Want to improve your NLP skills? Simple, go to Morocco!
My 82 year old Mother in Law is really 26; she has 82 years on planet Earth but they have not stopped her traveling like a Michael Palin on acid. As an executive coach and NLP practitioner I am well versed with ‘well-formed outcomes’. These fundamentally refer to a positive intention, evidenced by knowing what it would be like when you do it put into context, a reality check and then a positive first step. When my Mother in Law says to my wife ‘’I’m going to Marrakech, will you come with me?’’ I think she hits all the ingredients. What I hadn’t recognised and a new NLP model (I suggest) is what I now refer to as the ‘Third party well-formed outcome effect’ i.e. my wife to me- ‘’Paul will you come with us? We would feel a lot safer.’’
Walking, no, fighting your way through the old Medina in aforementioned city as chief security/health and safety officer for elderly lady and pretty blonde woman brings many challenges; cobbled streets with many holes designed to trip elderly lady, moped riders who are hell bent on running over elderly lady should pot holes not succeed, middle aged Arabic gentlemen assertively staring at or touching hair of pretty blonde lady, unidentified persons looking for opportunities to relieve me of my wallet/camera/hat! And if one dares to make the audacious judgement to stop and view a map then this clearly is a signal to young boys to surround us and demand money. Yes of course, as in NLP classes I would suggest this is the situation based on my own perception; what I needed to do was change that and see it from the Moroccan perspective. This led me to also think about other presuppositions (of NLP) and how we can apply them in more challenging situations, after all the world is a challenging place, think of today’s economy and how you may need to do things differently in business: Einstein said ‘in order to affect the world’s problems we need to think and act differently: that we won’t change the issues with the thinking that generated those issues in the first place’.
So my changed perspective linked to NLP presupposition tactics took the following forms;
The map is not the territory. I now see what you see; it is ok for everything to be in disrepair, old and young to beg in the streets and people to be second best to mechanical transport. It’s the way it is.
The meaning of communication is the response you get. Telling you that I don’t want to buy that old tat for extortionate prices if it was my last day on Earth is not clear enough, I just need to be more precise.
The person with the most flexibility in thinking and behaviour has the most influence on any interaction. After stealing my camera and demanding 50 Dirham to get it back can be easily addressed by me offering you half that amount.
There is a problem to every solution. Next year we are going to Blackpool, I hear the weather is lovely in April.
NB Morocco is a beautiful place with charming history. It is also boot camp for NLP training.
