The Holy Bible starts with the phrase, āIn the beginning was God ā¦ā and it is difficult to beat that for an opening phrase so I wonāt attempt it! Instead, I will borrow the concept and start by saying that in the beginning of NLP there were two highly innovative Californians, Richard Bandler and John Grinder, and it is these two who are credited with being the originators, or co-developers, of the subject. However, before delving too far back into the pedigree of NLP, it is perhaps apposite to deal with the term NLP itself, as newcomers to the subject sometimes seem to be confused by the name. One of the most popular misconceptions is that it has something to do with a new form of computer programming rather than what it really is: a technology for understanding how the mind works.
By far and away the best description I have seen of NLP is in a book by Steve Andreas, Charles Faulkner and other members of the NLP Comprehensive Training Team, which goes as follows:
I trust this has cleared up any confusion that the term NLP may have caused. I should like to add one small but vital observation. In my experience it is almost impossible to gain a useable understanding of NLP from just reading about it. You simply have to experience it for yourself in order to be able to use it effectively. The best way to achieve an experiential understanding is to practise what you learn. Therefore, in order to assist in this regard, most of the ātechnologyā in the following text contain examples which can be explored further.
So back to the origins of NLP. The geographic roots of NLP can be found at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in the early 1970s. At that time Richard Bandler was an undergraduate mathematics student. Initially he spent much of his time studying computer science. Richard did not come from an affluent background and had a part-time job as a storeman and gofer with a local publisher to help pay his way through university. The publisher was Science and Behavior Books whose area of excellence was books on psychology and psychotherapy. Being an extremely inquisitive character it did not take Richard long before he had become intrigued by the work of some of the therapists/authors with whom he came into contact.
During this period the owner of the publishing company, Robert Spitzer MD, gave Richard the task of transcribing over forty hours of film showing the father of modern Gestalt Therapy, Fritz Perls MD, working with his students and clients. Dr Spitzer had made a commitment with Dr Perls in the late 1960s to publish the films with an additional commentary to be provided by Dr Perls once all the filming was completed. The commentary and films were intended to form a complete introductory training for students studying Gestalt Therapy. However, with the film work only partially complete, Fritz Perls died in early 1970. Dr Spitzer set Richard the transcription task as he felt the outcome once published could form a fitting epitaph to Dr Perls.
The outcome of Richardās work was threefold. The first was a book called Eye Witness to Therapy (1973) with much credit being given by Dr Spitzer to Richard. The second was a switch by Richard from the mathematics course at the university to psychology. But perhaps the third was the most important, because Richard started ādoingā Gestalt Therapy with his fellow students. He achieved this by simply mimicking everything that Dr Perls had been doing on the videotapes. He even went so far as to grow a beard, chain-smoke, and speak English with a pronounced German accent. It was around this time that Richard came into contact with Dr John Grinder who was at that time an associate professor of linguistics at Santa Cruz.
Dr Grinderās background is an interesting one, although slightly enigmatic. It is known that John had served with the US Army Special Forces in Europe during the 1960s and subsequently with US intelligence services. He has said that it was there that he acquired his ability to rapidly assimilate languages, accents and dialects as well as taking on the associated cultural behaviours. John is also reported as saying that his attraction to the Gestalt Therapy group that Richard was running on the campus was because it closely fitted with his own interest in the psychological function of linguistics.
Bandler and Grinder, finding that they shared common interests, decided to combine their respective skills in Gestalt Therapy, computer science and linguistics along with their abilities to copy nonverbal behaviour. Their objective in so doing was to develop a new ālanguage of changeā. In order to achieve this they carried out a considerable amount of research and experimentation in an effort to unlock the secret that they knew must be there somewhere.
Their research was influenced by many contributors to the fields of communication and language but in particular by the works of Gregory Bateson (1972), Noam Chomsky (1957, 1968) and Alfred Korzybski (1958). In addition they carried out a number of studies of the methods of communication used between three outstanding therapists and their clients: Milton H Erickson MD (psychiatrist and hypnotherapist); Virginia Satir (family therapist); and of course Fritz Perls MD (Gestalt Therapist and psychiatrist), who may be seen as starting all this off via the films.
The initial outcome from their studies was the publication of two books, Structure of Magic I and Structure of Magic II, published in 1975 and 1976 respectively. These books encapsulated their collective research in developing a new understanding of the human process we call communication. The model they developed is known as the Meta-model and lies at the root of all subsequent developments in NLP. The model itself provides a means for discovering the true meaning of communication which may not always be correctly conveyed in the spoken word alone. The model also provides various tools to allow more precise meanings to be derived from any communication.
