NLP-South 5 June 2008 Headline report. By Jenny Heath

You Can Draw Cartoons Too!
- Getting your ideas across with impact!
Led by Graham Shaw of Vision Learning

Graham’s step-by-step approach gave us no chance to hide behind our limiting beliefs (‘I can’t draw’) and within a short space of time we had all learnt a complete strategy for creating hundreds of cartoons. Having been to NLP-South previously ( link), Graham promised us something new and taught us a simple mind mapping technique for presenting a whole topic to an audience - so that they will remember the content.  We of course were grappling with both the process and the content but we seemed to do okay.

 

Graham isn’t only a cartoon artist, he applies NLP seamlessly in his training. He asked us to unpack the NLP elements in a demonstration he might use to introduce a session on ‘improving effectiveness at work’. We noticed how he builds rapport with his audience - engaging them by name, pacing then leading them through different states and using hypnotic (Ericksonian) language patterns. He also uses spatial anchoring in his demonstrations, anchoring and chaining different states to different parts of the ‘stage’ and creating a virtual timeline. His two cartoons (one on each flip chart) created representations of ‘present state’ and ‘desired state’, brought to life with sensory rich language   

 

The evening whizzed by and we had a lot of fun and laughter - proving once again that you learn quickest when you ‘let go’, aren’t worried about making mistakes and laugh a lot.

Resources

Graham brought along ‘Cartooning for Presenters’ - an e-learning package on a CD-ROM that brings a whole day’s workshop to your computer, where you can choose to run through the session or dip into your favourite bits. This will be available on the NLP-South website shortly.

And if you’re a trainer, Graham has packs of ready made (or bespoke) flip charts illustrating many NLP pre-suppositions and other common learning points that will bring life and fun to your training room.  
www.grahamshaw.net     graham@visionlearning.co.uk