1 Aplicación de herramientas y técnicas de PNL en un entorno de bienes de consumo

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Applying NLP tools and techniques in an
FMCG environment
Lisa Wake
Abstract
Purpose – This article aims to give an overview of how neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) has been
applied in a fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) environment over a number of years.
Design/methodology/approach – The article includes practical examples of how tools have been
applied and lessons learnt from integrating NLP into a commercial setting.
Findings – This paper demonstrates that for NLP to be effectively applied it needs to be: paced to
organisational needs; paced to stage of development; championed from within; delivered with
credibility; and directly relevant to the workplace.
Practical implications – NLP is a ‘‘soft skills’’ tool kit which is not necessarily a business priority and
therefore needs to be responsive to organisational needs. NLP jargon needs to be changed to make it
readily accessible and understandable for most business people. Organisations are at different stages of
development and some tools and techniques within NLP are inappropriate. Champions need to have
sufficient leadership credibility for the model to be accepted. Credibility of the trainer is a core requirement
– have they ‘‘earned their stripes’’? Tools and techniques need to be directly relevant to the workplace.
Social implications – All organisations are reliant on their workforce to deliver business outcomes to a
lesser or greater extent. Often training programmes do not directly relate to the competencies required
of an employee in a range of contexts or take into account the human factor. NLP provides an evidence
based tool kit to harness performance excellence within the arena of soft skills.
Originality/value – The article proposes that NLP can be applied in industrial and commercial
environments with success and provides simple examples of how this has worked.
Keywords Psychology, Organisational development
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
NLP is advocated as an applied psychology of performance excellence and yet many
organisations are still reluctant to utilize its potential or have experienced the tools and
techniques and found them to be lacking. A few organisations have been using NLP tools
and techniques for many years and training programmes are often littered with the
methodology of NLP without actually naming it as such. This viewpoint provides an overview
of how NLP has been applied in an FMCG environment and the key lessons learnt. The
article also provides practical examples of some of the tools and techniques in application
and considers which have been the most effective.
Pacing the organisation’s needs
Pacing is a key component of rapport in NLP. Pacing means to match where someone is
currently and work alongside them to develop a process of responsiveness that is based on
trust. NLP teaches pacing as a process that includes the matching of physiology, voice
qualities and key words. Pacing using NLP goes much further than that when we think about
pacing an organisation’s needs. Some of the questions included in the well formed outcome
DOI 10.1108/00197851111108953 VOL. 43 NO. 2 2011, pp. 121-125, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0019-7858 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAINING j PAGE 121
Lisa Wake is based at
Awaken Consulting and
Training Services Ltd,
Middlesborough, UK.
model of NLP can help pace the organisation by clearing identifying needs that are related to
an outcome.
Questions
B What are the current problems or challenges for the organisation?
B What do they want to be different?
B How will they know that things are different?
B What will they see, hear and feel?
B What might their customers notice?
B Are there any benefits or losses that result from having these needs met?
B Is the goal or outcome realistic?
B What resources might be needed to achieve the goal?
B Do they know of anyone else who has achieved this goal?
B Is it possible to model from them?
B What are the first steps in achieving the goal?
B What is the last step?
Pacing the organisational stage of development
Organisations are at different stages of development. Some have been operating for many
years and have a workforce consisting of long standing employees. Others may have gone
through periods of change and have experienced an influx of new personnel that bring new
ideas or ways of thinking to the organisation. A new organisation may have been set up and
the workforce is becoming used to working with each other. Irrespective of the history of the
organisation, one of the key tools in pacing the developmental stage of the organisation is to
‘second position’ the key players. Second position is taken from the method referred to as
perceptual positions, the ability to view situations from multiple perspectives.
Perceptual positions
Perceptual positions involves viewing a situation from three different perspectives: your own
or first position where you view a situation from your own perspective, emotions, beliefs and
behaviour; the other person’s perspective or second position where you act as the other
person, speak as if you were them, and talk about their emotions, beliefs and behaviour; the
detached observer perspective or third position where you view things from a dissociated
non-emotional perspective and comment on the interaction between the first and second
position. Different perspectives can be gained from each perceptual position.
By viewing the organisation from different perceptual positions and stepping into their world,
it is possible to introduce NLP in ways that are more likely to be accepted.
