NEURO-­‐LUINGUISTIC  PROGRAMMING  AND  ITS  PLACE  IN  FORMAL,  INFORMAL  AND  NONFORMAL  WORKPLACE  LEARNING  SITES    

     

By      

CINDY  BEISCHER              

   

 Integrated  Studies  Project  

 submitted  to  Dr.  EMMA  PIVATO  

 in  partial  fulfillment  of  the  requirements  for  the  degree  of    

 Master  of  Arts  –  Integrated  Studies  

         

Athabasca,  Alberta    

JULY,  2011  

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Table of Contents

Abstract………………………………………………………………..…….… 3 Introduction………………………………………………………………..……

4

Background of NLP……………………………………………………………. 5-8 Background of Workplace Learning Theory…………….……………………

8-9

Comparing NLP and Workplace Learning: NLP & formal learning.…….……

9-16

Comparing NLP and Workplace Learning: NLP & informal learning ...………

16-20

Comparing NLP and Workplace Learning: NLP & nonformal learning ……….

20-27

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...….

27-28

References……………………………………………………………………….

29-31

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Abstract: This paper seeks to compare NLP with adult education theories within the formal, informal and nonformal workplace learning sites as more workplaces begin and continue to introduce it into their Learning & Development programmes. It highlights the criticism of NLP by scientists and academics and offers suggestions on where NLP tools can be used in each of the learning sites as it continues to move away from clinical psychology and towards a workplace tool that relies on anecdotal and practical evidence rather than theoretical and scientific. It combines the fields of adult education, workplace learning, philosophy and human behaviour.

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Introduction

Workplace learning and training is not new. What has been changing is the

manner in which it is viewed by industry experts and organizations (Spencer, p. 35).

Most have bought into the concept of the knowledge economy where the need to invest in

continuous development of employees in order to stay competitive in a global market is

of high priority (Tennant, p. 165, Plumb & Welton, p. 70, Spencer, p. 8). The ability to

adapt, change, learn, un-learn, and re-learn has been deemed to be important in the minds

of those who run organizations. To do this, employees are required to develop their

knowledge, skills and abilities to ensure their company reaches its targets and succeeds.

This happens with formal, informal and nonformal learning in the workplace where tools

are used by trainers and individual employees to reach the learning goals, whether set by

managers or individual employees. Some tools and techniques are deemed valuable by

academics, while others struggle to find approval. Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)

is a tool that is being used in training and learning sessions in the workplace increasingly,

despite the protests of many in the academic realm – mainly from the clinical psychology

field (Wood, 2006; Heap, 1988; Sharpley 1984, 1987; Witkowski, 2010). Using adult

education theory in workplace learning and comparing it to the principles and techniques

used in NLP, it is evident that NLP can be a useful tool in all three sites for different

reasons: in the formal site as a qualification in itself and as a tool for those working

within the formal setting to develop rapport with students and to become aware of the

hidden curriculum; in the informal setting to gain self-awareness through probing the

unconscious mind to recognize when learning takes place and to understand workplace

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culture and values; and nonformally in professional development sessions organized by

the company.

Background of NLP & Workplace Learning theory

Neuro-linguistic Programming

Before discussing the ties between NLP and learning sites in the workplace, it is

essential to obtain a brief understanding of both. Neuro-linguistic programming

originated in the 1970s through the work of Richard Bandler and Josh Grinder who

researched Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson to discover how each became

successful in their line of therapy: Gestalt, family and hypnotherapy, respectively. When

reading about NLP, it is easy to see the influences of these three people and the therapies

they used. Perls used Gestalt therapy in his work that was popular in the United States

during the 20th century where “human perception is inherently organized into meaningful

Gestalten [wholes], often drawing from experience and context” (King et. al, p. 911).

Satir has been commended for her humanist perspective whereby each individual was

treated uniquely and her belief “that the elevation of internal and external consciousness

is a necessary ingredient for developing healthy individuals, families, and communities”

(Haber, p. 23). Erickson has been described as a talented therapist because he “knew

something very special about people and translated that knowledge into effective

hypnotic and therapeutic strategies” (Otani, p. 203). Many of the tenets of NLP, such as

rapport building, use of metaphors and behaviour change come from Ericksonian therapy.

Moreover, the idea of uniqueness stems from Satir; and the contextual concept originates

with Perls.

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Bandler and Grinder published their findings in The Structure of Magic 1 and 2

where the principles of NLP were established in an observational sense rather than with

the intent to form a theory. Since then, NLP has moved in two directions, according to

O’Connor & Seymour (2002): first, to continue observing the behaviour of successful

people to locate any patterns that can be mirrored by others; and second, to determine

how outstanding people think and communicate (p. 3). By 2002, over 100,000 people in

America had done some form of NLP training (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 3); and since

2003, over 2000 teachers have been trained in NLP as part of the United Kingdom

government’s Fast Track Teacher Programme (Carey et al., p. 29).

