grounded. You remain. You are not this feeling, because you can separate yourself from it.

Introduction of NLP

2008-08-05T05:19:00.000-07:00

Neuro Linguistic Programing

Let us tell you a story about magic. It's a magical story, full of wows! And woes. It's a story of magicians and wizards and frogs turning into princes. It's an adventure into the very magic that occurs everyday in human neuro-linguistics, a story about you and the magic that's going on this very minute in your neurology.

What we call NLP is really the story of a new cutting-edge model about--

* How to run your own brain.

* How to effectively represent your experiences.

* How to map the world of experiences that you've been through, that you think is possible to experience, and that you hope you will get to experience.

* How to take charge of your states.

* How to develop effective strategies for your everyday life.

Now what we call, "the magic," is simply the highest and best of human experiences, "excellence" in human functioning. And the magic of that magic is this: there is rhyme and reason to your everyday experiences.

In NLP, we say, the magic has structure. Above and beyond the details and content of any experience-- there is a framework that explains how it operates. And when you know that, you know many of the secrets of magic.

Magic?

Yes, the magic of getting over past hurts, the magic of forging a great big compelling future and making it happen, the magic of implementing your knowledge, the magic of getting into rapport with others, working through conflicts, taking another person's point of view on things, etc.

We use the term "magic" in NLP to speak about the very structure and experience of excellence. So when anybody does something in a superb and wonderful way-- from learning, decision making, staying motivated, being resilient, operating proactively, managing, making wealth, selling, etc., we know that that experience has structure and that we can learn and replicate that magic.

And that's what NLP is all about.

The Letters-- The Letters

Okay, okay, the set of letters themselves. NLP literally stands for a mouth-full of a phrase: Neuro-Linguistic Programming. This refers to the fact It means that we have a mind-body system that we can program very much the way we can program software for a computer.

This mind-body system or our neuro-linguistics is made up of our neurology (our nervous systems that enables us to live, breathe, think, and function) and our linguistics (the symbol systems that run the neurology).

Put mind-body together-- the linguistics of neurology and we have a marvelous, mysterious and even magical human bio-computer. And the best news-- it's programmable. Sure, it's hard-wired with a few basic dispositions, but for the most part, "as we think (symbolize, give meaning to things), so we are." And with that, the adventure begins.

How?

What do you mean?

We mean that if you don't have a great strategy for making friends, learning, staying healthy, looking at the world with the eyes of opportunities, etc., then you just need a strategy.

You work perfectly well. There's nothing wrong with you. You may simply not have the right strategy for the job, or you may have some stupid strategy running your programs of thinking, feeling, speaking, and behaving that's getting in the way.

NLP, as a model of human functioning, takes a very different attitude from some of the old psychologies. In NLP, we do not start from the assumption (and what an assumption it is!) that people are broken. No. Instead, we assume the opposite-- that people work perfectly well, that they have all the resources that they need, and that the only problem isn't with them, but with their programming.

The Sources

If that sounds familiar and similar to other fields, it is. NLP is a branch of the Cognitive Sciences and Cognitive Behavioral Psychology. It grew out of General Semantics (Korzybski), Transformational Grammar (Noam Chomsky), Anthropology and Cybernetics (Bateson), Reframing (Watzalawick, et al.), Family Systems (Virginia Satir), Gestalt Therapy (Perls), Medical hypnosis (Milton Erickson), and several related studies. This is most of the respectable body of knowledge from which NLP arose.

The Founders

To understand the story of how NLP came to be, you have to understand the times of the early 1970s in America and specifically in California. In a time of social upheaval, Vietnam War protests, drugs and rock-n-roll, a young college student happened upon the work of Fritz Perls and then Virginia Satir and found that he could mimic their high-level therapy skills to a degree that surprised him.

So he got a young college professor of linguistics to help him figure it out and supervise a class and suddenly they both were replicating the skills that were supposed to be graduate therapy skills.

So the student (Richard Bandler) and the professor (Dr. John Grinder) teamed up to see if they could figure out (or model) the magic of these therapeutic wizards. So there on the campus of the University of California at Santa Cruz, Bandler used what he knew about patterns in mathematics and computers and Grinder used what he knew about patterns in linguistics to create a model about the Perls and Satir model-- a meta-model ("meta" is Greek for "above, beyond, and about).

