This is a book about change management and the potential for applied Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to transform the fortunes of change efforts. The book has the vision of breaking down the mystery of NLP and relating its methods and concepts to the practical activity of change management in organizations. A related vision is to advance NLP as a serious technology in the general manager’s tool box. The philosophy that will drive the writing is one of introducing to operational managers, HR practitioners, OD specialists and students of management new ideas and practices which can transform their effectiveness as change leaders, educators, and coaches.

The purpose of this book is to provide you with insights into the NLP ideas that can enable the establishment of productive change leadership relationships.

The ability to influence and work cohesively with others are arguably the critical competences that enable successful change leadership. Neuro-Linguistic Programming provides proven methods for enabling the conditions that generate collaboration between change leaders and their teams. The aim throughout this book is to direct you towards a field of practice that has the capacity to unlock the potential for the outstanding leadership potential that you have within you if you know the keys to use.

This book fills a very important gap in what is being taught in business schools throughout the world regarding change leadership. Managers are being taught to think intellectually and abstractly about change leadership. They are being taught how to plan for change. They are taught about the main challenges involved in planning for and leading change. They are being taught how to understand the social and cultural dynamics involved in leading successful change. And, yes, these teachings are important. However, despite this dense catalogue of teaching regarding change leadership there remains general dissatisfaction regarding change leadership results. Something is not working. Something is going against the rational premise that we have studied change management for over 70 years, made the findings readily available and yet change leadership remains a very challenging and problematic aspect of general management.

The issue, it seems, is that managers are not being taught how to understand people, including themselves. They are not being adequately prepared for the searing heat and unpredictable nature of social interaction. They are not being prepared to manage fluctuations in their emotional states. They are expected to live with limiting beliefs and compensate for these with un-resourceful strategies. They struggle with the idea of critical self-reflection. These fault lines impact negatively on the ability of change leaders to lead with influence.

I have practiced management for 25 years. I have led numerous change projects and participated in even more. I have studied up close and personal what happens when managers try to engage with stakeholders during change projects. I have listened to the back-stage conversations of managers and staff making sense of the approach to change leadership on the part of their change managers. I have studied change leadership at Master’s and Doctorate level and, yet I also remained dissatisfied regarding what I have learned.

My dissatisfaction lay in the gap between our knowledge of why change leadership efforts often do not work that effectively and how we remedy this situation. I wanted to know how, as a change leader, I could use all the knowledge I had to be a far more effective change leader. I came to realize that what I needed to understand was how to figure people out and this had to start with myself. I had to understand at the micro level of interaction how we make sense of the world around us and decide on our social strategies to act upon the models we create.

I searched for a body of knowledge and practice that specialized in providing practical insights and change interventions into how people tick. I wanted to understand the way that people generate the social results that disrupted change leadership efforts. I also wanted to understand the strategies successful change leaders used. This naturally involved building a bridge between my interest in organizational cultural change and the not un-related field of personal development. One could argue that these two areas of study and practice have been treated as mutually exclusive with the former being scientific and the latter constituting an area of pseudo-science. This presupposition is most unfortunate as they are, in fact, mutually inclusive close intellectual and practical cousins. There is much we can learn about how change leaders can improve their effectiveness by merging a study of both disciplines. The challenge was where to start. I chose to study the area of personal development called ‘Neuro-Linguistic Programming’ (NLP) and connect this to the literature on leading change in an organization. Why this choice?

We all know that organizational culture is built on concepts such as:

And we all know that this framework involves two levels of interactions: (1) internal to self, and (2) external to self. These two levels of interactive sense-making are the primary shapers and movers of organizational culture. I knew quite a bit about organizational culture and related change management models. What I knew less about was how at the level of the individual change leader I could build a model of ‘change’ that could smoothly engage and change the broader organizational culture: a model of change practice that works; a model of change practice that has a proven record of accomplishment; and a model that is easily taught to managers and which produces social results very quickly.

The body of knowledge and practice I discovered was NLP. It just felt right to me; the ideas chimed with my experience and when I read the literature I liked the evocative images the prominent authors conjured up in their writings. I was very attracted to this field of knowledge and practice as it seemed to deal with social construction issues, identity work and paradigm construction processes, all of which are the foundations of the cultural change literature. The difference that made the difference was that NLP traded in practical change solutions and focused on the individual and their relationship internal to self and externally to others. This, I felt, had the potential of filling the gap in our knowledge that I think is required.

