Business Applications of NLP: 30 Activities for Training

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is now part of the repertoire of most business trainers. Business Applications of NLP builds on Roy Johnson's original 40 Activities for Training with NLP and, with co-author John Easton, provides a companion volume that focuses on key factors in organizational performance such as decision making, influencing, leadership, managing conflict, meetings, motivation, and team building. As with 40 Activities, each activity is presented in a standard sequence incorporating objectives, timing, group size, relevant applications and resources required. There is a step-by-step guide for the trainer, supported by review questions and ready-to-copy masters for all handouts and OHP transparencies. Although each activity is self-contained, the authors suggest ways of linking them to related activities, and at the end of the manual they provide model programmes for ten different courses of varying lengths. Anyone involved in business training, or the use of NLP in business, whether as in-house trainer or independent consultant/provider, will find Business Applications of NLP a rich storehouse of ideas and materials.

Table of Contents:
NLP essentials; Using the manual; Skills/activities matrix. Part I Visionary Leadership: The team’s vision - engage the team in creating a vivid picture of its desired future; Setting team goals that motivate - bring team goals to life so they are motivational and easy to communicate; Modelling effective leaders - model and reproduce the performance of leaders; Integrating the vision - put the vision into action. Part II Influencing with Words: Dovetailing values - elicit the team's core values; Seductive communication - deliver motivational messages; Indirect influence - influence indirectly to avoid resistance and opposition; Good news and bad news - give bad news but emphasise the good news; Entrancing meetings - take the lead in a meeting, using artful questions; Cooperative assertion - say 'no' without losing rapport or jeopardizing future cooperation. Part III Business Planning: From story to strategy - generate new approaches to old problems; Innovative mind-sets - build new perspectives on problems; Harnessing the unconscious - create the ideas that are the lifeblood of business success; The active eye - use eye movements for problem-solving and decision-making; Turning dreams into reality - create imaginative, realistic and robust strategies. Part IV Working with Groups: Staying in touch with your audience - make sure your message is understood; Mindful preparation - prepare for meetings by self-modelling; The meeting process - run creative and effective meetings; 3-D meeting review - gather feedback about meetings. Part V Self and People Management: Relaxed performance - achieve a sense of alert relaxation for good performance; The key to peak performance - use your intuition to enhance performance and minimize stress; From crisis to conclusion - manage stressful fears; Changing liabilities into assets - redescribe weaknesses as opportunities. Part VI Unlocking People's Potential: Clarifying responsibility - set goals with a (miraculous) difference; Plot

About the Author :
Roy Johnson and John Eaton are certified NLP Trainers with the International NLP Trainers' Association; their combined experience in NLP training totals more than 30 years. They are senior partners in Coaching Solutions, a coaching organization using NLP as a basis for individual and corporate change. Roy Johnson also runs the award-winning management and sales training company PACE, while John Eaton, a qualified psychotherapist, has a thriving counselling practice. In earlier careers they were senior managers with Rank Xerox and EXFINCO, respectively.

Review :
'... I found this an interesting collection of activities usable in a wide range of programmes, many of the methods requiring novel approaches to well-known topics and consequently offer a change of atmosphere from activities in the non-NLP manner that might be becoming stale.' Training Journal, October 1999 'I am impressed with the product and have found it useful ...No matter what the outcome, I am convinced that (the exercises) will be effective. Coaches, facilitators and trainers will find their own behaviour changing as they plan how to teach the skills and techniques to others.' People Management, October 1999 'a well-structured and carefully thought-out manual ... I was particularly impressed with the comprehensive way in which each activity is described ... The whole collection is very well assembled. Each activity appears to have been tried and tested, judging from the comments and details given - I'd feel pretty comfortable to launch into one of these with a group ... This collection is very well put together and will interest organizational trainers and facilitators who are apply[ing] NLP in their work and are prepared to pay for Johnson and Eaton's experience and the convenience of having all these activities devised, compiled, tested and prepared.' NLP World, November 1999 'The book is an excellent resource that provides a rich storehouse of ideas and materials.' IT Training, November 1999 'Another very clear, explicit and practical tool for personal and business development.' Rapport 48, Summer 1999