Thought Pattern management

HOW TO PASS EXAMS USING TPM
By Graham Morris

TPM, Thought Pattern Management, started out as an educational intervention. Very many TPM techniques are as much about teaching the mind, especially the unconscious mind, new and different ways of doing things rather than as therapeutic techniques.

In our current diseducation system we enable pupils and students to concentrate on the dread NLP word:

FAILURE

We have a situation where the teacher goes through the pupils’ work, correcting all the errors and then encouraging the same pupils to practise those errors.

How familiar is this to you from your school/college days?

You are facing an exam.

Interesting word – ‘exam’. One of those words (semantically dense) that requires little or no processing ; a word packed with meaning and sometimes just the sight or the sound of the word ‘exam’ produces an immediate, and often unpleasant, state change.

So you walk into the exam room and sit there for 45 minutes – 180 minutes trying to remember all the information that you spent so much time revising.

Then the exam ends and a curious thing happens. As you walk out of the exam room you suddenly remember all the information you revised, but it’s too late! The exam is over.

Put simply, this is what happens. The learning, the revision tends to occupy the left brain. Walking into the exam room occupies the right brain. There tends to be a shift over a period of 90 minutes – which is why the 45 minute exams are most disrupted.

I worked with someone recently who was about to take his ‘AS’ Level exams (exams taken at the age of 17).

After explaining the above I implanted a posthypnotic suggestion that allowed the thumb and middle finger to slowly move down a pen held in a vertical position and that action would facilitate the switch from right to left to occur in 30 seconds.
The exam result was an ‘A’ grade.

Here is the full story of how to pass exams using TPM.

First of all a clear and well-formed outcome.

Do a memory cleanse of all earlier school testing. The easiest way to do this is via the TPM Brainwash technique (see INLPTA News Number 6 pp 41-44, December 2003).
Now all negative/unresourceful memories about school testing and exams has been reframed.

Take the pupil/student through The Circle of Excellence.

Make sure that the ‘circle state’ is in the form of a ring or a bracelet that the person can actually wear as they will need to take it into the exam room with them.
If you can find a Circle of Excellence experience that has a connection with previous exams/tests, so much the better.

When you get to future pace the experience get the pupil/student to imagine, while wearing the ring or bracelet, that they can scan the next test, going down the list of questions knowing the full and correct answer to every question.
Anchor this

Take your subject into the TPM Wide Awake Trance (for reference, see above) and:

“I would like to borrow your arm and I’m going to ask your unconscious mind (you are unconscious, mind/obey!) to keep it relaxed and comfortable.

I am going to talk to the Education Specialist (metaphoric part) and I’m going to ask the Education Specialist to take all the information that’s been (phonological ambiguity) studied and package it in such a way that it will be easily and fully accessible during the test/exam.

I’m going to ask you unconscious mind to allow your arm to lower only as rapidly as your unconscious mind completes the process.”

Tell your subject to walk into the exam room and put the Excellence bracelet or ring on the chair and then sit on it.

How to Pass an Exam with No Revision

Working with the same 17 year old mentioned above, we got to talking about revising his least favourite subject, which in this case was French (apologies to our French readers – it was the teaching not the language).

I was a bit surprised when he told me he was going to do no revision at all when it came to French.

He was unconcerned about maybe getting a low grade or not even a pass.

After using the Iceberg Metaphor for the mind – the bit that’s sticking out of the water is the conscious mind, the much, much bigger bit below the water is the unconscious mind – I explained that everything his French teacher had said to him, everything he had read and spoken in French was stored in his unconscious mind. All of that French information.

So he decided to do no revision whatsoever when it came to French.

Using the sliding thumb/finger/pen technique (see above) at the start of the French exam with the added instruction to access the Education Specialist, all went well.
He got an A in French.

© Graham Morris
Contact Graham at
Training Changes
7 Spenser Avenue
Cheltenham GL51 7DX
Tel: 01242 580640
Mble: 07711 370980
e-mail: mailto:graham@trainingchanges.co.uk
web: www.trainingchanges.co.uk

Trainer Date!

I've talked to trainers who spend hours in cars, delivering training all over the country and who would love to find time to expand their social network but the job...

Trainerdate.com is a new website where you can find people with common interests to you, all over the country.

Why are dating sites so popular? Because quite simply they work. Today's society doesn't give us much chance to socialise in groups outside work. We live increasingly isolated lives and enjoy our communities vicariously (this is why I think soap operas are so popular).

So if you are looking for someone to talk to, a friend or 'something more' as they say, then try out Trainerdate.com.

