Pegasus NLP Training

NLP for people who like to think for themselves...

Our 'Small Learning Teams' Policy

Our NLP Practitioner training courses are popular. Nevertheless we refuse to cram hoards of people into our courses - even though this would be more profitable - because to do so would reduce the quality of your learning experience - and the quality of fun that you and we will have.

The downside of this is that our courses, especially our Practitioner Part 2 training programme, do tend to fill up pretty quickly making it wise to book ahead. The upside is that you can enjoy a friendly and very informal atmosphere, learn better, have more fun, and have lots of time for discussions and for hands-on coaching and individual attention from the course facilitator.

NLP is not about sitting and absorbing

We believe that learning Neuro-Linguistic Programming should be quite different from learning an academic subject. This is because NLP is about skill rather than accumulating information. It is behavioural rather then intellectual.

To optimally develop this skill we believe you need to:

	Do it. You need to get 'hands on' with what you are learning through practical exercises, activities, reviews, and games. This ensures a deeper neurological involvement and a more enduring learning
	Discuss, question, and challenge what you have experienced. Simply because some 'authority figure' says something is true doesn't make it so - intelligent learning requires that everything is tested and thoroughly challenged!
	Explore how you can apply what you have learned in your personal and professional life - after all that's way you are attending. We give a lot of attention to the practical applications of everything in the course.
	Have lots of interaction with your fellow learners. Because we agree with Ken Blanchard's comment that none of us is as smart as all of us we work as a learning team in which we draw upon the skills and experiences of everyone taking part in the training.
	Get lots of feedback from, and have lots of interaction with, the training facilitators.

At Pegasus NLP we believe that you cannot adequately do these as part of a crowd of 50-500 people we keep our learning teams to around 20 people!

Small Learning Teams ensure time for discussion & questions

Think about it. Big-group trainings have to discourage questioning and challenging if only because there is simply not enough time for everyone to have their say. For example, compare the effect of everyone in the group asking just one question per training day that can involve a 5 minute interaction with the facilitator:

Group of 100 participants: total time required = 500 minutes or over 8 hours, which is longer than the training day!

Group of around 20 people: total time required = about 1.5 hours which can be easily incorporated into a training day.

Small learning teams ensure you are not 'part of the crowd'

Many organisations use training assistants to 'marshal the crowd' and to prevent participants from bothering the main trainer - and to give them the impression that they are receiving personal attention! And there is no doubt that such assistants are certainly necessary with groups over say 25-30 people since there are then too many people for each to receive individual attention from - or even to have a conversation with - the facilitator!

Here at Pegasus we do have training assistants on our Practitioner Part 2 courses. And we have them as an additional resource for the participants rather than as a means of packing lots of people onto our courses. 

The group size is still around 18-21 people, you do have continuous access to the trainer, and you often have the additional resource of a couple of our NLP Trainer Trainees to help you clarify things or extend your understanding or how to apply the material.  

Small Learning Teams mean less 'group think'

Group dynamics can be made to work in a number of ways not all of which are in the interests of participants.

Large groups discourage most people from asking questions, challenging, moving about, choosing whether to sit or stand or lie down on the floor, make jokes, relate personal experiences of applying the material, etc.

One unhealthy result of this can be Group-Think where the group becomes more passive, the trainer's views become 'The Truth', and dissension is not voiced aloud!

The Pegasus Small Learning Teams' policy means there is space for discussion.

But we don't settle for that. We actively encourage active discussion and questioning and challenging. This Socratic approach to learning makes for great explorations and for a much more thorough, stimulating and enjoyable learning experience that the learn-from-the-wise-one approach.

Small Learning Teams mean a friendlier and less inhibiting learning environment

We believe that the learning environment is very important. That is one reason why we hold our courses in the countryside - so you can switch off from everyday things and focus on having fun learning NLP.

It is also why in our courses we place emphasis on respecting one other's intelligence, individuality and personal integrity.

And it is also one of the reasons for our small learning teams policy. The people you spend time with on a course are an important part of the learning environment. And we find small learning teams are friendlier, less inhibiting, engender a higher degree of inter-personal respect. 

Small Learning Teams make for an enduring learning experience

One of the things people report after our trainings is that they continue to apply and develop what they have learned.

While this is the result of a whole range of elements in addition to our 'Small Learning Teams' policy the latter plays a very important part in this transfer of the learnings into everyday life.

For example, let's say you are a teacher and we are exploring Eye Accessing Cues. As we progress through the topic you may wish to ask whether some aspect of the topic would work with a particularly young person in your class. At Pegasus NLP we would not just answer your question but we would also use your question to open up a discussion of the practical applications of Eye Accessing Cues in a range of working situations - that way you benefit from your question and so does everyone else!

Small Learning Teams create better group dynamics

At a Pegasus NLP course you are part of a learning-team. Within a few hours of beginning our NLP Core Skills training you will know everyone else on the course, you will have chatted with them, been for a walk around the estate with them, and have practised some in-depth NLP methods with a few of them.

Within a couple of days you will have shared meals (and, perhaps, an evening visit to the local pub), had laughs, experienced indoor and outdoor activities, and used NLP to develop rapport with and respect for everyone.

The benefits of this 'learning team' approach are quite remarkable and have to be experienced to be fully appreciated.