Who needs pesky standards anyway?

I’ve been following blog on social media about an NLP trainer who is said to have made an extraordinary series of claims about himself and achievements, that could only be described as totally delusional. I was surprised at the lack of actual comments/questions about this person who is recommended by some very well known personal change celebrities. Whether somebody is a stunt double for a major Holywood actor or trained the SAS is of no interest to me at all, but it does raise some interesting questions about standards in the NLP/personal development field. Often it seems to me that people don’t check and or don’t care about what is actually factually true and/or any consequences from such behaviour.

You’re just making trouble and clearly have an axe to grind!

I pulled away from any association with the field of NLP over a decade ago as I become increasingly concerned by some of the behaviours of those who were considered the hierachy of the field. Many will know that I departed from certifying people in NLP when I started to ask a number of basic questions about how the business was being conducted and what I saw as a lack of duty of care. All such questions were met with the following usual responses – “You’re bashing NLP” (I frequently point out that “NLP is not a thing”) and “You’re just making trouble and clearly have an axe to grind”

I’ve always championed the value of the NLP tools and dome a substantial amount of pro bono work using NLP, had many articles published on NLP, contributed to the Research and Recognition project and certified people in NLP over a number of years. What is spectacularly missed in such daft responses is that ignoring any kind of basic standards and duty of care makes the whole field loof very unprofessional and seriously daft/cult like. Its a classic ‘Emperor’s new clothes” scenario where people don’t want to draw attention to such matters and then become complicit in encouraging such poor behaviour.

Remember the “NLP filters to prevent covid” nonsense?

In the early days of covid when thousands of people were dying, there were many examples of quite ill advised behaviour from trainers/leaders in the NLP and other fields. Many such characters started to proclaim their imagined NLP filters would protect people against covid 19. Even I didn’t expect this whole new level of idiot to emerge. This stupidity stretched all the way to the top of many fields. I’d be far more impressed if such people proclaimed “We really don’t give a shit about standards” as at least that would be honest. Of course its classic cult behaviour to refrain from questioning “the elusive obvious” in such scenarios. Anyone calling out such behaviour was labelled as causing trouble of course.

It all comes crashing down at some point and until then go sharpen your axe…

I come from a media family and my own experience is that people can ignore such stories and evidence for a period of time, but then it all comes crashing down. Many rumours in the media about Saville circulated for years and then there was a tipping point and a lot of people were found to have egg on faces. I predict the same outcome for many of the personal change organisations and certification bodies who often don’t ahere to pesky standards. In the meantime I would encourage axe grinding for all of those who value duty of care above personal financial gain and imagined status seeking. Of course when the shit hits the fan all those who remained silent will voice their distain in a attempt to change history and not be shown to have been a major part of creating and maintaining the problem.