1. Introduction
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) deals with how top managers in different fields achieve outstanding results, and how their successful patterns of thinking and behavior can be copied.
Needless to say, the overwhelming importance that for the reasons mentioned above, NLP has to systematically increase and improve the levels of competitiveness of organizations.
NLP shows us how we can think better, and thus, achieve greater and better results. NLP teaches us how to communicate, internally and externally, in a way that can make the difference between mediocrity and excellence.
NLP is also very adaptable, because if a certain technique does not work, it allows you to modify what you do and the way you think about your specific circumstance or problem until you get what you are looking for.
NLP is both an art and a science of personal excellence, becoming for this reason an excellent tool to support Kaizen. If Kaizen seeks continuous improvement, and for this discipline and excellence are required, NLP facilitates and enhances the achievement of such personal excellence, which is the basis and sustenance of high competitiveness.
The impact of NLP has already been transcendent, as its applications have spread to more and more areas of human life. Its simple yet insightful concepts and hands-on track records have resulted in its remarkable growth.
Whatever the type or nature of activity, it cannot be based solely on machines and mathematical calculations. The secret of success depends on the people, and the effort and inspiration they put into work are largely linked to their mental states. Hence the great importance of NLP as a means of personal improvement for the achievement of excellence.
2. What does it mean?
The Programming part refers to the way we can program our own thoughts and behaviors, much like the way a computer is programmed to do specific things.
Neuro refers to the neurological processes of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling: the senses we use for inner thought processes as well as for experiencing the outer world. All of our understanding, and what we describe as consciousness, comes through these neural windows that lead into our brain.
Linguistics recognizes the part that language plays, both in our communication with others and in the way we organize our thoughts.
NLP is therefore about the way we filter, through the five senses, our experiences of the outside world and how we use those same inner senses, purposely and also unknowingly, to achieve the results we want. It all has to do with the way we perceive or think. And it is our thoughts - perception, imagination, belief patterns - that determine what we do, and what we achieve.
3. The fundamental steps
There are four essential steps to getting what you want. In this case the desire corresponds to business, sectoral and individual objectives within the framework of the organization.
These four steps are simple but extraordinarily deep. If you are fully committed to achieving your goals, these steps are sufficient to make significant changes.
1. Know what you want. NLP talks about knowing its effect, that is, the result it aims to achieve. If it is a business executive, it will be the returns on invested capital, the market share, the growth in sales; if it is the Sales Manager, it will be the volume of sales and the contributions obtained; In the case of the Head of Production, it will be about levels of waste and production volumes, for salespeople it will be about volumes and amounts invoiced, and for the case of production employees, it will be about levels of defects per million opportunities, or productivity.
2. Get into action. Execute those actions that you consider will allow you to achieve the objectives. Here, the possibility of participation and empowerment policies that facilitate the actions of employees in the search for excellence are of transcendental importance for employees.
3. Learn to recognize the results of what you do. This requires what has come to be called "sensory acuity." You must be able to accurately observe the things that happen as a result of your behavior.
4. Be prepared to change your behavior until you achieve the desired effect. Based on sensory feedback, you should always be ready to do something else. If you're unsuccessful at first, you should try something else, which requires creative thinking. Achieving that creativity implies having the ability to adopt new approaches and different behavior.
4. Basic principles
Like any branch of science, NLP is based on certain principles. An understanding of these principles allows for remarkable improvements when applied to everyday situations.