The main purpose of NLP is to discover how successful people achieve their

results in order for others to model the behaviour. It is also for individuals to model

personal behaviours in areas in which they succeed to improve those areas that are

lacking. It is founded on the belief of the connection between the mind and body

(O’Connor & Seymour p. 49; Molden, p. 44) and that everyone already has the resources

necessary to succeed. What is lacking is the understanding and knowledge of how people

learn and the influence of the unconscious mind on behaviour (O’Connor & Seymour, p.

2).

Critics are concerned with the lack of empirical evidence for the claims NLP

proponents make such as the preferred representational system whereby observing eye

movement reveals the sense a person relies upon the most (Wood, 2006; Heap, 1988;

Witkowski, 2010). Witkowski explains that Bandler and Grinder refused to follow the

methods accepted by scientific study, instead arguing that this system is more of an

artform rather than scientific making “testing its assertions […] pointless or even

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impossible” (Witkowski, p. 59). Despite the belief that it is an artform, clinical studies

continued to be conducted in order to prove the viability of NLP claims. All those

studies analyzed by Witkowski in his review of NLP in 2010 “provided unequivocally

negative results” (p. 59). What he found was that “there are no data reported to date to

show that NLP can help clients change” (Witkowski, p. 59). Moreover, other studies

have shown that there are methodological errors within NLP and “a lack of knowledge

about the theoretical underpinnings of NLP” (Witkowski, p. 62-63). He found that non-

supportive articles outnumbered supportive ones 3:1 (p. 64) and that fewer studies are

being conducted on a scientific basis with NLP as he suggests that there is a loss of

interest in it (p. 64).

Some also write that the term itself was created to make it sound more scientific

than it actually is (Witkowski, p. 64). Moreover, they argue it should be in the realm of

pseudoscience as “[a]t the neuronal level it provides no explanation and it has nothing in

common with academic linguistics or programming” (Witkowski, p. 64). This is perhaps

why the term has been used interchangeably with the “New Learning Paradigm” and the

“New Language of Psychology” (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 205).

To understand what the term means it is necessary to break it down. Neuro refers

to the “fundamental idea that all behavior stems from our neurological processes of sight,

hearing, smell, taste, touch and feeling. We experience the world through our five

senses; we make ‘sense’ of the information and then act on it” (O’Connor & Seymour, p.

3). It includes the “habits [that] are stored in our unconscious mind” (Knight, p. 2).

Linguistic refers to the “use of language to order our thoughts and behavior and to

communicate with others” (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 3); it includes both verbal and

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nonverbal language for communication (Knight, p. 2). Finally, programming refers to

the “way we can choose to organize our ideas and actions to produce results” (O’Connor

& Seymour, p. 3). It is how individuals behave and make choices in their life.

Combining these three terms provides a tool that seeks to understand the underlying

influences of behaviour and success.

Workplace learning theory

Workplace learning theories involve aspects of adult education theories that are

mainly focused on the existence of the knowledge economy where governments and

organizations push for the continuous training of their employees to ensure that skills and

knowledge continue to develop in order to stay competitive in an ever-changing global

market (Tennant, p. 165, Plumb & Welton, p. 70, Spencer, p. 8). Critics of workplace

learning argue that the knowledge economy does not exist in every workplace and that

training sessions are intended “to quickly create job-ready, highly transient workers”

instead of being “a tool for job enrichment, personal growth and lifelong learning”

(Mirchandani et al., p. 177). On the other hand, Bob Fryer argues that adult education is

meant “to help pose and sharpen the questions, to foster the self-confidence and technical

skills needed to tackle the problems and to encourage the critical creativeness necessary

to work out the range of individual and collective initiatives required to meet the

challenges to working class life” (in Bratton et al., p. 6). Whether this happens or not

depends on the workplace as some continue using the Taylorist/Fordist model of training

where tasks are broken down systematically and workers have very little independence of

autonomy (Bratton et. al, p. 52); while others have embraced the knowledge economy

and have introduced workplace learning strategies to develop the skills of its people

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(Bratton et al., p. 40). This examination of NLP and workplace learning focuses on the

latter.

