❏ It avoided saying anything that might mismatch the specific
meaning of situations for the listener and was therefore
good for building rapport.If you think hypnotic language (trance-inducing language) is the
preserve of psychotherapists, go to any regular business
presentation and check out the trances that have been induced
in the majority of the audience!I would first of all emphasize that this is not so much about
introducing hypnotic language into the workplace—the
workplace is full of it already, often inappropriately—it is,
rather, about being aware of what language patterns we are
using and choosing ones that fit our purpose and lead to a
win/win situation. If you take a business report or presentation
you are more likely to find that it already contains more
hypnotic language patterns than anything else. The use of
vague language (and it is more likely to be “clumsily” vague
than “artfully” vague) avoids confrontation and challenge. If it
is too vague for you to be sure exactly what it means, it is more
likely to be ignored than challenged, and that for many people
in business has been the safer option.
I quote from an article in a recent business magazine:Therefore, in view of the absence of any objective evidence
provided by the original proponents of the hypothesis, and the
failure of subsequent empirical investigations to adequately
support it, it may well be appropriate now to conclude that there
is not, and never has been, any substance to the conjecture that
people represent their world...This is overwhelmingly hypnotically vague language and is
taken from a report designed to highlight the ineffectiveness of
NLP! Yet the author appears to be unaware of the patterns in
his own language and the effect of those patterns on the reader.
What are some of the pitfalls we can avoid by learning
about hypnotic language?112 NLP AT WORK
The workplace is already full of
hypnotic language