Author: nlpnowcom

Categories
NLP

A talk for Vodafone (Turkey) Staff

Recently I was invited by the staff of Vodafone (Turkey), to give a talk, ablely assisted in translation by their and my translator, Asu Yildirim.

 Phillip Holt and translator Asu Yildirim 
Phillip Holt and translator Asu Yildirim at Vodafone

I was pleasantly surprised by the high attendance to the talk and the interaction and warmth I received.

Staff of Vodafone Turkey listening to Phillip Holt, April 2008  Staff of Vodafone Turkey listening to Phillip Holt, April 2008

                                        Staff of Vodafone Turkey listening to Phillip Holt, April 2008

Again like my presentations at Denizbank, Global Communications, Turkcell in Turkey, it is refreshing to see how much companies are investing in their staff by providing education and training in thier own academy buildings and facilities.

                                                                             Vodafone Logo

Categories
Mind Maps NLP Türkçe

A seminar soon in Turkey, Kuantum Liderlik.

Today I received an email containing a flier for a seminar to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, organised by Asemble, for the 5th May 2008, in the Conrad Hotel Istanbul.

Although written in Turkish I think it says “One of the most expensive speaker of the world Gordon M.Bethune in Turkey!!!“

Looking down the flier, is non other than me. Yes, I will be making a presentation at the same seminar, along with Antony Galie, R. Şanal Günseli and Professor Stefano D’anna.

The seminar title is QUANTUM LEADERSHIP

Kuantum Liderlik, 5th May 2008, Conrad Hotel Istanbul

My talk is scheduled to be on Mind Mapping and will include :-

            The application of Mind Mapping in business life.
 
            Mind Mapping applications for people in order to reach their goals and dreams.
 
            Mind Mapping techniques for leaders in order to impress and manage their group.

I will look forward to meeting old friends at the seminar along with new.

Translation of the above flier reads :-

“We are trying to implement many new disciplines to increase profitability in the business world, and maintain an everlasting company. In this seminar we will find the way to our roots. We will share the secrets of creating our future from today.”

SUBJECTS TO BE COVERED

  •     Quantum Leadership.
  •     How to become an everlasting company.
  •     Are you and your company ready for the next twenty years?
  •     Positive leadership in reaching goals
  •     Quantum leap.
  •     Mind mapping.

See the article of the seminar (click).

Categories
Travels

It is not what you see

It is not what is on the outside that says what is contained on the inside.

I do like a breakfast, and sometimes rather than going to have breakfast in the hotel restaurant, I will have a supply of breakfast cereal and some milk. Having a cereal means I can have a snack whenever I care to.

I decided to buy some muesli breakfast cereal from a local supermarket in Istanbul, Dia, (owned by Carrefour), and came across a box showing Dia‘s logo, with a small window insert in the box which allowed me to see the contents, which was suitable to my requirements.

Getting back to my accommodation and with my mouth watering, I opened the box to get at that healthy muesli, I was shocked to see how much was actually in the box. Less than a quarter of the box was taken-up by the plastic bag containing the cereal.

Dia (Turkey) own brand muesli.

Dia (Turkey) own brand muesli.


Going to Gaziantep, my host Mehpare of Gap Consultancy, had provided me a new box of muesli from another manufacturer, Dr Oetker Vitalis Müsli, and that box was nearly full. What a difference.

Dr. Oetker muesli (müsli)  
Dr. Oetker muesli (müsli)


What a con Dia in Turkey are pulling on their customers. If they do that with a box of muesli, what are they doing with their other own name branded products?

Will I visit a Dia supermarket again?

No.

That made me think about some of the couples I see as I travel.

How is it that an old man can attract and marry a younger woman, and visa versa?

How is it that an ugly looking person can marry and make a lasting relationship with a beauty queen or a hunk of a man?

It is obviously what is on the inside and not what is on the outside. It is their character, the love, the friendship and kindness that they give each other, that gives such happiness, not what they look like or what they wear.

Sometimes we do not like what we see in ourselves. We are over weight, our hair is too short or too long, the wrong colour, our teeth are crooked, our legs are too fat or too thin. Some people need help to see them through this self dislike, to help them to accept themselves as they are, to learn what is on the inside is more important.

It is when the falseness of the outside packaging is stripped away that the truth emerges.

Dia SA, do not expect me to shop with you again. How many customers have you lost due to the false lies of your packaging?

See other examples of not enough product to the packaging, click.
Categories
NLP PhotoReading Travels

A week of hard but enjoyable work.