Workplace learning has also been divided into “sites” of learning that are

generally accepted as formal, informal, and nonformal (Spencer, p. 10). It is essential to

understand that they are interconnected sites of learning where overlap exists. Depending

on the author, informal and nonformal sites are combined and the distinction is only

made between informal and formal learning (Tarc & Smaller, p. 126). Some scholars

argue that dividing workplace learning into these distinctive sites “is misleading” and

“reinforces social structures and inequalities” (Jubas & Butterwick, p. 35). Moreover,

Colley argues that the divisions simply pitch one site against the other (in Jubas &

Butterwick, p. 36). Despite this critical view, differentiating between the workplace

learning sites enables organizations and academics to gain a better understanding of

where and how learning takes place in order to further develop the field of adult

education in the workplace.

Comparing NLP and Workplace Learning: Formal, informal, and nonformal sites NLP & Formal learning

Formal learning is most often associated with formal schooling where credentials

are gained following a set course of study (Spencer, p. 10; Livingstone, p. 50). For

adults, this is normally linked with higher and further education taking place after the age

of 16 or 17. It is normally completed prior to beginning a career; however some

workplaces offer employees the opportunity to upgrade their credentials as part of their

learning and development strategy. Bratton et al. (2008) explain that formal training is

found “where defined skill sets are transmitted through formal training, either on-site or

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off-site, requiring workers to assimilate these skills or competencies in a manner

prescribed by the trainer” (p. 53). Moreover, it is discussed as part of the Human Capital

Theory (Spencer, 2006; Fenwick, 2006; Mirchandani et al., 2008; Boud & Garrick, 1999;

Bratton et al., 2008) where the type of training given should result in an economic gain.

This, according to Spencer, shifted how formal training or learning was viewed from

liberal educational to economic terms (p. 31).

NLP has gained ground as a formal learning site itself. In the beginning, NLP

was simply a study tool used by psychologists to observe how people achieve. It has now

become an industry where credentials can be gained by anyone seeking to learn the tools

of NLP. When searching for “NLP training courses” using Google, 15,600,000 results

were found (date of search: 17 June 2011). The credentials after taking a course include

self-improvement, NLP for business, practitioner and master practitioner (NLPbot, 2011;

(UK Institute of NLP, 2011). To become a registered practitioner, the course is normally

eight to eleven days in duration depending on the company used. There is, however, no

“official government or legal affiliation or certification standard, no course content,

duration of training or levels of competency” (NLP World, 2011) for NLP. This is

perhaps another reason why many academics do not take it seriously and why it is

necessary to compare its principles and tools to those within workplace learning to show

that it is a useful tool.

One higher education institution that does take NLP seriously is the University of

Surrey in the United Kingdom in its School of Management where it employs professors

who are engaged with researching and using NLP. Dr. Jane Mathison has a PhD in NLP;

Dr. Paul Tosey studies and teaches NLP and transformative learning; and Richard

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Churches combines NLP with effective teaching (Centre of Management Learning &

Development, University of Surrey, 2011). With more academics becoming involved

and researching NLP using a business perspective it might enable the discipline to move

further away from the scientific background from which it originated and where most of

the criticism originates.

For those trainers working in the formal learning setting as adult educators, NLP

can be used to help them teach those attending their courses by developing a rapport with

students and a more inclusive training environment by becoming aware of behaviours

that contribute to the hidden curriculum. The UK government embraced NLP for teacher

and lecturers when it introduced its Fast Track Teacher Programme (Carey, et al., 2010).

In 2010, the CfBT Education Trust, a charitable organization focusing in education,

published its report on NLP in education and found that while there are limitations to

NLP, many of its tenets can be used in education by teachers (Carey et al., 2010). One of

these is building rapport.

One of the main aspects of NLP is learning how to develop a rapport between

people and understanding why it is important. For the teacher or trainer in the formal

workplace learning site, this is essential in order to foster a learning environment that is

conducive to reaching the set goals of both the trainer and the trainee. NLP suggests that

building rapport is based on communication skills that involve being aware of the

language used on both the surface and the underlying meaning of what is said and by

modeling behaviour (Knight p. 105; O’Connor & Seymour, p. 87). It involves

developing sensory acuity and calibration where the trainer is able to notice when

something changes in the body language or tone of the other person; and pacing where

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the trainer matches and mirrors the other person, including energy levels, posture,

gestures, voice and values. This “is to communicate to a person’s unconscious mind that

you are on their wavelength” (Molden, p. 168). Once you can do this, you should be able

to lead and influence students in the manner that you seek (Molden, p. 171).

Building rapport leads to trust and understanding (Knight, p. 55, p. 285). NLP

practitioners warn not to copy or be obvious in modeling behaviour, but to be aware of

the subtle changes in body language or speech that can be mirrored (Anderson, p. 22).