For a number of years I introduced some of the communication tools within NLP, including
perceptual positions, using the language of the organisation. The organisation was
experiencing considerable challenges with the sales team and the customer relationship. A
programme called ‘‘powerful influencing’’ was introduced, with much of the jargon of NLP
changed to language appropriate to a sales context. For example, NLP has a number of
‘‘ NLP teaches pacing as a process that includes the matching of
physiology, voice qualities and key words. ’’
PAGE 122 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAININGj VOL. 43 NO. 2 2011
underpinning philosophies or assumptions about people’s subjective experience. We
changed the title of these from presuppositions to operating beliefs. We also shortened
some of the definitions of the presuppositions to make them directly relevant to the
commercial environment: rather than referring to the ‘‘mind and body being the same system
and one affecting the other’’, we referred to ‘‘what you think affects how you behave’’.
This programme, along with another management development programme that
incorporated some elements of NLP as management tools, enabled the gradual
introduction of NLP as a mainstream technology. This process has occurred slowly over a
number of years and high potential individuals within the organisation are now invited to
attend NLP practitioner coach courses.
Where NLP has been introduced into other organisations without sufficient pacing, feedback
has included ‘‘waving the tambourine’’; individuals are ‘‘evangelical’’, and ‘‘mumbo jumbo’’.
My observation of these situations has noted a considerable lack of pacing of the
organisation’s values, culture and management practices.
Championing from within
Like any methodology, NLP is only as good as the person who utilizes it. Often individuals
have attended external NLP programmes as part of an identified learning or personal
development need, and only after they have attended the programme, do they begin to
recognise how the skills can be applied in a commercial and industrial environment.
Initially individuals from within the learning and development section of the organisation
attended our open programmes. They were very honest in their feedback of what they had
enjoyed and valued in the course and what they considered to be too therapeutic or
‘‘woo-woo’’ to be acceptedby their workforce.
The development of a long term relationship through pacing and leading, perceptual positions
and understanding the logical levels of the organisation has resulted in these individuals being
supported as they gradually introduce their learnings into the workplace. Through this support
and development of a relationship that has enabled them to gain supervision and advice on
how they might use their skills in NLP, they have become champions of the methodology.
Experience has shown that these individuals need to be of sufficiently high level and with
leadership credibility for NLP to be seamlessly introduced. Within the FMCG organisation, the
Chief Executive is widely read and trained in NLP, uses an NLP based coach, and a number of
the executive team have trained to practitioner level. This has enabled the development of a
common language particularly around problem solving. Executive team members now use
each other to reflect on difficult situations and are able to support each other to gain alternative
perspectives, reframe their experience, anchor positive and resourceful states in a group
context, collapse negative anchors where incidents have arisen, and use outcome focused
questioning to facilitate towards based thinking.
Delivery with credibility
NLP is a model of performance excellence therefore it would make sense that the individual
who introduces NLP into the workplace has a high degree of credibility. This credibility is
within the area of applying NLP to themselves and also with others, it also is within the work
context:
B Does the person understand the business?
B Have the built up sufficient rapport with leaders within the organisation?
B Do they do what they say they are going to do?
B Have they got a breadth and depth of experience of applying NLP in a range of settings?
NLP is currently an unregulated activity and model of applied psychology. As such anybody
can call themselves an NLP practitioner or coach. Training can be as little as reading a book
or completing a theoretical distance learning course, through to a full 135 hours or more of
face to face training to reach practitioner level status. There are a number of bodies that
VOL. 43 NO. 2 2011 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAININGj PAGE 123
Table I Descriptions of the tool and how they have been applied
Tool Description Application
Outcomes A structured process of setting
achievable and realistic outcomes
In sales meetings to clarify the goal or purpose of the
meeting. In coaching to develop objectives. In strategic
planning to identify obstacles to success
Rapport A process of mutual trust and
understanding
In sales meetings to facilitate a positive outcome. In conflict
situations to calm things down. In negotiation meetings to
enable people to feel at ease. In interviews to find out how the
person really thinks and feels
Sensory acuity The ability to read moment to moment
changes in someone’s physiology
In sales meetings to identify the ‘‘tell’’. In coaching situations
to identify how someone is feeling or responding to
suggestions
Representational
systems
The language of thought: pictures,
sounds, feelings, self talk
In the selling context to match the persons preferred decision
making process in buying. In presentations to meet all
communication preferences. In marketing to ensure that all
preferences are covered within a brand launch. In facilitating
an employee from a stuck ‘‘feeling’’ state, to a ‘‘picture’’
solution state
Eye accessing cues The eye patterns that we use as we
process information internally
In sales meetings to understand someone’s preferred
decision-making process. In conflict resolution situations to
use with questioning techniques to assist someone to move
