BEYOND THE BOOKS TO EMBODIED EXPERIENCE

After finishing the fifth training of Coaching Mastery in 2009 which we did in Sydney, Australia last week, I got two emails from opposites sides of the planet asking about the same thing. Each person was thinking about taking Coaching Mastery, the third module of Meta-Coaching for the ACMC credentials and each was essentially asking the same question. For brevity sake, I have summarized the questions as follows: “Now that you have most of the books on Meta-Coaching written, as well as the extensive training manual, what is the value of the live training— the coaching bootcamp? Can’t I get that from the books? What will I get that I can’t get from the books?”

The answer is really simple; it is direct; and in my opinion it is unequivocal. What you get in the training is the experience of closing your own personal the knowing-doing gap. “Knowing” is actually the easy part. If you can read, if you can watch a video, if you can listen to an audio tape, or get the live training on your i-pod— you can get the content information. You can discover and learn the key distinctions about the competencies, about the models, the patterns, and so on.

But knowing something in your mind is not the same as knowing it in your body. In fact, much of the human dilemma that all of us face throughout our lives is that we “know.” Cognitively and academically we know. We know, and yet we do not do.

Actually this has been a theme in Neuro-Semantics from the very beginning. From the beginning we launched Neuro-Semantics as a field and community because we had a vision of people using the communication and modeling tools of NLP on themselves and not merely using NLP to “do things” to other people! “Doing NLP” on people is what has led to such charge against NLP as “NLP is manipulative,” and “Lots of NLP people don’t apply NLP to themselves.” And sadly, those charges are just as true today as it was in 1996.

Knowing and not doing— the human dilemma. People know what to do for health and fitness and don’t do it. They don’t need another class on nutrition or exercise; they need experiential embodying of their knowledge. People know what to do for business success and wealth creation; they don’t need another class on the basics of business. They need to close the gap between what they know and what they do.

And that’s what Neuro-Semantic trainings and coaching with a Meta-Coach focuses on— experiential knowledge, the embodiment of what you know, the integration of information so that

it becomes your “way of being” in the world. This is where the Mind-to-Muscle pattern shines. This is where Crucible experiences facilitate transformation. And this is where the coaching bootcamp of Coaching Mastery does its magic.

What you get from the live training is experience in embodying the content knowledge. Sure you know how to listen! Who doesn’t? Just listen. But when it comes to sitting down with another person and listening to his or her dreams, visions, and outcomes and being able to repeat it back word for word, listening intently, accurately, personally and listening not only with your ears. You also listen with your eyes and skin, you listen with your discernment of dozens of distinctions. And that’s a very different thing! So with supporting, and questioning, and meta- questioning, and state induction.

Embodying is the neuro- part of Neuro-Linguistics and Neuro-Semantics. It is the active use of your body— your neurology, physiology, and state—to activate new patterns and install them into muscle memory. It’s the way you learned to drive, roller-skate, ski, type on a key-board, and another thousand skills that you have. You learned those skills, and made those skills, yours by doing, by practicing, by practicing under the competent eye of someone who has been through the process.

The mythology that Bandler and others have perpetuated in NLP is that they can “install knowledge and skills” in you unconsciously, that is, apart from your conscious awareness. That is pure non-sense! Anders Ericsson and associates (The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance) have now demonstrated via extensive research that expertise arises only through conscious deliberate practice. And lots of practice, 10,000 hours for world-class violinists and “the ten-year rule” for almost every expertise you can name.

What can you get from the Coaching Bootcamp? Intense deliberate practice in a Crucible of caring and skilled people along with a community of passionate people. You get entrance into a living human laboratory for the embodiment of non-content, process facilitation skills. You get an experience of transformation so that you know coaching from the inside out. You get an experience of your life at high level of challenge and support.

To the full embodiment of your content knowledge!