All our courses are based on everything we know about experiential learning, i.e., learning through doing. So why is this the most effective way we learn - other than of course simply being how we were designed to learn in the first place?

Judy: I’ve been really struck by the whole practice part of NLP – you know, the fact that after studying NLP people become Practitioners, and Master Practitioners who practise.

I remember something David Gordon said about this kind of learning, that it’s the experience that produces the change, that change is experienced, not learned. That is what is so different about NLP courses from some other learning – that they are experiential. I think people sometimes hesitate to come on courses because they think they’re going to be told what to do, but actually in the best NLP courses you do your own learning and you discover through doing. Nobody can tell you what you should experience, you learn from reality. This kind of learning actually connects to change.

And, you know, that’s why I’m always hesitant about the whole business of loads of tapes and book learning that participants on some shortened NLP courses have to do before they get to practise. It’s an interesting thing to do, but it isn’t a substitute in the tiniest bit for the experiential part. So if this learning from book and DVD is used as an excuse to shorten the practical experience then I think people lose out.

John: Yes, I agree. And it’s the way we design the course that we gently ease people into having these experiences – and they’re usually playful, aren’t they? And then the realisations come and whack people on the back of the head half way through - when what they think they are doing is just having some fun!

Judy: Yes, we’ve had some dramatic changes, haven’t we?! Sea change ... and it’s crucial to the learning we do, and the reason why people are so delightfully surprised when they come on our training and why they go away transformed.

Compare that to some change in organisations – people create change according to theories on pieces of paper, and then look at them all, and sort of shuffle them around and enjoy doing it and cascading it down an organisation. But it’s the whole experience of change and how it gets across to people – it’s the whole practical bit of change that tends to be missing. I guess that’s why you so often get reorganisations where the culture (real life) doesn’t change one bit.

John: Well, nothing really changes until you do something as well. Knowledge is nowhere enough, and as we say it’s about getting that knowledge in the muscle. And it’s about being OK to be awkward and finding your feet as you try things out. – being in a space where you can do that, and that’s OK.

Judy: We’re coming back to knowledge aren’t we? – the big difference between knowledge and knowing – and we’re about knowing.

I love the way over the months, people come back each module with excitement at the things they have tried out. They’ve done things and seen the difference that it’s made, and then have come back with new knowing about that.

John: And what’s so funny is they come back and they say, "bloody hell! that was so easy!" They come back with astonishment still on their face about how easy changing a whole relationship has been. – just by doing something really simple like really listening or taking the time to build rapport or finding out what the person actually really wants.

Judy: Yes, that’s true, and that wouldn’t happen perhaps if we were just talking about listening, but because they have had the experience of listening, that is a real ah-ha, and then they go away and do that very thing, and THEN it works. But they wouldn’t have known from reading a book what that was about.

John: No… you might have got curious about it from reading a book and you might have got curious from seeing someone else do it, but it’s not until you do it yourself that you realise how you feel as you do it – what’s running through your mind as you try new things out, and then you integrate that with what you know already. It’s not until then that you start to really know what the difference is.

Judy: When you were at school, didn’t you expect learning to be hard work? I did. If only I’d known then that the more enjoyable and active it is, the more you really get it deep down…

John: The learning really is in the experience isn't it...

For a great introduction to Experiential Learning using NLP see: http://www.ablworld.com/Courses/CoreSkills.htm

PS. Don't forget Judy's free e-course on 'Performance Anxiety'. Hundreds of people have already downloaded it and you can find that here: http://www.ablworld.com/ecourses.htm.

PPS. Don't forget to tell people about our free 'Guide to Choosing an NLP Course'. A free and comprehensive guide to making sense of all the options. You can find that in the usual place here: http://www.ablworld.com/CourseGuide.htm.

PPPS. Take a look at our Book section. Perhaps you might find something of interest and if you need any advice on what to buy don't hesitate to ask. http://www.ablworld.com/Books.htm

And for more conversations click here.