NLP Works!
One of the things we are often asked for is 'proof' that NLP works in a business environment. We know that it works from anecdotal evidence and the fact that individuals and clients tell us it has worked, now we have independent evidence of its effect.
In 2000 we carried out a programme for The Stormont Hotel in Belfast which was sponsored in part by the DETI as a pilot programme. Since completion the results of the training have been evaluated by John Thompson of The University of Ulster (who helped to put the programme together with us) and also by an independent Management Consultancy.
The results show that NLP has a beneficial effect in terms of self esteem and development and also in sales effectiveness.
We are delighted with these results which are exceptional in the training field. Perhaps best of all was the comment from staff that NLP was really just common sense! One of the objections to NLP is that it is all 'psycho-babble' so to get this as feedback was great - our aim is always to make NLP simple and easy to understand and use - and it looks like we achieved this.
Our thanks particularly to Howard Hastings, the innovative MD of the Hastings Hotel Group for permission to quote these figures.
And finally… we continue to explore new directions and at the moment our focus is on fully integrating the artificial split between mind and body on and outside training courses – we have always included an awareness of the interaction between mind and body but expect us to be developing this even further in the future – seeking to significantly reduce or eliminate ill health through greater ‘in the moment’ awareness of what we are doing to our bodies as we run habitual behavioural patterns.
"I was the personnel manager for Cardiff Bay Development Corporation for four years up to 31 March 2000. The Corporation was an urban development body with a finite life that had been set up in 1987. It was wound up by order of the National Assembly for Wales at the end of March 2000. At the end of its life around 100 employees - mainly professionals - were either made redundant or transferred to other bodies.
It was within my first six months with the Corporation that I understood that the quality of treatment of employees in the period up to wind up would be down to the personnel and training team. After serious and deep consideration of how to successfully undertake this task, the team concluded that it had to work with and through the Corporation's fourteen team leaders and to influence their behaviours. The theme would be "the promotion of life time employment through lifelong learning and career management".
Team leaders were mainly professionals - civil engineering, legal, financial, IT - who had been placed in the positions rather than have chosen to be in them. They were not noted for their management skills yet they had a vital role in preparing their team members to face up to wind up and life beyond the Corporation.
Between them, the members of the personnel and training team had over seventy years' experience and many management qualifications - first degrees, masters degrees, professional, vocational. Following reviews, the team concluded that none of these offered practical methods of effectively changing the behaviours of hard-nosed, cynical professionals.
The training officer and I had been tinkering with NLP, it having been recommended by a colleague from the London Docklands Development Corporation. We were encouraged that it may quickly give us the practical skills that were needed to work successfully with and through the team leaders. The training officer was the first to attend NLP training as a pioneer for the team. She returned enthused and convinced that NLP was what we were looking for. I arranged for all team members to attend the training. In the meantime, the training officer was passing on what she was learning.
I am convinced that NLP significantly contributed to the quality of wind up. Importantly not just for the employees but also for ourselves.
It works.
This is because you get to understand what makes a person tick and adapt your practice and approach to what would be successful with that person. There are no pat solutions. The outcome is meaningful for the person and this knocks on to others that the person comes into contact with.
The major claim that I would make for our NLP approach with the team leaders was that in every case it improved the communication and dialogue between the team leader and team member. This built up trust between them. Team members became confident to express their needs openly and honestly as they faced up to wind up. And team leaders responded to them.
And NLP for the personnel and training team gave it ways of defusing conflict and coping with pressure during what was a particularly stressful period".
Clive Francis
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Updated 30th November 2005