By joining Trainer Date for FREE you can:

- Add your profile and photos!
- Browse Singles!

Not the L&D post you expected of this blog I'm sure, but L&D isn't just learning and development, it's about life and development. You don't get anywhere by standing still they say.

Obama, the brand

Obama the brand? What am I talking about? This post was spurred by a conversation with an inspirational marketing trainer I know called Julian French. Julian is a real brand expert and in a short conversation we discussed the links between personal brands and corporate brands and how values are so intrinsic to both.

What do I mean? Well, without going into a lengthy discourse on values and branding - we buy brands because of an emotional attachment developed through a perceived value. Whether that value is integrity, reliability, functionality or something even more tactile such as how it feels to touch, we associate values with brands.

Then Julian mentioned Obama but is the brand 'Mr President' or is it 'Barak Obama'? I think that due to the context of this appointment, the brand is always the individual in office. The use of the Presidential position is almost a separate brand - it's associations are with power and influence, yet with the post-holder, the brand is definitely about the person.

We have yet to experience the full impact of Mr Obama's brand, but his marketing team have been out there pushing very positive messages (some to specifically overcome negative background stories).

But back to branding, and why it is important. It's not just Presidents who carry this 'brand' label. What do you think your personal brand is? Are you a risk taker? Are you a slow and steady? Are you a good person in a crisis? If I use those three examples, you can probably think of individuals who run corporates that match those 'brands'.

The difference between a brand and the values? The values are what you associate with the brand: if you are talking about an airline, then the values are the service or pricing, the experience, and your affinity with the brand. Do you like cheap and easy, or would rather pay for comfort, or want the very best because quality and class match your own personal brand?

When I worked in an international computer company we merged with another to have a new name and a new brand. We had corporate marketing guidelines on how the new logo was to be used, what the brand values were and the new name was chosen. The reasoning behind the brand was cascaded through the organisation internationally. Those who were from one or other of the two original companies suddenly all had something in common. And in those days of proprietory hardware, a merger was an integration challenge on many levels.


Some companies make mistakes with branding though - paying (that's the bit everyone focuses on, how much it cost) huge sums to change an organisation name only to discover that the audience reject the image and then everything is either changed back again (resulting in further costs) or battle must be done to establish the new brand.

Brand values are important, and so is communicating those values. Making sure that your stakeholders (whether internal or external) understand the reasons and can genuinely buy into the values that the new or revised brand is supposed to create.

Branding is, of course, linked to marketing. One designer I spoke to today said:

"Marketing budgets are under horrendous pressure and Marketing Directors/Departments are really going to have to present a strong case for what they do if head count is being reduced throughout the company. And if 2000 are going from a production line, how can you help them – and their colleagues who are left behind – to understand why the company still has to go on taking TV time or running promotions in The Sun…"

Interesting! In some ways Obama has a similar challenge, how can he justify the budgets he will have to work with? That's a huge subject I am ill qualified to comment on. But - a lot of it will be about marketing. How the budget messages are sent out, how Obama communicates his Presidency to the world, not just the American people.

"Barack Obama is three things you want in a brand," says Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide. "New, different, and attractive. That's as good as it gets."

There's an in depth article on 'Obama the brand' on this website: Fast Company. Well worth reading.

If you'd like to inspire your stakeholders - we have a great programme on Understanding Branding on the Complete Trainer site.

If you'd like to learn more about branding, try the Business Link website for some simple tips, or read more by the branding guru, Leslie de Chernatony

Political correctness

I have worked in a number of organisations during my career, including a very small building firm, a UK FMCG company, one of the most famous Universities in the UK (happy 800th!), in private health and with a multi-national corporation. One thing that I never particularly thought about (especially in the early days) was political correctness, probably because it never occurred to anyone to be anything other than polite, accepting and professional with colleagues.

I remember back in the 80's, working for a huge international computer company, that the only issue that ever arose (and this was whilst working with people of all ages, genders, sexual orientations and cultures) was that one of the girls was holding prayer meetings - in the corridor (big open plan offices). All that was done was that she was asked to book a meeting room instead.

No matter how individuals feel about 'political correctness', promoting equality and diversity and ensuring all your employees feel valued is vital in the modern workplace. It makes good business sense too, as workers who feel valued are usually more productive and less likely to leave your employment.

There is a great resource available on the ACAS website which gives you some helpful tools and free downloads.

