Things have to change in NLP, or the field will dilute itself into unrecognisable mediocrity.
By John Grinder-co-creator of NLP.
I as the co-creator of NLP and the New Code and Carmen Bostic St Clair, as the co-developer of the new code have carefully selected Michael Carroll as our co-worker and colleague to establish and operate the International Trainers Academy of NLP. The present existing organizations purporting to represent quality standards in NLP are from my point of view seriously lacking in precisely that avowed purpose – namely, the setting and maintenance of quality requirements in the training and transfer of the patterning of NLP to students seeking mastery in the field. In particular, the behavior of these would-be Trainers and Training Institutes are consistently marked by one of more of the following defects:
- the drift towards intellectualization of the patterning: students who are issued certificates at the practitioner level, for example and are able to speak coherently about the patterns but are UNABLE to actually apply them in real time with actual clients –students with left brain representations of the patterning and little, if any, behavioral competency. At the practitioner level of certification, the criterion is behavioral competency. To achieve verbal adroitness in speaking about the patterns without the ability to perform is a travesty and such intellectual “competency” will likely constitute an impediment to actual competence
- written examinations in lieu of tests of behavioral competency: written, left-brained tests are NEVER an appropriate substitute for demonstrations of behavioral competency, the measure of effective training
- the increasing number of so-called NLP Trainers who themselves are quite clearly incongruent with the message they carry
- the woeful lack of experiences in actual modeling and application by people purporting to train others
- the automatic award of various levels of qualification (practitioner, master practitioner and trainer) as measured by whether the candidate paid for the course as opposed to demonstrated in front of qualified observers their ability to effectively apply the patterning of NLP – the pay-for-the-certificate marketing approach
- the apparent inability or unwillingness of would be NLP Trainers to make a distinction between the process patterns of classic and new code NLP and the impositions of content models.
My intention, then, along with Carmen Bostic St, Clair, the co-developer of New Code NLP and Michael Carroll, is to establish reliable, high standards for NLP trainers to meet. NLP trainers are the public face of NLP and must satisfy the highest standards of quality both in the own professional competencies as well as in their ability to transfer the patterning to the students of the next generation of practitioners. Michael Carroll represents precisely such standards – he embodies the quality requirements in his own professional and personal conduct and is a demanding and thorough trainer himself. In addition, he is impeccable in his business and administrative practice and completely professional in this sphere of activity. I regard him as an ideal choice for the position of heading up the ITA.
In view of the deteriorating quality of the training on offer publicly, I am motivated to offer a mark of guaranteed quality for trainers who satisfy the concrete criteria implied in the above critique. The vehicle for offering to the public a trainer whose quality performance is certified by me as the co-creator of both classic Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and the New Code NLP along with Carmen Bostic St, Clair, co-developer of the New Code and Michael Carroll, our most competent and carefully selected colleague in this movement to quality differentiation in the field. The mark is the seal of the ITANLP. We invite you to request further information if, indeed, you are committed to improve significantly the quality of the present state of NLP.
Please get in contact with your enquiries and questions.
