Thursday 10 December 2009

Bah Humbug

Peoples responses never cease to amaze and entertain me; just recently at the NLP Masterclass December practice group meeting, I met a very angry security guard...........

As this was our last meeting of the year and Christmas is nearly upon us we decided to make it seasonal, designing exercises for people to practice with a party theme; musical trance and pass the parcel to name but a few. We also took in some seasonal refreshments to begin the holiday celebrations; a few mince pies, sherry and some soft drinks.

Unfortunately, this was apparently against the rules of the University as was very aggressively explained to us by the security guard and communication between us began to break down rather rapidly. We weren’t on the same wavelength; for a while it was as if we were speaking two completely different languages..........

Mmmmm a wonderful opportunity to practice what I teach! Now how can I get him to communicate with me, where do I need to go to meet him before I can lead him out of this?

Apparently “no one was allowed to bring in food and drink”. Ah I recognised that language pattern “No one?” “No one”. “Not even the catering staff? Not even a bottle of drinking water?”

Having broken down the generalisations; I began to chunk up until Adrian and I were at the same position and we began to communicate. Once that point was met we were able to come to an agreement and after some negotiation the seasonal meeting went ahead as planned.

How many times have you come across someone like Adrian? Situations like this give you the perfect opportunity to practice your language and skills of persuasion. If you’re not getting the response you want from someone what can you do to change that?

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