Let me begin this blog by asking a question. What is your definition of a Great Trainer? All of us might have a zillion points to contribute on this. Let me list out a few. I may miss out some because there are too many models of the worlds to cater to.

• Is personable, approachable and is able to build rapport with the group
• Knows the content in-depth and has command over the topic
• Good articulation skills to make sense to all participants
• Is very good in putting the point across to make sure ‘key learning’ is learnt
• Makes the training experiential because some of us learn through ‘doing’
• Is able to generate the curiosity and is able to maintain it throughout
• Very good with visuals (PPT and Videos)
• Has good voice modulation, voice-throw and accent
• Good at handling queries to give satisfactory answers
• Makes sure that participants are having fun while learning. Sometimes trainers need to be ‘Entertrainers’ and sometimes they provide ‘Infotainment’
• Is totally committed towards learning and capabilities enhancement

These are just a few points I’ve listed and I’m sure there are many more. But NLP can easily contribute and enhance your training and facilitation skills. I am listing a few points and interventions below to help you understand how:

Building Rapport with the Group using Charisma Pattern from NLP:

This is a very important factor, isn’t it? Afterall, why should people listen to you? First of all, you should be a credible trainer in their mind. So, your credibility building speech holds great importance. But even before you get to introducing yourself and build your credibility, there is something called as ‘Charisma Pattern’ which is used while greeting the participants. You enter the training room and greet the participants. What do you say to them? Good morning? Good Afternoon? Hello Everyone? Yes, that’s how most of the trainers go about it. But the idea should be to get everyone’s attention, to get everyone engaged. How do we do that? Here is where I would like to bring in the concept of ‘learning-styles’.

All of us use one of our senses more while learning. Ever wonder why some students always sit in the first row? Why some students are always back-benchers? And of course, you have mid-rows guys as well. This, we are assuming, there is free seating available and students are sitting according to their preferences. Here is what it is. Front row guys are mostly Visual learners, which means they learn by ‘seeing’. The mid-row guys are mostly auditory learners and they learn by ‘listening’. They are not looking at the trainer or the power-point presentation as much as the Visuals but they are all ears to what the trainer is saying. And obviously we have the naughty ones at the back of the class who are never sitting still. Always fidgeting with something. They are the ones who learn through ‘doing’. They are called the Kinesthetics. Good trainers will cater to all learning styles to make sure everyone is getting their learning dough. But bad trainers are not able to do justice to all learning styles. For example, they might have a power-point presentation to engage the Visuals. They might have a good modulation in their voice and some audio-visuals to deal with the Auditories. But sometimes they do not engage the Kinesthetics very well. You need to have a lot of activities for these guys so that they learn being in their comfort zone. So, whichever learning intervention you plan as a trainer, make sure you have all the learning styles involved and engaged. And you can start that by greeting the participants using ‘Charisma Pattern’, a sample of which is given below:

“Good morning. How is everyone ‘feeling’ today? I hope you all are ‘comfortable’.” (First statement engaging the ‘Kinesthetics’)

“Well today, you are going to ‘listen’ to some interesting new stuff related to your brain and some of this tuff will definitely ‘ring a bell’”. (Second one engaging the Auditories)

Which means, we are indeed going to ‘see’ how the brain works. It will be truly ‘insightful’, I can assure you that”. (Third statement engaging the Visuals)

“If I am not able to ‘make sense’, please ask questions”. (This is for Reflective learners who like to process internally and mine out learning for themselves)

You will realize that we have catered to the Kinesthetics first because they are the ones usually left out or ignored. Then come the Auditories and the Visuals in that order. Finally, we have the Reflective learners which is optional. In a nutshell, we have engaged all the learning styles in the greeting part itself. Hence you have everyone’s attention.

We have other ways building Group Rapport like giving real life examples from the participant’s profession or life. Trainer needs to be relatable. Sometimes bringing ideas to life using stories also helps.

Using the NLP 4-MAT system for a logical flow:

A trainer might have the command over the topic. However, s/he has to get the trainees to understand the topic and get them to a level where they can implement the learnings without any doubts. So, how do you put your point across? I have a good illustration for you. Let us say, I ask you to do something new. Something which you haven’t expected you will need to do. Like, attend a training for instance. What is the first question you will ask? Why! So, I explain to you the need to attend the training and how it will help you. Your next question would be What would be a covered in the training, followed up with How will it help you. And of course, you may have a naughty question to ask, What if you don’t attend the training. So, when you are facilitating a topic, the logical flow is Why, What, How, What if. Explain to them why they need to know it. That will get their interest going. Then lay down the agenda with respect to what they will learn. Teach them the what. Maybe demonstrate to them to explain how they can implement the learnings. What if part usually talks of what care they need to take during implementation. It is a very natural logical flow which results in effective facilitation.

