In our new chapter today, Eric Sijbesma from Netherlands tell us about NLP and change management. Eric can be contacted on Facebook, twitter and LinkedIN, or on the following company sites www.nlpacademie.nl and www.advies-en-administratie.nl.
Talking4good (T4g): How did you come into contact with NLP?
Eric: Well, actually, it was my girlfriend who did it… and this time it is a good thing to blame <Laughs>. She invited me to come along to an Anthony Robbins seminar in London. Three days straight in a row, dancing, fire walking and being confronted with myself in a good way, all together with 8.000 other people… and you know what? It made me decide to start learning NLP. I have to say it becomes literaly life changing.
T4g: What NLP qualification do you have?
Eric: I am an international certified NLP trainer and Hypnosis Master Trainer.
T4g: Which NLP association would your qualifications be accredited by?
Eric: ABNLP, ABH and ITA.
T4g: Have you joined an NLP association?
Eric: ITA, ABNLP and ABH, and the Dutch NLP Association
T4g: What do you expect from those various NLP associations?
Eric: What I expect from those associations is for them -to provide platforms for knowledge sharing -to monitor and help maintainning high quality standards and -to promote and provide information about NLP to the general public
T4g: What do you like best in NLP?
Eric: It is the different perspectives of how we, as individual, can handle the challenges we are facing troughout our lives. NLP focusses on the “how” we do our problems instead of focussing on why we do our problems. I always found this perspective intriguing as it presuppose that problems are actually traits of the individual and therefore one can learn to change it the way one can learn how to ride a bicycle. For some it can be a slow process <Laughs> but for most people once done change becomes something natural, something exciting and equally important, sometimes faster than expected.
T4g: So tell us about change management from an NLP perspective?
Eric: Well, it seems that I’ve already answered that question in the previous one <Laughs>. The point here is the focus on the “how” and seeing problems as a trait of the individual. Approaching change from this perspective then always gives you a way of figuring out a solution, since once one knows how one does her/his problems, one can learn an alternative way of doing things, that we can call an alternative strategy. One, then, becomes capable of seeing things differently, you know that reframing <Laughs>, and from there one can actually decide to do things differently and to get different results. Now another important point to acknowledge is the art of modeling, and this is very critical when talking about change management from a business point of view. Modelling successful people or people with exceptional traits and skills is fantastic, especially in the current economical context, where we do need to operate under excellence to sustain business for now and the future. From a company perspective, imagine being able to model its most successful employee’s skills and stragegies, and being able to transfer those skills and strategies throughout the company using an in-house tailored training based on the modelling. This can simply radically change the company results, the individual workers satisfaction or performance.
T4g: Any other focus with NLP?
Eric: Training, training as many people as I can, so even more people can learn NLP and how NLP can influence their lives for the better. I do this via free workshops in the Netherlands. I am looking into doing training in Kenya. Recently you see, I questioned my own motives for doing what I was doing… And the answer was pretty simple, “Teach people how to feel good so that they are better equipped to make the right decisions, better equipped to grow on a personal level; and teach people how to have the right tools and ressources in them to cope with the challenges that life may offer them on a daily basis.”
T4g: How is NLP present in Netherlands?
Eric: NLP is quite present already although not as widely spread as I’d like to see it <Laughs>. We have a rich variety of institutes, all offering NLP courses and all having their own unique approach to NLP, some more on a spiritual level, some more on a pure business or practical level.
T4g: What opportunity do you have to meet with other NLP practitioners?
Eric: A lot, through internet forum and practice groups.
T4g: What about NLP and research?
Eric: Yeah, what about it… <Laughs> I think there should be more evidence based research to show the effectiveness of NLP and I can see some good initiatives but on the other hand… what would happen if we had more evidence based research and what would not happen if we had more evidence based research? Basically I’m not completly sure what would be the added value to NLP.
T4g: Any specific NLP research you would like to be involved with?
Eric: I would like to be involved in research to whether NLP is effective in dealing with schizophrenia.
T4g: What would be your next step with NLP?
Eric: Train NLP in Africa to the less fortunate so they become able to feel as fortunate as we do and pick up their lives and set sail in another direction <Smiles>.
T4g: A last comment to conclude?
Eric: When it comes to NLP, stop talking and start doing! <Smiles and Laughs>
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