NLP: Principles in Practice
Article Type: Bookshelf From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 43, Issue 2
Lisa Wake,Ecademy Press,St Albans,2010,ISBN: 978-1-905823-78-9,£14.99,
Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NLP as it is more commonly used is not an easy subject to get one’s head around. Having bought a copy of Frogs into Princes by the originators of NLP Richard Bandler and John Grinder,some 20 years ago, I have remained in a semi-aware state ever since. During this time, I have also been rather concerned by the often evangelical approach presented by some exponents and the suggestions that it is the solution to all personal and organizational issues. I once attended an introductory session to NLP and when someone asked for evidence of the effectiveness of the strategies,the trainer responded that this was not necessary because it worked and the only thing required was to follow their guidance and put the approaches into practice.
NLP was initially developed by psychotherapists Bandler and Grinder who drew upon the work of three main therapists: Virginia Satir, Fritz Perls and Milton Erickson. Bandler and Grinder believed that there was a connection between neurological processes, language/linguistics, and experience or behavioral programming, hence its term.
Unfortunately Bandler and Grinder fell out and there was a lawsuit that was eventually resolved in 2001 with both agreeing to be recognized as co-founders of NLP. This dispute resulted in the establishment of a number of bodies to represent NLP and, in addition, various approaches have been developed and numerous strategies have been incorporated within NLP. The result of all of this trauma and change has been that NLP has grown in many directions without a clear and universally recognized unifying content. The end result has been a “discipline”which has no clear agreed definition of purpose and some external commentators question its credibility and evidence of success.
What this book, by Lisa Wake, is intended to achieve is to provide some insights into the subject and inject an evidence base into the practice of NLP. The book is targeted at a wide readership including those who wish to underpin their existing knowledge and those who want to study the subject further. There are 12 chapters that describe the main tools and techniques and the book incorporates a wide range of literature both supporting and challenging the subject matter.
The book takes the reader on a tour of the various tools and techniques and the index at the back enables quick access to these descriptions. The coverage is quite extensive and represents a suitable reference source for the inquisitive reader although it is unclear why different subjects are given greater or lesser discussion. For example, the discussion of the “4 Mat”learning styles typology, based on Kolb’s learning cycle takes up a whole chapter although the author admits that she could find no empirical evidence to support the approach.
One of the strengths of the book is the fact that each chapter has a section devoted to the evidence base of the approach. Although this is relatively short,it represents a genuine effort to bring a critical analysis to the subject and thus attempt to bring a greater credibility to NLP by bringing it closer to mainstream therapies.
The book describes a great many approaches and it is up to the reader to make the connections, if any, between them. It would benefit from a greater discussion of the relationship between them and how they might be employed in conjunction.
Some of the research would also benefit from a closer analysis. For example,on page 43, Argyle is presented as proposing that 55 per cent of a message comes from observing body language; 38 per cent from voice qualities; and 7 per cent through words. It is then suggested that the research of Mehrabian supports that of Argyle with exactly the same percentage scores which is quite a coincidence. In fact, Argyle was only reporting the work of Mehrabian.
The final chapter discusses the developments regarding the regulation of the psychological professions and makes a good case for a more professional approach. Wake rightly raises the issue of ethicality and supervision of the NLP profession.
This book is a welcome step forward for NLP and will be a useful source for practitioners and those wishing to learn more. There is considerable potential for NLP and Lisa Wake who possesses a very good understanding of the subject brings it more credibility.
John P. WilsonUniversity of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