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1440

Training in diversity is important, because not all companies are like that computer giant I worked for. People are all different, as different in their prejudices as their choices in life. Supporting your people in understanding diversity could be extremely important and even save embarassing and damaging litigation. What one person sees as 'just being funny' may be someone else's harassment.

2009 - How To Have Your Best Sales Year Ever

From Andy Preston:

I always find it interesting at this time of year how people's attitudes can affect the actions they take towards having a successful year, or an unsuccessful one! Particularly given the current market conditions, a good start to the year is possibly more important than ever!

It's also a very interesting part of the year, as many people choose to set 'new year resolutions'. These resolutions are usually set around personal things like losing weight, stopping smoking, or exercising more often for example, but most people don't tend to set them for their sales careers or for their business.

On a humourous note, the resolutions that they do set are probably the ones they set last year (and broke in early January), and the year before, and the year before that...and so on!

With that in mind, below I've given you a list of areas to focus on, that if you read and take action based on them, will help to make 2009 your best sales year ever - regardless of the market conditions!

So let's have a look at these in turn……


Andy's Sales Tip No 1 - Get Focused

It's always very important to get focused on what you do and make sure you do it as well as possible, but in the current market conditions it's more important than ever! Perhaps over the past few months (or even longer in some cases) you've allowed yourself to be distracted by other things. Well now's a really good time to re-focus your energy and your efforts.

If you're a business owner or salesperson, look at your core sales proposition and your core activities. Are these as strong as they could be? Can you clearly articulate what benefits your product or service brings to the customer? Do you do that regularly enough on your marketing literature, your website, your emails and verbally to clients and prospects?


Andy's Sales Tip No 2 - Stay Positive

Staying positive is another crucial part of making 2009 your best sales year ever. As in any other year, you're going to experience some setbacks. If you've heard me speak you'll know how much I drive home the point that it isn't what happens to you that natters, it's your attitude to what happen to you that matters!

If you're been watching television, listening to the radio or reading newspapers for the last few months you'll have heard negative message after negative message about the economy, lack of sales and that people aren't buying. Is that going to help or hinder your attitude towards getting new business?

Which do you think customers and prospects value more, someone who sounds like they're terminally depressed, or someone who remains upbeat and positive about their company, products and services, and themselves? Which do you think they're going to buy from?


Andy's Sales Tip No 3 - Do More Prospecting

More than ever before, prospecting is vital to your chances of making 2009 your best sales year ever. The challenge is that when market conditions are easier (as they have been for the past few years) prospecting is one of the first things that a business owner or a salesperson stops doing!

In a market where people are negotiating harder with you and you're losing business through no fault of your own (customers being taken over, going out of business etc) then doesn't it stand to reason that you need to do more prospecting?

So whether you prospect by networking, referrals from existing clients, cold calling, whatever method you use, just make sure you do more of it! Let's be honest, there are people out there that have a need for what you offer, but don't know you exist! Make sure you do more prospecting, it's one of the keys to making this year a success for you.


Andy's Sales Tip No 4 - Look For More Cross-Selling / Up-Selling Opportunities

Once again, in an easier market, simple up-selling and cross-selling opportunities are often overlooked. You've probably got plenty of existing clients that don't use every product or service you offer, haven't you? I wonder if you've ever heard the immortal words from a client 'oh I didn't know you did that' when you asked them why they've just bought from a competitor?

One of the first things you can do is make clients aware of your full product range or all of the services that you offer. This maximises your cross-selling opportunities. In a market where the economic conditions aren't as good as they were previously, one of the quickest ways to get more business is to get more orders from your existing client base! Think about it - they already like you, have done business with you and have everything set up to order from your company - why not get them to order more items from you?

Another important area to look at is up-selling opportunities. Every single time a customer places an order with you, you've got an opportunity to 'up-sell' them to a higher priced item. A lot of people don't feel confident in doing this and 'assume' if the customer wanted the higher-priced item, they would have asked for it! Don't make the same mistake. Why not offer the client 2 options on their next order? It's an easy way to get more business!


Andy's Sales Tip No 5 - Keep Your Sales Skills Updated

This is always an interesting one! In any of my seminars of speeches, whenever I ask the question 'how many of you have read a sales book, listened to a CD or done something to hone your sales skills in the last 6 months?' hardly anyone puts their hands up! I find this astounding.

Some people say 'Oh I don't have time', some people say 'oh I don't need to, I know what I'm doing' and even more frighteningly some business owners say 'oh I'm not a salesperson'!! How crazy is that?

