Improve Focus and Develop Skills

How To Focus With Skill

By JD Meier

Your ability to focus is your ability to direct your attention. To improve your focus, you need to get your mind, body, and emotions on your side.

Your mind can be distracted by wandering thoughts or by spreading your attention across too many things. Your body can be distracted because it’s uncomfortable or you haven’t taken care of your basic needs. Your emotions can distract you because your heart is not in it, or you have a conflict in what you want to spend time on, or you have emotional issues that are distracting your mind.

To improve your focus, it helps to decide on what you want to accomplish, set a time limit, eliminate any distractions, and focus on what you want to accomplish during that time frame. Additionally, it helps to create a comfortable workspace, and to anticipate your body’s needs, whether that means dealing with thirst, dealing with hunger, or going to the bathroom.

Step 1. Identify Your Objective.

Get clear on what you want to focus on and why. This is the most important step. This is where you choose what to focus on. This is where you ask yourself, “What do I want to achieve?” This helps you form a clear picture in your mind of what you want to accomplish. This picture will remind you of your focus. The key is to identify both “what” you want to accomplish and “why” it matters. Keep it simple. Keep it clear. The key to keeping it simple and clear is to state the goal in one line, and see a simple picture of success that you can hold in your mind.

Get a Good Mental Picture

To create a simple mental picture to focus on:

• Say what you want as a one-line goal – “I want to finish this book,” “I want to get in the best shape of my life,” “I want to create a clutter-free workspace,” “I want to finish my presentation,” etc.


• Visualize what success will look like. See it as a simple picture. This is the picture you’ll hold in your mind and use to remind you of your focus.


• Imagine how you’ll feel when you achieve your results. Will you simply feel good or will you feel great?


• Identify why you want to achieve this. Keep it simple, but keep it compelling. It can be for you, or it can be for someone else.


• Connect it to your values. One way to make your focus is meaningful is to connect what you’re doing to your values. For example, you might value excellence, or learning, or growth, or fun. If you value fun, make it a game. If you value learning, find a way to learn something new while you go. If you value excellence, find a way to improve your approach.

By having a simple way to state your goal, you can remind yourself of your focus. By having a simple picture, you can work backwards from the goal. You can use this picture to inspire yourself to action. You can also use this picture to guide you on your path, and this picture also gives you a simple way to refocus when you fall off track.

Note — One way to empower yourself with more focus and inspiration is to focus on something bigger than yourself – for the greater good. This is especially powerful if you value contribution or helping lift others up or giving back.

Write it Down

Write down your objective and the action steps to get there is a simple way to focus. It’s a quick reminder, and it helps free up your mind to improve your focus. Use simple lists and bullets both as a way to map out your path, and as reminders. You can use lists and writing things down to help you focus, whether it’s for a simple task, or to plan your day, week,month or year.

To use writing to improve your focus:

• Write down your goals. List them as simple bullet points. Having a simple list will remind you of what you want to accomplish.


• Write down action steps or tasks for your goals. This will make it easy for you to always know your next action or task, without having to work too hard trying to remember what comes next. This will help you stay focused, especially when you are overloaded or overwhelmed.

Step 2. Identify Your Reward System

Identify a reward system that that makes it satisfying to retain your focus. People that are best at focusing have an internal reward system. It is the reward or satisfaction that makes focus work. Here are ways to develop an internal reward system:

• Focus on personal effectiveness. Gain satisfaction from the focusing itself, build a mental model of yourself as a focused person and act that out.


• Focus on a job well done. In this case, the result is the reward. Focus on something that you know will be very satisfying to complete. Once you are done, that result is your reward.


• Link it to good feelings. Find a way to feel good as you are focusing. If you feel good while you focus, you will naturally do so more often. This might mean reminding yourself why you are doing it. This might mean simply acknowledging yourself for making the effort. This might mean changing “how” you are doing it. Remind yourself little wins can go a long way for full engagement.

You can also use external rewards. Give yourself a reward once you are successful, something external that will be satisfying to you. Make sure it is something you control.

The benefit of the internal reward is that you control it, and it’s with you wherever you go. Additionally, focusing on internal rewards helps you avoid negative patterns. Some negative patterns include:

• Negative thinking about yourself, such as thinking of yourself as scatterbrained, or unable to focus. Instead, you focus on the opportunity to improve your ability. You can simply focus on the practice, or the performance of the task.


