What is NLP?

Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a highly effective methodology for creating change and is frequently described as the study of human excellence. NLP is based on the principle that our behavioural patterns are all self-constructed, and can therefore be identified, learned, adapted and ultimately re-programmed in our minds. By understanding how people experience, interact with and make sense of their world, NLP can aid this reprogramming process which is designed to add flexibility, effectiveness and better choices to your life.

Taken literally:
Neuro: The mind-body nervous system through these we experience, interact with and make sense of the world. They are processed via our five senses. Visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), kinaesthetic (feeling), olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste).

Linguistic: The language (words and non-verbal communication) we use to describe, categorise and analyse our own version of ‘reality’ in order to communicate and/or change our own or others' representation of the world. The effect of language on the mind and the internal dialogues we have with ourselves.

Programming: The programs and patterns of behaviour that we run which produce the way we behave. Human beings tend to develop repeated patterns of thought, behaviour and strategy in order to get what they want; as these are all self-constructed, it’s possible for us to re-program them in our minds.

NLP and Coaching

NLP is an ever growing collection of tools and techniques that helps us understand how we think, behave and communicate. It compliments coaching as an efficient and effective tool to stretch and challenge thinking patterns, ultimately resulting in the positive reprogramming of limiting beliefs and thoughts that have previously hindered progress.

NLP’s co-founder Richard Bandler once described the technique as “An attitude and methodology that leaves behind a trail of techniques”. Learning and using these techniques has the potential to turn you into creators of the realities you want and need. Practicing NLP will:

• Provide a new found confidence in what can be achieved
• Build a better understanding of self & others
• Identify and explore attitudes and behaviours
• Help you master your own emotions and state of mind in order to deal with challenges
• Identify and challenge beliefs
• Help you manage your own internal dialogues
• Reframe events to ensure positive thinking
• Create a compelling vision for change that you can keep moving towards

NLP in Business

A useful and additional communication tool, NLP will help prepare and equip managers first as an individual and then as a leader.

7 ways in which NLP can help Managers improve their leadership of others:

• Helping build and maintain a culture of rapport and trust, thereby creating and enhancing personal and work relationships
• Listening in such a way as to sift through language to hear hidden assumptions and possibilities
• Communicating powerful messages to someone’s unconscious mind
• Enabling you to use language with greater precision and elegance
• Using powerful questioning techniques that will motivate and empower others, creating deep shifts in their thinking
• Encouraging outcome thinking and goal setting
• Building metaphors to influence, motivate, inspire, advertise, sell, generate commitment and communicate ideas at an unconscious level

NLP - A Brief History

NLP was first developed in California in the 1970s when psychology student, Richard Bandler and linguist, John Grinder, set out to identify the difference between the behaviour of people who are competent at a particular skill and those who excel at it. (Bandler had originally majored in mathematics and computer science, hence the reason NLP is often said to have been created by a linguist and a computer programmer). With careful and detailed observation, they modelled the behaviour of two top psychotherapists, Virginia Satir and Fritz Perls, and the world famous hypnotherapist, Milton Erickson. Although all very different in style, the three surprisingly had similar underlying patterns. As Bandler and Grinder began to come up with ideas, insights and techniques, they tried them out on friends, who soon joined them in developing and extending the work. This enthusiastic and highly creative group grew and thus NLP was born.