After my trip into Istanbul, Turkey, enjoying the sights of the tulips of the 3rd International Tulip Festival of Istanbul, and the dolphins in the Bosphorus, (click to see article), it has been a week of continuous work and travel, hard but enjoyable.

After my arrival on Thursday, that evening I gave a talk to a full room of very receptive Vodafone staff.

Friday was taken-up with meetings and preparing for the weekend with Denizbank, presenting to over 300 members of staff, skills that will help them in their work and private life.

Monday morning saw me up at 4:45am to catch the 6:20am flight from Istanbul Ataturk Airport, to the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep to start a two and a half PhotoReading course, organised by Gap Consultancy.

At the end of the PhotoReading course I caught the last flight that evening back to Istanbul, to be ready for another presentation to over 150 Denizbank staff in their wonderfully presented Academy building.

Today, Friday sees me with a spare day to reorganise my brain, catch-up on paperwork and emails, as we reschedule one of the training days, enabling me to prepare for the next stint of sixteen days of continuous training, both in Istanbul and back in Gaziantep, a corporate training for Amway, and two NLP Practitioner level trainings, organised by Gap Consultancy in Gaziantep and NLP-Time in Istanbul.

Access to the internet has been limited, so this has allowed me to concentrate on the presentations and training, but has meant that the daily blog has fallen behind, plus being unable to answer my many emails.

This is a catch-up day.

Categories
Travels

Arrived in Istanbul

I did not get much sleep prior to leaving for Turkey, waking up at 3:30 am, knowing that I had a taxi to take me to Heathrow airport at 5 am to catch the Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul.

I had a talk scheduled for the staff at Vodafone (Turkey) at 5:30 that afternoon, and I was tired, I needed sleep and rest. I think I got some on the four hour flight, interrupted by the serving of breakfast, the crying young babies, and the endless throbbing noise from the engines and air conditioning.

Upon arrival in Istanbul, should I take a coach into the center of Istanbul, to my hotel in Taxim Square, The Seminal Hotel, or should I take a taxi. The coach should be 15 Turkish Lira compared to say 30 Turkish Liar for a taxi? I was getting late, 1:30 pm, I needed to get to Vodafone for about 4:30pm to prepare myself and the venue. Taxi was the only answer.

I quickly got into the standard public yellow taxi (34 TDH 59), and in broken English the taxi driver made some conversation with me, playing some Hip Pop CD music, and wearing some wrap-around sunglasses.

Then I heard the words, “Traffic, Istanbul, problem.”

Whenever I hear those words I know that the driver will take me a long route. so that the meter will charge even more.

Oh well what can I do? I need to get to Taxim Square, and there is no other way. There was nothing else to do but to relax, stay calm and enjoy the ride. And, it was a great ride, because it is the 3rd International Tulip Festival of Istanbul, and along the road they had planted thousands of tulips, now fully in bloom. I could not capture the true wonder and splendor of the colour.

2008, 3rd International Tulip Festival, Istanbul 2008, 3rd International Tulip Festival, Istanbul, from taxi 34 TDH 59

Sure enough, when it was time to leave the coast road to head into the center of Istanbul, he said again, “Traffic, Istanbul, problem.” I could see a queue of cars, and said OK as he headed straight on, following the coast road.
 
All was well until we hit another queue of traffic. He lost his temper, hitting the steering wheel and shouting in Turkish.

Me? I just laughed and said “yavaş, yavaş.” This means “slowly, slowly.”

We edged slowly forward, him complaining, me looking at the ever increasing charges on the meter. There was nothing to do but keep my cool, stay calm and centered. (Mustapha, Fred, Antonio).
 
It was then as I glanced out of the side window overlooking the Bosphorus that my eye caught a dolphin breaking surface, its’ dorsal fin and tail fully visible. Then another dolphin, and another. They just kept appearing. There must have been fifty or more, obviously feeding on fish. A TV cameraman was trying capture to this sight. I had only my mobile phone to capture this scene, so believe me there are at least three dolphins in this picture. (see video of another view of dolphins click here)

Really there are dolphins in the picture not just TV cameraman  Realy there are dolphins in the picture not just TV cameraman


After 15 minutes watching this sight and crawling slowly forward, we came to a break in the central barrier, and without a word he sped quickly through it and raced back in the opposite direction, the meter still adding up, to join the queue he had originally tried to avoid.


