NLP training and association with LGATs
Date: January 17, 2007 01:55AM
NLP is nothing more than a way of refining behavioral and perceptual nuances, and understanding, to some extent, how external experience is mapped in the brain, and if luck, how to change that map for the better...
There are at least three major caveats when dealing with the NLP dog'n'pony show:
1. Now that a few trainers are making serious money with this, and the majority are not, some intensely f*cked up control dynamics have entered the game... the worst of these slimy little manouvers is waiting until you are right at the door, then presenting you with a sheaf of documents... one organization will require you to sign a document that states that if you have any cause to sue their organization, ot if they have any cause to sue you, YOU will pay ALL of their legal costs... in other words, regardless of merit, regardless of validity, if they want to sue you, YOU have agreed in advance to pay their legal costs, and all legal actions will take place in the jusidiction of their choosing... and futhermore, you will under no circumstances attemt to teach NLP or ANYTHING related to NLP (that's actually explicitly stated in the agreement you sign)... which means you have to keep buying your way up the scale until you are a "certified trainer", and you further agree to take "retrainings" with them every two years (and quite considerable expense) to maintain your trainer status....
2. One of the co-creators of NLP, John Grinder, was so disgusted with this practice that he has returned to directly training trainers because the quality of trainers had gotten so sleazy, slovenly, and all around causing right minded people who might otherwise be interested to run for the exits...
3. The other co-creator of NLP, Richard Bandler, was promoting himself on Paul McKenna's website as THE inventor of NLP, with no mention or reference to John Grinder, until John Grinder reappeared to straighten out the mess... now, mysteriously, Richard Bandler is described as the "co-creator" of NLP on McKenna's website.... cheezy or what ?
4. After a few days of having your head softened with endless NLP inductions, you will be in a state of hightened suggestibility... I have caught one well known trainer slipping in subtle suggestions of "addictive dependency" around day 3..... like some of us are too dumb to pick up on that, tight ?
5. The trainings usually make extravagant promises, while the staff, trainer assistants, and other support people are typically poorly trained, full of condescending or patronizing attitude (in the case of two organizations I've dealt with) or bored to tears and asleep on their feet....
6. the venues for these things are lousy hotel ballroom affairs often with bad lighting (hey, got to keep those electricity costs down) and wretched PA systems, rotgut coffee, and bad chairs.
7. many of the exercises are rehashes of things they've been doing for 20 years without any innovation... so much for "creativity" ... face it, there isn't much creativity or innovation in NLP... because the creative and innovative people bailed out years ago...
8. For what they deliver, they are apallingly overpriced.
9. There is almost no visible outside validation of their work or their theories, yet they speak in terms of solid, settled truths. They don't seem to enjoy being closely questioned either...
10. and remember, you signed a document saying that they can remove you from the training for any reason, or no reason, purely based on their opinion, and should you prove to be "difficult", meaning retaining a firmly critical stance and sticking to you inquiry, they can throw you out and if you sue them they will submit their legal bill to you...
Go figure. You want to be associated with this ?