This article nicely captures the day-long session on neuro-linguistic programming, the concluding segment of the recently-held TL offsite. Written by Sunayana Nair of team Blue Print.
“It is only through your conscious mind that you can reach the subconscious. Your conscious mind is the porter at the door, the watchman at the gate. It is to the conscious mind that the subconscious looks for all its impressions” – Robert Collier
Sounds interesting? That is the how I could best sum up the Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) workshop conducted at the offsite training (my first one at Blue Lotus). Now let the term not baffle you, it is not as complicated as it sounds and it is not some new mind-reading software or language developed by Microsoft. To put it simply NLP is a unique model of how people can learn, motivate themselves and change their behavior in order to achieve excellence in any endeavor. Mr. Yatin Bolkar who was our instructor took us through a most interesting session, effectively mixing theory with role plays/exercises.
“NLP helps to understand how you process the information from the world around you,” Mr. Yatin Bolkar began. The statement instantly caught my attention. I have never found anything more mysterious than the functioning of the human mind. I join another hundreds of millions who have contributed to the success of the myriad “Know-your-mind-prototype” bestseller books (among others) that the market is flooded with. Well that statement also got me thinking – “Well that’s a lot to achieve in a session Mr. Borkar, hope you are good!” Now when I look back, I am aware of how I started internalising opinions about the presenter and the session as it unraveled itself, taking cues from the way the presenter was talking, the words he was using. All of us have constant internal dialogues and internalise experiences, fears, judgments, opinions, beliefs, attitudes which eventually give us our own unique personification of self. NLP is more about being aware of and understanding this process of communicating with self or others. Hence, NLP is valuable wherever human communications skills can enhance results. As Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski, who introduced the term NLP said, “God may forgive you for your sins but your nervous system won’t!”
NLP was co-created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in 1970s. Mr. Borkar defined it as Technology of Mind and Science of Living which switches the fundamental faculties of Reasoning, Creative thinking, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving with very handy and subtle mind tools.
Mr. Bolkar held our attention introducing us to concepts like Johari Window (4 quarters of communicating mind), Learning styles (Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic), Universal Human Modeling (Deletion – Retain selective part of experience that you think is relevant; Generalisation – Learn from experience hence generalize events/learning; Distortion – misrepresentation of reality hence justifying actions/beliefs/attitudes wrongly).
We undertook fascinating exercises to help us facilitate our understanding of the various concepts. The exercises, the best part of the session, acted as effective tools to understand the concepts better. The Sensory Acuity exercises wherein our visual, auditory and kinesthetic senses were tuned to be more receptive without biases set the momentum going. The breathing technique was a unique, impressionable conflict management concept we were introduced to. It involves synchronizing one’s breathing with the person whom we desire to influence (demanding client, erratic boss, stubborn subordinate, peers etc). I believe Tapash has already sent an e-mail to the entire office detailing the same, so I won’t go into details. But it was easily the most pursued, thought-provoking and debated concept that evening and understandably so – imagine knowing the secret mantra to make a client look your way! We got to incorporate the same in the role plays that followed the theory. We were to enact a scene that’s fairly common – facing an erratic client or a demanding boss – and use all verbal non verbal clues along with breathing technique to look for a feasible outcome. The outcome may not necessarily mean the completion of a goal; rather it can indicate the completion of an important step in a process. I don’t know for others but what worked for me, while enacting the role play, after trying to persuade my boss (Arindam) with all kinds of logic, was simply admitting the ‘mistake’ (even when it wasn’t supposed to be my fault) and saying – “I guess you are right boss. Please tell me what we can do next!” All the accusations died down and Arindam (who played the mean boss to perfection) laughed and said – “You got me now!” All of us including Bishi who was the moderator laughed. Now you know why NLP can act as the best panacea for all work-related problems. We also had some other really interesting questionnaires we filled to find out more about our learning styles (auditory, visual, kinesthetic). Another interesting insight that Mr. Borkar shared with us was the observation of eye accessing movements that can also indicate if a person is internally processing the information visually, auditory or kinesthetically.
So what did I learn from this workshop – quite a few things! For one, a training program (that sounded so science-centric) is not an antonym for fun. On a serious note, I am sure all of us were aware of most of the things discussed, but the exercises were very revelatory and impressive since I got to experience it first-hand. If only we were acutely aware and in-tune with the kind of information, communication we constantly feed our mind as fodder (most of the time at least), we would understand ourselves and in turn other people better. The learning that reinforced itself on my conscious mind as we wound up the session and the sun started bidding us a lazy adieu was that the key to understanding others was to understand oneself. Once we understand ourselves, our biases, our preconceived notions, and keep challenging our own inherited/self-reinforced beliefs, only then will we understand others – their fears, worries, biases and views - whatever they may be. If only the world were such an ideal place to live in.
The New Year seems to have got off to a fine start. For one, Mumbai seems to have acquired a new season: winter. Yes, it hasn’t been this chilly in Mumbai in a long, long time. The jackets and sweaters and woolen caps are out in full strength, summoned suddenly after an extended lay-off. Understandably the air is rife with the smell of mothballs. But no one’s complaining. People are making the most of this sudden dip in temperature. Everyone knows it’s only a matter of days before summer strikes full force.
Saturday training sessions are also shaping up rather well. The music-based session with Mr. S.Balachander was especially enjoyable. It was nice to see a senior executive from the corporate world being able to continue his love affair with music. It shows that if you have true inclination, you will find ways to follow your passion. Lack of time is hardly an excuse for not doing the same. The Nature Club too invited a ‘bird-watching’ expert to deliver a lecture recently. Keep up the good work we say.
