 May 2013 |
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What Difference Does Integrity Make?
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Dr. Linda Ferguson
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Greetings!
How do you respond when your first impression of someone is that they have lied to you?
I became aware recently that a competitor has registered nlpcanadatraining.com and is redirecting it to his site. He obviously believes that's a clever way to compete. He's okay with his first interaction with clients being a lie.
The truth is, I am not entirely sorry that this competitor has made the difference between his company and mine so blazingly clear. At NLP Canada Training, we use our site to allow people to get to know our work. We don't play tricks on people we would love to have join our community of practice. Not ever.
The creativity, imagination, and intelligence of the people I meet through NLP Canada Training often amazes me. They come from all different backgrounds and kinds of education but they are all smart, resourceful and passionate about living better.
I am not worried that any of these people will be misled for more than a moment by my competitor's misdirect. But because I know they are proud of having trained with NLP Canada Training, I will reach out through the legal process and put a stop to the misuse of our company name. And I'll take advantage of this newsletter to give you more information about the difference that integrity makes.
The good news is that NLP actually works best when you are committed to respecting your own integrity and the integrity of the people you influence.
Linda Ferguson, Ph.D.
Senior Partner
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NLP and Coaching: May & June at NLP Canada Training
Unless otherwise noted, all events take place at 47 Queen's Park Cres. E., Toronto, ON. All events require registration by calling Carole at 416-928-2394.
Shiftwork, Wednesday May 29, 7:30pm to 9:30pm
Free! A chance to experience how NLP really works. Come with your questions about how NLP would improve the way you make decisions, make connections or make things happen. Linda Ferguson will be explaining key concepts, demonstrating, and telling great stories. You'll have fun and you'll have a chance to make real progress on conquering an old problem or moving toward a new goal.
Coaching Clinics, Tuesday Evenings, June 4, 11, and 18, 7:30pm to 9:30pm
I just finished reading Practice Perfect, and it really reinforced something that I have always believed. To get better you have to practice and practice has to be different than performance. I know that the practitioners and master practitioners I have trained want to get better and I know it's hard to find the right conditions for practice. So here's my challenge to you: If you are a practitioner or master practitioner who wants to be more aware and more precise in your use of NLP, come to the coaching clinic. You can practice, receive feedback, and work on specific parts of the skillset. If that feels scary, don't worry. You can start by offering feedback on Linda's coaching.
On the other hand, if you want an NLP session but thought you couldn't afford it, please come to a clinic and you'll receive coaching from Linda or a Master Practitioner free of charge. Everyone who attends these sessions will be asked to sign a confidentiality contract and most of the work will be done content free.
Prepare to Succeed: An Introduction for Coaches, Sunday, June 2, 9:30am to 4:30pm
Free! This is Linda's gift to the coaching community. Many of you are curious about how NLP could make you more effective. But you've also read some stuff about NLP that makes you uncomfortable. Would you be more comfortable if you knew that Linda is leading the way in Canada in training only the heart of NLP, the core principles and processes that are supported by research and best practices in coaching and psychology?
You will move from comfortable to enthusiastic when you attend this one day course in how NLP Canada Training handles the process of change. We'll move through from arriving for the first session to setting goals, moving past obstacles, making new connections and telling better stories about how the past is linked to the future. You'll have a great experience, enrich your coaching, and leave with a new way to think about your own coaching process. Spaces are limited, so please call to register 416-928-2394.
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Integrity is the Difference that Makes a Difference
It's true that integrity is important to me, and would be important to me no matter what career I had chosen. But in a purely practical sense, integrity seems to me to be vital to the act of training people to use NLP. If NLP did only one thing, that thing would be to condition people to know the difference between being congruent and not being congruent. Congruence is the NLP concept most closely linked to integrity: it means that your mind, body and unconscious processes are all working on the same thing at the same time.
In a training room, all eyes are on the trainer. If I can't maintain congruence while I am being observed, my students won't have a strong baseline against which to measure their success in calibrating (reading) congruence. They are always checking out my state. My job as a trainer is to find the space where I can be congruent so that my students come to recognize congruence in other people and in themselves.
What happens when a trainer engages in tricks like the one my competitor has played with the internet? That trainer's students don't know if they are reading congruence or not. It's possible that the internet trickery has no impact on that training, but how could you tell? You don't have a baseline against which to measure your accuracy. Tricked once, you could be tricked gain. Suddenly the world is full of uncertainty and "faking it till you make it." All you can really learn from uncertainty is more uncertainty.
No one is always congruent, not even very fine trainers. But all of us can know when we are all of one piece, an integration of mind and body and beliefs and thoughts. And we can draw attention to that state because we know how to move into it and invite attention. When students find out there is a "truth" to who you are and how you teach, they begin to trust your material enough to test it.
Integrity is the difference that builds trust and accelerates learning.
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The Problem with Time Management
The blog this month has featured articles on getting to sleep at night, ethics in training, training in corporate environments and time management. If you're not "following" Linda's blog or connected to Linda on Google +, you might be missing some great stuff.
Here's an excerpt from a recent post on time management:
Time is notoriously hard to perceive much less manage. There is lots of science on how we represent time internally and few useful conclusions yet. In many ways, to manage time is to manage something that you cannot see. Imagine that someone asked you to speak for five minutes. Would you know how long five minutes is without looking at a clock? Now imagine the question is this: how much information will someone remember after you speak for five minutes? What kind of match is there between the amount of information you could speak in five minutes and the amount that someone else would take away from listening to you? Finally, imagine that five minutes takes place in the waiting room at Emergency. How much longer or shorter are those five minutes than the ones you had in mind a moment ago?
The truth about time is that we probably can't consciously manage our perception of it much less our use of it. What we can do is model people who get results and manage our objectives, our priorities and our will power so that we become more effective.
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The Joy of the NLP Summer Intensives
NLP certification is offered in July and August as a summer intensive at NLP Canada Training. You don't want to wait till next fall to take your training and you shouldn't be taking any training simply because it fits the hole in your schedule. So you're wondering if the summer intensive might work for you. NLP taken in 6 consecutive days (8 for Master Practitioners) is a rare opportunity to clear your mind and make changes that have been sitting in the background for a very long time. As exercise follows exercise, you get the rush of having so much new information available and you get the ability to shut down the voices that slow you down and just take it all in. Later, you may need to go back through the manual to remember how the pieces all came together. That works, because the NLP Canada Training manual was written by Linda Ferguson and has been designed to optimize your learning. Finally, we can admit that the weather and the park play a big part in most people's memories of their summer training. A city park in summer is one of the great spots to people watch and to unwind and explore and focus. The summer intensive feels like summer camp for grownups: participants form deep connections and explore new ideas and walk away with great memories. So plan to take a vacation that will transform the way you think and send great results rippling out through your life. July courses run July 8-13 (Practitioners) or July 7-14 (Master Practitioners). August courses run August 3-8 (Practitioners) or August 2-9 (Master Practitioners). All courses eligible for a tuition tax certificate. Need a place to stay? If you don't mind roughing it, try St. Michael's College Conference services. You can stay in a residence right across the street. If you like a little more privacy (and comfort) I recommend the Downtown Home Inn Bed and Breakfast (a 10 minute walk east of our office). And several people had great experiences with AirBnB last year (a service that allows you to rent a room or an apartment for the week). |
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