a) The map is not the territory. We all interpret what is happening around us through our five senses. What you believe about what you see, hear, and feel is based on your lifetime experience, which filters out any information that comes to you through your senses. What seems good to you may seem bad to someone else. What is useful to person Z may not be useful to person X. Our only interpretation of everything around us becomes a personal mind map. This personal map shapes our reality: our understanding or consciousness. But Z's mind map is different from X's or yours. Each of us see things differently. And none of our maps is objective reality. That is, they are not the territory of the outside world, objective;it is only subjective interpretations. None of us can claim to perceive objectively; We have only filtered the facts and circumstances in different ways. We all have different beliefs about a multitude of everyday things, as we have different maps of the same territory. This certainly explains the conflicts and the many problems caused by these different maps of the same territory. At the same time it opens up the possibility of understanding other people's perceptions and the huge benefits of better communication. Understanding how someone's map differs from yours not only saves you all the time and effort wasted on miscommunication, but also lets you know what moves other people and how you can influence them to help you achieve your goals.None of us can claim to perceive objectively; We have only filtered the facts and circumstances in different ways. We all have different beliefs about a multitude of everyday things, as we have different maps of the same territory. This certainly explains the conflicts and the many problems caused by these different maps of the same territory. At the same time it opens up the possibility of understanding other people's perceptions and the huge benefits of better communication. Understanding how someone's map differs from yours not only saves you all the time and effort wasted on miscommunication, but also lets you know what moves other people and how you can influence them to help you achieve your goals.None of us can claim to perceive objectively; We have only filtered the facts and circumstances in different ways. We all have different beliefs about a multitude of everyday things, as we have different maps of the same territory. This certainly explains the conflicts and the many problems caused by these different maps of the same territory. At the same time it opens up the possibility of understanding other people's perceptions and the huge benefits of better communication. Understanding how someone's map differs from yours not only saves you all the time and effort wasted on miscommunication, but also lets you know what moves other people and how you can influence them to help you achieve your goals.We have only filtered the facts and circumstances in different ways. We all have different beliefs about a multitude of everyday things, as we have different maps of the same territory. This certainly explains the conflicts and the many problems caused by these different maps of the same territory. At the same time it opens up the possibility of understanding other people's perceptions and the huge benefits of better communication. Understanding how someone's map differs from yours not only saves you all the time and effort wasted on miscommunication, but also lets you know what moves other people and how you can influence them to help you achieve your goals.We have only filtered the facts and circumstances in different ways. We all have different beliefs about a multitude of everyday things, as we have different maps of the same territory. This certainly explains the conflicts and the many problems caused by these different maps of the same territory. At the same time it opens up the possibility of understanding other people's perceptions and the huge benefits of better communication. Understanding how someone's map differs from yours not only saves you all the time and effort wasted on miscommunication, but also lets you know what moves other people and how you can influence them to help you achieve your goals.Well, we have different maps of the same territory. This certainly explains the conflicts and the many problems caused by these different maps of the same territory. At the same time it opens up the possibility of understanding other people's perceptions and the huge benefits of better communication. Understanding how someone's map differs from yours not only saves you all the time and effort wasted on miscommunication, but also lets you know what moves other people and how you can influence them to help you achieve your goals.Well, we have different maps of the same territory. This certainly explains the conflicts and the many problems caused by these different maps of the same territory. At the same time, it opens up the possibility of understanding other people's perceptions and the enormous benefits of better communication. Understanding how someone's map differs from yours not only saves you all the time and effort wasted on miscommunication, but also lets you know what moves other people and how you can influence them to help you achieve your goals.At the same time it opens up the possibility of understanding other people's perceptions and the huge benefits of better communication. Understanding how someone's map differs from yours not only saves you all the time and effort wasted on miscommunication, but also lets you know what moves other people and how you can influence them to help you achieve your goals.At the same time, it opens up the possibility of understanding other people's perceptions and the enormous benefits of better communication. Understanding how someone's map differs from yours not only saves you all the time and effort wasted on miscommunication, but also lets you know what moves other people and how you can influence them to help you achieve your goals.
b) Taking responsibility for all behavior is a positive intention. NLP makes a distinction between our behavior and our intentions: what we do and what we want to achieve. There is a positive intention behind everything we do. We always aim for some goal that is positive and valuable to us, no matter what others create.
c) Choice is better than no choice. Having choices means having greater freedom to act, and also having a greater chance of getting what you want. Much of NLP is concerned with providing more choices or ideas. For NLP an option is not really an option; Two options can be a dilemma; three or more options give you the freedom to achieve your goals in the best way.
d) The meaning of your communication is the response it produces. If a communication does not generate the desired effect, our usual instinct is to blame the person on the receiving end. The alternative approach embodied through NLP is to treat the result only as information, which serves as the basis for changing our behavior, if necessary repeatedly, until the desired effects are obtained.
e) There is no failure, only feedback. If things don't go the way we planned, we usually think we've failed. But the point of view in NLP is that what happens is neither good nor bad, but mere information. If there was too much waste in the process, it does not mean that you failed as a worker, only that you learned what the results are of working in a certain way.