This is similar for psychotherapy where Freud suggests that “the analyst ‘must turn his

own unconscious like a receptive organ towards the transmitting unconscious of the

patient. He must adjust himself to the patient as telephone receiver is adjusted to the

transmitting microphone’” (Storr, p. 119). It is suggested that in psychoanalysis and

psychotherapy, therapists need to “preserve objectivity towards the patient’s behaviour,

which he may or may not approve of; he must also convey what Carl Rogers has aptly

called ‘unconditional positive regard’, that is he must genuinely value the patient as a

person” (Storr, p. 120). This enables rapport building. When a rapport is built in a

formal training environment, both the trainer and the trainees will be working together to

reach the goals that have been set (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 161).

NLP can also help trainers and teachers in the formal setting become aware of

personal biases that may lead or contribute to a hidden curriculum, which O’Connor &

Seymour caution has more influence on students than formal lessons (p. 74). The hidden

curriculum is “unintended learning results” (Billett, p. 155) that develop from the actions

taken in the workplace and from the setting itself. Fenwick (2006) argues that politics

and power structures in the workplace are easily hidden and need to be understood in

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order for any change or progress to be made (p. 193). This can be related to the formal

workplace learning site as well.

The behaviour and decisions that are made by trainers in the formal workplace

training setting need to be understood as being part of the hidden curriculum. NLP

techniques and principles help guide trainers to understand how they interpret

information that then affect how they project it in the classroom. NLP suggests that

people internalize experiences by deleting, distorting and generalizing (Knight, p. 108;

O’Connor & Seymour, p. 87; Molden, p. 137). This concept forms the basis for both

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT).

The Royal College of Psychiatrists explains that CBT is used as a way to help people

understand how they think and what they do. Thinking refers to the cognitive aspect of

the term and doing refers to the behaviour. It suggests that experiences occur and people

then either think about it, have emotions or physical feelings, or take action afterwards. It

makes the person aware of how they interpret a situation and the subsequent thoughts,

feelings and actions that follow. It is about perspective and mind sets or mind frames

where people internalize what they experience and how they behave differently based on

past experiences. Its focus is to change the way people think in order to change

behaviour. They explain that it is not a quick fix to change behaviour, like NLP

proponents suggest (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2011).

NLP uses this same concept when it explains how people internalize experiences

through deleting, distorting and generalizing. Deleting information means that we filter

out what we do not think is important and focus on other aspects of the experience.

Distorting information means “we change the way we experience the sensory data”

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(Knight, p.107). For instance, someone might interpret a silence as an offence, when

another may see if as a pause to think. Generalizing occurs when one “experience is

attributed to the whole category of which the experience is an example” (Knight, p. 108).

For instance, if in a training session, a role-playing activity fails to achieve the goal, the

trainer then decides to no longer do any role-playing activities because he/she thinks they

are useless. By understanding these filters, trainers can become more aware of how they

interpret experiences and perhaps change the way they filter experiences to become more

inclusive in their training courses.

One way to change the filters is to look at experiences using three different

perspectives. These perspectives allow the teacher/trainer to decide whether or not to

change their behaviour or curriculum as it makes them aware of the perspectives and that

their own view is not the only one that exists. (Knight, p. 300). The perspectives are:

personal, other, and observer. NLP argues that we need to understand our own

perspective to connect with others; need to understand how others map their own worlds;

and to dissociate ourselves from a situation and to analyze it through neutral lenses. This

dissociation is also part of Narrative Therapy where clients use stories to distance

themselves from the problems they face (Lyness & Thomas, p. 127). It is essential to

understand the use of each type of perspective in order to achieve the desired outcome.

In the formal workplace learning site, understanding the perspective of the student or

trainee is a main focal point in order for the trainers to actually teach something to

someone and for them to obtain new skills and knowledge. If trainers fail to understand

that and simply train people ignoring different perspectives or learning styles, then they

fail at their job and can reinforce the hidden curriculum (Petrini, 1993).

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This section has shown that NLP is now a form of formal education in which

individuals can obtain credentials and subsequently use the techniques in different

settings, including the workplace training environments. Moreover, adult educators who

work within the formal education site can use the techniques in NLP to build rapport with

students and become more aware of their own personal biases that may contribute to the

hidden curriculum. Adult education theorists have been pushing educators to take notice

of the hidden curriculum and its damaging effects on students of all ages. By using NLP

in this formal setting, changing the norm and pushing for social change and social justice

can occur and can help in moving towards Michael Welton’s (2006) “just learning

society”.

