Welcome to Personal Effects for February……this month two quite different reflections from recent delegates on what completing their NLP Business Practitioner has meant for them…and news of Dr David Fraser’s new book………….

Diary of an NLP Business Practitioner ……Starting in Fibber Magee’s In Lancaster !

Jim Maguire
Communities and Leisure Manager at South Lakeland District Council

Picture the scene, 6 baby birds sitting in their nest waiting for the wise mother bird to return with a worm or at least that’s what it felt like on the first morning of the recent NLP Business Practitioner course. 6 newbies eager to be fed. That was some weeks ago now and what a trip it has been………………

With only a couple of days notice before the course started and faced with reading Sue Knight’s book my journey began in Fibber Magee’s Irish pub in Lancaster. Long story for another day ……..but it involved Sue Knight, Guinness and Mozart.

Chapter 1 flew by. This was easy!
Chapter 2 took a little longer.
Chapter 3 almost a week. This is going to be heavy going.

Day 1 of the course came and off we set.
Nothing could have prepared me for the onslaught that was coming:

5 Pillars of NLP. Prime Directives of the unconscious mind. Countless pre-suppositions. Milton Model. Meta Model. This was a foreign language…… I never got French so this was going to be difficult.

Day 2. OMG. Melt down day! Enough said.

Day 3 I began with a work meeting and so I missed an hour or two. But then clarity ! The clouds were clearing and the fog of confusion started to lift after all “we have all the resources we need”. Right?

Day 4, 5, 6 are a blur of timelines, logical levels and parts integrations.

And then it came exam day! Everyone else had a quiz but I had an exam.

Needless to say we passed. I never understood what all the fuss was about thanks to Guinness and Mozart this was easy, right?

So back to work and what’s changed. I was asked by a colleague “what’s it like then?”

What’s what like?

You know…… NLP!

Difficult to explain in a word say I…….. Amazing will do…… No wait enlightening…… Or thought-provoking.

No amazing….. That’ll do….. Yep…… Amazing.

Along the way I’ve dealt with a bogey man, cured a chocolate habit and found a new place to be when it all goes pear shaped.

Since finishing the NLP Business Practitioner I’ve also been accepted as a Chartered Fellow of the Management Institute and been accepted as Mentor on their Mentor programme. Amazing what a bit of self belief can bring.

I have one tip.

BSPOT (5 Pillars)

Behavioural Flexibility
Sensory Acuity
Psychology and Physiology of Excellence
Outcome Thinking
Take Responsibility

Using the Outcome Frame and putting myself at Cause*

Wendy Harbutt, Director of Dramatic Improvement
TRAINING : COACHING : FACILITATION : ROLEPLAY
(And delegate on the NLP Business Practitioner at Eynsham Hall Oxfordshire in January)

Above and beyond the value that my NLP learning has added to my coaching practice, and to my work with others, is the value that it has brought to me personally. So being what I call ‘deliciously selfish’ for a moment, I’ll share an epiphany I had whilst on the NLP Business Practitioner programme with Florence.

It came when I was letting my mind consider what I wanted in life, using an Outcome Frame**. I noticed that lots of what I was doing wasn’t really in tune with what I wanted and I found myself thinking through all the reasons for this. I noticed that most of these reasons came in a voice that was ‘at effect’ ie things I was doing because I felt I had to, mostly for others. I realised that I hadn’t really checked that assumption on some significant parts of my own life and so I resolved to do that checking. It may sound trite to say that this moment changed my life, but it’s true. Or rather what I’ve done as a result of that thinking….. is changing my life. Having that clear point of focus has brought a perspective that has simplified my thinking and the result is that I not only feel much clearer, but also feel that what I want to have happen, is possible for me to achieve !

www.dramaticimprovement.co.uk

* Cause and Effect… when we put ourselves at cause this means that we take responsibility for what happens to us, when we are at effect we blame others or circumstances. We are at our most powerful when we put ourselves at cause !

** Outcome frame is one of the ‘frames’ of NLP. Framing in NLP terms refers to the way we put things into different contexts to give them different meanings. If we alter the frame, we alter the meaning.

The Mastery of Leadership – New Book by Dr David Fraser !

David Fraser (informal)Dr David Fraser author of ‘Relationship Mastery’ has a new book out in March called ‘The Mastery of Leadership: Presence and Practice in Transformational Change’ ….and I have been privileged to read the draft copy……………

His new book is less of a ‘how to do leadership’, and more of a’ how are you thinking about leadership ?’. I think it is a book which stimulates reflection, challenges thinking and one that will tempt the reader, (and certainly this reader), back between its covers time and again to savour the questions it poses. In a changing world ‘leaders’ need to evolve and change…….and this book is an excellent tool to support this process. Having read it…….. I am now looking forward to going back to the start, to see what further treasures it holds !

“A powerful book full of grace and wisdom” (Gene Early, Internationally recognized leadership advisor)