Bandler's natural gift for mimicking enabled him to hear and replicate the language patterns by Virginia and Fritz. So he play acted with a group of students to see what he could do.

After enjoying immediate and powerful results from this initial modeling, Richard and John set out to model the hypnotic skills of Milton Erickson. And it so happened that he and Dilts and others of the original group were taking classes from Gregory Bateson at the University who not only introduced them to Erickson, but to other influential persons.

Within two years, they produced the original NLP books--

The Structure of Magic, Volumes I and II

The Patterns of the Hypnotic Language of Erickson, Vol. I & II

And that's how it began.

They built a communication model about human "thinking" and "processing" and used that model of how we see images, hear sounds, reproduces smells and tastes and touches in our mind to track and model the structure of subjective experiences.

NLP-- The Study of Excellent Experiences

Robert Dilts was soon commissioned to write the first scholarly book on NLP. He entitled it, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Volume I: The Study of the Structure of Subjectivity. This set forth NLP as a model and the key features of the model.

For example, NLP speaks about "thinking"-- or information processing as the reproducing in the mind the sensory components of what we see, hear, smell, taste, and touch with our sense receptors. This is known as the Representational Systems, the VAK systems and these stand for the way or the "modes" by which we represent information:

Visual (Eyes) - for the Pictures, Sights, Images

Auditory (Ears) - for the Sounds, noises, tones, volumes

Kinesthetic (skin/body) - for the sensations, touch, pressure, etc.

When we think about something, anything, we encode our "thoughts" using our "senses." So we speak about our sensory systems or modalities. This makes our "thoughts" much more specific.

Think about your home or apartment. Got it?

* What does it look like?

* Sound like? Any noises or sounds associated in your picture?

* What about smells?

Here's an "Thought Experiment" that we have in the book, User's Manual for the Brain. Try it out. Have you ever experienced anything that you would call "pleasant?"

Recall a pleasant experience from your past. As various things may pop into your mind, just allow yourself to go with some pleasure memory for the moment and allow yourself to go with that thought....

As you experience this pleasant memory, notice its visual aspects. What do you see? Notice the images. Now make the picture larger. Let it double in size... and then let that picture double again... Notice what happens. Do your emotions intensify?

Now shrink the picture. Make it smaller and smaller. Allow it to become so small you can hardly see it... Stay with that a moment... Do the intensity of the feelings decrease? Experiment again with making the picture bigger and then smaller.

When you make it smaller, do your feelings decrease? And when you make it larger, do your feelings increase? If so, then running the pictures (sounds, feelings) in your awareness in this way functions as it does for most people. However, you may have a different experience.

Did you? No big deal. We all code our experiences in our minds uniquely and individually. Now, put your picture of that pleasant experience back in a format where you find it most comfortable and acceptable.

As you maintain the same picture, move the picture closer to you. Just imagine that the picture begins to move closer and closer to you, and notice that it will. What happens to your feelings as it does? ... Move the picture farther away.

What happens when you move the picture farther away? Do your feelings intensify when you move the picture closer? Do your feelings decrease when you move the picture farther away? Notice that as you change the mental representation in your mind of the experience, your feelings change. This, by the way, describes how we can "distance" ourselves from experiences, does it not?

Now experiment with the color. Are your pictures in color or in black-and-white? If your pictures have color, make them black-and-white, and vice versa if you have them coded as black-and-white . . . When you changed the color, do your feelings change?

What about the focus of your images? Are they in focus or out of focus? Do you see an image of yourself in the picture or do you experience the scene as if looking out of your own eyes?

What about the quality of your images: in three dimensional (3D) form or flat (2D)? Does it have a frame around it or do you experience it as panoramic? Experiment by changing how you represent the experience. Change the location of the picture. If you have it coded as on your right, then move it to your left.

Playing with the Brain

Did you like that playing with your brain? The neat thing about playing with our brains in that way is that as we change our coding, we change our feelings. The neurology of our emotions responded to the linguistics (or symbols) of our brain. When we change various features of our representations, it affected our responses.