5. Learning with NLP
Neurolinguistic Programming deals with the learning of what we observe, and that we base our actions on what we learn. So these presuppositions are as much about learning as they are about communicating and achieving goals.
At first we are all in a state that could be called “unconscious ignorance (regarding skill or ability). In other words, we don't know what we don't know or what we might be able to do. According to the first principle of NLP, knowledge or skill is outside our current mental map of the world. From the moment you become aware of incompetence or lack of skill, the effort is put into trying to learn a new knowledge or acquire a new skill. By acquiring the competence, knowledge or skill, we then move on to the learning phase of conscious competence. You know that you can do something, and that you are good at it, at least up to a point.
The last phase is this learning ladder is the most important from the point of view of NLP. At a given level of experience we are simply no longer aware of our competence. We can do things without knowing exactly how we are doing them, and we do not need to think about them consciously.
Based on this learning ladder, and some NLP goal achievement techniques, any employer, manager, and employee can relegate virtually any skill to an unconscious level of competence. There are NO limits to what the human brain can learn to achieve in this way. Once this level of learning is reached, people run businesses, design products, execute tasks, process data at a high level. This type of learning uses the entire brain, the conscious left side and the unconscious right side, applying thinking strategies that work. The goal with any NLP skill is to use it in an intuitive way.
As with learning any physical skill, it requires some conscious effort and practice at first. Sometimes we have to unlearn something: how to correct a way to make an offer in the sale, or the way to carry out a process or movement in the productive phase. This involves moving from unconscious competence (when we act without thinking) to conscious incompetence. Relearning requires moving out of conscious incompetence, going through conscious competence, and returning to unconscious competence, having made more choices and obtained a higher level of mastery.
In this way and in the way of benchmarking both internally and externally, learning aimed at improvement must be carried out. Internally, when employees see in other workers in the same company a better way of doing things, they become aware of their current performance and therefore try to overcome it by acquiring new skills. Externally, when we become aware of our lack of competitive capabilities when confronting more capable rivals. We try through benchmarking to compare the ways of doing or performing the tasks, and in this way correct and improve our performance, in many cases learning new knowledge, methods, and skills.
6. Planning with NLP
NLP has a lot to do with harnessing both sides of the brain in order to form clear goals that will have the best chance of success.
When planning, ask yourself:
First: Are your goals specific? You must be precise about what you want or intend to achieve.
Second: Are your goals within your personal control? It must be verified that each objective is reasonably within your personal control.
Third: Do you have what it takes to achieve your goals? Proceed to verify that you have the resources you need to use to achieve the objectives.
Fourth: How will you know when you have reached your goals? You must not only be specific about the objectives to be achieved, but also be able to measure in some way the achievements.
Fifth: Are your objectives positively expressed? This involves thinking about what you want rather than what you don't want. In some respects our brain is obtuse. When he is told "Don't waste material", he only seems to hear "waste." The goal should be set in such a way as "98% of the material must be used", then the brain concentrates on the "use".
Sixth: Are your goals at the right level? Is your goal big enough, or too big given the resources you have? If it's too big, ask yourself: What's stopping me from achieving this?
Seventh: What else could be affected? It is always necessary to think about what effects the achievement of certain objectives will have on the rest of the system. In this way, it seeks not only to harmonize objectives, but also to avoid adverse effects.
7. Identifying Thought Preferences
We must proceed to identify both our own way of thinking, as well as that of our interlocutors, be they subordinates, peers, colleagues, superiors, managers, suppliers or clients.
Knowing your thinking preferences will allow you to better communicate, making yourself understood, while understanding the message of our interlocutors.
The fundamental preferences are:
- VisualAuditiveKinesthetic
Paying attention to words, as well as sentences, will allow us to unravel thinking preferences.
At the word level we have, as examples:
- Visuals: square, bright, color, expression, black, vision, eye, visualize, reflect, perception, focus, shine Hearing: loud, sound, clear, tell, ask, comment, testimony, melody, sound, rhythm Kinesthetics: touch, push, solid, smooth, touch, move, pressure, handle, push, grasp, weight, warm, firm, tangible.
And as for phrases:
- Visual: "I see what you mean", "gives the impression", "looking at it carefully". Auditory: "so to speak", "I remember the melody". Kinesthetic: "wait a second", "a warm person", " I will be in touch".
