NLP WITH COLLEAGUES

During our teaching sessions with trainee GPs we talk about applying NLP in practical situations with colleagues. The one situation they always come up with is practice meetings. These are situations that they often find difficult or in which conflict arises and they want tips as to how to handle the situation. Well I am facing just that situation myself today. Our regular weekly practice meetings are on a Friday lunchtime but today we have a special one (no nothing to do with Jose Mourinho..... will he or won't he go back to Chelsea? Or even to Spurs if Harry takes the England job?) I digress - today's special meeting is about re-vamping our appointment system and it will be a wonderful opportunity to put my NLP skills into practice.

What upcoming situations do you face in which it would be useful to have some extra skills? Maybe to further hone your ability to get into rapport or to be able to understand the situation from a number of different perspectives as we discussed in last week's blog about conflict resolution. Listening skills are possibly the most important of all - not only what is being said but how it being said. What tonality is being used? Another technique called the Meta Model delves behind the words that are actually being spoken (called the surface structure) to what is really being meant (the deep structure).

NLP fascinates me. A few people we teach initially ask if the techniques aren't just common sense.
No - they are much more than that. Certainly some of the skills we teach on our introductory trainings are things that we sometimes do already, but it's about being aware that you do them. By bringing them into conscious awareness you can fine tune those skills and use them deliberately when the situation calls for it. Later we teach techniques that you certainly won't have used before, but once you know them they'll form an essential part of your everyday interactions with everyone you meet.

But it's not all work for me today as tonight we have our annual practice quiz night. I've set a round of questions on two topics I have an in-depth knowledge of .............. EastEnders and Casualty!
Sad but true, I'm a big fan of both programmes - should be a good night. See you next week.
Michelle

NLP & CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Nice as it might be if everything in life ran smoothly, things sometimes go wrong and there are conflicts. What does NLP have to offer when it comes to conflict resolution?

Interestingly we taught a group of trainee GPs last week and conflict resolution was one of the areas that many of them wanted to know more about. What does that say about the modern NHS you may ask? Don't even start me off on the government's Health Bill.......

Conflict often arises as the result of misunderstanding, so techniques designed to help prevent misunderstandings are likely to be effective here. Rapport building is always so important, I can't stress that enough; if you've got great rapport with someone it's hard to be in conflict with them. It doesn't mean you'll necessarily agree with each other but it will make it a lot easier to understand the other's point of view. When gaining rapport you need to be aware of the other person's physiology, breathing, predicates, tonality and gestures.

The NLP technique which deals specifically with appreciating how another person experiences a situation is called Perceptual Positions. It involves deliberately experiencing a situation from a number of different perspectives - your own, the other person's, that of a dispassionate observer and sometimes from an even further removed viewpoint outside the system altogether. One moves through these in turn, gaining insight and deepening your understanding of the situation as a whole.

The use of chunking in language and the concept of the Hierarchy of Ideas - both of which we'll be discussing in later blogs, are very useful tools here too. So stay with us. We love to get your feedback, on the blog and our videos so feel free to get in touch.
Michelle