TAKING NLP TO A BRIGHTER FUTURE

What is the future of NLP? Will NLP become more well known and accepted? Will NLP be able to establish more credibility in academic communities? Will the field of NLP eventually weed out those who are misusing the models and who have been giving it a lot of bad press?

These are but a few of the questions that many of us often wonder about and ask each other about for years. And what is the answer? For years, most of the answers that I heard in discussions were on the dark side. The problems seemed too big and pervasive to be able to address. In Conferences all around the world, I would hear about lots of really good things happening in the field, but then there would be a few instances of people mis-using it, manipulating with it, and so there seemed to be a strong sense of helplessness about effecting real change.

In fact, this actually describes the primary reason that we started Neuro-Semantics. We set our Vision Statement back in 1996 “to take NLP to a higher level ethically and professionally.” We knew some of the things that would have to happen to achieve that and we put them into the Vision Statement. Our vision then and now is to create a world-wide community of men and women who collaborate, give credit to sources, apply NLP to ourselves.

More recently, 2012, another factor arose and is now becoming a force for good in the field of NLP. It is the NLP Leadership Summit. We began very small— inviting the “elders in the tribe” of NLP, those with 20 years or more experience as recognized “leaders” in the field to come together at the NLP Conference in London and just talk. “Let’s talk about our leadership and where we are going.” And so we did. 30 to 40 of us meet each year, year after year, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015...

The power of “conversation” with those leaders initiated a self-organizing force, something I had hoped for, but really didn’t expect. At least not so quickly. Given that those who came were indeed leaders, and truly cared about the future we were creating and wanting to do better, after we began to get used to each other and as we began practicing listening, seeking to understand, we also began wanting to do something about our dreams. That led to the website, www.nlpleadershipsummit.org.

By talking about our values and visions and our understandings of what NLP is, we began documenting our conversations and that ended up as the content of the website. The content is what we have co-created as our understanding of NLP and what is required to be a member of the Summit. And with each meeting at the NLP Conference, we began to think that we could do more ... and so we began planning for our first three-day summit. That occurred in January 2016 in Alicante Spain. Again an event that occurred in a self-organizing way as 38 of us meet for an extended three days conversation, a colloquium wherein we discovered we could talk extensively and deeply and not split apart. Out of that came the book that Joe Cheal edited, Powered by NLP.

Afterwards, we continued meeting at the NLP Conference in 2016, 2017, and so now we are ready for our second three-day Summit. So very soon, January 12-14, 2018 we will again meet ing Alicante Spain for a three day colloquium for an extended conversation.

Now the NLP Leadership Summit is not a Conference—there are no speakers. It is not an Association—there are no officers or constitution. It is a summit of leaders. Just as world leaders gather from time to time to talk about a common problem— that’s what we’re doing. We have within our membership fifteen (15) Associations of NLP represented. But rather than try to create another organization, we are just simply associating. That is, meeting, talking, seeking to understand, and letting discoveries emerge.

A strange thing about the NLP Leadership Summit is that while we are all leaders in our own right, in our own communities and areas, we have no leaders in the Summit. Instead what we have done from the beginning is co-lead — we have made it possible for everyone to have a voice and to speak and we have done so with respect for each other and our differences. By taking away the restraints that come with a formal organization— we have reduced politics to a bare minimum.

Now there are a few of us who exercise some of the roles, like organizing the place, the venue, the dates, etc. and who facilitate the discussions. Yet we are all colleagues. So while I didn’t know it at the time that Ian and I where writing the book— it is an extended experience in Collaborative Leadership.

Invitation: If you or someone you know has been a recognized leader in NLP for 15 years or more— you can go to the website and apply as a member. If you want a physical copy of the book, Powered by NLP, it is available at cost, for only $5.