The critics would say that as a formal credential, NLP is simply there for big

business rather than offering anything concrete as there lacks scientific evidence of the

tenets of NLP (Witkowski, p. 64). Witkowski (2010), a critic, writes “NLP represents

pseudoscientific rubbish, which should be mothballed forever” (p. 64). Similar critiques

exist for psychoanalysis. NLP, like psychoanalysis, is about subjective experiences of

individuals, not about clinical trials (Storr, p. 140). Because of that, it is difficult to prove

its effectiveness because it is so subjective and difficult to be proven in laboratory

settings upon which much of psychology is based. Moreover, NLP continues to find a

home in business training. This should be taken into consideration by critics as trainers,

coaches and some academics continue to believe in it, perhaps because of the anecdotal

evidence of its success. It is an experimental tool used to create outcomes and focuses on

process rather than a set formula. It was considered a New Age technique in the 1990s to

improve the performance and efficiency of employees. In the early 1990s, businesses in

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America spent over $30 billion on it – regardless of whether it has been scientifically

proven to be useful (Swets & Bjork, 1990, p. 95). It is a big business because it must

work on some level, whether in reality or perception (Carey et al., p. 29). Trainers in the

workplace can use it to build rapport with students and to delve into their own

unconscious to determine if they contribute to the hidden curriculum and to make

changes to stop doing so.

NLP & informal learning in the workplace

Informal learning in the workplace occurs all the time. Livingstone (1999)

defines it as “any activity involving the pursuit of understanding, knowledge or skill

which occurs outside the curricula of educational institutions, or the courses or

workshops offered by educational or social agencies” (p. 51). Moreover, individuals

choose to engage in it either independently or collectively (Spencer, p. 10). At times,

people fail to recognize that they are in fact learning when they engage in this type of

learning. As such, it can be difficult to measure and monitor, like rapport building in

NLP (Wood, p. 198). Livingstone argues that because of the difficulties of pinpointing

when informal learning occurs, it remains largely excluded when “shaping educational,

economic, and other social policies” (Livingstone, p. 49) even when “most Canadian

adults are spending a great deal and increasing amount of time in learning activities, most

of this is informal learning on their own” (Ibid.).

NLP can be used to help people recognize when they are learning and how they

learn since it uses techniques to gain a better understanding of the unconscious mind.

Some argue that there are two levels to the unconscious mind where some things are

stored momentarily when not required and the deeper unconscious where past traumas

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and lost memories are stored. For Freud, the unconscious stores desires and needs and

holds all of our experiences: “In mental life nothing which has once been formed can

perish – everything is somehow preserved and … in suitable circumstances … it can once

more be brought to light” (in Thurschuell, p. 4). The level of unconscious storage may

vary, but all memories in the right circumstance can be returned to the surface.

Learning relies on both the conscious and unconscious mind, according to

O’Connor & Seymour (2002) since the unconscious mind “is all the life-giving processes

of our body, all that we have learned, our past experiences, and all that we might notice,

but do not, in the present moment” (p. 7); it is much wiser than the conscious mind. Carl

Jung suggested that the conscious mind is influenced by the unconscious: “whereas under

normal conditions consciousness responds to a situation by an individual reaction adapted

to outward reality, the unconscious supplies a typical reaction, arising from the

experience of mankind and consonant with the necessities and laws of man’s inner life”

(Jacob, p 10). By gaining an understanding of the unconscious mind, we become more

aware of how it affects our conscious decisions. In the informal learning setting, this will

enable individuals to identify when they are learning and to gain self-awareness.

In adult education, many proponents push for the need for people to learn about

their unconscious minds in order to learn about themselves including personal

motivation, values and beliefs. Paulo Freire (1999) wrote about raising consciousness –

conscientização - in order to bring about social change and to bring an end to a culture of

silence (p. 35) as he was concerned with oppression and the belief systems that

perpetuate it (Leonard, p. 139). This belief system is normally hidden in people’s

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unconscious and taken as truth. Once conscious, change or resistance to injustices can

take place (Spencer, p. 55).

Mezirow, like Freire, pushed for transformative learning and argued that

emancipation or transformation of consciousness can be reached through “self-

knowledge and self-reflection” (as summarized by Spencer, p. 54). This transformation

comes when “adults come to recognize their culturally induced dependency roles and

relationships and the reasons for them and take action to overcome them” (Mezirow in

Spencer p. 54). Spencer explains that becoming critically aware of how our perspectives

are formed involves examining ourselves. This enables reflection and then “[i]deologies,

power relations and cultural understandings are exposed, freeing individuals to adopt new

visions and courses of action” (p. 55).

NLP urges people to be aware of what they seek by focusing on having clear and

specific goals using probing questions; being alert and aware of the senses to be able to

identify when the opportunities that are being sought are available; and having the

flexibility to adapt in order to achieve the specified goal (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 9).