Oh Poo Poo. Keep centered and strong Phillip. (Mustapha, Fred, Antonio). Nothing you can do.

Half an hour later we arrived in Taxim Square, and the meter read 43 Turkish Lira. Oh Poo Poo. I gave him a 50 Lira bank note.

He looked at me and said “OK?”

I was having none of it, I wanted my change and a receipt. And this was not the first time this has happened to me. (click to see previous article).

I had one hour to get to my hotel, and then start my journey to Vodafone , but I had seen some great sights, sights that those who have lived a lifetime in Istanbul have never seen.  see video

Categories
Travels

An Early Start


Today I have an early start to catch the 6:55am Turkish Airlines flight from London to Istanbul. Thank goodness it is not British Airways, with all the trouble with the new Heathrow Terminal Five. Knowing my luck, my bags would arrive in Ataturk airport and I would be in New York.

There is a lesson to be learned from the BA move into Terminal 5. It is a lesson I learned from my days in computers.

Never buy something that has just launched, the product or service has not bedded down, has not been snagged, that is, had all the faults identified.

So, tomorrow night, I am giving a talk to Vodafone (Turkey).

I am well rehearsed, and my translator knows me well. So, I am looking forward to a great night, and the start of nearly one months training. 

Categories
Exercises NLP

Strategy Elicitation Notation

When modeling or undertaking a Strategy Elicitation in NLP, we need to write down in an easy way what we have found, so that we can use the strategy again in the future or to make changes to it.

The standard NLP Notation can be coded thus :-

The Representation System used.

            V    –    visual
            A    –    auditory
            K    –    kinesthetic
            O    –    olfactory
            G    –    gustatory

Internal or External Processing

            Is what is happening to them their thoughts, their feeling taking place their minds or body, or 
            is there some other outside stimulus, i.e. they remember some incident would be internal, notated 
            by a small “i”, (i), whereas seeing something actually happening would be external, notated by a
            small “e”, (e). Having butterflies in the tummy will be an kinesthetic internal, (Ki), whereas feeling
            the quality of cloth would be kinesthetic external, (Ke).

                Ve    –    visual external                Vi    –    visual internal
                Ae    –    auditory external            Ai    –    auditory internal 
                Ke    –    kinesthetic external        Ki    –    kinesthetic internal 
                Oe    –    olfactory external           Oi    –    olfactory internal 
                Ge    –    gustatory external         Gi    –    gustatory internal

Remembered or Constructed

            Has the person remembered something from the past, or are they constructing for example what
            they would look like wearing a certain suit? The representation for visual remembered can be 
            notated by a small “r“, (Vir), here meaning a visual internal remembered, whereas for a visual
            constructed, imagining what they would look like by a small “c“, (Vic).

Other Notations

                _m_        about the previous step when linking steps. “m” standing for meta. For example getting a feeling about some stimulus.

see example soon

Categories
Exercises NLP

Strategy Elicitation

Strategy Elicitation is the how an NLPer models how another achieves excellence or how they do something using internal representational systems and external influences.

Knowing what strategies are being used in oneself and other people, can result in powerful changes, resulting in the change in a response to situations.

Firstly, get into rapport (the “t” is silent when spoken in English) with the client, and explain that you will be asking questions on how they do what they do.

It is important during the strategy elicitation that the person eliciting the strategy, keeps out of the situation, does not involve themselves in the process by saying such things as, “Oh yes I do that as well“, or “Oh I do it this way“. They should only aim to keep the person on-track in the process they run.

Notation of the strategy will use the modalities, VAKOG, rep systems, along with other coding. (Click to see list). Only write down the notation, not notes nor sentences.

  1. Ask the person to fully associate into the thing they have/will do, the strategy, as if they are doing that process now. You can keep that person associated in the strategy by asking present tense language questions, “What is the next thing that you do?”
  2. Ask the person “What is the first thing that happens?” and “How do you know?”
  3. Continue through the strategy, step by step, by asking “What is the next thing that happens?” and again “How do you know?”.
  4. Keep looking for clues which will help you identify which modalities, VAKOG, they are using, by observing Eye Accessing Cues (click to view), body language, hand movements, language patterns along with their predicates (click to view).
  5. As you notice the representation system being used, VAKOG, write it down in the notation described.
  6. Do not get involved with the content of the strategy. You do not need to know how many eggs or how many grammes of flower are needed to make a chocolate cake, just the representational systems in use.
  7. Keep asking the questions in item 3. “What is the next thing that happens?” until you find the EXIT or the trigger that tells them that the strategy has ended, that they have completed. What is the modality that tells them it is complete? “How do you know?”
  8. Be aware of the TOTE Model, Test, Operate, Test, Exit. (click to view).