The development of NLP did not cease with the publication of these two seminal works. Bandler and Grinder continued to develop their model further, and others joined them in making additional contributions during the mid/late 1970s. Many of these were students at the University of Santa Cruz who had previously been involved as human guinea pigs during the originatorsā experiments with Gestalt Therapy and other psychotherapies leading up to the publication of Structure of Magic I and Structure of Magic II. Among the most notable of these were Judith DeLozier (an anthropology student of Gregory Bateson), Robert Dilts (psychology and human factors in cybernetics), Leslie Cameron-Bandler (ecology), David Gordon (psychology), Byron Lewis (psychology) and Frank Pucelik (psychology). There is strong evidence to suggest that this expanded group was influenced by the works of Carl Rogers (Client-Centred Therapy), Albert Ellis (Rational-Emotive Therapy), Moshe Feldenkrais (Body and Movement Therapy) and Eric Berne (Transactional Analysis).
California in the late 1960s and early 1970s was a hotbed of experimentation in living and thinking. Every student campus of that time was affected by major changes in thinking and in culture. This was the period of experimentation with flower power, LSD and the human potential movement.
It has been reported by some members that during this formative period they experimented with many techniques which were considered to be on the fringe of, or even outside, mainstream psychotherapy. These techniques included Arthur Janovās Primal Scream Therapy and Leonard Orrās rebirthing techniques. This highly inquisitive group continued their explorations, and by the end of the 1970s a whole host of techniques had been developed associated with the modelling of human behaviour. This research and experimentation also resulted in the development of a number of specific therapeutic interventions designed to resolve individual psychological problems. Development of new therapeutic techniques has continued up to the present day, and NLP can now be seen as fitting within the wider psychotherapeutic domain known as the Cognitive Behavioural School.
Whilst much of the early work was focused on the therapeutic application of this technology to individuals, towards the end of the 1970s it was also starting to be applied to group behaviour and then to complete organisations. A move into the business field was an obvious next step in this progression.
It is interesting to observe that in the last forty years business and commerce have become increasingly interested in most of the new developments in the field of psychology. Some of the most notable of these developments have been drawn from Behavioural Modification, Gestalt Therapy, Transactional Analysis and Family Therapy. All of these can be seen as fitting within, or closely associated with, the Cognitive Behavioural School. It is therefore perhaps not surprising to see NLP being adapted in this manner. Indeed NLP was tailor-made for the modern business community as it has structures which in many ways mirror the modern āsystems approachā to business which was largely brought about by the advent of Cybernetics (Bandlerās first love) and Information Technology.
Since the end of the 1970s many people from a diversity of backgrounds have continued to add further material to the domain that we now know as NLP. Indeed many of the advances made during the 1980s and 1990s open up new possibilities for application to the business field far beyond those envisaged by the original co-developers of NLP. This is perhaps because many of the new developers have themselves come from business backgrounds rather than from the realms of therapy or personal change.
NLP is also being applied to areas other than business and therapy such as Accelerated Learning where many of the major developments have been made by people with backgrounds in teaching. It is interesting to note that Accelerated Learning has in turn found its way back into the business community. Similarly, much of the early work in the late 1970s and early 1980s applied to sales and marketing has now become absorbed to such an extent that the true origin of the work has already been forgotten.
Whilst to the academically orientated this may be regrettable, it follows the normal path of integration that other psychological developments have previously followed. In fact, when such absorption takes place it can perhaps be seen as the highest accolade, as at last it has become accepted practice and is no longer viewed as just some freaky fad. So if you are new to NLP, donāt be surprised if you come across a few concepts within this book that already have a familiar ring about them. Such terms as building rapport, creating a compelling future, getting in state or modelling human excellence are straight from the domain of NLP.
Today NLP is at the heart of many approaches to communication and change. It has been popularised by such people as Anthony Robbins (Unlimited Power, 1986 and Awaken the Giant Within, 1991), John Bradshaw (Healing the Shame That Binds You, 1988) and many others besides. Various management gurus have incorporated NLP techniques into what they offer their clients. Perhaps the most notable of these are Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline, 1990) and Stephen Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, 1989 and Principle-Centered Leadership, 1992).
Change processes and change mechanisms in the business world have similarly been evolving rapidly over the last twenty years. There is nothing new about change, as change is part of the process of evolution, and little progress or growth can be achieved in a static environment. However, since the late 1970s there has been a growing passion in business for what I have termed āpackaged solutionsā or āpackaged changeā. Unlike the evolutionary approach, āpackaged changeā nearly always involves something much closer in nature to revolution rather than evolution. This book deals to a large extent with the failures of modern packaged solutions to produce the results that their proponents so freely promise. It explains the reason for these failures and provides solutions that, when applied, can create certainty in the outcome of any change processes.
Revolutionary change is not new to ...
