How does your training venue stack up?
The fabled beauty of the Malabar Coast vibrant in stately coconut palms, dripping banana
leaves, darting red dragonflies, zig-zagging jetblack butterflies, “a good stretch”,
intrusive crows, white headed fish eagles, slender elegant open boats, endless golden beaches,
shy scuttling crabs, warm wild sea, dancing dolphins, unfamiliar tastes and scents and spices,
dosas, kulfi, coffee-with-milk, golden garlands, wide smiles, adventures with an elephant,
riotous colours, regal costumes, fleetingly perfect azure skies, fierce sunshine, lowering grey
clouds, thunderous inundating rainfall, dazzling deafening drumming, saturating humidity,
glorious hibiscus blooms, heart stopping martial artists, dizzy dancers’ laughter, picture
postcard backwaters, improbable coracles, bizzy-busy auto rickshaws, slowly revolving ceiling
fans, invisible cicadas singing in the darkness…
Our venue in Kerela
Well I guess you can always go back to the windowless basement, green felt covered tables,
fluorescent lighting, stuffy airless rooms, and of course the packeted biscuits… but if
you want to know more about what the training is like when conducted in this setting… then
you might like to read more of Ray’s feedback
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There are no full stops in India*
And that is indeed my experience of India.
We in the Western world might try to put in the stops but for me life is infinitely more enjoyable without them.
So what does this newsletter include?
- Feedback from one of our delegates in India.. something that might just tempt you to visit?
- An outline of an award winning company who attributes a lot of its success to NLP
- A training thought inspired by my dance teacher
- An amazing model of excellence Ron Longstaff veteran racing cyclist
- A reminder about France (and India!)
- NLP and Leadership Manual
* No Full Stops in India
by Mark Tully
Some Dates for Your Diary
Introducing NLP January 28th—29th 2008
NLP Business Practitioner 4 modules, May–July 2008
Real people, Real solutions
Clive Hutchinson MD Cougar Automation
If you saw a copy of the Sunday Times 11 November you might have seen the Customer Experience
Awards supplement. Amongst the winners you will find the business Cougar Automation. You might
also notice how small Cougar are compared to the other winners. So, how does this small business
compete at this level? Clive Hutchinson (who is currently attending the Master Practitioner and
has done all previous NLP training with us) believes NLP is a large part of the success.
This is what Clive says about the impact that NLP has had on him and the business…
“Cougar Automation provides automatic control systems to run industrial plants. In
effect, we programme the computers that run a lot of the infrastructure behind the essentials of
modern life. Our computer systems help deliver drinking water for millions of people; treat waste
and clean up the environment; deliver medical treatments; provide food products; refuel aircraft
to keep millions of people flying. To do this we write software, carry out engineering design,
and manage projects...but where we make the difference is how we go about doing this. Instead of
concentrating on the engineering we concentrate on the people: the engineering takes care of
itself.
NLP has made a difference at many levels. At a high level through my times at Bix I have come
to understand my purpose at work: to create the opportunities for people to be happy and
fulfilled. Two and a half years ago before I started my NLP journey I had no awareness of this.
Now that I know this about myself I am much more purposeful: I know what I am trying to achieve.
My leadership is so much more effective now that I know where I am going.
At another level, my learning of NLP has opened up to me the wonder of the differences between
all of us. In the past I could get quite tense and frustrated when people at work didn't seem
to get things. While I was aware of this and worked hard to control this emotion, it had a big
impact on my effectiveness as a leader. Now that I understand how different we all are I
don't need to control this emotion. It has just melted away. And that has been another great
learning for me; while I can not change my personality, when I change my beliefs I experience
profound change. Talking of beliefs, I appear to have internalised the belief that the meaning of
the communication is the effect. This too has made my interactions with others so much more
positive and productive.
Throughout my time on my NLP learning journey I have revisited my fear of meeting strangers in
an unstructured context (e.g. a party) many times as an example. As a result of the work I have
done with this I have reached a point where instead of blind panic in these situations I am now
calm and even enjoy myself from time-to-time. Taming this fear has opened up a lot of
opportunities for me through meeting people and building relationships. And, while talking about
relationships I recall that NLP has helped me to show appreciation to others; something at which
I was very poor in the past. I now take time to reflect on how others do the things that I admire
and my appreciation of them flows out of that. I believe that this makes me an effective leader
that people choose to follow.
