An "Honest Abe's NLP Emporium" Book Review - Reproduced with permission.
Written and Produced by Andy Bradbury; author of "Develop Your NLP Skills", "NLP for Business Success", etc.

Foreign editions:

(Moscow), ISBN 5-94723-063-1
Desarrolle sus Habilidades con PNL
Editorial Gedisa, S.A. (Spain), ISBN 84-7432-856-X
Manazerské Dovednosti Jak Ovlivnovat Druhé
Computer Press (Bratislava & Brno), ISBN 80-7226-380-3
Programación Neuro-Lingüística Para el éxito en los negocios
Clio Editora (Brazil), ISBN 85-86234-20-6
PNL Para O Sucesso Nos Negócios
Panorama Editorial (Mexico), ISBN 968380930-8
Successful Presentation Skills
Kogan Page (India), ISBN 81-7554-127-X
Team Building
Shanghai Far east Publishers (China - Chinese-simplified edition), ISBN 7-80661-259-9

Despite the two different titles, NLP for Business Success and Develop Your NLP Skills are actually the first edition and second (enlarged) edition of the same book.  Both versions are specifically aimed at business people who want to gain some understanding of what NLP is all about before deciding whether to make a more definite commitment in time and/or money.

The main body of the book (2nd edition) consists of 23 chapters, liberally peppered with brief case studies and bullet points.
The first 14 chapters explain the main features of NLP, in the general business context - understanding the significance of mental 'maps', setting effective goals, developing greater flexibility, improving your communication skills, etc.  Each chapter ends with one or more Checkpoint Actions, exercises designed to demonstrate the subject discussed in that chapter.
In the last 9 chapters these ideas and techniques are discussed in more depth and in relation to specific business situations such as Appraisals, Negotiating, Sales, Motivation, and so on.  The book ends with a six page glossary and a fairly short bibliography.

Rather than trying to set aside my natural bias, for reviews of the two books I'll simply quote the relevant issues of Changes, the newsletter of the Anglo-American Book Co.:

[No. 27: May 1997]
"NLP For Business Success:  How To Master Neuro-Linguistic Programming
If you are a manager and want to acquire a good basic understanding of NLP in just a few hours, then this is the book for you.  Provides a good grounding in the subject and, as the title suggests, is oriented towards success in business.  Recommended."

[No. 40: Autumn 2000]
"Develop Your NLP Skills:  Second Edition
This is the Sunday Times guide to NLP in their Creating Success series.  Not having a first edition to compare this with makes it rather hard to draw comparisons, so we are not sure what has changed.  However, the intention of this book is to provide an introduction to the basic concepts of NLP techniques for those in the business community.  It succeeds extremely well and largely avoids the common pitfall of other writers in this field who all too frequently get caught up in the technology of NLP rather than its application.  Highly recommended as a basic introduction for business use."

The most obvious difference between the two editions is the basic page count, which has gone up from 109 (1st edition) to 139 pages (2nd edition).  Considering that the cover price remains the same, that's substantially 'more bang for your buck'!

The additional material includes a brand new opening chapter which introduces 15 of the key business-related presuppositions underlying NLP.  Throughout the book explanations have been 'fleshed out', for greater clarity, and more practical examples have been added.  In particular, I have included evidence from independent sources which clearly demonstrate how NLP techniques address, and resolve, some of the most fundamental issues in business today.

An "Honest Abe's NLP Emporium" Book Review - Reproduced with permission.
Written and Produced by Andy Bradbury; author of "Develop Your NLP Skills", "NLP for Business Success", etc.

In my opinion there is both good news and bad news as far as this book is concerned.  So let's get the bad news out of the way first and then look at the very good reasons for recommending the book.

The two authors are a professor of Adult Learning and Professional Development (Kegan) and research director of the Change Leadership Project (Lahey) at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.  Moreover the finished manuscript was presumably screened by a professional editor before it was published.  Yet despite all these pluses, the flow of the text is regularly disrupted by tortuously constructed sentences, made up words, bad grammar and simple spelling mistakes such as:

"But how exactly might we further creating and practicing this language in real work life (as opposed to merely illustrating it)?"
(page 196)

"Whatever salable product they have produced, ..."

Surely even a quick once over with a spell checker would be enough to root out such basic errors - so why didn't it happen, I wonder?

