Richa Shukla, Life Coach, Behavioral Facilitator
30th August 2014. Mark the day. It was a day that celebrated the achievement, hard work and sacrifice of nine colleagues who together embarked on the journey of knowledge acquisition.
Months of search and research for the right course and perfect trainer, this group, let’s call it ‘the gang’, finalized on Neuro Linguistic Programing Practitioner Level Certification with Anil Dagia as trainer to be their target for personal development. The research expert was then made the negotiator who would convince the Trainer to give The Gang ‘pocket friendly’ quotes for the training. Once an agreement was reached, the Leader gave a go ahead by finalizing the dates. And so the journey began…
Eight sessions, planned over a month, taking up most of weekends of the participants were planned. Anyone who is working in the IT industry would appreciate the importance of weekends. Two days of absolutely no routine, getting up late, brunch with family, playtime with kids and perhaps a dinner date with spouse and then catching up on all the pending house-work and sleep. Giving up on either of the day would simply mean rushing through the list in just one day and that would be just as hectic as any other weekday. The Gang, in pursuit of knowledge, gave up T-H-R-E-E Saturdays!
Now that I have your attention, let me tell you a little about The Gang. Initially it was ten members-
- Astonishing Alex – The Leader, the calm one
- Rich Richa- The researcher and organizer
- Nice Neha- The sweet one
- Scintillating Shweta- The expressive one
- Ghas-phoos k doctor Parimal- The funny one
- All-rounder Alok- The reader
- Smart Sumati- The logical one
- ‘Shirish’ Sappieana- The shy one
- Sachin- The quiet one
- Amazing Amita- The bubbly one
Later due to some reasons one of the members dropped out but the spirit of learning prevailed. Each participant not only put in the best they could but also did extra. Minds of the family members at home became the playground and study subjects for the gang. Needless to say, the family did pick up on it and sent a LOUD message of non-agreement. But then again, The Gang was being equipped with the tools of ‘manipulation’, so I wonder how much the resistance mattered. Leading the Gang on the path of complete reformation was Anil. The already ignited minds of the Gang was now glowing and in some cases burning bright under his ‘manipulative’ guidance. After the first few sessions of information overload, The Gang started showing its true potential and colors during the practice sessions. One of the dark horses to emerge was Ghas-phoos k Doctor- Parimal. While the rest of them were still struggling with the techniques, Parimal seemed to laugh through it and manage to get his results too. Expressive face of Scintillating Shweta betrayed her thrice while practicing Anchor Collapsing Techniques. And Alex’s smirk became a famous topic of discussion every now and then.
As time went by, the members of The Gang kept discovering new things about each other and others around them. Each of the members discovered a way to not only pave their way into the maps of world created by people but also alter them to get what they want.
Hypnosis, trance, timeline walk, well-formed outcomes, sub modalities, meta models, Milton’s language pattern, anchors, state elicitation, strategy, swish pattern and many such phrases, that earlier were just jibber-jabber, could now be used in a meaningful sentence by any of the members of the Gang. Here everyone came to hear and then using the information to their advantage. The training trainers were hungry for knowledge and they were here to get it. The eight action and knowledge packed sessions made sure of that.
The final day’s session finished with an assessment of the gathered knowledge- two case studies that allowed each one of the member to come up with their version of solution to the problem. The Gang had been equipped with this new power and the only question that arose was ‘Are they going to start using sooner or later?’ I hope it is sooner, after all, they all worked hard to acquire this knowledge. Isn’t it? It is now time to be careful though.
“With great powers come great responsibilities.” As Anil rightly quoted the dialogue from ‘The Spiderman’.