If you're in a competitive market right now (if you have competition, that's you!) then your sales skills (or lack of them) could be the difference between you winning a customer, and losing a customer. How are your cold calling skills? Your questioning skills? Your objection handling skills? Your closing skills? Could they do with some work? You have to work on these and keep yourself 'sharp' so you don't miss out on sales opportunities you could have won!

Follow the tips above and watch your sales soar! I look forward to hearing of your sales success!

(C) 2009 Andy Preston

Andy Preston is a leading Cold Calling and Sales Expert. You can see more about Andy and get his free cold calling and sales tips at http://www.andy-preston.com

Credit crunch - a historic perspective

I was reading the BBC History magazine the other day and, in particular, an article on the credit crunch of the 13th century. Yes, we had a credit crunch then! King Edward had loans from Italy to finance wars and ... well, it's complicated, but the end result was a credit crunch in England. Then, as today, there was international finance, politics and intrigue and consequences of dire proportion.

Then I picked up Management Today, and they showed very graphically the historical patterns of recession and inflation. Fascinating stuff! The article shows how inflation is followed by recession (it looks like the calmest times financially were between 1870-1910). The higher the inflation peak, the lower the recession that follows it. The chart shows a huge block of inflation from the 1940s to 1990s without the matching recession - so the pattern of previous centuries is broken. Have we been heading for this fall for a long time?

Did we not see it? Were we unaware? Where were all our economic pundits, our financial wizards? Well, to be sure some predicted this – but no one wanted to believe them.

We will probably never know the answers to exactly why this happened (though I'd love a peek at the 2099 issue of BBC History magazine - hindsight being the clearest vision).

No matter how useful historical perspective is, we live in very different times today. We have whole new technologies that did not even exist ten years ago. So, what is to come over the next few years? Will we battle through this and come out stronger, or will the many years of inflation and relative wealth be followed by years of receission? Will we see the promised ‘green shoots’? Things change much more quickly today. Richard Reeves, the author of the article in Management Today, says "while trifling by global standards, the UK's inflation outlook is very much more exciting than for years".

He gives some real insight into how the UK economy will fare and what may happen, but you'll have to get the magazine to read the full article of course.

The UK is, undoubtedly, in the midst of great flux. The Government responds in different ways - supporting banks and offering to underwrite loans so that small businesses can continue to access funding (see BBC article. ) Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said the proposals would target "genuine business needs". What are genuine business needs? Other than waving a magic wand and creating a stable global economy, there are real challenges for the Government (whoever is in power) in many areas, including training and development.

Improving the skills of the UK workforce has long been an identified business need – our skills base in the UK has been unfavourably compared with those in other European countries (see Leitch Report 2006). And skills remain an issue – the Guardian’s David Gow reports “Europe's looming skills crisis”, which indicates that Government initiatives in funding training (such as Train to Gain) are more important than ever in this time of economic crisis. Continuing to invest in our most important resource, our people, must remain a priority in these difficult times. There is a future! Fail to plan, and –

Copyright issues and training

I did an article a while back on copyright issues and training. It's not on here, but I put it out on Ezines and on my site. Yesterday I got an email that prompted me to blog the issue, and this is the line that caught my attention - from an insurance company that offers trainers professional cover. He had read my Copyright article:

"...a really common cause of claims, not just with training materials but with stock images and text used in promotional materials and on websites etc"

Read the article on my site and maybe save yourself an embarassing legal situation and increased premiums!

You may also find this list useful - many popular management models listed along with their source websites:

Leadership, Coaching and other Training Models and Questionnaires

HR Management during Recession

The buzz words of 2008 are credit crunch and recession. In the media it is all doom and gloom with several years of economic downturn expected.

With all this negativity around, it is all too easy for companies to jump on the bandwagon and decide that things are looking bleak and consider that certain negative HR processes need to be employed to try and ensure ongoing viability. In many cases, this means implementing a redundancy programme and for some companies this can be the only option. So long as a fair redundancy procedure is adopted with meaningful consultation, fair dismissals and managing “survivor syndrome” a company can survive to meet ongoing needs.

Short time working may be a temporary stop gap, although without an express clause in the employment contract, companies will need to consult, get agreement from employees and give plenty of notice in order not to be liable for breach of contract.

However, there could be other options to consider.

A major re-structure of the business to anticipate future needs and cope with current pressures is a major strategic move. This allows the business to hold onto key talent who are slotted into key roles with an accompanying training and development plan is more effective than a mass redundancy programme. In any change management programme there will be the inevitable redundancies, but a planned process allows a company to remain in control. Securing existing talent and investing in them will ensure that a company becomes more competitive so that when the economy picks up they are much better placed to move forward.