• Negative thinking about the activity, such as thinking about how much you don’t enjoy the activity. Instead, you focus on the why that makes it meaningful, or the how that makes it enjoyable.

Step 3. Set a Time Limit

Set a time limit to stay focused. Setting a time limit will help you stay focused. For example spend 20 minutes working on your goal. It’s easier to stay focused when you know it’s not forever. Also, having a time frame will help you pace yourself. Most importantly, you can use different strategies for staying focused for different time frames.

There are a variety of different time frames and you have to choose the most appropriate one for what you want to accomplish for your goal. Your time frame may not complete the goal, but it will get you further along. Then you can choose another time frame.

Here are some example time frames for focus:

• You can focus for 5 minutes.


• You can focus for 20 minute intervals


• You can focus for the day.


• You can focus for the week.


• You can focus on something for the month.


• You can focus on something for the year.

The more focused the time frame, the greater power you have to truly dedicate your focus to that one task.

Focus 8 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you have a hard time focusing, the trick is to start with a small time frame and gradually increase your attention span. Focus is like a muscle – the more you work at it, the stronger it gets. By practicing in intervals, you can learn to focus for 5 minute, 10 minute, 20 minute intervals. If you can focus without distractions for 20 minutes at a clip, you can dramatically improve your productivity, while reducing your task switching. In fact, a common success pattern is to focus for 20 minutes, then take a five minute break, especially when studying or doing knowledge-intensive work. Taking breaks will help you recharge and refocus.

Note – Using a metaphor can help you stay focused. For example, if you have a challenge and it feels like you’re hitting a wall, use a metaphor like “blasting through the wall” or “scaling the wall.” This will help you pace yourself as well as stay in the right mindset. If your mindset is working for you, then change the metaphor you are using to represent the challenge.

Step 4. Identify Your Approach

Identify your approach or strategy for focus. Having a strategy that works for you will help you improve over time. If your current approach is not working, then you can explore and test other approaches. One of the simplest approaches to test is to see how much you can do within your time limit. This makes it a game and frees you from analysis paralysis and perfectionism.

Here are some examples of common approaches:

• Focus on just getting something done within the time limit. Stay focused until your time limit is up. Focus on spending the time on it until your time runs out.


• Focus on quantity. Do as many or as much as you can until the time runs out.


• Focus on quality. Focus on doing a great job within the time limit.


• Make a fast pass through and then go back and drill down in more detail. This is a focus on speed, but not necessarily quantity. It’s more about going across before diving down.


• Make a game of it. Find a way to have fun.


• Test yourself. Challenge yourself to beat your record.


• Improve your skill. Use the time you are already spending to get better at what you do.

You can combine strategies. The trick is to pick a strategy and run with it. If it’s not working, then change your approach.

Step 5. Dump Your Distractions.

Make a time and place for things Clear away internal and external distractions. If you have a time and place for things, this will help you quickly eliminate common distractions.

Clear Away Internal Distractions

• Address your body. Deal with any thirst, hunger, or bathroom needs.


• Clear your mind. Dump what’s on your mind down on paper. Create a simple parking lot for thoughts, ideas, and distractions. This will free up your mind to focus on the task at hand. Simply write everything that is on your mind down on paper so that you can go back to it later. If something else pops up on your mind, simply add it to this list.


• Respond to your self-talk. If your self-talk or mental chatter or internal questions are distracting you, then simply write them down. Remind yourself that now is not the time. Write it down and deal with it later. Remind yourself that you carved out this time to focus on the task at hand. When you have a time and place for things, it’s easier to focus and to refocus.

Clear Away External Distractions

You know what distracts you. Structure yourself for success. Here are some reminders of things that can be distractions:

• Clear your workspace. If you declutter your workspace, you’ll have less things in your way to tug at your attention.


• Shut down any communication distractions. This includes phones, email, social media, etc.


• Address any people distractions. Let others know you don’t want to be disturbed. One simple way to make this easier is to let people know when you are available and when it’s a better time to interrupt you. What’s not effective is when people have to keep guessing at when they can interact with you.


• Address any site, smell, or sound distractions. For example, if there is noise you can’t eliminate, then find your favorite music or find a way to add white noise. If there are shiny objects that keep calling your name, then get them out of your site.


• Address any comfort distractions. This includes making sure that temperate is not an issue. Makes sure you can find a comfortable position, so that your body is not distracting you.