Now for the good news.

The heart of this book is the authors' imaginative solution to the problem of "secondary gains" which they have rebranded "competing commitments".
So often we have a primary objective (a "commitment") which seems absolutely rational and desirable - and attainable - yet we somehow manage to avoid ever achieving our goal.  So what's going on?
A psychologist might say that by failing to gain our primary objective we actually achieve some other, undeclared, purpose - a "secondary gain".  Kegan and Lahey call this our "competing commitment" and have devised a simple yet elegant process whereby we can identify the competing commitment in any situation.

The title of the book is based on the authors' further contention that we (Western culture) have developed a set of seven basic language forms that we use to perpetuate our "stuck", "competing commitment"-driven state.  And they offer an alternative to each form that will, in their view, allow us to move from "being controlled" to "being in control".

Whilst many of these ideas will be readily recognisable to NLPers, the book gives a fascinating view of the current (2001) state "conventional" business thinking - and the many opportunities for NLPers to speak to that situation.
For coaches the book presents some invaluable tools and in such detail that you can utilise them virtually straight off the page.

No surprise, then, that I give the book a rating of Highly Recommended:   *  *  *  *  *  *

An "Honest Abe's NLP Emporium" Book Review - Reproduced with permission.
Written and Produced by Andy Bradbury; author of "Develop Your NLP Skills", "NLP for Business Success", etc.

From the Foreword, by John Grinder, we learn that James Eicher was one of Bandler and Grinder's "whiz kids" (Grinder's expression and spelling) at the time when NLP was still in its initial phase of development.  Not surprisingly, then, the section entitled About The Author notes that "Many of the tools presented in Making The Message Clear are based on the exciting and innovative field of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP)."
Indeed, in his Preface Eicher goes one step further, asserting that "The model presented in Making The Message Clear is an enhancement over the original NLP theory and provides a complete, practical model of communication and change.

In practical terms this means that Eicher has written a book which focuses entirely on the subject of effective communication in the workplace.  In doing so he refines a couple of important NLP techniques so as to turn them from the equivalent of a carpenter's saw into a surgeon's scalpel.

The first such technique is most commonly referred to as Rep(resentational) Systems or Primary Thinking Styles.  Eicher presents a strong case for chunking the topic down into three distinct areas:

• PSM (Preferred Sensory Modality) - that is the preferred sensory channel(s) for taking in and processing information - Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic
• PTS (Preferred Thinking Style) - this now becomes the way we organise our thinking - either serially or in parallel
• PME (Preferred Modes of Expression) - which covers the whole range of verbal and non-verbal elements of communication, including the PSM we use to express our thoughts to other people.

The second obvious development Eicher offers is the division of the topic usually referred to simply as reframing into reframing and relabelling.
The distinction, according to Eicher, is that relabelling is "an after-the-fact tool for change" (that is, it is mainly applied to events which have already happened, or which have at least already been decided upon), whereas reframing is a technique for "figuring out a better way to achieve your goals" (that is, it is best applied to future actions and events).

In order to demonstrate his "new paradigm" (a very popular expression in the early '90s, when this book was published) Eicher covers a variety of business situations such as appraisals, negotiations and motivation.

Personally I found the book to be well-written, an enjoyable read and a genuinely knowledgeable and useful commentary on the use of NLP in the work place.  I can see how it might be particularly useful to new managers, and those about to enter a managerial position.
Warmly recommended  * * * * *

An "Honest Abe's NLP Emporium" Book Review - Reproduced with permission.
Written and Produced by Andy Bradbury; author of "Develop Your NLP Skills", "NLP for Business Success", etc.

Just one page short of 250 (including the mysteriously labelled "Glossary of NLP terms (shortened)", the book deals with all of the main topics of interest to managers in four groupings which the author refers to as the "four key dimensions" - Self-awareness, Leadership, Communication and Innovation.
I personally found the chapters on Empowerment (6) and Influencing the Masses (ie Presentations - 10) particularly interesting and insightful, and the whole book maintains a high standard of information and explanation.

If you've been wanting to get better acquainted with NLP as it applies to the world of business and you're ready to commit yourself to a fairly hefty introduction then this is quite probably the book you're looking for.
Highly recommended * * * * * *