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

We are interested in how we

make sense of our experience

in the present

instead. However, if I were to do this, it might help him fix the

problem for a while but it would not resolve the underlying

pattern.

I could go back to the source of the pattern. It is possible,

for example, that David experienced such difficulties as a child

with his father or father figure equivalent that he was unable to

cope emotionally. When children experience overwhelming

emotional situations that they cannot deal with in a productive

way, they shut them out. Either that or they dissociate from the

experience or distort it in some way so that they are able to

make sense of something that is beyond comprehension for

them. I could take any of these approaches, but with NLP what

we are interested in is how we make sense of our experience

in the present. David has a structure that he brings to each of

the situations he experiences. Changing his place of work or

the people with whom he works will not ultimately make a

difference. What is important is that David learns how to

change the structure of his thinking and behavior that leads

him to replay a pattern of the past.

NLP-based coaching is about the process and not about

content. When we find a way to develop the process of what we

are doing, we influence all of the situations of the same kind.

When we teach a man how to fish we feed him for life.

So in essence what we are doing when we coach using NLP is

making the person being coached aware of the process they

are living out. Just becoming aware that this process is a choice

we are making in the present is an influence in itself. And

standing back and reviewing the structure of that experience

and deciding which bits we want to keep and which develop is

life changing. This is how with NLP we can learn to remove the

self-learned barriers and the obstacles to realizing our greater

potential.

An intruder recently broke into my mother’s house in Liverpool.

He stole jewelry and money. She is 90 years old and the shock

354 NLP AT WORK

Creating a platform for change