KISS the strategy elicitation process, that is Keep It Simple Stupid, do not over complicate the process, only look for the main rep’ systems.

Categories
Electronics Travels

Norton 360 v Kasperski Internet Security

I have written about may problems with the Internet security, virus and spam software offered by Symantec called Norton 360, of how the software would not stay active, protecting me against virus and spam attacks in previous blogs. See entries My ‘annus mirabilis’, A day of travel , and I hate Computers .

An old friend, Nick Milonakis, a Greek national, A blast from the past , sent me a recommendation for a new software called Kasperski.

I have loaded and used Kasperski internet security now for over a month, and all my troubles with Norton 360 have disappeared. Thank you Nick. I can now go to the airport, get on the WiFi and surf the internet, download my emails.

I had never heard of Kasperski before Nick told me about it. But walking around a local PCWorld shop, I spied a display of the software. On asking an assistant about Kasperski software, he said that in his opinion, and the awards it had received, it was the best on the market. He added that one offering had dropped in popularity, (Mcfee) as they were not keeping-up with protection against new virus and spams, and that Norton 360, seemed to have lost the plot, that they had problems which were not being resolved, whereas, Kasperski were on top.

Why then were PCWorld still promoting Norton’s software on every shelf?

Why were PCWorld offering half price deals on Norton 360?

Perhaps they have a special deal from Norton, giving them more profit.

Perhaps they have a contract to sell so many packs.

Perhaps there is more commission to be earned by the sales people.

Perhaps they know that the general public often do not complain if things do not work.

Perhaps they know that Norton will bring out a replacement in a few months, so the problems will disappear.

Perhaps they know that the vast majority of purchasers will not realise that the software does not protect their computers as the package purports to do.

Perhaps they have buried their head in the sand, hoping the problems of Norton 360 will disappear.

I recommend Kasperski internet software from my own experiences, and you can by it from Amazon, or download it from Kaspersky.

  Buy from Amazon                                  Download from Kaspersky

Categories
NLP

Strategies


A strategy in NLP can be defined as particular actions leading to an outcome, which can be reproduced repeatably by a sequence of thoughts, and or a sequence of internal representational systems and external experiences that lead to an outcome.

Whether we realise it or not, everything we do in our life will involve a strategy, and mostly the strategy will be at a subconscious level, that is, we are not aware at a conscious level that we will be running a procedure/strategy.

A strategy is how we process the actions that we do, these actions could be for making decisions, learning, remembering, doing our job, taking part in sport activities, being motivated. How do we do what we do, by using our internal representational systems (click for more information), and being influenced by external experiences.

Each person will use a different strategy than the next person, and it will explain why there are differences in peoples capabilities, how for example Gianni Golfera, the man with the biggest memory in the world, can remember more than other people. Has Gianni got a different brain than other people? Tests say no, he has the same brain structure as the next person, it is how he uses it, the strategies he uses to retain information that make the difference. http://www.c4memory.com

There are good decision makers, good leaders, and good sales people. Each will adopt or employ a strategy that works for them to achieve excellence in what they do,

It is a presupposition in NLP, that if anyone can do something, then you too can do it, by learning the strategy employed, and reproducing it or teaching it to others so you/they too can achieve the same excellence. I disagree with this statement, for example I am 95 years old and want to become a marathon runner. If I modeled or found the strategies used by Paula Radcliffe, a world marathon record holder, and ran the same strategies employed by Paula on myself, would I be as good as her? No. I am a man, I am older, and my physical build is not the same, but perhaps if the strategy is ecologically acceptable to me, I could achieve an excellence to my level.

We elicit strategies by modeling the internal and external representational systems of a person.

A strategy will always work to give an outcome or result. If that result is not what is wanted, then the strategy should be changed.

Often a person has only one strategy to achieve and outcome. If we can provide another alternative strategy to get the same outcome, then that person has choice.

Consider that the only way you know how to get to work is to drive your car, what would happen if the car broke down?

If I taught you how you could catch a bus to get to work, now you have two strategies or ways to get to work.

Teach you how to get there by walking, yet another. Riding a bike, another, so on and so forth.

It has been said that if a General of an army has one more strategy to fight the battle than the enemy, he will have more chance to win the battle.