3 Ways to Refocus

To keep yourself on track, you need a few simple ways to refocus:

• Change the Question. You can change your focus by changing your question. If you find yourself focusing on the wrong things, then try changing your question. For example, instead of asking yourself, “Why am I so slow?”, you might ask yourself, “How can I speed up?” You might ask yourself, “What are three things I want out of this exercise?” Whenever you get distracted or lose focus, rather than “tell” yourself to focus, simply refocus by changing the question.


• Remind yourself of the goal. If you lose focus, simply remind yourself of what you want to accomplish. Don’t beat yourself up over getting off track. Instead, use that same energy to focus and make progress on your goal.


• Find a way to chart your progress. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated. It could be crossing off items on a list, or writing marks down on a board. By charting your progress, you’ll remind yourself to refocus on the goal.

Common Scenarios and Solutions

Here are some common scenarios and how to address them:

• How To Focus Now. Ask yourself, what do you want out of this moment? Ask yourself, how can you get more XYZ out of this moment?


• How To Focus for 20 Minute Intervals. Set a goal. Use a timer.


• How To Focus for a Day. Identify three outcomes or wins that you want for the day. Set a mid-day checkpoint, and a checkpoint at the end of the day, to check your results.


• How To Focus for a Week. On Mondays, identify three outcomes or wins that you want for the week. Set a time on Fridays, to review your results. Set a checkpoint mid-week to evaluate your progress. Review your three goals for the week each day.


• How To Focus for Month. At the start of the month, identify three outcomes that you want for the month. On Mondays, review your three goals for the month. Each Friday, review your progress towards your three outcomes for the month. Set a checkpoint mid-month to re-evaluate your three outcomes for the month. Consider making your focus a 30 Day Improvement Sprint, where each day you invest a small amount of time or go for little wins that add up over the month.


• How To Focus for a Year. Identify three wins for the year. Assign deadlines for your wins for the year to specific months on the calendar. Review your progress towards your wins each month. If your focus requires significant investment, then consider making one of your items a theme for a given month, and add extra focus to your goal for 30 days.


• How To Focus for a Lifetime. Identify three wins that you want for your life. Periodically invest a month, such as a 30 Day Improvement Sprint, to focus on one of these achievements.

Troubleshooting Your Focus

We all have our days. Sometimes it will be easier to focus than others. Don’t get discouraged. Instead, take action. Here are some things you can try to address your issues with focus:

• Change the questions you are using. If you are using questions to change your focus, but they aren’t working, then try some new questions. This is the simplest way to really hone in on which questions help you achieve the best focus, and the best part is they should be highly reusable, every time you need them. You will get better over time.


• Change the time frame. If 20 minutes is too long, then try 5 minutes. If 30 minutes is too short, then try 40. Experiment to find your sweet spot. For example, for many people, their sweet spot is 20 minutes of intense focus, and then take a 5 or 10 minute break.


• Change your approach. If a time limit isn’t working, then try a quantity limit, such as “identify five items.” If a quantity limit isn’t working, then try a quality limit, and see how good you can do. Find a way to connect it to your values. For example, if you like adventure, than make it an adventure. If you like to learn, then make it a learning exercise. If you like excellence, then make it about excellence.


• Change your pace. Try speeding up or slowing down. If you can create a sense of urgency, then you may find it easier to stay fully engaged. If you find that creating a sense of urgency stresses you out, then slow down you r pace and focus on skill and quality.


• Change the time or change the place. When all else fails, one of the best ways to change your results is to change the time or change the place. Maybe you can focus better at night or vice-versa. Maybe you need to try another room, or try another place entirely. The key is to find what works for you, and then to understand why it works for you.

One thing to keep in mind is that stress can work against your focus. If you keep finding yourself in stressful scenarios, than remind yourself to focus on what you control and let the rest go. One of the best ways to deal with stress is to take action, and if you take focused action, using the steps above, then you can help cope with any stressful situations that you face.

About the Author

J.D. Meier shares skills to pay the bills and lead a better life at Sources of Insight.com and Getting Results.com. On Sources of Insight, you’ll find insight and action for personal development to help you “stand on the shoulders of giants”, and make the most of what you’ve got. J.D. is also the creator of Getting Results the Agile Away, a simple system for meaningful results.

