NLP At Work : The Difference That Makes the Difference in Business

John Burton & Bob Bodenheimer (2000)Hypnotic Language: Its

Structure and Use, Crown House.

John Grinder & Richard Bandler (1981)Trance-Formations: Neuro-

Linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis, Real People

Press.

Sidney Rosen (ed.) (1991) My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching

Tales of Milton H. Erickson, W. W. Norton.

Last night I watched a football game on television. One team

wore their coloured jerseys indicating they were most likely the

home team while the other team wore white jerseys. Neither

team had a good win–loss record so the game seemed evenly

matched. Most of the players were fairly new to the professional

ranks except two on one team. I set this up this way to illustrate

how beliefs influence outcomes. The team carries a belief about

122 NLP AT WORK

THOUGHT PROVOKERS

1Take a piece of written communication that you have sent recently.

It could be a letter, an email, a report. Select three or four

sentences, especially ones in which you are making suggestions or

recommendations. Negate the sentences and list the

presuppositions on which you have based your statements. How

many of those presuppositions were you aware of using and how

many were used without conscious thought? What do you learn

from that?

2 Identify someone with whom you experience a lack of choice in

conversation. Write down some of the typical things they say to

you. What (if any) hypnotic language patterns are they using?

3 Think of someone who typically resists any suggestions you make.

Thinking back on the way you have put those suggestions, what

options do you now have that might work more effectively to reach

a win/win position?

4 Identify three situations where you believe that using hypnotic

language would support you in achieving mutually desirable

outcomes with another person.

REFERENCES