Looking for a step change in your performance?
Looking for a step change in your performance?
It’s training, but not as you know it!
To make big step changes in performance you first need to let go of conventional models of working. Some companies seem to take these giant leaps in their stride whilst others, more risk averse, lag behind. Why should this be? Why does it take some so long to embrace change and adopt new ideas? Consider the 1885-built Benz Motorwagen, the first car to go into production with an internal combustion engine. It looks like a horse drawn carriage with an engine strapped on.
The 1964 mobile car phone looks like a home phone from the same era. The new radical mobile feature has simply been bolted on.
Similarly the early Quality initiatives were seen by managers as bolt-on’s to their existing jobs. Some managers are probably still doing this today 60 years after the first Quality initiatives appeared outside Japan. The same can be said of Empowerment and Engagement, not to mention Customer Service which has only taken hold in a small percentage of companies, others take the concept and turn it into a simple tick-box procedure.
Whenever groundbreaking ideas are introduced some people have trouble letting go of their existing concepts of how things work. Any new idea takes time to really develop its full potential. The new development is simply bolted on to what already exists and what is known. Maybe you have tried to introduce a new idea into your business and found others resisting it, or trying to bolt it on to the existing way of doing things.
The problem is that people don’t know what they don’t know. So as you try and explain the groundbreaking new idea, method or approach to them, they append it to what they know. Culture also acts as a barrier to change. If you don’t see others embracing the change then why should you be the first to stand out from the crowd? So many people want to introduce new ideas but hold themselves back by a fear of being perceived as ‘different’, ‘woolly’ or ‘having lost the plot’. You have to deviate from the norm to introduce new ideas. Risk aversion creates inertia.
This has happened to us a few times during the sales process. At Quadrant 1 International we have developed interventions using NLP in business that can be described as groundbreaking. We are helping people to achieve outstanding results every day, like JD, a sales director who sold an £8m contract following an NLP process; SF, a CEO who secured £60m investment for his business in Scotland during the early days of the credit crunch; a L&D manager with a multi-national who has revitalised the culture of communication; GR, a sales director with a multi-national who has coached his team to win significant new business deals previously thought impossible. The list of successes is endless, but there’s more to their newly gained prominence – not only have they achieved tangible results, they actually think and behave very differently. It’s the shift to a higher level of thinking and awareness, with the subsequent action that is behind their ongoing achievements.
We met a training manager who thought he knew what NLP was because he had been to a Tony Robbins weekend – yet he doesn’t know how to introduce what Robbins uses to his employees. We meet others who have read books or attended generic short programmes, even longer Practitioner courses, who still do not know NLP. They think they know it but can only talk about it. Attempts to extend this limited experience often alienate others who do not see the value, or are too bedded in their comfort zone.
There is much excitement here at Quadrant 1 International as we expand and see our clients experience positive, game changing results. Many of them have got used to enjoying their newfound capabilities and generating more success, even during these times where so many other companies are pulling back. Whatever your challenge, if you are looking for a fresh new approach, it’s not NLP that will get you to where you want to be but the people with the experience of using it. When I was in school many school teachers had vast knowledge of their subjects, but only one knew how to bring it alive for me. This teacher was special. He helped me to get a first place in History where others had failed to even keep my attention.
In the hands of experienced trainers, facilitators and coaches, NLP can bring game-changing results to a business. It has a 30 year track record of supercharging business performance, and each day more companies are turning to NLP to create the step change that will open up new possibilities and take them to new heights.
There are a number of reasons why companies fail to embrace change quickly, but they all seem to have one thing in common – a reluctance or even fear of key influencers to integrate groundbreaking new models of working. People will make quantum leaps and break new ground and fully integrate new thinking and behaviour, when they are convinced it has a value. Our clients realise this and make great leaps in their capability for future success. This is what makes our work so fulfilling and rewarding.
If your training and development is not delivering a high return on investment, maybe its time to rethink and look at the latest groundbreaking ideas. It’s training, but not as you know it!
David Molden
FCIPD
