NLP-South 6 March 2008 Nigel’s Full report.

Gavin assured me, when we spoke on the phone later in the month, that three days is his preferred notice time for running such an evening. Enjoying as he does a bit of a challenge! This later conversation was actually a teleseminar, did you listen in? Its now available as a CD. If you missed the March and February teleseminars look out for the one in April.

Gavin had a few plans for the evening both for himself as presenter, wanting to use the ‘safe’ environment of the group to practice some of his presentation skills, and for us as participants to enable us to push our own understandings and hopefully discover ‘new’ ways to have “Even more fun!”.

Refreshed yet eager for more we eventually gathered back together for part two of “having even more fun”.

At this point Gavin made an elementary error. He divided 27 by 9 and decided we needed three group of 6. Someone was confused. Others attempted to work out the sum on their fingers, no one had twenty seven fingers to work it out on! Gavin was nearly the first to spot his ‘deliberate’ mistake and we then all joined in the joke. (Well those of us who weren’t still counting. So anyway we needed to be in groups of six, which by now those of you quick at mental arithmetic will know doesn’t go into 27 terribly well, fortunately it goes well enough that the remainder is a whole number thus alleviating the need to chop anyone into smaller pieces. Gavin, Jenny and I tactfully stood down and floated around listening in to the exercise going on in the FOUR groups!. Which was all about modelling. (English spelling).

Four groups of 6 chairs were arranged in a ‘dance formation’ and named  A, B, C, D, E & F. The chairs are used to this sort of thing by now so sat there patiently. Working in groups of six everyone had an opportunity to ‘model’ the other five’s idea of fun, including often the sense of fun portrayed by someone the ‘model’ knew who epitomised fun! The chairs stayed still and the people moved, mostly clockwise on a given signal, and so the dance progressed.
Of course some people aren’t too sure which way clockwise is so different groups went in different directions. Fortunately the outcome was the same so it didn’t matter, no really it didn’t!
 

All in all this was a ‘great’ evening. Gavin picked up the thread of “having even more fun” and also revisited some good basic NLP principles to take the theme forwards. Then utilising the power of NLP modelling to give us all a deeper insight into our own sense of fun and maybe several other people’s sense of fun too! Thanks Gavin for your humour and professionalism.   
By the way what are you doing the day after tomorrow?
If you were there and enjoyed Gavin’s style, I recommend you mouse on over to his site to find his Blog, “Laughter, learning and light bulb moments” and sign up for one of his specialist courses. “Personal productivity” (or time management as we often know it), helping you to be more effective in your use of time, with some great tips on the use of computer technology and if you are on a PC, Windows Outlook.
Or “Presentation skills for the non-presenter”. Move through fear to excellence.

www.inter-activ.co.uk

27/9=3 þ
27/6=3 ý
27/6=4½ þ

Observing and listening in we three noticed how soon the models started to wonder about the beliefs and values of their exemplar and the modellers began to be more inventive and probing with their questions, looking for deeper structure. This was our ‘main’ exercise after the break, and keeping at it began to produce more for us than a ‘quick’ go would have done.

Good game! Didn’t they do well?

“Shaken not shtirred,
Miss Moneypenny!”

“But look on the bright side..”

Time for a break.. Did I remember to order my half time drink? Did I ask someone else to order it for me? That’s for me to know and ..

“I see yew, Jimmy!”

‘Using NLP to have more fun’ with Gavin Meikle of Inter-Activ

Monday 3rd March                     Ringgg-ringgg, Ringgg-ringgg,  “Hello, Gavin Meikle” “Hi Gavin, its Nigel here”. “Oh Hi Nigel”. “Gavin what are doing this Thursday evening?” “Hang on I’ll just check my diary.” short pause “It says NLP-South, I’m planning to come along!” “Great! Any chance of you running the session only my speaker has double booked himself elsewhere!”
 

If you're wondering what he ‘practiced’ on us you may recall him telling a story about a Microsoft conference. During this story Gavin gave a very creditable impression of an overexcited whooping with joy,
bouncing up and down motivational speaker, the sort favoured by our less demure
trans-atlantic cousins!
As a regular member of the group Gavin has a good grasp on how little to bring along to get the
group working at its best. This may sound strange, but in two hours it’s always better to spend
lots of time in smaller groups ‘playing’ with exercises than to keep coming back to listen to the next bit when we are just getting down to some good stuff! I know how difficult it can be for our speaker to keep down to the bare minimum their ‘input’. After all they’ve come along to share their pearls of wisdom with us, haven’t they? This would be the case if we wanted an after dinner speaker. The qualities of a good speaker for a ‘practice group’ like ours is to fully engage the group in activity allowing all of us to ‘practice’ our NLP in a framework of learning set by the speaker. The sessions that work best for me are always the ones where we have split into smaller groups and had a lot of fun and laughter.

Gavin began by having us stand up, move around and greet each other in a respectful way.  Based on a Polynesian greeting, this was all about being in the present. Probably the best  place to be to have the most fun, though I can remember a few times...
(There is more on this in the NLP-South Home Practice Pack for March, available at the next meeting).

                                            So there we were wandering around looking deeply and respectfully into each                                                    other’s eyes and saying in turn “I see you, and I am here”. I think I said ‘hello’ to                                                  everyone and once we were all in the present it was time for action!

I was really pleased, followed by a brief moment of panic, when Gavin then declared he wanted us to check out the ‘well-formedness’ of the 2008 theme “How to have even more fun!” He took us through the conditions for well-formed outcomes and we spilt into smaller groups to check this out and examine our own outcomes in ‘having fun’. We discovered we had different ideas about what was fun, when fun was appropriate and who we wanted to have more fun with!! In the wash up, the terms ‘pacing’ and ‘leading’ appeared on the flip chart. When asked to explain these terms Gavin gave us a clear description, an interesting metaphor and some personal examples of using ‘pacing’ effectively.  One person felt this clear explanation was worth the evening by itself! There was some discussion about how long to ‘pace’ someone else before attempting to ‘lead’ them to a better state, a different posture etc. This is particularly relevant when ‘pacing’ negative emotions, posture, behaviours, thoughts etc. Moving to ‘reframe’ someone too fast leaves them stuck where they are because you have not properly ‘understood’ their pain. This is particularly an issue if you happen to be a ‘naturally’ positive person, looking to ‘reframe’ negativity wherever possible. As Gavin painfully reminisced about feedback from a friend about his unfailing positive outlook and how wearing it
could be on those of a less positive view.

If you missed this session but would like to re-create it in the comfort of your own home the NLP-South Practice Pack based on this evening is available now and here. It includes an interview with Gavin, recorded after the session. Learn about his courses designed to help you be even more efficient.