NLP Course

What is an NLP Program? Is it worth learning NLP?

In one of my earlier blogs “What is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)?” I defined NLP as an epistemology – a model of how we know what we know.

Based on psychotherapy, NLP was co-founded by a Professor of Linguistics, Dr. John Grinder and a computer scientist, Richard Bandler in the late 70’s. I did an NLP course with each of them, as I wanted to learn NLP from co-founders who had created the field, and others like Robert Dilts who carried the NLP flag with a high level of integrity.

NLP consists of more than 100 processes, each one for a specific problem. It caters to every type of issue found in an organisation. Whether it is resolving team conflict, deepening rapport with clients, managing a state of mind to achieve targets or understanding how values drive motivation, there is a process for it.

The first level of an NLP course that is internationally certified and recognised globally, is the NLP Practitioner program. It teaches participants how to shift mindsets and make behaviour change easily. Surprised?

Most people are afraid of making change let alone in their behaviours. Learning NLP processes is easy as we work with context rather than content.

For example, if you know the Language of Influence and use it’s patterns and structure to negotiate, engage your client and communicate with clarity, just imagine what a load of stress it would eradicate at the workplace. And boy oh boy will you see results. Just from an observation of how the client is communicating!

When an organisation views NLP training as an investment, what it is actually doing is aligning the mindset of employees and the corporate mission, which leads to deepened employee engagement and ultimately higher bottom line results.

It is worth every dollar spent, for everyone in the organisation to learn NLP. What corporate wouldn’t want such a return on investment? Not seeing the value proposition is like leaving money on the table and I know many short sighted decision makers, who do this.  

Turning to the more progressive ones, I have driven successful companies to get their money’s worth, when they signed up for an NLP course: 

• They invest in upgrading employee skills during downtime, prepared to hit the ground running when good times come around again
• The NLP program is rolled out over several months in a modular fashion, to allow employees time for assimilation of knowledge learnt
  
• A full culture alignment over 18 months to 2 years also gives employees time to integrate application in small chunks
• The launch of a corporate-wide NLP course essentially creates a common language that opens up communication and transparency.

Here are three major reasons why an NLP program is worth much more than a corporate’s initial investment:

1. Mindset shifts create a healthier culture and this leads to happier people who take charge. This reduces hours lost in sick leave, conflict resolution and demotivated staff who drag their feet getting things done.

A case in point is the CEO who hired me to “make his people happy”. He felt that if his people were happy at work and home, the rest would fall in place. It was a win-win situation all round.

Within 6 months of starting NLP programs in the organisation, bottom line results started to spike and once the momentum began, there was no turning back.

2. The current workplace scenario not only requires you to produce exceptional performance but more importantly to understand behaviour and motivate your team to greater outcomes.

An NLP course gives you the tools for team effectiveness. NLP training would first teach you to identify the leverage points for making a change in behaviour, make change yourself and then with your team.

This sets the stage to solve problems and improve team effectiveness fast, working with the context of a person’s experience rather than getting into an endless “he said, she said” altercation.

3. Improving sales is at the heart of business generation and this is why many organisations who sign up for an NLP course always start with their sales force.

When the sales force is put through steps of learning how to build rapport, match language, negotiate effectively and motivate clients, there’s no stopping the upward sales curve.

Ideally, I would recommend that you learn NLP face-to-face but in the current Covid scenario, learning formats have been changed to a blended approach. This starts with an NLP online course, then components of pre-study in audio and book formats, plus face-to-face to pull it all together.

I find that this has its advantages too, allowing participants to learn through different styles by engaging in the five senses. There are a myriad number of reasons why an NLP course is well worth the time and money invested in it.

With such a range of processes at your disposal there will always be a solution for any problem in your organisation. The old mantra that "an organisation is only as good as its people" takes centre stage here. Take care of your people and the rest will fall in place.

Knowing that NLP training is an effective way to empower people in your organisation to solve problems and perform at their optimum level, doesn’t it make sense to pave the way for them to be successful?

Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information.