Time for a Break

Maybe my subconscious mind took my thinking literally. So here I am with a fractured hip. Writing about my experiences on my new blog site has been a form of therapy but it was not how I had intended to be using that space. Today I should have been cycling from Millau to Pont l’Herault as part of our two week cycling tour in Provence… ah well ‘We have all the resources we ever need within ourselves already’ Well that belief has been tested over the last couple of weeks and especially yesterday. I had a down day yesterday… But it was a novel experience as I don’t have many of them. Mind and body are one… hmmm! I guess my body has given me a big message to slow down so I have (not that I have had much choice in the matter) but as I say more of my thinking on the blog

Where is Maddy?

I have been very moved by the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and especially the way that her parents have been dealing with the situation. When I listen to the news of the extent of the paedophile networks on line it highlights to me just how much more we can be doing to use our networks for the good of the world and to give support in situations such as these… more

If I model Lance Armstrong
can I expect to cycle to his standard?

So what is the answer? Well you can find out on the CIPD factsheet that I wrote this year. So if you want to direct someone to an elementary description of NLP this might be it. I also supplement my own open introductory programmes with ones hosted by CIPD

Our new web and the Blog

Well here it is .. our brand new spanking web site. Spence has been working on it for months. Do tell us what you think. And you can do so on my new blog if you wish.

I would love some of your ideas of what you would like me to include here.

Living the values

Arriving at a company for whom I was about to do an afternoon of training recently .. they invited me to wait in reception… And as I sat down they offered me a menu card of teas, coffees and snacks to order while I waited (which was not long at all.. ) the menu card was elegantly bound with a small ribbon, simple but impressive. Then my contact arrived and offered to show me around before the start of my session. While he was doing so his wife (whom he had invited to join us for the training session) arrived and he excused himself for a moment to show her where the training was about to take place. As he did so one of his colleagues who was working nearby immediately stood up and said ‘Let me continue where he (my contact) has left off’. I was very impressed. Needless to say some of the afternoon was dedicated to celebrating their excellence in living their value…One of the pillars of NLP is sensitivity and this company Red Gate are a shining example of this principle in practice.

In-company

I often talk about the open programmes that we do but less about the incompany work so just to sum some of the incompany work that I have been involved in this month. And this might give you an idea of further applications of NLP.

• With a team of marketers and sales people in a software development company who wanted to understand how their choice of language in their mail outs affected their clients. They knew that it did but could not always pinpoint how. For example they had changed an instruction from ‘Ways of contacting us’ to ‘Contact us to find out more’ and the contacts increased by nearly 50% overnight. What they learned was that they had changed an item of information to an embedded command.
• One to one coaching with the head of a fashion design team. This work has centred on exploring how this person has amazing coaching skills that they had never truly appreciated for themselves. The fashion business as you might imagine is frantic and state management and developing staff can go out of the window in favour of manic management. What we are developing here are the alternatives to that with great results.
• Board of Directors team building. Some of this team were barely on speaking terms when I first met them and had just conducted a rather elementary and potentially damaging written feedback exercise on each other. ‘There is no way that we could have said these things to each other face to face’ was a popular comment I received. Well after a series of one to ones and a 2 away days together that was just what they were doing – giving feedback one to one, one to many, many to one, in small groups and in a full group. And subsequently? Well they had a Board meeting the following week and they let me know that it was the most productive meeting that they had ever had.

Are you dancing?

I had a surprise in store for the trainers on this last programme when I introduced them to a teacher of ballroom and latin dance. Not only did the teacher (Judy at All Seasons Dance) get us doing the Cha Cha in an afternoon but she showed us how we can challenge some of our limiting beliefs around our capabilities in this case rhythm and dance. This was so popular that we had a street dance session on our Practitioner programme. Even the most hardened ‘non-dancers’ had to admit that they could dance and even enjoyed it”

Forthcoming talks

Peterborough CIPD September 27th NLP the key to a rich life
Richmond NLP Group November 20th NLP – modelling excellence
NLP conference 24th November Provocative Therapy
Barnes Roffe 12th July Personal Selling Skills

We have the details of all of these on the website shortly in the meantime you can contact Pat for details.

Watch this space

For news of a NLP coaching package with DVD’s
And a talking book on NLP….
In the meantime have a great summer

Love, Sue