Neuro Lingo-what?!

Neuro Linguistic Programming NLP – it's always sounded like something out of The Matrix trilogy to me, far too sci-fi, technical and boring to pursue. But at a CiB (Communicators in Business) event last week, I found that it's actually precisely the kind of thing that fascinates me. Tim Hodgson (Director of The Inspiration Centre) and Rachel Land (trainer and Managing Director of Land & Associates International) both gave engaging and interactive presentations on NLP, which is all about understanding how people absorb and process information in order to change their attitude or persuade/influence them. And you just can't deny that this is absolutely crucial for effective communication.

According to Hodgson, NLP is all about a curiosity about the world, modelling people and using our language to change people’s emotions and emotional states. He said NLP allows you to tap into the unconscious mind (a bit like Freud minus the couch) and gain extra power in communication. And Land went on the explain that "the meaning of communication is the response you get." She suggested that we should take ownership of our communication. Through out both presentations, people around the rooms were nodding their heads in agreement.

I was worried that the "interactive" session would pretty much consist of "put your hand up if..." but Land's presentation was actually very enjoyable, she had the whole room pairing up and doing fun activities and interacting. But one individual activity that was most interesting was the "representational system preference test". Again, sounds far too technical but quite simply it's the kind of quiz you get in glossy mags, that assesses whether you absorb information through sound, visuals, your feelings or through logic. Interestingly, there was a classic case of thinkers Vs feelers, in that those (including me) who scored highest in feelings (Kinaesthetic) scored lowest in Logic (Auditory Digital) and those who scored highest in Logic scored lowest in feelings.

While I find this really interesting and believe it's highly important to think about when communicating, I'm not sure how effective NLP is when communicating to large groups of people, like an entire workforce? At the risk of generalizing too much, perhaps it could be thought about when communicating to different departments within an organization, for example, finance might absorb information in a logical way and designers might absorb information visually. One delegate at the event, said he believed NLP was actually a load of ****, (who knows what he was doing there) and he said he'd seen it being used badly. The event was insightful and engaging but perhaps due to time constraints, there were no real examples of how NLP has been used within organizations. I'd like to hear about people's experiences with NLP, good or bad. Has anyone used NLP in Internal/Employee communication?

Comments

[Katrina Andrews]

I attended this event as well and i particularly found the 'representational system preference' test interesting. Turns out i'm auditory digital which is apparently the most common. The other three areas are visual, auditory and kinaesthetic.

Rachel and Tim commented that to capture the whole audience you need to cater your presentation for all four different types...and you thought coaching leaders to communicate effectively wasn't difficult enough.

[Tom Keefe]

Hmmm, I scored highest on feelings (35), and second in logic (31). So do I feel that I'm logical, or rationalizing my feelings? Get me to my shrink! Okay, now that I'm feeling better (at least I think that I am), I have to say that I enjoyed the organized way you presented your thoughts.

I'm going to share this with my internal audience at work, because it helps make a case for considering various learning preferences, and for avoiding the trap of thinking (or feeling) that everyone learns the same way as you.

[Sona Hathi]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your kind, if not confusing words! They made me FEEL like writing this long blog posting was worthwhile!! Ok, this has got to stop now. Anyway, I hope your team found it useful, do let me know how they respond to it.

Sona