Because of my curiosity, I have spent the last five years studying and practicing NLP. I have studied with the world’s top NLP trainers such as Brian Costello and Steven Burns of the Scottish Centre for NLP and Robert Dilts and Judith Delozier at NLPU based at the University of California Santa Cruz, the spiritual home of NLP. I have worked with over 1,000 managers and students of management teaching NLP across multiple business schools and organizations in the private and the public sectors as well as speaking at conferences on the subject. The conclusion I came to was that as an area of personal development NLP also works with:

NLP provides insights and methods of rapid change and improvement into social processes such as:

I realized that when I built a bridge between the two fields of practice of Organizational Change Management and NLP I could have a significant impact on the capabilities of change leaders to create the organizational culture they really want to belong to. I could enable far more successful change management and leadership outcomes.

The bridge I have built is ‘NLP for Change Leaders: The Butterfly Effect’, a book on change leadership that can have a serious impact on the future outcomes of change leadership projects. Throughout this book I will share with you dynamic perspectives and skills that will transform your change management and leadership capacities as well as providing you with opportunities for personal growth and transformation. This book is based upon innovative NLP ideas and methods rooted in the creative melting pot of Silicon Valley, California.

The book benefits from the author bringing a solid appreciation of organizational theory wedded to substantial management experience to the body of knowledge and practice of NLP. This mix of expertise is applied to the structure of the book and is highly original in relation to the stock of NLP books currently on the market. I invite you to sit comfortably, go into a relaxed state of mind and enjoy this exploration of NLP and come to appreciate its great potential as an enabler of successful change leadership outcomes. Enjoy this short journey of discovery through the world of NLP and the learnings can and will serve you well. I invite you to be curious and open to the potential for developing your understanding of a highly rewarding area of change management practice that has the potential to transform lives.

This book is a theoretically informed yet highly practical survey of NLP ideas and methods. This book introduces participants to social strategies rooted in NLP that can enable personal change and freedom from limiting beliefs and create ‘The Butterfly Effect’ in organizations, stimulating systematic change.

It is common knowledge that managing change in organizations is a tough business. We have a rapidly changing staff and customer demographic; millennials are featuring as critical employee resources who expect a particular kind of work experience; traditional leadership models based on authority of position are being rejected. The climate and culture within many organizations are becoming increasingly tense and difficult to manage.

We need different approaches to the ways in which we engage with key stakeholder groups that transcend transactional methods. NLP for change leaders shows managers that they can manage their emotional states, overcome belief barriers, build charisma, leverage leadership skills, and build rapport with stakeholders. It is a beautiful thing. The next section in this introduction will summarize the structure of the book.

Book structure

Part 1: The theory and operational context of NLP

Chapter 1: Conscious leadership

In this chapter I will introduce my definition of the change leader and the specific idea of conscious leadership that will form part of the conceptual and practical framework to connect with the overarching themes of the book. I will introduce the practical activity of meta-reflection as a core change leadership capability. I have designed a short reflective statement regarding my own change journey as an explanation regarding the motivations behind this book. This chapter is intended to encourage the emergence of the reflective practitioner that lies within all of us involved in leading change initiatives

Chapter 2: NLP as a field of applied sociology

In this chapter I will define NLP based on the definitions which I derived from the work of leading NLP developers and creators. There is no fixed definition of NLP as the field holds many different meanings for many different people. Nevertheless, we need a definition that holds true to the originator’s intentions and in this chapter I will offer such a construction. I will briefly, survey the historical roots of NLP to provide you with a sense of accessibility to its development as a field of change practice. Finally, I will consider NLP as a distinctive field of applied sociology with powerful complementary synergies with management science being taught in traditional business schools throughout the world.

Chapter 3: New management practices: paradigm change

An underlying presupposition that guides the writing for this book is that the conscious leadership skills managers require to be effective change leaders are underdeveloped. Conscious leadership skills as catalysts and enablers for the establishment of psychological safety in groups are often ignored as critical training requirements before and during change leadership episodes. This skills deficit leads to fault lines that undermine the potential success of change programmes. This chapter will explore these ideas and review research that helps to identify important issues that conscious change leaders should be aware of. This chapter will also consider the dynamic nature of work and the shift in the cultural profile of both employees and managers. Finally, this chapter will locate NLP as a social change technology with the potential to enable a paradigm shift in management culture towards a model that has a better socio/cultural fit with society at large.