Related articles

• 7 Strategies to Improve Happiness & Overcome Procrastination


• Secrets to Good Listening


• The Power of Negative Thinking for Traders


• How to focus in difficult times (and get back to work!)


• Keep People Focused


• What is a loss of focus costing you? And how to regain yours.


• Dreams Come True


• Goal Setting 101


• 10 Surprising Findings in the Science of Motivation


• Golden Rules of Goal Setting

Robert Recommends...

• Energy Comes From Excitement


• Motivation. Effort. Focus.


• Finding Your Motivation


• Beliefs Cause Everything We Do


• Keep People Focused


• The 7 Secrets of Success

The post Improve Focus and Develop Skills appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

The Magic You Can Perform With Reframing

Reframing for Creatively New Managing Options

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

We all frame and we all reframe because this describes how we think, represent information, use language, and create meaning. Initially, we frame because our minds do the work that “minds” do (i.e. process information, reason, draw conclusions, etc.) by using frames-of-reference. Whenever you think, you refer to something and reference other ideas to make sense of it.

Think about anything, and we automatically, quickly, and unthinkingly set it in some frame. By framing, we establish the classes and categories by which we then think. Without such framing, we would not know how to even think about something. We frame by defining, associating, remembering, and using various reference points.

Any manager thinking about a new hire, an end of the year appraisal, brainstorming a new project, or a celebration for a successful project, thinks about things in terms of other things. We think about things using various measurements, references, concepts, and considerations. These things determine how we think about things. Swiss watchmakers used to control the market for watches. They thought of those watches as mechanisms with gears and springs. If you wanted to make quality watches, that was how you made them. Joel Arthur Barker in Future Edge tells about Swiss watchmakers first learning about electronic quartz watches, developed in Switzerland’s Nauchatel research institute in 1968. But they dismissed the new kind of watch.

Why?

The new watches didn’t have what all watches have-gears and springs.

As a result, by 1981, the Swiss had lost 50,000 of their 62,000 jobs they had in that industry in 1968. Why? Because, unencumbered with the Swiss frame of reference, the Japanese had taken to making electronic quartz watches and had captured the market.

The Magic of Frames

When it comes to frames of reference, whoever sets the frame controls the subsequent experience. There’s that much “magic” in frames. Frames have that much influence in our lives over our perceptions, creativity, and ability to operate at peak performance in our businesses. We might even paraphrase the old proverb, “As a person frames, so he or she is.” With this recognition of the governing power of frames, we now ask:

• As a manager, what frames have you set in your business with regard to production, quality, handling disagreements and conflicts, customer service, pay raises, operating as a learning organization, staying current with the ever-changing markets, etc.?


• What frames do you operate from as a manager?


• How do your frames help or hinder you in terms of your own creativity?

The Invisibility of Frames

Most people don’t have an immediate answer to these questions. That highlights a very powerful and profound aspect of frames, namely, their invisibility. Their very invisibility, in fact, gives them their power. As with the example of the Swiss watchmakers, this invisibility can not only make it impossible for people to meet the changes in their markets creatively, it can rob them of the ability to even perceive those changes.

The Swiss had suffered from frame blindness. Trusting in their frame of reference as more than just a way of thinking, they had taken their perspective, their mental mapping as the same as “reality.” Knowing full well what a watch was, how to make it, and framing these thoughts with higher level confirming thoughts (“We have history on our side as proof.”), they could not see the change abroad in their field.

Then comes the Re-Framing

We reframe when we shift how we think about something and use a different reference structure. Then we put a piece of experience or information into a different classification or category. We look at it from a different perspective. This initiates creativity as we create a new point of view about things. Reframing creates new frames and so brings new ways of looking at things into existence. Poor reframing merely calls something by another name, but nobody believes it. Much of the “spin-doctoring” that goes on in politics, education, news reporting, etc. these days seeks to shift perspective (hence thinking, understanding, feeling, and responding), yet fails whenever the reframing stands out as too obvious. When it calls attention to itself it fails. Powerful, elegant, and transformative reframing occurs when we reclassify a piece of behavior, experience, or emotion in such a way that it makes even more sense, and, when it leads to much more effective thinking, feeling, and acting.

“To not achieve an important goal isn’t necessarily failure. Not at all. Rather, it may be feedback that creates informed responding for the second round. To prematurely judge something as a failure when you’re still in the refining and honing process only prevents

ongoing development.”