This is important when it comes to training, training, ordering, offering, negotiating, and motivating others.
Words and phrases are not the only way we can determine a person's thinking preference. Thus, the movement of the eyes allows to elucidate if the person is remembering, creating, thinking or feeling thoughts or sensations.
8. Thought habits and self-beliefs
Being positive or negative, optimistic or pessimistic, shows an attitude. An optimistic salesperson has long been shown to outperform a pessimistic one with similar experience and training. So a change in attitude, without an apparent change in skills or behavior, can quantum improve your performance.
Research with optimists and pessimists also indicates that the performance gap widens over time. A sale of 20 percent by the optimist becomes 50 percent the following year. In other words, the law of decreasing productivity was reversed, and a positive attitude resulted in an upward spiral of success. Meanwhile, those who expected poor results, the pessimists, experienced a downward spiral. The way we think is so likely to become as common as the way we act. The attitudes that guide us as individuals and cultures are just habits of thought that can be changed with awareness and the right kind of mental practice.
Let's think about the fundamental importance that what has been developed previously has not only in terms of sales, but also in issues such as reducing tool preparation times, quality and productivity levels, and reducing costs. The pessimistic mind will deny the possibility of improvement, while the optimistic mind will be ready for any challenge and will do its best to achieve such goals.
Lionel Tiger expresses and demonstrates in his work "Optimism" that the cultures that manage to prevail and survive are those that have optimistic belief systems. These groups believe in worth and in the possibilities of their own future.
At a deeper level of thinking we all have our own beliefs and values. They are much more permanent than ephemeral sensations, even than attitudes. The beliefs that affect what you achieve mostly concern what you believe about yourself, or how you “see” yourself - your self-image, if you prefer. Beliefs can be both individual and collective, in such a way we have the self-image of both the seller or the director, as well as the company.
A company that perceives itself as a producer of low-quality goods and services will end up not only showing them abroad, but also generating them.
Negative self-beliefs are limiting for people in terms of their ability to learn and perform tasks.
Once we believe something (be it positive or negative), our behavior is affected on all levels.
NLP offers techniques for changing belief systems, including self-image. NLP approaches beliefs in a radical way. You can simply create beliefs, and discard old ones. We are quite capable of changing our beliefs, and this may take place after a change in environment, circumstances, or actual achievements.
The first step in changing beliefs about yourself or your company is to identify your self-image.
Conclusions
NLP is an important tool that allows us to elucidate our way of seeing ourselves and our organization, giving us a series of methods and instruments to generate change.
A greater understanding of the way human beings think allows us to improve our communication, with all that this implies in terms of productivity.
Improving our way of training, learning to plan in a more positive and appropriate way, and discovering the importance that positive (optimistic) thinking has for the running of the company are other important contributions of Neuro-linguistic Programming in the search for excellence. organizational.
The NLP allows with its various tools and methodologies to widely improve the actions of the individuals that make up the organization and thus achieve better performances in terms of quality and productivity.
To achieve continuous improvement, we must continuously improve the people who make up the organization, and for this, these people have to feel ready to change and consider its feasibility. Discovering and changing the beliefs of individuals is one of the great goals of NLP.
It is impossible to achieve great goals without first modifying the "mental maps" or paradigms that dominate the way of thinking and feeling of the staff, whatever their location in the organizational pyramid.
Becoming a competitive company, overcoming the mental schemes (mental maps) typical of traditional companies, requires action. The NLP together with the DO (Organizational Development) make these tools and strategies available to companies to change the way of thinking and acquire new and better skills.
It is not enough to understand the financial or productive processes, it is also essential to understand the way of thinking and acting both of the individuals that make up the organization, and those who are linked to it.
9. Bibliography
NLP for business - Harry Alder - Editorial EDAF - 2002
How to understand NLP Management - Cudicio - Granica - 1996
Succeed at work with NLP - Grochowick - Edit. Continent - 1999
NLP for Executives - Medermott - Editorial Del Futuro - 1999
NLP and Human Relations - O'Connor and Prior - Editorial Paidos - 2001
The Sale with NLP - O'Connor - Editorial Del Futuro - 1997
NLP applied to negotiation - Chantal - Editorial Granica - 1997
How to buy better with NLP - Perrotin - Granica - 1994
Leading with NLP - O'Connor - Editorial Del Futuro - 1999