Tackling poor performers head on and removing from the workforce as part of a change management programme or stand alone process can help a business survive so long as fair capability and disciplinary procedures are used to prevent costly tribunal mistakes. Poor performers can reduce profits dramatically through low productivity and disengagement. Performance management can often be the key to survival particularly if a holistic process is in place whereby employee objectives are linked to business goals.

As part of this is the need to consider ongoing training and development. This is often the first HR process to go when things get tough. Cutting back on training is a false economy as when key skills are needed to response to market forces in future, a company will struggle. Many companies see this as an unnecessary cost. However, there are low cost and even free options to consider such as work shadowing and developing coaching and mentoring programmes using existing talent to train developing talent. Support for cost effective training initiatives can often be found by talking to Business Link and the Learning Skills Council with matched funding often being provided.

Talent management is key in these challenging economic times and ensuring employee engagement. Talent needs to be nurtured and rewarded accordingly to ensure employees don’t jump ship and join a competitor. Having clear HR processes in place such as succession planning and career paths are the basic building blocks together with appropriate training and development.

For those companies who need to cut costs the issue of employee reward is a big factor. Employees tend to expect the minimum inflation pay increase and, where appropriate, the bonus they have always received. With the economic downturn this could be the nail in the coffin for some companies. There is the need to look at creative ways to reward staff, where, for the time being, increased financial compensation is not available. Communication to staff about companies actions in this area will help employees to understand the hows and whys.

Companies can consider offering more paid time off such as increased holidays or Friday afternoons off as an incentive to increase employee motivation in these difficult times.

Flexibility is a major motivator and the introduction of flexible working, flexi-time, job sharing, home working are surprisingly easy ways to improve the bottom line.

Offering more tax-efficient benefits that can save the company money could release funds to offer motivational perks such as company days out or a paid for social gathering to improve motivation. If companies involve employees in a survey of their requirements, benefits can be relevant to both their needs as well as saving the business money.

Research shows that sabbaticals are on the increase with interest growing from employees who want to take a break from employment and go and do other things with their lives. The company benefits from the lack of requirement to pay salary.

Educating staff in the value of their total reward package can often be beneficial. This can be achieved through providing total reward statements either paper based or online or by financial workshops on key aspects such as pensions or financial benefits.

Article provided by Sandra Beale FCIPD
www.sjbealehrconsult.co.uk

Using NLP

A couple of years ago I went on a two day introductory diploma in NLP. Why? I'm not a trainer - but I am a communicator. NLP as a tool is highly useful in many walks of life, not just sales, therapy or training.

I'll give you some personal examples:

Meetings with suppliers or potential business partners

I have learned enough NLP to watch for body language, listen to the language the person I am meeting uses, and to build rapport successfully.

Business Writing

I think about the people I am writing to - what sort of people are they? Just because I choose email doesn't mean they will. I look at the group of people I am addressing and try to amend my copy to reflect what they may be most comfortable with, and offer alternatives for return communication. I also look through my copy to eliminate negative language.

Creative Writing

This is something I do apart from running Complete Trainer. I write fiction for personal satisfaction (some published) and find that I think more about the senses when writing. Are my readers going to respond to gustatory, visual, auditory, kinaesthetic or olfactory descriptions? I remember to include each style as appropriate or, for particular effect, use one very strongly. I actually wrote a story called 'The Ghost Sniffer' following the NLP course. Imagine being able to smell history!

Networking

I have to network as a business professional but it is not a natural skill of mine. Using the NLP techniques helps me to ease into social situations more quickly.

Well, those are just a few examples of how learning even the basics of NLP have helped me. Oh, yes, it also helps when talking to recalcitrant teenagers too!

If you'd like a really easy introduction to NLP, there's a dandy CD called The NLP Pocketbook, through The Really Good Fun Cartoon Book of NLP to a whole host of advanced books focusing on different aspects of NLP.

There are also many training companies out there offering NLP training (some even offer free taster programmes) and you can become a Master Practitioner for something in the region of between £1000-£2000.

Why use NLP? I have found two schools of thought on this - from a CBT therapist who is convinced it is pure bunkum and detrimental to therapy ,through to those who swear by it as both a communication and therapeutic tool.

If you do a search on NLP on the internet you can find many instances of misuse of NLP as well as the positive outcomes. If you are interested in NLP, try something like The NLP Pocketbook to just get a feel of what it's about. You will probably find you do a lot of it naturally already.