In Reframing We Create a New Beginning

Our first frames come from our first experiences and learnings. When we first encounter “work” we use that experience as our frame-of-reference for how to think about it later. If we had experienced “work” as something fun, productive, an expression of creativity or personal power, we would then use that original reference experience as our frame of reference for thinking about work thereafter. If we first experienced it as a punishment, an intrusion into our time, as dull and boring, as a necessary evil, etc., we would have that as our reference. Reframing involves the process of re-structuring how we represent and think about something.

As it provides a new reference structure or experience, it invites a whole new range of responses into existence. Experiences become references, and references then operate as our frame-of-references. We then use it to determine how to make meaning of things. This explains the formative influence of the experiences that occur in work environments and that have occurred. We use them as frames. Experiences with previous employers, bosses, supervisors, managers, etc. set the frame for how we think about and relate to today’s management.

From Frames to Reframing to Frame Games

The power that a manager has in communicating actually involves the power of framing and reframing. Skill in this area puts into the manager’s hands the tools for managing the conceptual atmosphere within which a business operates. In reframing, the manager works with the “mental models” of peers, bosses, and employees in order to create new frameworks for thinking.

The ability to frame and reframe grows from the awareness that nothing has “meaning” in and of itself, but that meaning in the human sense emerges as a mental construct-a way of thinking about something. My colleague, Dr. Bob Bodenhamer, and I have written an entire book on conversational reframing (Mind Lines: Lines for Changing Minds, 1997). In that work, we identified seven directions for sending a brain. These seven directions, in turn, provide seven dimensions for reframing. These included:

• Deframing: pulling a piece of meaning apart.


• Reframing: reclassifying some action or idea.


• Pre-framing: setting up a frame ahead of time that establishes a perspective.


• Post-framing: setting up a new time perspectives from a future vantage point so that as a person looks back upon an action, it takes on new and different meanings.


• Counter-framing: providing counter examples.


• Outframing: stepping aside from a piece of meaning and setting a new and higher frame about the idea.


• Metaphorical framing: using story, metaphors, and non-propositional language to frame things using an analogous situation.

Every frame controls what we pay attention to and how we order our attention. Every frame also controls how we feel, talk, and respond. So the Swiss showed no lack of intelligence, integrity, or acumen when they looked at electronic quartz watches. They perceived, understood, and felt about that according to their frame. Actually, it took intelligence to bring their frame “to bear upon” the new information because they had to check it out, compare it with their referencing system, and recognize that “it does not fit.” It also took integrity to be true to the governing frameworks and to say “No” to the new.

What they didn’t account for was the frame itself. Their frame of mind that put them in opposition to the unproven, and untrustworthy electronic watches came from their frame of reference. It all worked perfectly well. Except they trusted their frame too much. They failed to creatively adapt to the new discoveries and the changing market the discoveries would generate. They didn’t creatively wonder about their frame. They took it so much for granted that they confused it with reality. Later, when “the territory” changed, they found themselves still operating from some old maps that no longer enabled them to navigate in the changing world.

“He Who Sets the Frame Controls the Game”

How do we avoid getting blind-sided by our frames? How do we use reframing on others and ourselves in creative, respectful, and elegant ways?

I’d suggest we start by recognizing that we have and use many levels of the mind. We have a “mind” about whatever first level or primary level tasks and challenges before us. We have thoughts about people, events, markets, etc. These thoughts themselves create and set frames and might need reframing.

We also have higher thoughts. We have thoughts about those thoughts (meta-thinking or meta-cognition). What do we think about our thinking? What thinking patterns have we brought to bear upon the first level thoughts? Do these serve us well? Do they close down our minds, make us rigid, dogmatic, etc.?

And we have even higher-level thoughts about our thinking patterns.

Given these levels of mind, perhaps most important, the creative task of reframing should involve establishing a Quality Control Frame of Mind about the functioning of our mind in thinking, feeling, perceiving, etc. From time to time we should step back from our thinking, reminding ourselves of the frame blindness that caused the Swiss watchmakers to lose control of their market, and ask some creativity-influencing questions:

• What am I missing?


• How could I be fundamentally wrong?


• Is there a better approach?


• What changes might radically affect this?


• What frames of referencing have I been using?


• What other frames of referencing could I use?


• Who or what might be setting a new frame for this field or market?

