NLP in Plain English?
NLP has been around since the early 1970’s. And, among other things, NLP has always sought to improve the quality of interpersonal communication. Except, perhaps, in one area – the teaching of NLP, itself.
Even in the early days would-be NLPers had to wrestle with a wonderfully obscure terminology including such terms as:
- Modal Operators of Necessity (words or phrases which denote a rule or a belief that something is necessary)
- Well-Formedness Conditions for an Outcome (goals which have been well designed)
- Lost Performative (making a value judgement but denying ownership of it e.g. “it has been observed that your timekeeping hasn’t been very good recently” instead of “I don’t think you’re timekeeping has been very good recently”)
- Model of the World (a person’s view of reality or of how things are)
These are just four out of dozens or perhaps hundreds of arcane terms which the ‘in the know’ NLPer can bandy about.
‘Operationalising the Presuppositions of NLP’ !
I’ve actually heard one well-known Big Name in the word of NLP talking about operationalising the Presuppositions of NLP. What, on earth, does that mean? And what does it communicate about the use of NLP in communicating effectively?
What he meant was quite simple i.e. walking the talk of the NLP principles. But was he, in saying this, walking the talk of this great body of knowledge and skill that is about enhancing communication?
Incidentally, the same individual talked about the field between people or sometimes the mind field by which he means (I think) how the people were communicating and relating…
Gobbledygook in NLP…. or Plain English?
Why do we need such gobbledygook? Why do we need to have ordinary terms re-labelled?
A somewhat cynical person might wonder if it could be a marketing ploy to get people to attend NLP workshops e.g. the terminology is so complex you’ll have to attend a workshop to be able to understand it.
But I’m not cynical so I’ll simply suggest that some people ought to get out more and speak with the general public rather than fans/attendees on their courses. And, additionally, it could also be laziness supported by that tendency for some of the NLP Big Names to live in a world apart from the “real world” in which the rest of us live – a world where they are surrounded by admiring groupies hanging on their every word and never daring to challenge them because what they say must be true – after all, they are Big Names (Emperor’s New Clothes).
On NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner Certification programmes we assess people to determine of they are eligible for certification.
We have pretty high standards – our Practitioner Certificates are earned – they are not ‘certificates of attendance’. And one requirement for certification is the ability to be able to explain NLP in Plain English i.e. they must be able to explain NLP processes and concepts in simple everyday language.
And the criterion?
Can you explain this to a 10-year old?