With our Canadian office opening in Calgary soon, this article by our colleague Clare Smale seemed very appropriate.
"The Sami people of Sweden, Norway and Finland have a language which lists hundreds of words for snow. In England we have just a few. If I was to ask you what the word 'snow' means, what would be the first three words that you would write down?
I would probably write something like white, precipitation (that's the geographer in me coming out) and frozen. IN NLP, the word 'snow' would be called a surface structure description. It's is a word that generalises, deletes and distorts all the different things that snow can be, in order to give one all-encompassing term that is easily understood. In reality, we all have a different interpretation of this word, probably including different pictures in our mind of 'snow' (maybe an Alpine view, skiers, a Christmas scene, a car stuck in a drift or many other possibilities).
In the UK we get so little of the white stuff, that using a surface structure word serves us well most of the time. Even in the UK 'snow' can be confusing and interpreted in different ways - commuters, farmers, excited children, the emergency services and sports clubs will all interpret and react to a 5cm snow forecast in different ways.
To uncover the generalisations, deletions and distortions that the word 'snow' has created, we would need to ask more questions and drill down into the detail of all the different possible types of snow. The deep structure is everything we know about an experience. The surface structure is everything that has been deleted, distorted and generalised by our language and representational systems (visual, auditory and kinaesthetic)."
To read the rest of this article and find out more about Sami words for snow and some practical ideas for you, click here
http://www.inspired2learnconference.com/Snow-Article.html
How to be a leader and not a boss - Build your confidence and capability to be a great leader in your organization and community. "Uniquely realizing potential, developing business through people"
Monday, 12 March 2012
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Friday, 18 November 2011
Racism still a problem for football
In his article Matk Bright comments on the issue of racism in football and particularly how certain fans have used social media to aim racist abuse at him. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15744902.stm
This raises a broader question beyond the boundaries of football and into wider society. To what degree is racism still prevelant? Are we in a position now where people still hold racist views but now use social media as a way to voice them from the "safe position" behind their keyboard? Would they make the same comments face to face? What ever the answers, it is concerning that here in the 21st Century the odious nature of racism still infects our society, surely racism should now be consigned to history's dustbin.
This raises a broader question beyond the boundaries of football and into wider society. To what degree is racism still prevelant? Are we in a position now where people still hold racist views but now use social media as a way to voice them from the "safe position" behind their keyboard? Would they make the same comments face to face? What ever the answers, it is concerning that here in the 21st Century the odious nature of racism still infects our society, surely racism should now be consigned to history's dustbin.
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
NLP with Sheep!
No you’re not misreading this and no we haven’t taken leave of our senses. NLP with Sheep is a fascinating and fun experience run by our colleague Clare Smale and shepherd Chris Farnsworth, which is a great teambuilding and communication exercise and also enables people to practice their NLP modelling technique.
There are two main elements to this experience, firstly to take a group of 8 – 12 people and have them round up a flock of sheep into a pen. Having experienced this I’m not sure who’s in charge the sheep or the people! Once your ego has survived this channel it’s time to turn a sheep onto it’s back, Chris makes this look effortless, however personally I made this a lot more difficult than it needed to be.
As mentioned earlier these exercises are excellent vehicles for exploring how people work together and communicate with each other and also to take people out of their comfort zone and demonstrate to themselves that the impossible is indeed possible.
Linking this back into NLP Clare utilises the TOTE model (George Miller 1960) to help people focus on setting a goal for turning the sheep.
Test – the trigger – are we ready to start working towards the goal of turning a sheep on its back?
Operate – run the strategy for turning the sheep over successfully.
Test - has the goal been reached?
Exit – the strategy has worked.
To read more about NLP with Sheep read Clare’s article in the Autumn edition of Rapport magazine or at www.whitehorsenlp.com/upload/p38%20NLP%20and%20Sheep.pdf
Clare Smale is an NLP master practitioner, trainer and coach. To find out how Clare could help you and your team contact us on 08444 827280 or by e-mail at office@bluegem.co.uk.
Clare Smale is an NLP master practitioner, trainer and coach. To find out how Clare could help you and your team contact us on 08444 827280 or by e-mail at office@bluegem.co.uk.
Monday, 8 August 2011
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