Staying current and up-to-date most essentially involves having a flexible and adaptable frame of mind. To think in that way necessitates not over-believing in our mental maps, but recognizing that they are ultimate “just maps” and that as long as we live in a world full of change, we have to keep updating our maps.

We reframe precisely because we find or create better frameworks for thinking and operating. And we engage in such reframing when that better frame creates new market possibilities that enable us to respond creatively .

Playing the Frame Game

You can begin exploring your own frames from the standpoint of what games they cause you to play. Simply ask the, “What do I think about …?” question regarding any aspect that applies to your business:

• What do I think about the Internet? Web sites? Cyber-cash?


• What do I think about the state of a given market?


• What do I think about current and coming changes?

Summary

We enrich and expand our mental flexibility (and hence creativity) as we recognize that we inevitably frame and reframe things. That occurs at the primary level of experience. It concerns what we are thinking about. We shift this to an even higher level when we apply the same creativity to our reflexive thinking. This means we reframe our own framing with a willingness to stay current, run a “Quality Control” on our frames to make sure they are enhancing our lives, and recognizing that every mental model that we adopt represents a dated and fallible map.

References:

Hall, L. Michael; Bodenhamer, Bob G. (1997). Mind-lines: Lines for changing Minds. Grand Jct., CO: E.T. Publications.

Hall, L. Michael (2000). Frame Games: He Who Sets the Frame Controls the Game. (In press).

Author: L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., cognitive psychologist and author of more than a dozen works in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, is co-founder of The Institute of Neuro-Semantics. He can be reached via his web sites:

<http://ift.tt/1pPBuh1;

<http://ift.tt/1pPBvkV;

Michael@neurosemantics.com <mailto:Michael@neurosemantics.com>

Related articles

• Reframing Life: Yourself, Relationships, Community, Dreams even Your Business


• ‘Frames of reference’: Please weigh in


• Don’t be tricked into responding to a reframe with an intellectual argument.


• Framing the Mother-In-Law


• It’s Time to Reframe the Apocalypse


• Reframing The Frame Of Mind


• Reframing


• “Organizing principles work as calls to action, as frames of reference, of sources of inspiration….”


• What Would a Real ‘Right to Work’ Look Like?


• interiors

Robert Recommends...

• Expectations in the Workplace


• Improve Focus and Develop Skills


• Are Your Strengths Under Control?


• Enhanced Happiness with Reframing


• The Wealth-Building Model


• NLP As a Strategic Business Tool

The post The Magic You Can Perform With Reframing appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

NLP As a Strategic Business Tool

By David Molden

I have been a proponent of NLP since 1992, and an early adopter of NLP training in the company where I was National Service and Training Manager. It was a place where forward thinking, confident people thrived and created rapid growth. The most competitive were the first to seek out NLP to help them succeed. Initially these were the sales executives looking for anything to give them the edge in a highly competitive marketplace. They were soon followed by marketing and management teams.

There were many successes like the sales executive who won a £60m contract with BT because he knew how to create strong rapport with the key influencers. It was a highly creative and dynamic period and NLP was still very new to the UK. Today NLP is finding its position centre stage as a universal approach to many strategic business challenges. Those who are succeeding with it have learnt that applying NLP requires a good degree of understanding and a willingness to break free from conventional thinking.

Key business areas where NLP is having a positive impact:

• 
  
  
  

  Behavior Engineering and programming psychology (Photo credit: HikingArtist.com)

  
  
  
  

  Leadership

  
  


• Employee engagement


• Recruitment


• Communication


• Marketing


• Sales


• Presentations


• Meetings


• Project Management


• Productivity


• Team working


• Training


• Stress relief

Conventional thinking is a major limitation to the success of NLP in the workplace so my intention here is twofold -

• To outline some of the problems encountered by people trying to use NLP in business but failing to have the impact they expected.


• To highlight how to apply NLP for maximum benefit.

How not to do it

NLP is short for neuro-linguistic programming which describes what happens in NLP training courses – you learn how you communicate through verbal and non-verbal language so that you can change, or re-programme your thinking for positive gain. You also get an acute understanding of the communication process between people, and some very practical models of motivation. It has been called the study of the art of subjective experience, keying into how a person is thinking at any moment, and responding according to what you are sensing.

One of the mistakes often made is to think that someone who has trained as a Practitioner can pass their learning on to others. Whilst learning NLP it is unlikely that Practitioners will be able to focus on the subtle processes used by their NLP trainers that ensure learners are motivated and learning sticks. Because NLP is such an exciting subject, and people get so much from it, they tend to be enthusiastic about teaching it to others, but teaching NLP, and demonstrating what you have learned to others are not the same.

