Some of the most pertinent questions that worry anyone who wants to train himself in NLP are the question of accreditation, quality and cost. Some of the questions that are most frequently asked from me are
1. Which certifying body is actual owner of NLP?
2. Who are ANLP, NFNLP, ABNLP, ANLPI, BBNLP, INLPCA, INLPF, ANLP CIC, ANLP (INDIA),PGNLP, INLPTA, AIP, society of NLP etc., and how do they affect my learning?
3. How do I choose the right training company?
I too was faced with these questions when I set out to do my NLP certification. I interacted with several professionals within India and abroad to find answers, and I present what I understood of these certifying bodies and accreditations. I have borrowed some standards from websites of some of these bodies wherever available and reader is advised to check if and when they are updated.
1. Who owns NLP?
Answer is nobody...NLP training is more of a public domain entity now, I draw parallel with Linux. As Linux was originally created by Linus Torvalds, NLP was created by Dr Richard Bandler and Dr John Grinder and in both the cases many other developers contributed to make the product what it is today. Many greats like Tad James, Robert Dilts, Michael Hall, Wyatt Woodsmall amongst others have contributed to the growth of NLP. Many other theories (prominent amongst them is Spiral Dynamics) have been added to make NLP more powerful. In fact as you continue to educate yourself in NLP, you will find that NLP draws a lot more from different sources. Many we trained in NLP highlight the fact that they have studied or have been practicing something very similar. The argument it appears is mostly around use of words NLP, which to my understanding remains in public domain. I found following site a very interesting read on the said matter
http://users.telenet.be/merlevede/nlpfaq35.htm
4. Who are ANLP, NFNLP, ABNLP, ANLPI, BBNLP, INLPCA, INLPF, ANLP CIC, ANLP (INDIA),PGNLP, INLPTA, AIP, society of NLP etc., and how do they affect my learning?
Now, this is even more interesting question. As discussed in my previous reply, NLP remains in public domain and mostly you will find that there are no written down standards for teaching NLP, yet, many people have come together to create structure that is common and creates a possibility of common understanding. They created associations, boards, and accreditation bodies to profess how they believe NLP should be taught. There are certainly some differences of opinion that do exist between these organizations. Now it is not really mandatory to join any of these organizations as many trainers do not associate themselves with any of these organizations. More important in terms of learning NLP is how well you learn what you learn, how it has been taught, who the trainer is, does the trainer or training company takes ownership of your learning and what levels these organizations can take you to. An organization based out of native country is mostly preferred by people as it offers support structure locally and you will find their presence in most parts of the country. Some of these organizations will offer you learning backup systems in the form of program repeats, discussion forums, meeting of graduate bodies etc. that you might like to consider before deciding who to go with for a training program.
Most if not all of the so called accreditation bodies are privately own companies who will steer all enquiries to their own training companies. There is at the moment no government regulation in regards to NLP. It would seem that the future of NLP may well be with the various academic bodies such as universities, colleges etc. At the moment we are involved in many Indian 'B' colleges who now run NLP courses with credits awarded towards their MBA etc.
Some of our associates are also involved in other universities in Europe at BA and PhD level utilizing NLP studies as a major part of the curriculum.
3. How do I choose the right training company?
This by all means is the most important question for you. I am sure you decided to learn NLP because you realize the power it holds for you and you love your money. Hence, it is critical that you evaluate all training options before choosing one (though, sometimes, some of you might feel convinced after speaking to a particular training company or person that you should get trained with them and that too is right, do what serves your unconscious, after all this is what we teach ).
I will share with you what I did, and following are the points I looked at before I got certified myself.
a) Content. I looked at the program curriculum of each company, what they will teach me, I compared them with others and also compared the curriculum of companies abroad, even if they were not there on my training radar and I knew they were far more expensive compared to Indian training company. Most training companies will not mind sharing with you the TOC of their manual or day wise training agenda, ask and compare.
b) Duration. The most popular version in west is around 15 days, though there are multitudes of companies that now offer speed program lasting not more than 5 days. Most of these companies will use training aids that help them reduce training time. If someone has compressed the program time, find out how are they compensating for the same, after all, you don't want to buy a quarter of product while you are paying for full. NLP presupposition "Map is not the territory".
c) Trainer. After all it will be experience and competency of the trainer that will help you learn, so, know about the trainer, speak to him/ her yourself, understand how what he or she is going to teach will help you meet your objective of NLP learning. Know that you could understand the language of trainer and media are all important, so find-out beforehand. Some companies will be willing to share with you sample audios, do get them.
d) Online V/s Live programs: With time online programs are becoming quite popular. They help you choose your own method and time for learning. They also are cheaper than conventional live training programs, so, it certainly becomes a major factor. My experience with online learning has been quite different; I realized that NLP is more about experiencing and doing it yourself. You may understand the concept by watching a video, but, I am sure you would agree with me that seeing live is a very different experience, and doing yourself is much more powerful. As one of my friends once said and I quote "you can't make doctors through correspondence course".
e) Money. Now that's very important, you do love your money. The question is shall I go for the cheapest program available or do I go for the most expensive. Answer from my perspective is no for both of them. Money cannot be the deciding factor, for example, if you train yourself with a substandard company at half the price, your learning remains incomplete and you still can't get all the benefit, hence, money is wasted. And as far most expensive bit is concerned, why should you pay more for something while cheaper and better alternate is available. Please use other criteria to decide on training. Money to my mind cannot be the solution. In case you are looking for adding certification value to CV, I know, many do that, the person hiring you would know immediately and it will be a discredit than anything else.
f) City/ location. Some of you might wonder, why this is important, yet, I know many who lay lot of emphasize on where the program is being conducted. Primarily for two reasons, one, it adds to the cost of travel and stay in a different city (in some cases travel time if you travel daily to training location) and other is staying away from business location. I remember, I once registered myself for a program in Australia, because, I reckoned that the value NLP will add to my persona is far more than the money and time I will invest gaining this knowledge. For those of you who have gained some knowledge of NLP, location is mostly not the consideration; others may still find it difficult to accept. We in any case delay various important things for various reasons in our life; it is for you to decide if NLP be one of them.
These are few points that came to my mind this morning and though I have strong feeling that this list is not quite comprehensive, I am going ahead with publishing the same. In case you have queries, feel free to reach me.