And living the belief there is no failure only feedback has made a huge difference for me. I
have made what many people would consider be radical changes at Cougar Automation over the last
two years. This simple belief about feedback has allowed me to take these steps; to
experiment.
To be honest, it often seems like I don't do NLP when I am not at the course venue, but in
reality NLP influences me every day. I believe I am now much better at helping others to succeed
in their own way.
And my role...well I often joke that as the MD I don't do anything. In reality, I see my
role as creating a purpose that our people are motivate to follow. I put in place the structures
(maybe better described as creating the space) for people to find their own way to succeed. I
believe that as I get better at doing these things there is less need for supervision and this
frees up the people to be free and express their unique talent. So my most important role is to
be the example of the model of success that is Cougar Automation”
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A Masterclass in Being
by Ray Charlton
The course exceeded my expectations in range and depth. This was achieved through a rich mix
of participants from India and the UK with varied backgrounds and knowledge of NLP, all working
moment by moment in a shared set of guided experiences in a spirit of individual and shared
responsibility. There were opportunities to engage with other people in the training room, at
meals, through yoga, walks, a temple visit, an elephant ride, visiting the ashram, drumming,
local and city shopping, conversations with hotel staff, walking on the beach…
I was challenged to go beyond improving my facility with NLP tools and techniques, to invest
trust in others and in myself. By engaging emotionally as well as intellectually and giving and
receiving feedback, I was able to relax, to risk, to discover my personal wants and qualities,
and to find purpose and identity. Every participant was encouraged and supported to express what
most mattered to us – to be real. Rather than seek to become more skilled in applying
theories and techniques I learned to start with what is, now: to be more present and become more
aware of,alert to and responsive to both my own state and that of others. I learned to be more
alive, more in touch with wellbeing.
An Indian wedding
Ashok and Pria were married on November 1st. Ashok is my contact and friend in India.
And we had the very special honour of being invited to this amazing event. Ashok had explained
that it would be a large wedding… and I drew my own conclusions and imagined a room full of
about 200 people. Imagine my surprise when he said they expected 2000! Not only that but every
one of the 2000 were fed to bursting in the evening engagement then again for breakfast on the
following wedding day and finally lunch after the ceremony!
Are you dancing?
Since having a dance teacher take a session on my last Trainer Training we have been taking
lessons with her. The waltz is our speciality.. just love that hesitation! Anyway our dance
teacher said “A real dancer never repeats the same routine. You learn the routines and let
your body know them so that you can just respond to your partner and the music” Hmmm sound
familiar?
“Wrap up!”
On each Master Practitioner I like to invite models of excellence; people who have not been
through the NLP process so come fresh and naïve to the experience of being modelled. One of
our guests on the current Master Prac was Ron Longstaff – veteran racing cyclist. I learned
some years ago from Raymond Blanc who said that he is often too busy to go and see the people who
inspire him so he decided to bring them to his restaurant – Le Manoir aux
Quat’Saisons.
Ron Longstaff 2007, 24 hour time trial, 326.79 miles
So wanting to know about how to keep my own cycling passion going and loving
enjoying challenging some of the presuppositions about age I invited Ron having seen him on GMTV.
Ron is 81 years old and cycles 200 miles a week and is still winning races. At the age of 70 he
achieved 100 miles in 4 hours 11secs. That is some achievement. So we had the great pleasure of
modelling Ron and finding out more about his passion and his vitality at the age that he is.. The
group also wanted to explore his motivation for continuing to cycle with the commitment that he
does and asked him his strategy for getting up and out especially on cold winter mornings. I
think that they might have been expecting some visualisation techniques and self talk… but
the answer they got from Ron was priceless “Wrap up!”.
What he did say that was that if he ever passed a cyclist in a race he would always turn to
them and say “Great job, keep going.. you are getting there”. Such community building
in a context where you might not sometimes expect it.
“Keep going Ron.. you are an inspiration to us all!”
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