None of us is as smart as all of us
Since Pegasus NLP began in the late 1990’s the theme none of us is as smart as all of us has been introduced within the first 60 minutes of every NLP Core Skill’s course -- and the same theme has been continued the following courses.
A core attitude
The theme/attitude is a fundamental part of how we in Pegasus perceive and relate with people attending courses. Yet it’s not the thinking that prevails in most NLP courses and events because for most of it’s 30 year life NLP has been "expert led".
Which is a pity since in the early days the let’s develop and evolve these ideas approach produced most of what we today call NLP!
Real education
The expert-led approach contradicts a key theme in real education. The root word of education is the Latin "educare" which means to draw out or lead out. Real education respects the capabilities and skills and beliefs/values which learners bring to the learning session. And, importantly, it also respects and often incorporates their life experiences.
Here the role of the course leader becomes that of facilitator, or even agent provocateur, who encourages the learners to integrate the new material with their own model of the world to produce something far richer than that which results from expert-led learning.
The Risks & Benefits
In education the benefits of the "none of us is as smart as all of us" approach in education are numerous (try a Google search on "educare"). But the applications of applying this attitude in management, team development, organisational change, counselling or coaching are huge. And yet…
…in a society which adulates "strong leadership" it is a high-risk strategy. The majority of people prefer clear answers to their questions. They want clear instructions which they can follow – or reject.
They do not, at first, want to be made to think – hence Bertrand Russell's observation most people would rather die rather than think! Not providing predigested, ready-made thoughts or ideas or answers can provoke dissatisfaction and criticism. And, because it encourages people to be proactive, it can result in groups disagreeing with the facilitator - something which can, at times, require a degree of state-management on the part of the facilitator, not to mention a pretty sound sense of self-esteem!
How to use it
 | Ask rather than tell - use questions rather than statements to evoke an exploratory, ‘ let’s see what happens’ frame of mind |
| The three R's -- respect recognition and reassurance -- need to be in place. Without these most people will simply not take the risk of engaging in exploring with you. (Old school-anchors of being made to look silly can kick in.) |
| Eliminate the right-answer attitude. This is walking the talk of both the NLP Principles "the map is not the territory" and "respect the other person's model of the world". However the right-answer attitude is pretty deeply ingrained in most of us having been drummed into us is early days in school. |
| No surprises -- let people know what to expect. When people come to your coaching session, team or management meeting, workshop, etc tell them in advance that things are going to be different. |
| Be prepared to allow silence. People need time to digest what you have before the answer or come up with ideas and suggestions. So allow silence while they do this. |
| Be prepared to endure silence! Lots of presenters are afraid of silence so they rabbit on endlessly in case somebody in the audience/group might ask them an awkward question or even, heaven forbid, disagree with them… |
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