WHAT THE DOG SAW

I'm currently reading "What the Dog Saw" by Malcolm Gladwell. He is probably best known for his classic books "Blink" and more recently "Outliers". This latest one is proving to be equally fascinating. Gladwell is a fabulous writer. A quote on the back of the book suggests he "makes the world fresh and exciting again" and he does.

I love the way Gladwell looks at the world. He frequently sees a situation from a wholly original perspective and not only asks questions that I haven't even thought of, but goes on to answer them too. For me he gets under the skin of his subjects. He gets inside their minds and wants to understand why people do what they do. NLP is all about understanding this too. Remember the blog about modelling a couple of weeks ago? This is modelling in action.

It is a collection of his articles all originally published in The New Yorker magazine. The piece that gives the book it's name is a profile of Cesar Millan, also known as the dog whisperer. Millan can calm the angriest and most troubled of animals with the touch of his hand. Gladwell was inspired to write the piece to answer his own questions, what is going on in Millan's mind when he does this, what does he see? It was only later that he says he was inspired to answer an altogether more fundamental question - what is going on for the dog when Millan does this? In attempting to discover "What the Dog Saw" he manages to turn the problem on it's head in his quest for new solutions.

Curiosity is what drives him. A sense of curiosity and a sense of playfulness is also what is behind NLP. It is encapsulated by the quote at the start of the book - to a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish. Don't settle for a knowledge of just your immediate little piece of the world. Be interested in more than just the obvious. Begin to ask new questions in familiar situations. Always look to stretch yourself and to go beyond. The possibilities are truly endless.
Michelle