NLP has a very good technique of getting the participant’s interest going. According to McClelland, the 3 prime motivations of human beings are

• Power
• Achievement
• Affiliation

When you are talking about ‘Why’, you can always talk about the consequences (positive or negative) of learning the concept (or not learning the concept). How ‘not learning the topic’ may result in losing the control over life or work or any situation (Power). How not learning the topic may just result in not achieving your most compelling goals (Achievement). And how you may not be a part of the elite set of people who already know the concept and are making full use of it to make their lives better (Affiliation). These are negative consequences. Of course, you need to highlight the positive consequences of knowing the topic inside out. That’s how people are motivated ‘Towards’ learning the topic and are ‘Away-from’ procrastinating or not paying attention by knowing the negative consequences.

Now, the ‘What’ can be broken down further for a logical explanation of the topic. How do you explain a topic? Let us take an example of why sometimes we tend to react and not respond every time which is expected. This is how we explain it. Explain the Concept first. Which answers the question what are we talking about specifically along with the evidence we have. Then talk about the Principle on which the concept is based. What makes it work is what the Principle talks of. Then comes the Process which needs to be followed to arrive at the right outcome or conclusion. Finally, you also give a Demonstration to help participants understand what to do and how to do it. So, the What consists of

• Concept
• Principle
• Process
• Demonstration

Let us take an example:

Concept: You need a lot of energy or power to throw something in the outer space. What pulls it back to the earth is Gravity

Principle: The earth pulls objects towards itself and it takes certain ‘escape velocity’ to put anything in the outer space.

Process: Try throwing a ball in the sky and you will see it drops back. But the rocket has certain thrust because of which it can counter the earth’s gravitational pull and go in the outer space.

Demonstration: Throw a ball in the air to confirm.

This is how learning completes its cycle. This cycle is conceptualized by Richard Bandler and John Grinder as a part of NLP.

Using the Stage: The stand-up comedians use a lot of stage or Spatial Anchoring from NLP because of which we tend to laugh automatically when the comedian revisits the ‘joke-delivery’ part of the stage. That area of the stage is programmed in our brain for the comedian’s punch lines because s/he has been doing that all the time during the performance. Learning Spatial Anchoring in NLP will help you use the stage very well and to your advantage. If you understand Spatial Anchoring well, then during facilitation you can program the minds of the participants to get the right motivation (Towards or Away-from) based on which part of the stage you stand.

Being in the right ‘state’ before you start training:

Most of you must have seen Anthony Robbins performances on YouTube or any other streaming channel. Everyone notices how energetic he is during his motivational talks. He uses a lot of NLP by the way. But how does he manage to be in the right state all the time? He uses something called as ‘Circle of Excellence’ which is a very powerful intervention of NLP to get you in the right state of mind before any important event. You can have your own ‘Circle of Excellence’ which is nothing but a Circle you visualize in front of where you are standing. The moment you step into the Circle, you feel all the positive emotions which you would like to feel before any overwhelming event. How do we feel that? Well, this Circle needs to be programmed by repeatedly eliciting the positive states and stepping into the circle when the emotions are at their peak. The question you ask yourself while eliciting the state is, “Think of the last time you felt confident/energetic/articulate/resourceful etc”. You go to the time when you felt that way, see what you saw, hear what you heard and feel what you felt. When the emotion is at its peak, you step into this ‘Circle’. Continuously doing this for various resourceful states programs your brain to feel the same way when you step into the Circle of Excellence before any challenging event. The best part is, this ‘Circle’ is always with you. It is believed that Anthony Robbins has a similar process going before he steps on the stage. That is why he seems to be running on 440 Volts.

Using ‘Linguistics’ from NLP to your advantage:

The biggest stake-holder in any successful training is the language that is used by the facilitator. Correct language going to get the right point across. Effectiveness of communication is measured based on the response you get. Learning NLP will make you the Master of using Metaphors during the training in order to give the right learning. NLP also talks of language patterns which generate curiosity about a concept. These language patterns are called Milton Language Patterns. These are inducive language patterns which are also used during Hypnosis. Then you have deductive language patterns which are called Meta Language Patterns. A great trainer is able to use all these 3 types mentioned very well and to his advantage. As a facilitator, you should be able to induce curiosity, help the participants to logically deduce the solution and give learnings through examples which are not necessarily from the same context (which is called as Metaphor). Linguistically, the trainer should be very flexible.

Using the ‘Voice’:

Trainers who are trained in NLP are very good in modulating their voice. To give ‘Key Learnings’, the trainers often use ‘Analog Markers’ and ‘Embedded Commands’ in the vocal dimension of communication. A good use of these will result in suggestions/messages/learnings directly reaching the unconscious minds.

Over the years, after learning NLP and becoming an International Master Trainer of NLP, I can clearly see the difference in facilitation between Trainers who are using concepts of NLP while training and other generic trainers. You need not be training NLP topics to people. You may be conducting any other training, could be a technical training. Topic doesn’t matter, but the science of getting things across is the same. That science is NLP, the science of achieving excellence in any field. In this case it is facilitation. I will be writing more blogs on application of NLP in various other professional domains. Write to me if you have a specific request in this regard. Have a great day!