February 27, 2013
Not given to over-statement, I thought I’d start with this modest title (!) and describe what has evolved over the years in Neuro-Semantics—our version of how to train and prepare Trainers and Public Speakers. Neuro-Semantic Trainers’ Training (NSTT) involves a full two weeks of training and training that is very intense (a boot camp that goes from 9 am to 9 pm) and that covers the Psychology that informs Meta-States and the APG training, the Platform Skills of presentation, the Training Skills for putting a training together, and the Business Skills for running a training center or selling yourself into businesses.
That’s a lot! And why? Because we do not just want to run a training for the purpose of making money. If we wanted to do that, we would not make it so intense, so long, or so rigorous. Besides, there are already numerous NLP Trainers’ Trainings that will give you a certificate and then turn you loose. In fact, as far as I know, that’s how they all work. You come, you learn, you practice, you get a bit of assessment, and if you pass, you get a certificate. With some, regardless of your presentation, you pass! Then you are bid farewell. “Do well! And goodbye.”
But our model for training Trainers and Public Speakers do not end at the graduation. No. Our support goes on and on, year after year, and in fact, you are invited into a community, and we look to you for leadership in your country and for the ultimate challenge of leadership —collaborating with co-leaders to create an united front and achieve more together than apart or alone.
In NSTT we also do not assume that 15 days is sufficient to turn you into a world-class presenter. So to provide ongoing support, we induce you into the special group of Neuro-Semantic NLP Trainers, add you to the exclusive Trainers’ egroup and provide at least one article every week written by myself, Colin Cox, and the group of trainers who are in the Master Trainer track. You also have access to the VIP area of the Neuro-Semantic website where there are several years of past “Trainers’ Reflections.” There also are Training Manuals and Certificates that are available to you.
In Neuro-Semantic our vision is to create high quality trainers and to do that we have set up a structure whereby we stay with the trainers, support them, and challenge them. We also see the Trainers as a natural leadership role. After all, what do the trainers do? They introduce and train people in the models, skills, and practical applications of Neuro-Semantics and NLP. They lead people to understand and use the models and patterns. So we encourage leaders to not go off by themselves as lone wolves, but to stay in the community and to become leaders in their country.
And how does that work? In part, by encouraging the launching of Institutes of Neuro-Semantics in every country. Today we have 17 and with trainers coming from various countries, once there are two trainers in the same country, then they can write a letter of intention and launch an Institute in their country. Why two? Because we assume that leaders are “collaborative leaders” and “work well and play well with others.”
And there’s more. When you attend NSTT, you present every day. At first the presentations are in the form of games and drills. Master Trainer, Colin Cox, has designed most of these as ways to expand your flexibility and skills and to prepare you for getting up in front of people, speaking, finding your natural style, learning to handle yourself gracefully no matter what happens, etc. And they are a lot of fun! That’s another Neuro-Semantic thing which comes from one of the Neuro-Semantic premises: “If you get serious, you get stupid.”
After that, you take a single pattern from the Accessing Personal Genius training and present it over and over and over until you have real skill and some elegance with it. And why the repetition? Ah yes, another Neuro-Semantic thing: Can you keep yourself inspired and in the right state even if you have already presented it? An excellent trainer can! And we want you to be able to replicate that level of excellence.
Then there are the evening presentation when you get to see and hear Master Trainers present and be benchmarked in front of the whole group. That occurs for the first eight nights letting you see and experience a whole range of trainers who have many different styles and who are all hungry and open for feedback. That’s one of the conditions of mastery.
Every afternoon there is the Business part. Here we talk about developing and writing a business plan, interviewing people with positive experience in contracting, promoting, and running trainings, identifying barriers to business effectiveness, and much more. Why? We want people to be successful. And merely having the knowledge and skills is not enough. You could be a great trainer and not be able to create an effective and commercially viable business.
At NSTT every trainer is benchmarked on Presentation and Training skills every day (after day 3) and the rigor is that after you present and get feedback, you immediately— right then and there– get up and present again using that feedback to shape your next presentation. I don’t know anywhere that you can get that kind of high quality feedback and you get it from seven to a dozen people. So it is not just one or two person’s point of view, but from numerous people, the team of Master Trainers who help Colin and I conduct NSTT.
Interested? Want to refine your Presentation and Public Speaking skills? Your training skills? Every year we have from three to eight NLP Trainers come and, without an exception, all say it is the toughest and best training in training that they have ever experienced.
Now this year — NSTT will be in September in Hong Kong.