Please forgive us…My Kerala Experience
by Mark Ridley

As I sat on the plane to Kochi on New Year’s Eve I castigated myself for agreeing to attend the NLP Intensive. I had left my family at home enduring the worst winter for the best part of forty years, I had an in-tray that had grown exponentially over the Christmas holiday and, to cap it all, I was feeling unwell. Twelve days of enforced smiles and positive thinking loomed large; and as if to add insult to injury I was aware that the glass of red wine I was holding in my hand would be my last in a while. An alcohol-free, vegetarian hotel—what had I been thinking?

But you cannot stay in that place for long. The Keralan people are charming, the weather sublime, the food a myriad of colours and tastes. And, of course, the NLP Intensive programme was a golden thread that weaved its way through this rich tapestry and somehow made everything connect. Sue Knight and her colleagues have an admirable ability to provide personal learning through group experiences; and they use the local environment to full advantage. In this setting I spent twelve wonderful days learning how to train core NLP principles and practices; and the metaphors Sue used to release new ways of thinking to achieve different outcomes for us all were inspired. From flying kites on the beach to shopping in Indian department stores; or from spending time in a local ashram listening to a swarmi’s perspective on the world to watching the unconditional acceptance of our party when we visited the children at a local orphanage. All of these moments affected us in different ways and added huge value to the practical learning that took place each day when we were together as a group.

Any Sue Knight programme involves the receiving of valuable personal feedback and this programme did not disappoint. The wonderful thing about this was the total support that came from all participants, beautifully choreographed under Sue’s watchful eye and timely interventions. The acid test, of course, is how this is then applied back in the ‘normal’ world. For me it’s already paid massive dividends in the way I work professionally; and from a personal perspective, let’s simply say that I am very happy with where I am and that the people around me, for whom I want to be a model of excellence, are noticing.

I could summarise my personal NLP Intensive learning by relating the following: whilst shopping in a particular chain-store in Kochi I noticed a sign. It read, “Please forgive us if your hand-woven garment has slight imperfections. Our objective is, however, to create total uniqueness out of apparent uniformity.”