to a more resourceful way of being
Perceptual positions The ability to view things from multiple
perspectives
To understand the customer prior to a buying meeting. To
manage conflict. To negotiate a successful procurement
Disney pattern Utilising Disney’s strategy of dreamer,
critic and realistic to facilitate different
ways to think about a situation
In marketing and branding to develop new ideas for an
existing product that is selling at lower than expected levels
Metaphor Using a story or analogy to get a
specific idea across
In branding and marketing to capture the attention of
prospective customers. Problem solving and solution finding
in coaching situations
Submodalities The finer distinctions within internal
pictures, sounds and feelings that
enable us to change how we think and
feel
In marketing to facilitate a more connected response to a
product. In coaching to assist someone have more useful
beliefs about their own abilities
Strategies The internal and external processes that
we use for every behaviour that we ‘‘do’’
In sales to sell a product according to someone’s buying
strategy. In management to structure information to ensure
that it is responsive to the decision-making process of the
individual concerned
Logical levels of
change
A hierarchical model of thinking and
behaviour that facilitates change
management
To develop an organisational blueprint or DNA. To align
beliefs and values towards an organisational mission or
purpose. To mediate a conflict situation where competing
values were causing a problem within a team
Metamodel A structured series of language
patterns that identify how someone is
really thinking
Identifying the root cause of a problem quickly in an industrial
environment. Challenge organisational myths: the notorious
‘‘somebody’’, ‘‘management’’ or ‘‘them’’, which directly affect
the culture of an organisation
Milton model The use of artfully vague and
ambiguous language that facilitate
positive and creative thinking that is
unconscious
In sales meetings to facilitate close of the deal. In group
meetings to set outcomes and pace the audience
Hierarchy of Ideas Differing levels of abstraction and
thinking that are apparent in every day
language
Brain storming in marketing. Resolution of conflict. Mediation
between two competing teams
4 Mat A structured way of presenting
information that is directly linked to
Kolb’s learning styles
In presentations and report writing. In presenting a new idea
to a group of people to ensure that all decision making styles
are met
Values Motivational factors that are often
unconscious and drive every behaviour
Resolving team conflict. Developing the values and
expectant behaviours of an organisation. Change
management in developing aspirant values that move the
organisation towards greater success
Metaprogrammes Content free filters that predict our
behaviour in a specific context
In recruitment and selection. Motivating and influencing
others
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purport to provide a registration body for practitioners, most of which are owned by or
directly linked to training organisations. Currently ANLP (Association for NLP) is the only
independent umbrella body for NLP practitioners and above.
It is possible to complete higher education qualifications in NLP, with some Masters level
degrees being entirely or mainly consisting of NLP based training. There are a slowly
increasing number of PhD graduates who have focused on NLP as their research topic and
the industry is seeing greater calls for the regulation of the profession since the statutory
regulation of psychology by the Health Professions Council in 2008.
Directly relevant to the workplace
The final piece of the jigsaw that enables NLP to be successfully applied in practice is how it
is tailored so that it is directly relevant to the workplace.
I have covered each of the NLP topics within my latest book, NLP: Principles in Practice
(Wake, 2010), providing practical examples of how each can be applied and, where it is
available, the relevant research for each technique. Some of the ones that I would like to
draw out where they have been successfullyapplied within the industrial and commercial
sectors are listed in Table I, with a brief description of the tool and how they have been
applied given.
There are a number of other techniques within NLP that are used mainly in a coaching
context and as adjuncts to the techniques summarized above.
In my substantial years of experience of applying NLP in heavy industry and commercial
contexts, there are some techniques that are inappropriate to use and in some instances
may also be unsafe to use. These include some of the more therapeutic or psychological
intervention processes including the use of time lining, parts integration, alignment, and
advanced coaching processes.
Lessons learnt
NLP can be successfully applied in a commercial and industrial context if it is paced to the
world of the organisation. The language or jargon of NLP is a distinct ‘‘put off’’ and where the
language of NLP can be changed to match or meet the common language of a particular
sector it is much more readily accepted.
NLP is a powerful tool kit and sometimes it is portrayed as a panacea for all. Like any toolkit, it
is only as good as the person who is using it. It has its limitations and there are some areas
where it would be either inappropriate or even unsafe to use.
NLP still lacks a substantial evidence base, although this is changing as more people are
conducting research into this area. Further information on this is available in NLP: Principles
in Practice (Wake, 2010).
Reference
Wake, L. (2010), NLP: Principles in Practice, Ecademy Press, St Albans.
About the author
Lisa Wake is the author of NLP: Principles in Practice and is also founder of Awaken
Consulting and Training Services Ltd, a company specializing in helping businesses to
generate growth by awakening greater possibilities and choice. Lisa Wake can be
contacted at: lisa@awakenconsulting.co.uk
VOL. 43 NO. 2 2011 j INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL TRAININGj PAGE 125
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