The Practice Group
All of Nigel’s other reports:
2004 NLP reports
2003 NLP reports
Nigel & Jenny Heath:-
Address: Jinglewood House Ltd, Lyndhurst Road, Landford. Wiltshire
SP5 2AS
Nigel’s report of the February 2010 meeting
Graham Shaw
“How to Engage Audiences”
Developing Unconscious Competence
I was determined to make a good start to 2010 by remembering everything we bring along to ‘dress’ the room and make it welcoming for all our members and guests, having forgotten the music, the special welcome poster and the flip chart pads at various meetings last year. At half past eight I realised that although I had remembered the special welcome poster I had forgotten to put it up! So I did in the break and then forgot to mention it to anyone. Could this be senility creeping in? Probably just incompetence or maybe we just bring too much stuff. For those of you who were there and missed the poster, and for those who for some inexplicable reason missed the meeting, here it is.
I know it’s not very big. If you want it bigger just click your mouse on the little picture.
What a great start to 2010. Graham has been to NLP-
Graham is one of those trainers who “Do it to us” before telling us what he has just done. He began by focusing on getting off to a good start, by getting off to a good start. His plan for the evening was to introduce us to the ‘4mat’ system originally devised by Bernice McCarthy, and apply this to talking to groups. The start and establishing ‘Rapport’ with the whole audience being a key ingredient of this.
Having very skilfully used the system to make sure we were all with him he then proceeded to go through the cycle of learning, which of course ends with ‘Unconscious Competence’. To give real substance to this he used the two flip charts and drew cartoon people to illustrate the four stages. Go here to watch him in action. Unfortunately the sound quality of the video I took is poor but I have some great pictures of Graham on this page. Having established the four known states he took a little time to explore a fifth state that comes after ‘Unconscious Competence’ sometimes called ‘Reflective Competence’. Graham had thoughfully provided us with WikiPedia’s version of all this in a three page handout.
Time now for our introduction to the ‘Format’ system. Guess what? More cartoons to
introduce us to the four main questions your audience are likely to have in their
minds at the start of a talk, and at other times through the talk. (They are over
here> cartoons)
As he described the questions and the purpose behind answering them,
upfront, the brighter members of the audience started to realise that he had been
doing this to us since his first words.
The rest of us just got lost watching him
draw cartoons and bringing little people to life in front of our very eyes. Or we
sat enthralled as he told us how he had started drawing the Mortar Board in a meeting
full of Teachers.
I’m reminded that one of the key ingredients in magic, particularly close up, table magic, is the ‘patter’ Magicians use, which serves to distract, amuse and engage the audience in looking where the magician wants them to look and nowhere else. Hypnotised by the fast drawing of Graham’s pen, he wove his magic around us. Hopefully we were learning at a deeply unconscious level some of the many elegant skills he uses when engaged with an audience.
Although this wasn’t part of what he was teaching us his ability to control his output
whilst monitoring our input meant he kept us all engaged and interested, even though
we hadn’t yet had a chance to play. This was coming and in typical Graham style he
had devised and produced a special, never been done before, just for NLP-
Never backward in coming
forward Geoffrey volunteered, with a not so quiet groan escaping from his wife Carol,
who was sat in the front row.
Geoffrey’s chosen topic was Sun Dials. Something he knows a lot about. With the special, hot off the press, never been exposed to the light of day, crib sheet, Graham started the exercise and Geoffrey joined in to complete each ‘statement’. It was a wonderful demonstration and I think we may have found a great double act in the 2 G’s. Thanks Geoffrey for joining in so enthusiastically. It made it very easy for us to play the ‘Format’ game as we split into pairs and worked hopefully with a new friend for the evening (hello Lisa). The plan was to keep on going between us so we began to build the pattern into the muscle on its journey to ‘Unconscious Competence’. My chosen subject was Bonsai Trees. By the third time round I had the making of a pretty decent talk, with plans for audience participation as well. Even my poor partner Lisa, who probably wasn’t that interested in little trees, seemed to be engaged in what I was up to. Or maybe it was the process not the content that got her attention.
So much learnt. Phew. Must be time for a break.
Are you all with me?
Self Portrait?
After the break, which I’m beginning to think we might do away with as it takes so
long to get everyone back in their seats, it was time to play some more but with
a different partner / new friend (hello Tricia). This time round we needed to deepen
the experience and with our experience of the pre-
It’s difficult to do full justice to all that Graham brought us. He spends time on preparation, including supplying us with a six page handout, WikiPedia’s take on the four stages of learning as well as his newly devised ‘prompt’ sheet / learning aid / preparation tool. He uses his NLP skills seamlessly, draws fabulous cartoons and is very amusing and engaging. I guess you really had to be there to get the most from the evening.
To find out more about Graham and his Keynote and corporate training visit Vision Learning. To find out more about cartooning and purchase his CD rom visit his Cartoon site.