5 comments about The Power of Business Rapport: Use Nlp Technology to Make More Money, Sell Yourself and Your Product, and Move Ahead in Business.

1. This book should be mandatory reading for MBAs. It's brilliant in that it takes a complex subject and makes it easy to understand. And the technology is incredible. I highly reccommend this book for those in business, management, and for those who sell.



2. Reading this book, I have gained knowledge in how to connect with people. I have also learned how to read them, even if they don't know what I am doing. And it is one of my most favorite hobbies.

   As human beings, we are constantly interacting with others. And it is up to us to decide what is going on, and how we can influence our experiences.

   This is not about abandoning who you are. This book is your chance to enhance who you are.

   You will learn how someone's breathing, their eye directions, and their gestures tell you more than their words. You will have the opportunity to step into their shoes -- see, feel, and hear their experiences, so that you connect with them, on an appropriate level.

   As for selling, be that a product, a service, or an idea, when you relate to the person you are trying to sell to, you sell yourself, your idea, your services, and your product.

   Everyone does this some time in their lives. We all have a method to change another's desires to fit our own. This book will help you to do this more often, and on a deeper level.

   And if you can't find this book, read "Instant Rapport," which focuses upon relationship communication.




3. I am glad this book is so seldom read.

   As a sales manager and professional of 14 years, I regard this as the most potent, career-changing, powerful book on the sales process (interpersonal relationships?) ever produced.

   I have recommended this book to my sales people if not utilized for themselves then, for no other reason, to protect themselves from manipulation and control techniques in the marketplace.

   This book unveils the secrets of NLP (neuro linguisitc programming) and reveals secrets to establish instant bonding and rapport with others, imbed emotional "anchors" in others, and to control other people in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

   In the wrong hands, I can see these techniques as being devastating and used for evil.

   In any salesperson's hands who executes the techniques and learns the methods, it will jump start his/her career or send a sucessful one into overdrive. Handle with care and ethics.




4. This book explains NLP, in very simple terms, and it could be used in a lot more fields than what is mentioned in the title, for one you can use with the family and children and get superior results as well, use it when you are buying as well. if you have teenagers, they should read it too, it will do them a lot of good.



5. This is the best book I've found on using NLP in the workplace. It is especially great for sales people. While the book is old, I still recommend it at my seminars.
   
   Ed Rigsbee, CSP, author
   "Developing Strategic Alliances"

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5 comments about Towards An Integral Vision: Using NLP & Ken Wilber's AQ Model to Enhance Communication.

1. An amazingly easy to read and understand book about NLP, Ken Wilbers quadrants and Clare Graves Values Model. Combining all the above into a very readable and enjoyable format. A must for both advanced NLP'ers and complete beginners alike.



2. I really enjoyed this book for many reasons. It is so wonderfully easy to read despite the complex subjects it covers. Peter McNab has a delightful way of writing so that it comes across so naturally - interspersed continually with interesting stories, anecdotes and examples in order to make the material clear to understand. It contains many practical exercises for the reader to do, which brings the content alive and renders it useful and valuable. I will dip into this book over and over again and definitely use its suggestions throughout my life.
   An invaluable book for anyone wishing to journey inside of themselves in order to help to create a nicer world.
   HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!



3. Peter McNab has written a inspiring and thought provoking book which takes most of the latest thinking from the NLP movement and elegantly integrates it with Wilbers philosophies. This creativity supplies the reader with pragmatic tools to analyse life situations and develop real actions. An excellent balance of academic thought and practical methods to improve any 'self-developers' life or as an aid to therapists in the field.



4. First I have to say the editing job really detracted from my experience of the book. there are words that are missing and words that are wrong in many places, so that was frustrating. Besides that I found the book lucid in many places toward the end, where it begins to get to the real meat and potatoes of NLP Spiral Dynamics and some Integral theory. I felt like i had to wade through a lot of reading to get to some key points and their elucidations, however they are in there.



5. Don't take this lightly - THIS BOOK IS AMAZING. I read it back to front in two days just marvelling at the integrally-informed genius of Peter McNab.
   
   I haven't come across too many books on Integral Theory or Graves' SD model that are this accessible. Correspondingly, I haven't some across too many NLP books that cover this level of all quadrant depth.
   
   Peter's style is chatty but not facile, and thorough but not sleepy. I was so drawn to his first person writing style, and the hands-on nature of his work.
   
   It's a real joy.

5 comments about Speech and Language Processing: An Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics and Speech Recognition (Prentice Hall Series in Artificial Intelligence).

1. GENERAL IDEA: Broad coverage, it lacks depth and details - particularly practical details. That is, the presentation is often sketchy, mainly because it approaches too many subjects for its available space. I would not say that this book is strong on theory either. It is quite obvious that it avoids getting too formal and precise, probably to remain attractive for non-specialists too.
   
   CASE STUDY: One specific problem I had with the Hidden Markov Models, that are supperficially presented (or spread I could say) in several separate sections of the book, so it's not been a pleasure trying to actually understand them properly and completely as a fundamental concept, to make them work in my particular application.
   