Another mistake made by organisations is to use it to ‘sheep-dip’ everyone in NLP. The initial response to NLP can be like the response to Marmite – you either love it or hate it. So sheep-dipping is not an effective way forward – it is also unnecessary as you will read later in this article.

An effective approach

The format that we have developed over the years, and which we recommend to our clients has five main stages:

1. Specify your audience


2. Define outcomes


3. Pace current experience


4. Lead to a new experience


5. Keep it real

1. Specify your audience

First decide the part of your business where you want to apply an NLP approach. If you start with a specific area then you will be able to measure the progress made in that area as a result of the effort invested. The people in this area are your audience, and your job is to motivate them to participate in the show. Sales performance is one of the easiest applications to measure, and results will come quickly. Most sales people will be motivated to learn anything they believe will help increase their sales volume.

Other areas such as customer service, employee engagement and team-working may take a little longer for the benefits to filter through, although the ‘champion’ approach creates a pull as opposed to a push for change. By training the people who are already up for change (champions or change agents) and allowing them to demonstrate their positivity and expertise, you create a Mexican wave-like chain reaction in the organisation. This requires no pushing as more and more people volunteer to sign up for the programme. This is true engagement and ownership in action and prepares the organisation for embracing future change initiatives.

2. Outcomes

Having chosen your audience the very first question to answer is ‘what do you want NLP to do for you?’ and this leads to the ultimate question – what is your outcome? Deciding on your outcomes will help you to focus the application and measure the results, but these are only your outcomes. If you want to engage your audience they will need personal outcomes too. This is such an important aspect of any initiative it must be included but is very often overlooked. Motivation to learn requires a personal value attached to what you are learning. It is common for learning or change initiatives to fail or struggle because this aspect has been omitted from the front-end process.

3. Pacing current experience

One of the first lessons of NLP is that people will let you influence them if they feel you understand them and are sincere in your intentions. When this happens they are happy to be led to new ideas. A typical example can be found in the response to cynicism where the most common reaction is to defend your ideas. This usually ends up in a heated exchange of defensive positions. The NLP approach is to respect that the cynic has a view by saying something like, ‘and you are right to be cynical about new ideas until you have thoroughly tested them out, otherwise we just accept anything as valid. I only want you to agree with me after you have tried it for yourself’.

Pacing is all about building sufficient rapport such that trust in the relationship is created. This makes everything else easier to achieve as people will want to succeed. This dynamic is effective with 1:1 interactions, small groups and entire organisations. The only difference between them is the frame you work within for each. For example, your frame for a 1:1 interaction will incorporate the needs and desires of the individual, and your communication will be determined by his/her communication. Your frame with a small group will be the same as for the 1:1, but you will utilise additional communication techniques to ensure that you pace every individual. With an entire organisation you will do the same as with the small group, and use additional communication techniques that include a wider and more disparate larger group of people. You are also likely to frame your interaction with them in a much bigger context.

When it comes to pacing and leading large groups you only have to think about a union dispute to see how management frequently fail to recognise the efforts of a workforce. If instead of pushing through changes managers were to invest in showing appreciation for day-to-day achievements, there would be less confrontation. All too often disputes arise because managers attempt to lead without first pacing past and current experience.

4. Leading to a new experience

After sufficient pacing you can begin to lead. If you have done a good job at pacing then leading is a natural process. The way you lead will depend upon the motivation patterns of your audience. Whether 1:1, small team or large group, your ability to listen and observe motivation patterns will guide you in how best to lead. The more information you are tuning in to the easier it will be for you to lead.

If your intentions are pure, honest and sincere then people will willingly be led by you. If you have hidden agendas or are insincere in any way then none of this is going to work. We all have the ability to sense insincerity. It is picked up unconsciously through voice tone and body language.

The skills of leading are learned on an NLP Practitioner course, and they relate as much to the development of leaders as to any other area of business. The skills leaders need to develop, engage and motivate their teams are all found in NLP. Frequently we find that managers attending our programmes return to their organisations and begin to exert more positive influence in a widening sphere of influence. They have learned how to lead in a very elegant and natural way.