Chapter 4: ‘The map is not the territory’: reframing change leadership

NLP is ideally suited to enabling conscious change leadership because it is broadly based on social construction processes. The philosophy that underpins conscious change leadership is that ‘The map is not the territory’ which basically means all our perceptions are simply maps of a potential reality rather than actual reality – and imperfect maps at best. This is known as an interpretivist ontological position. Ontology is defined as the nature of being (Tsoukas & Chia, 2002). The contrast to interpretivist is positivist which assumes that reality is accessible in an objective sense and can be measured, and underlying principles identified for analysis (Denzin, 2001). As conscious change leadership involves how one manages one’s subjective experience and that of others an interpretivist approach offers greater flexibility. This is because organizational change works through social construction processes which can be managed more effectively if we have ways of working with our internal representations of reality constructed within the theatre of our minds. This chapter will consider conscious change leadership as a process of reconstructing our mental models of the world as we perceive it. NLP as a change technology is ideally suited to support such a project which is called reframing. Throughout this chapter I will review two models of change leadership: (1) The transmission model; and, (2) the diffusion model, and compare these with the goal of inviting change leaders to reframe their unconscious model of change leadership and relate this process to NLP techniques. The concept of ‘everyday reframing’ as a significant conscious change leadership process will be examined and connected with NLP applications.

Chapter 5: It starts with oneself: the butterfly effect

In this chapter I will consider the deeply personal nature of NLP and argue that all changes in behaviours or values and beliefs within an organization start with the self. Organizations are socio-cultural systems and are characterized by the butterfly effect which dictates that a change in one part of the system will result in a vibration throughout the culture that creates systematic change. NLP is a valuable personal development toolkit as well as a resource to enable broader behavioural change. This chapter will also consider unconscious and conscious modelling as a transmission strategy for inculcating preferred leadership styles throughout an organization. I will take our preferred leadership style, conscious change leadership, as the working model and explain how this can be taught at both conscious and unconscious levels of learning to others throughout the organization.

Chapter 6: NLP and the Law of Requisite Variety

This chapter will review the operating philosophy that NLP is built around which could be categorized under the meta-idea ‘The Law of Requisite Variety’. NLP has a conceptual structure around which its capacity for practice as a change methodology is enabled. I call this the ‘Architecture of Ideas’. I don’t think that practicing NLP methods without having a fundamental appreciation of these foundational ideas benefits either the trainer or the practitioner. I invite you to think about these ideas as resources you can use as a conscious change leader to broaden your perceptual map and, thus, increase the range of your behavioural, cognitive, and emotional flexibility.

Chapter 7: The NLP paradigm

As with every learning community or community of practice, within NLP circles there is a cultural paradigm which functions as the expressive engine of the community. It guides and enables the value system and, to a large degree, influences how the field will develop. As with all other cultural groups, the NLP community has a shared paradigm that serves as the expressive engine of the NLP world. The early developers of NLP have made these cultural themes explicit through their work, thus revealing the underlying paradigm of NLP. I have selected ten meta-presuppositions that are widely recognized as being at the heart of the NLP cultural paradigm for review. Whilst not all NLP practitioners will follow this paradigm, most will be familiar with its content. The NLP paradigm provides a set of filters through which change leaders may direct their attention inwardly and outwardly and act towards the world in general. In this chapter I will review the NLP paradigm.

Chapter 8: Building the case for change

This chapter will address a significant aspect of change leadership which involves building the case for change. Throughout this chapter I will review NLP analytical models that can support traditional change management tools. The process for building the case for change usually involves analysis of the key change drivers that the organizational leadership has become consciously aware of. This analysis speculates on the influence these change drivers will have upon the organization. The case for change tends to be loosely or tightly built around this analytical process. The major flaw in this process is that it tends to be conducted in isolation by senior managers and can even be what could be described as a desk top exercise. The problem is the lack of direct association with the actual analysis on the part of key stakeholders. The process is too analytical at a level of dissociation. What is required is a counterweight to the dissociated strategic planning tools; NLP provides such a counterweight which will provide the focus of this chapter. The counterweights are the ‘SOAR model’ and the ‘SCORE model’.