NLP highlights the reality that we rely on our senses to guide our perspectives and

experiences. This perception depends on the filters that are ingrained in the human

system. These filters include “unique experiences, culture, language, beliefs, values,

interests and assumptions” (O’Connor & Seymour, p.4). These guide behaviour and are

mostly unconscious. By changing our perception and being aware of all of our senses,

individuals can change behaviour patterns in order to reach their personal goals.

In the workplace, as in other locations such as the home or the school, informal

learning takes place regularly. One of these areas is learning the workplace culture that is

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found in its values and norms and sometimes stated in its vision and mission. The values

and norms are normally accepted blindly by the employees who may not be aware that

they have learned them informally. This has been labeled by some as the hidden

curriculum of the workplace.

As discussed in the formal workplace learning site, the hidden curriculum is

present in the informal learning site where employees learn to behave in certain ways in

accordance with the norms and values of the workplace (Billet, p. 155). Billet suggests

that “shortcuts, inappropriate behaviour, the reinforcement of restrictive practices such as

non-inclusive behaviour, and problems associated with the development of understanding

have been identified as problems associated with workplace learning” (p. 155). NLP can

help employees to question their behaviour and to identify where and when to make

changes to it.

Where the difficulty lies in the workplace is that managers and owners may not

want their employees to become aware of the power structure or the hidden agenda

because empowerment may not be conducive to the workplace objectives. Spencer

writes: “It is clear that some of their learning may contribute to a ‘culture of silence’, to

an acceptance of the way things are. Workers may learn to accept the dominant ideology

that supports management rights” (p. 35). Knight argues that NLP gives people options

because by becoming aware of the dominant ideology of the workplace, employees are

given the choice to accept it or seek other employment in a setting that matches their own

values. Moreover, NLP can help those employees determine what their personal values

are in order to find employment in an organization that matches them.

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It is important to take informal learning seriously as it is happening all the time,

inside and outside the workplace. In the workplace, employees learn to behave in ways

that are conducive to the norms and values that have been set. Once employees become

aware that they have learned the workplace culture they can choose to stay or leave,

accept it or push for change. NLP helps them do this with its techniques to raise

awareness of personal decisions and behaviours; and to move the unconscious to the

conscious.

NLP & Nonformal learning & NLP

Nonformal adult education is defined by Spencer as “targeted to satisfy

individual, recreational, organizational or social objectives” (p.10) where credentials are

not given, but the training is organized through a body. In the workplace, this can be

considered to be professional development courses taken to improve management, sales,

leadership, or coaching skills. As mentioned in the introduction, this assumes that the

workplace believes in what Bratton et al. would classify as a “Type B” workplace.

Unlike Type B, Type A structured workplaces refers to the traditional or

Tayloristic/Fordist form of work structure where tasks are broken down systematically

and where workers have very little independence or autonomy (Bratton et al., p. 52). The

goal is to get the job or task done as quickly as possible and where the “management

philosophy does not place systematic training and learning at the center of the business

strategy” (Bratton et al., p. 52). Some refer to this as McDonaldization of work that

exists in most workplaces, despite the belief that the knowledge economy has displaced

these types of work environments (Bratton et al, p. 52).

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Type B, on the other hand, involves organizations that believe in the knowledge

economy and the need to develop the skills of the employee in order to stay competitive.

Bratton et al. describe these as where teams are important and where “enlightened

leadership” (p. 53) exists. It pushes workers “continuously to learn, albeit within clear

boundaries that respect private ownership and managerial prerogative” (Bratton et al., p.

53). Molden suggests that companies in this type of workplace “nurture and reinforce

learning cultures where change, skills, achievement and progress are highly valued” (p.

94). The danger that lies here, according to Fenwick, is the reality that employees are left

“vulnerable” (Bratton et al, p. 98) when they are forced to participate in workshops

geared towards overcoming negative attitudes to become more creative and achieve the

set goals of the organization. Despite the dangers of this type of training, it exists in the

workplace since workshops and other nonformal training sessions are set up on a regular

basis.

Many of the NLP books published that are related to the workplace are those

geared towards leadership, management, sales and, coaching skills. In these courses,

NLP focuses on building and improving communication skills including verbal and

nonverbal, mirroring skills, and rapport. Witkowski mentions the use of NLP training in

workplaces such as Hewlitt-Packard, McDonald’s, the US Army, and NASA (Witkowski,

p. 58).

In using NLP in professional development sessions, people can learn how to

improve their communication skills with clients in order to foster successful

relationships. NLP suggests using two levels of language to communicate with clients.

NLP can teach employees how to use precision questions and vague language

  22  

appropriately in order to push for clarity of the actual spoken word and to attempt to

delve into the hidden context of what has been said. Knight also suggests the use of clean

questions when pushing for clarity or further information. This implies an open-mind,

naivety, alertness and fascination where questions are asked that summarize what the

speaker is saying and to delve deeper into their meaning to ensure that clarity is achieved.

