Sue Knight - NLP at Work

This book may help you to understand life more clearly

Paul Smith, fashion designer

The definitive volume on the topic an excellent introduction a clear, thoughtful structure. The style of writing is realistic and practical and it is easy to become immersed in the book

Personnel Today

A jargonfree approach, featuring exercises, examples and action tips to show how to use NLP techniques, to accelerate learning and enhance creativity, communication and influence

People Management

Should be on the bookshelf of any NLP student

Training Management

NLP at Work outlines NLP in a business setting. Understanding how your behaviour influences the responses of those you deal with can be the key to modifying attitudes and establishing rapport

The Guardian

The clearest book on NLP that I have come across. It is easy to read, relevant and insightful

Management Training

Recommended heartily for its good visual presentation, jargonreduced descriptions and lots of fine examples of NLP at work in the workplace. Its a great place to start

NLP World

Sue Knight was the first to use NLP to improve the quality of the business world and is a leading international consultant and speaker. She provides public courses for NLP certification, in-company leadership development and training, offers one-to-one performance coaching, and is a sought-after conference speaker. She works across the world, especially in Europe and India.

To my beautiful grandchildren. Wishing you a world to be proud of.

I could never have imagined the journey that this book would take me on when I was first invited to write it 25 years ago. And so much has happened in that time. Who would have thought that in my seventies, when most people of my age have retired, I would be embarking on a fourth edition and exploring how I could capture all that is important today? It seems as if the world has shifted on its axis there is so much turbulence, so much violence. As I write this, I am deeply saddened reading about the fires in the Amazon. We face a time of huge challenge if we are to be able leave a rich legacy for our children and grandchildren. I have sought to build communities of like-minded learners around the world; people who recognize that we are inextricably linked one with the other and that we are merely passengers on this remarkable planet that we are allowed to travel on for a moment in time. Change is inevitable. It is tempting to think that all should stay the same, and yet we live in a world of constant change. The question is can we embrace those changes and respond in a way that ensures we remain whole and respectful of all that we have and all that we wish to preserve for future generations?

The book scouts out the territory for me in advance. It goes out to countries to which I have never been, and to ones I have been to or will shortly go to countries such as India, France, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain, Turkey, Madagascar, New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Greece, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and, now imminently, Oman, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. The books success around the world has confirmed for me that NLP can bring people together and facilitate cross-cultural learning. It is indeed about the difference that makes the difference and how we can learn from that difference rather than it being a source of fear, mistrust and hatred.

And my life is so very, very different. I live alone now, in France in a remarkable rural community where people support one another in every possible way (not only with the wonderful food that is shared between us all). My sons are adults, one living in the UK (having now left the Royal Marines where he was decorated and honoured for his service) with his wife and my amazing grandchildren, and the other in New Zealand where he is completing his studies on genetics and wildlife conservation and also learning to fly! I cycle still and refuse to acknowledge that age has any limitations. I recently cycled through Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand with my younger son, and I will soon be cycling through Tamil Nadu in Southern India. And I have resurrected my love of cooking, and it has become a passion and a meditation. I believe that movement is key, so Feldenkrais (based on the work by Moshe Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement) and yoga, especially when I am in India, are vital for my health. I mention Feldenkrais in parts of this book.

I feel that my learning with NLP helps me through all the challenges in life. And through my training sessions many people know me and what goes on in my life. Consequently, I have put an even more personal slant on this edition. I use my life examples as a source of learning on my programmes, so I am mirroring that in the examples I have chosen to use in this edition.

And there is a new chapter Metamessages. This appeared in an earlier edition and when I took it out readers told me it was one of the most useful so here it is again in the current edition. As is so often the case, it is one of those areas that I draw on so frequently in my work that I was taking it for granted. I have revised and updated all the chapters, though some more than others. For example, Provocative Coaching (based on Provocative Therapy with Frank Farrelly) is a huge part of the way that I work now. I think that since Frank died in 2013 he has invaded me! I certainly aim to live out his legacy, and I have added a lot about his ideas in , Coaching with humour (Provocative Coaching). And maybe, just maybe, I will write a book exclusively on that one day soon.

Most of my work consists of the open training programmes plus quite a lot of online one-on-one coaching which I can conduct from any part of the world. I have moved into some significant charitable work with people in the townships in South Africa, with a homeless charity in the UK (one that seeks not just to put a roof over peoples heads but to coach them back to a self-supporting life), and with women who are finding their voice in the world (so many of the ones I interact with are in India). I will support them till I die. In Mumbai I take my delegates to visit the slums in Dharavi and for everyone that is an eye opener, not usually in the way they expect. I have many delegates who work with children and teachers and parents. This is the future (assuming we have the time on this earth for this to evolve). This book is my background material, and the result is that most of my delegates come to me understanding my take on NLP and the way that I teach it. I recognize, too, that many NLP trainers use it as their course material and recommend it to their clients. I am so grateful for that.

It is like taking a step back in time to write a new edition, and I am confronted with what is happening in the world and our move towards technology in the form of artificial intelligence, the use of social media to influence huge swathes of the population, the rise of extremism in politics, and the seemingly prevalent trait for many politicians to view the world myopically. It seems that people like Greta Thunberg (the young Swede campaigning for the environment) are beginning to take things into their own hands. And I am so glad for that. If nothing else, the troubles in the world are waking us all up to the responsibility we have to act. And that is the essence of NLP to act and to learn.