Part 2: Applied NLP

Chapter 9: A model of psychological safety

This chapter explores a model through which change leaders may build a culture of psychological safety through NLP to enable the development of the diffusion model of change leadership. In established management practice, there remains a disproportionate reliance on the transmission model of change leadership fuelling the ‘disengagement epidemic’. The ideas that I am advancing regarding what is required to build psychological safety throughout a change management community are not commonplace in the change management literature. Psychological safety functions as a sense-making primer which helps the change project attach to the established culture and provide lasting effects and protection from being undermined. NLP methods can function as an enabling technology to apply psychological safety to the established operating culture of the client organization.

Chapter 10: Un-packing the mindset mix

This chapter will define the concept of a mindset. In doing so I will unpack the mix of variables that generate our mindsets. Our mindset shifts throughout the day. In NLP terms, we would call our mindset a nominalization; the conversion of a verb into a noun. There is a tendency to reframe the process of mind that influences our choices of emotional states; cognitive states; and behavioural states, from a process of symbolic interpretation and social construction into a thing, a part of us that is somehow fixed and outside our control. In this chapter I will define mindset as a process, as a verb, that is very much under our control and open to our influence if we can access a meta-reflective state.

Chapter 11: Meta-programmes

This chapter will address the ways in which the mindsets of change leaders can be shaped and changed through adjustments to the meta-programmes they habitually used. The meta-programme we choose influences the nature of the emotional, cognitive, or behavioural state we adopt as a social strategy and these internal strategic decisions have a causal influence on our social results as change leaders. I will employ the NLP model of meta-programme auditing which will help change leaders to recognize un-resourceful meta-programmes and transform these into resourceful states that enable successful change leadership outcomes. I will also examine a technique known as ‘perceptual positioning’ as a method of calibrating and changing our meta-programmes through a role modelling exercise.

Chapter 12: Framing of experience

This chapter will explore NLP methods for generating ontological flexibility which basically means the ability to hold multiple models of the world simultaneously, to respect and pace the models held by others, and to facilitate a reframing process through which a shared model can be built by the change teams through dialogue that presents a basis for collaboration and action.

Chapter 13: Caretaking and guiding

In this chapter I will address the foundations of a change leader’s role which involves caretaking and guiding change participants’ experience of the change work that is to unfold. Guiding involves directing change subjects along a journey of generative change from one state to another, whilst caretaking involves providing a safe and supportive environment for this process to emerge successfully. This means that change leaders must insist that the venues they plan to use as coaching containers are environmentally sound, psychologically safe and have a physical set-up that enables generative dialogue. Change leaders should not perceive these details as pedestrian, or factors that should be addressed by others. Change leaders must be able to meta-reflect on their own states and the energy they are giving off and the generative field around them that they are co-creating with the participants.

Chapter 14: A model of rapport building

This chapter will consider the subject of rapport which is central to NLP practice as well as being the guiding principle for change leadership efforts. Rapport is, arguably, the magical ingredient that is at the base of all successful relationships and, thus, is seen by NLP trainers and practitioners as a vitally important skill. The early developers and pioneers behind the birth of the NLP movement spent considerable time ‘modelling’ excellent examples of rapport strategies. They modelled the rapport-building skills of world class therapists who achieved consistent success at guiding clients through complex personal and family change. We must reflect on the social strategies we are employing and use the feedback constructively to adopt a different approach to build rapport. This type of thinking is known in organizational studies as reflective practice and NLP practitioners are, by definition, reflective practitioners. In this chapter I will survey NLP techniques and ideas which can enable rapport-building processes to emerge as significant change leadership skill sets.

Chapter 15: Communication models

This chapter will build a model of NLP communication strategies that can enable effective stakeholder engagement during periods of change. A principle of NLP is the idea that ‘the meaning given off is the meaning received’ which means that we may think we know what we mean when we communicate; however, we don’t know what our audience think we meant and how they construct their maps based on our utterances. Thus, we need a model of communication that operates with these facts. NLP provides such a comprehensive model.

Chapter 16: NLP and OD: two not-so-distant relatives. It’s time for collaboration

This chapter will compare the genesis of both the NLP and organizational development movement (OD). I will present a picture of the seminal moments that acted as developmental catalysts for the two areas of change work and demonstrate their remarkable similarities. I close by arguing that there is a strategic need for NLP to find a new sponsor to inject vitality and purpose into the field, inclusive of a significant push towards high quality research into its effects as well as aiming towards continued development of its conceptual and practical architectures. The chapter closes with a principle that is common to both NLP and to OD, which is that to be successful as a conscious leader one must model the change one wishes to see in the world.