What is NLP?

What is NLP?

NLP was initially created in the 70’s in the US by Richard Bandler and John Grinder as a way of identifying how people were able to excel in their various fields - business, therapy, sport, arts, communication and many others. They were curious to know what it was that really makes the difference between good and excellent performance.

They  observed  three different types of therapist; each one was known to be outstanding in their profession. What they found was that, although they had different styles and approaches they had one thing in common: incredible rapport building skills. The therapists themselves were not aware why it was that people found it so easy to relate to them. Richard and John began analysing how they did what they did. They found that most of what these therapists did to get this extraordinary rapport and trust was outside their normal awareness, i.e. they just did it! So John and Richard watched them carefully and they uncovered that they all had certain patterns, or programmes of thinking and behaviour that were the same. In this way they discovered the pattern for advanced communication and rapport building skills. They then copied exactly what they had noticed and guess what: they got the same results. They called this modelling.

NLP is about modelling excellence. Noticing what works, finding out what makes it work and then doing it! NLP does not just copy ‘outward’ behaviour; it looks at what really creates this behaviour. It looks at values and beliefs, attitudes and triggers. NLP looks at what it is that motivates people to do things, so that they have outstanding results. NLP does not invent anything that does not already exist. It finds out what works really well and then models it, i.e. copies it and creates a ‘road map’ to excellence.