This describes, in part, how "the magic" of NLP works. As we work with the very structures and processes of representation, rather than content, we change the programming. In the Thought Experiment, you might have changed how you feel by changing the quality and structure of your images. Amazing, is it not?

And when you know the structure of experience, then we can begin to use that knowledge to create more generative processes for improving life all around. What would happen if you made all your unpleasant pictures small, dim, and far away? What would happen if you made all your pleasant experiences big, bright and up close?

To learn to play with your brain and make it do wild and wonderful things, to run it for fun and profit, to induce the kind of positive states of mind-and-body, emotional states and states of value and belief, you only need to understand some of the basic components and how they work.

The VAK Representational Systems-- Sights, Sounds, Sensations, Smells, etc.

These are the basic components.

Each of these have certain Audio-Visual components. Think of a TV or Radio and we have volume, tone, pitch, location, etc. We have distance (close/ far), clarity (clear/ fuzzy), dimension (3_D or flat and 2_D), etc. The NLP term for these qualities or distinctions is "sub-modalities."

Perceptual Positions-- the point of view that you take in thinking about something: your own (first person), another person's (second position), the point of view of the larger system (third position).

Running Your Own Brain

In the past 25 years, hundreds of techniques (the NLP technology) has arisen that provide step-by-step processes for "running your own brain" to produce outstanding results. There are patterns for effecting lasting change with phobias and trauma (the Phobia Cure pattern), for changing long-term habits (the Swish Pattern), for changing old traumatic reactions to memories (Decision Destroyer), for altering meaning (Reframing patterns),

NLP does indeed offer a fairly large toolbox of techniques. And it is it more than that. Co-founder, Richard Bandler has said,

"NLP is an attitude and a methodology that leaves behind a trail of techniques."

The attitude of NLP involves one of intense and excited curiosity. It involves the desire to know what goes on behind the scenes. With this kind of attitude of curiosity, we want to know what makes the human mind work. So NLP runs on an attitude of experimentation.

This attitude leads us to try all kinds of things. After all, we do not sort for "failure," but only for "feedback." If we find that something doesn't produce the results we want, we just try something else. When you get the attitude or spirit of NLP, you'll experience a wild and wonderful passion for exploration, experimentation, and innovating. It will make you more creative, more open to the world of possibilities, and more of a pioneer.

The methodology of NLP is that of modeling: coping and mimicking how something works

NLP Training

2008-05-28T03:04:00.000-07:00

To Re-Design your life the way you would like to shape it…..

To acquire greater control over your destiny by re-orienting yourself.

To Empower the members of your organization suitably to dovetail their lives with your organizational vision….

Come, discover the power of your own self through NLP and actualize your dreams more effectively. Habits and patterns cripple us; a famous joke says it all –

"God may forgive us our Sins, but
our Nervous System may not."

Remember, in today's competitive world, personal development is not a luxury, it is a dire need…

What is NLP?
NLP techniques are the key to a million locks within us….
NLP is a technique for re-programming our nervous system.

NLP is for Whom?
You could be a teacher, a trainer, a working professional, a doctor, a housewife , a leader of industry or any other….. for Anyone and Everyone….NLP has something on offer for each of you.

What is NLP?

2008-05-28T03:03:00.001-07:00

Neuro-Linguistic Programming -NLP is defined as the study of the structure of subjective experience and what can be calculated from that and is predicated upon the belief that all behaviour has structure. People such as Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson and Fritz Perls had amazing results with their clients. They were some of the people who's linguistic and behavioural patterns Richard Bandler built formal models of. He then applied these models to his work.

Because these models are formal they also allow for prediction and calculation. Patterns that may not have been available in any of these people's work could be calculated from the formal representations he had created. New techniques and models were (and still are being) developed.

Since the models that constitute NLP describe how the human brain functions they are used in order to teach them. NLP is not a diagnostic tool. It can only be applied and can therefore only be taught experientially.

NLP Training - Basic Practitioner

2008-05-26T05:30:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from NLP Basic Practitioner Certification Course

with Dr. William Horton

NLP Training - Master Practitioner

2008-05-26T05:13:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from NLP Master Practitioner Certification Course
with Dr. William Horton

Eye Accessing Cues

2008-05-26T04:49:00.000-07:00