It requires patience in order to get the client to give the answer and then continue to

probe.

NLP can also help with developing metaphors to find further clarification since

they are “a way of understanding, expressing and experiencing one kind of thing in terms

of another” (Knight, p. 91). Metaphors allow for a reframing of perceptions and to

represent an experience in a different way (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 126). Molden

argues that “[t]he right metaphor, when told in the appropriate context, can deliver an

extremely powerful learning message to the unconscious mind” (p. 159). They represent

who we are in an unconscious sense and allow people to make sense of it in their own

way (p. 98). Once we discover the metaphors of our life, “we can recognize how they

limit or empower us” (Knight, p. 93).

Narrative Therapy also uses metaphors to help clients understand their own

personal story and to change the way they see themselves or the problems that they face

(Lyness & Thomas, p. 127). The clients are able to externalize the problem and put it at a

distance from themselves. The “metaphors allow clients the opportunity to fit new ideas

into their own working models […] The client’s own experience is utilized in change that

comes about through the use of metaphor, and change comes from the client” (Lyness &

Thomas, p. 131). Milton Erickson labeled this as indirection where clients use the

  23  

metaphors that are told to them and they then, usually unconsciously, search “to fit the

new meaning into their own life” (Lyness & Thomas, p. 130). This is useful for leaders,

managers, coaches and salespeople to learn because if they understand their clients or

employees they can use metaphors that relate to them and help them develop or change.

This, too, instills confidence as it enables people to understand their values and desires in

a different format.

In addition, NLP can help employees to learn to read body language in an attempt

to mirror it. Knight argues that “90% of our ability to influence lies outside the context

of what we say” (p. 53). O’Connor & Seymour use figures from a 1967 study conducted

by Mehrabian and Ferris that suggests that it is 55% body language, 38% tone and 7%

presentation (p. 17; Molden, p. 165). By observing body language, it allows individuals

to identify the filters that are being used and to adapt behaviour to match the client’s,

improving communication.

NLP practitioners suggest that everyone has a preferred or primary

representational system (PRS), meaning that one or two internal senses is/are used more

than the others to interpret information and communicate (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 29;

Molden, p.116; Witkowsi, p. 59). These include visual, auditory, kinesthetic (feeling),

olfactory (smell), and gustatory (taste). Knight and Molden specify eye movements as

one of these where looking in specific directions can mean how someone interprets

sensory information (Knight, p. 49; Molden, p.119). While this is a generalization and

not widely supported by clinical trials to date (Wood, p. 202), NLP practitioners suggest

observing clients’ reactions, both verbal and nonverbal, helps others understand which

representational system is used most often and then match the predicates to build rapport

  24  

more efficiently to improve communication and create a trusting relationship (O’Connor

& Seymour, p. 32).

O’Connor & Seymour emphasize that relying on the primary representational

system is not about categorizing people as only visual or auditory, but it helps to gain an

understanding of how one uses the sense to interpret information (p. 41). Brockopp

(1983) agrees when she writes: “The goals of using neuro-linguistric programming are

not to categorize persons in any rigid fashion but to improve and expand on methods of

communication.” (p. 1014). Witkowski explains that everyone has their own map and the

primary representational system allows therapists to use individual maps to work

effectively with patients (p. 59). This is translatable to the workplace if managers and

coaches, or any employee working with clients or customers, are able to understand their

client’s map that they then can use to build stronger rapport through matching or

mirroring the client.

Matching or mirroring body language and the spoken word enables trust and

comfort. It involves the ability to control our own behaviour in order to mirror the other

person. In Self-Directed Behaviour, Watson & Tharp discuss the skills of self-regulation

stating that it “implies the ability to control ourselves, to exert control over our acts and

inner processes. We self-regulate our thoughts, our feelings, our impulses and our

behaviours […]. Being able to self-regulate allows us to guide our behaviour to gain

desirable outcomes” (p. 2). They argue it is a skill that requires knowledge and practice

in a “specific domain” (p. 4). They also provide steps in order to do this and stress that

willpower has no role to play. Rather, it is about setting up goals and steps to reach those

goals. The steps involve plans for failure in order to become aware that change is not

  25  

automatic and that it takes practice and time, as suggested in CBT and NLP. Learning

how to do it in nonformal workshops and then following up with further training will

help employees learn to mirror and subsequently build stronger ties with colleagues,

managers and clients alike.