5. Keeping it real

Beware theories, generalisations and negative conjecture. These are the limitations of conventional training courses, lectures and seminars. A theory is only useful if you can apply it. Applying a new theory usually requires a new behaviour which develops from practise – otherwise old habits tend to prevail. So many people are able to recite theories but unable to behave according to the theory.

One of the most common questions we hear at the beginning of our NLP courses goes something like this, ‘would a person do x in this situation?’ The questioner is attempting to make a prediction for all people in such a situation. Of course this is nonsense. Our typical reply to this question is ‘which person?’ As I said earlier NLP is the study of the art of subjective experience, and so unlike conventional psychology we don’t seek to define ‘norms’, because they don’t really help us. We want to work with subjective, in-the-moment experience. In this way we can be practical and effective with our interactions.

Conjecture is another barrier to learning. Some people, when listening to a trainer describe a technique or scenario, will play it out in their head by saying to themselves, ‘how would this work?’ In doing so they are putting themselves in the frame and imagining how it would play out for them. This is fine if you are just remembering the process, but some people take this further and imagine a negative conclusion to the process. This brings them to say, ‘this wouldn’t work for me’ and hey presto, a barrier to learning is created. You can only really know if something will work by trying it out yourself – not just in your head, but actually doing it whilst being open about the outcome.

These are only a few of the more common barriers to learning new skills. There are many more which conventional trainers are unlikely to notice. NLP trainers are highly trained to spot all these learning barriers and adapt their teaching style to help individuals overcome them and begin learning. If there is one thing that NLP offers everyone it’s the ability to learn smarter and faster.

Skills

NLP is similar to other business improvement methodologies in that there is a process, a number of models and some underlying principles. But this is where the similarities end. One of the reasons why companies fail to implement business improvement strategies, or feel the need to force them onto their managers is the lack of recognition for soft skills requirement. Holding meetings, analysing business processes and ticking boxes is the easy part of any methodology, but real buy-in and achievement comes when managers communicate effectively as part of the process. This includes questioning for clarity, facilitating others’ contributions, engaging people to get involved and presenting projects with enthusiasm. If companies invested as much in communication skills as they do the tick-box part of the process they would gain so much more and wouldn’t need to use force.

It is understandable why these crucial skills are overlooked. The consultants who bring the methodologies into your organisation often don’t recognise the importance of communication skills, and they may not know how to deliver them. It takes a much higher level of training ability than relying on a simple show and tell method of teaching.

Sensory acuity

This is a core skill of NLP and includes the ability to listen actively, recognise voice tone changes, notice body language whilst also observing patterns such as decision-making processes, limiting beliefs, uncertainty and levels of engagement. This is an advanced skill which requires ongoing development, but can be learned fairly quickly from an expert NLP trainer.

Behavioural flexibility

People rarely engage in a project because they have heard your argument for it. You need to be flexible in your language and behaviour and adapt your messages to fit the needs of your people. The use of language is a major aspect of NLP training and usually makes an immediate positive impact on the business, in clarity of information, smarter decision-making and engaging employees.

Pattern recognition

NLP skills make people smarter. You begin to see patterns of behaviour at both micro and macro levels, some of which are effective and others not so effective. Coupled with the ability to listen, engage and connect you suddenly become much more resourceful as an individual.

NLP skills have much to offer – just as much, if not more than any business improvement methodology. The secret is in the approach taken to introduce NLP skills into your organisation. Don’t let the enthusiasm to learn cause you to make the mistakes mentioned earlier, but use the enthusiasm to find real experts and specialists in business NLP who can give you sound advice and support you along the way.

David Molden, Fellow CIPD

http://ift.tt/1iEWMum

Related articles

• eBook vs. Printed Press Debate


• NLP: the missing framework


• You Cannot Change Anything…


• Introducing the NLP Discoveries Blog


• The Reluctant Sales Person – Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)


• Conference for Healing, Hypnosis, Fun, Body, Mind, Spirit, Money -…


• Teachers – Can we be ‘Outstanding’ Every Day?


• Power Selling Sales Training in Dubai By Meirc


• ‘Outstanding’ teachers – It’s not what you say; it’s the way that you say it!


• Bandler & Co

Robert Recommends...

• The Benefits Of NLP


• Use NLP to Change Your Personal History


• NLP Concepts and Methods


• An Introduction To NLP


• How to improve your life with NLP


• Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)

The post NLP As a Strategic Business Tool appeared first on Robert JR Graham.