An article in The Times today, page 52, highlights the benefits of NLP in the workplace.
First Direct, Vodafone, Honda and Marks & Spencer are amongst the companies finding NLP an effective tool in the workplace.
To that list I could add GMAC, Reed Business Publications, Yves St.Laurent, P&O Ferries and Knauf as just some of the companies where I have introduced NLP and seen it produce valuable results.
At the end of the Times article an occupational psychologist says, very po-faced, “NLP is not academically respectable.” Whatever that means. This is typical of the responses of academia to anything that does not require a bunch of letters after your name in order to ply your trade.
Academia Under the Microscope
Let’s just pause for a moment and cast an eye over the track record of academia. Last summer they cocked-up exam results for thousands of school children. Sir Fred Goodwin the discredited CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland is a graduate of the world’s leading business school, Harvard. Many of the so-called bankers in the City of London who recently brought the financial world crashing to its knees, were the crème de la crème of university graduates. I could go on, but I don’t want to embarrass the academic authorities.
The point is that academia does not have a divine right to be always correct in either its methodologies or its judgements. Academics are human beings and therefore they are capable of making mistakes. Just like ordinary people, which is what they are.
The only difference between an academic and a non-academic is that the academics have the ability and interest in passing examinations set by other academics. In other words they are part of a group of people with a particular mindset. That mindset does not make their methods, opinions, theories or beliefs universally right. They are often slow to adapt in the fast-changing world in which businesses have to operate.
Qualifications are Less Important than Results
In the world of business results that lead to profits is the Holy Grail. They are the raison d’etre of businesses. NLP has a track record of producing results in business environments.
The fact that so many leading businesses around the world use NLP and find it effective is ample evidence of its efficacy.
A tool like NLP that can be learned and practiced by managers and their staff has more practical value to a business than any academic technique that can only be practiced by the chosen few.
One great benefit of NLP is that it can introduce an element of fun and enjoyment into the world of work. How often can you say the same about the stuffed shirts that practice Occupational Psychology?
I do see a role for Occupational Psychology in the work place but for heavens sakes chaps lets understand that you are not Gods to look down on the rest of the world from the so-called heights of academia. Just remember that amongst your graduates are many of the world’s greatest failures.
The interesting question that the pompous academic response to NLP raises, is this: “do we need academia, which produces theory and graduates of dubious effectiveness, like Sir Fred, or do we need tools that get results?”
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