Some have argued that mirroring behaviour in order to achieve a specific outcome

is brainwashing, manipulative and a dangerous technique to use (Knight, p. 120). Knight

disputes this argument by stating that we do this on a daily basis without really being

aware of what we are doing (p. 120). Her concern is that it is not done properly, leading

to failing to achieve the goals that are actually sought. She wants people to be aware of it

in order to do it properly. Moreover, Anderson states that practitioners use the techniques

of NLP to guide clients through a process where the client possesses the content. He

argues it “is the least manipulative therapeutic tool, and a very flexible technique” (p.

23). He uses it with clients in the probationary services and argues it is an experimental

tool that people can use, but must practice using it to develop the skills appropriately and

to experiment with each client as everyone is different.

Professional development sessions with NLP can also help with learning how to

build rapport and build successful relationships in business. Like trainers in the formal

setting building rapport with students as discussed earlier, it is about relationships and

building trust, confidence, understanding and participation (Knight, p. 285; O’Connor &

Seymour p. 19-20; Molden, p. 114; Wood, p. 197) where understanding points of view is

imperative and where relating to the other person through “appealing to their style of

communication and expectations” (Knight, p. 285) is essential. Modeling or mirroring is

very important in building rapport since it is argued that we are attracted to those whose

  26  

body and verbal language matches our own (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 20). It is not

always easy to create, but in a business setting it is essential to have a good rapport with

clients in order to foster a positive and successful relationship. People who are able to

build rapport easily “find themselves automatically mirroring those they are with”

(Brockopp, p. 1013). NLP training can help employees learn how to build rapport

through their body language and spoken words.

It is suggested that understanding how people filter information is key to building

rapport. These filters, or metaprograms as O’Connor & Seymour describe (p. 149)

“determine how we make sense of the world” (Knight, p. 45) and how we subsequently

behave (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 5). By understanding how individuals filter their

experiences, one can gain an advantage in understanding where they are coming from

when dealing with them. In addition to the filters discussed in the previous sections, they

can include association/dissociation, towards/away from, big chunk/small chunk,

past/present/future, activity/object/place/time, internal/external/ self/others, and

convincing patterns (Knight, p. 33-44). For instance, some can be oriented towards

outcomes while others can be focused on the problem because of the way they are

filtering or framing the situation (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 5). NLP can help businesses

understand each filter and which ones clients use to internalize information and

experiences, which can then be used to better support them (Knight, p. 38).

By observing language and behaviour in business settings, one can also gauge

three perceptual positions: own, others, and observer (Knight, p. 308; O’Connor &

Seymour, p. 76). The company culture can be exposed when listening carefully to the

language used. If a company is focused on themselves and uses strong language about

  27  

struggles and difficulties it can highlight that the workplace culture is about firefighting

and crisis management where the focus is on the company’s own problems rather than the

solutions. Or, if they focus on “others,” it could be overly customer-focused to do

whatever the client wants. The last – observer – could suggest that clients can be

emotionally detached from the situation (Knight, p. 308). It is essential to use all three in

a balanced manner and to understand the existence of the three perceptual positions since

it can help businesses set up personal missions, understand clients’ needs, and re-examine

situations to build success.

NLP training allows people to learn how to pay attention, how to change and to

enlarge the filters that are relied upon to internalize experiences. It is there to develop

more choices in life and in business (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 9). The professional

development sessions organized for specific employees for nonformal workplace learning

involving NLP can be very useful in building relationships with the working world. No

longer is compliance and demands the leading way to conduct business. Instead, it now

relies on cooperation and influencing others (Molden, p. 162). It is necessary for those

companies that believe in the knowledge economy to continuously develop the skills of

its employees in a nonformal way to get them to learn how to influence others using

communication techniques suggested by NLP.

Conclusion

In the workplace, NLP has found its place because it is about learning to achieve

success through “goal setting, communicating effectively, reading the environment

accurately and a commitment to success” (O’Connor & Seymour, p. 161). NLP can be

used as a tool in the three learning sites - formal, informal, and nonformal - that are found

  28  

in workplaces in different ways: In the formal setting as a formal qualification and for

trainers to use appropriately; in the informal setting to gain self-awareness; and the

nonformal setting in professional development sessions to improve communication and

rapport building. NLP has borrowed many of its tenets from psychology, mainly

psychoanalysis, CBT and Narrative therapy, and has translated them for business and

commercial use. While many critics remain vocal about the lack of scientific proof, the

reality remains that businesses are using NLP in the workplace in the hope to achieve

efficiency and effectiveness in a competitive world. What is required in the future is

more studies in the practical setting, as Wood suggests (p. 203), and perhaps the

acceptance of anecdotal evidence from those who use NLP in the workplace. NLP is an

overarching tool that seeks for continuous personal improvement by gaining an

understanding of how the unconscious works and how to use it for success.

  29  

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