   TITLE: The book's title IS misleading because it starts with "Speeech" and this book's main subject is not speech but (written) language. Actually there are only a few chapters on speech.
   
   CONCLUSION: Get this book if you are looking for a good overview of the field. The book will introduce you to a thousand of topics. As soon as you need in-depth coverage of some particular topic, you will look for additional resources.



2. This book helped me accomplish what I set out to do; namely to obtain an overview of the field of natural language processing, with an emphasis on language understanding (as opposed to recognition). And I can recommend it on that level. The weakness of the book however is that it left me asking, "OK, now what?". The book started off strong with a number of dynamic-programming algorithms, finite automaton models, and N-grams that one could sink his/her teeth into from an algorithmic point-of-view. But when it came to actual techniques for natural-language understanding (chapters 14-17) the goods were not delivered. The algorithms disappeared, and the best I could find was in Chapter 15 an incomplete, and unconvincing treatment of Hiyan Alshawi's semantic parsing techniques which fueled the Core Language Engine last decade. Chapter 16 dealt with lexical semantics and was almost entirely devoid of algorithms.

   My gut feeling after reading this text is that parsing techniques will likely give way to statistical and probabilistic learning methods that will in some sense bypass the need to correctly or accurately parse language. I cannot fault the authors for not exploring this in more depth,as this represents the cutting edge for both NLP and artificial intelligence. In any case, I'm off to read Schutze and Manning's book which will hopefully provide a bit more focus on that perspective. What intrigues me is that most people can understand some language, but very few people understand the grammar of their own language, especially if they have been deprived of a formal education. So why should computers need to know all about grammar rules and parsing? Could they instead be trained by simply being exposed to enough interactions between language and objects? I teach in a department dominated by both foreign and immigrant students. I understand them most of the time, but I would estimate that half the time their sentences or utterances would not fail to be parsed correctly.




3. something which I can use - I am a linguist - and found it immensly readable and useful



4. This book is by now an accepted classic in the field. It is basically the only textbook that covers so much of computational linguistics, so I have had no choice but to use it for the past several years. Just the same, I'd rather not use it for teaching linguistics students. While the book has much to offer the professional, including a broad range of topics extensively researched, it is much more useful in this "handbook" capacity than as a textbook for the uninitiated. The chief reasons for this are: 1) It is pedagogically very poor; the majority of concepts are either explained in a confusing and obfuscatory manner or are not explained and are simply left in algorithmic form. This is not usually edifying to the linguistics student with no computer science background. 2) There are too many mistakes in its algorithms and method overviews. So far as I can see, even the famed Earley parsing algorithm is wrong here, it will not yield the correct output. 3) It is not written in a language that linguistics students can understand. With no background in mathematics, computer science, or pseudocode, such students need much more coddling than is provided by this book, and they are virtually unable to read it. Basically, as the title to this review states, what is called for now is a book to explain the contents of this book. Perhaps if my students keep encouraging me to write it. . .



5. I read the first edition of that book and it is terrific. The second edition is much more adapted to current research. Statistical methods in NLP are more detailed and some syntax-based approaches are presented. My specific interest is in machine translation and dialogue systems. Both chapters are extensively rewritten and much more elaborated. I believe this book is perfect for everyone who starts in speech and language processing. With precision, coherent examples and some humor, this book give a great introduction into this topic as well as material for already experienced readers.

5 comments about The NLP Coach: A Comprehensive Guide to Personal Well-Being & Professional Success.

1. If you had to buy one book on NLP and coaching, this is it!!!
   After reading it, I felt like I had just been revived from a coma! This book should be read and reread so as to get the full impact. Afterwards, reflections and a reframing of your life's experiences most assuredly will result.



2. Since `our habits determine our future' a lot of self-help revolves around changing our habits (not so easily done.) I like this particular book because it doesn't present NLP as an easy fix but instead they take quite a bit of space to explain how we think and act in habits and patterns. The authors then offer NLP techniques to help change your patterns until you develop new habits. As in all self-help there's not really much new here and anyone who has read Tony Robbins will be familiar with most of the concepts presented. It's a good book, though, and very useful for understanding the development of habits and cycles. I recommend it as a more objective presentation of NLP without all the fire walking hoopla.



3. As a vivid reader and a practioner of NLP I enjoyed reading this book. Not only is it a great step-by-step guide through many aspects of NLP, but it also works with you in evaluating your own life as you learn.
   The book is easy and pleasant to read and Ian McDermott truly is among the best reads on the topic of NLP and coaching using NLP.
   As an NLP coach I would highly recommend this book to people that are both starting out in personal development and in NLP. Very informative and triggers you to think about things from a new perspective using techniques as you are learning about them.



4. The NLP Coach is indeed a practical guide for those interested in moving forward and achieving better results in life. This book is easy to understand and is laid out in a systematic way that makes reading and referencing easy. As a life coach and educator I often recommend The NLP Coach to my clients and students. Ian McDermott and Wendy Jaga take their many years of experience and wrap it into a well thought out book that is both practical and helpful.



5. In my 20+ years as a Hypnotherapist, I've read quite a lot of books on NLP and by far this is the best "How-to" book that breaks down the NLP component tools into easy to understand and apply bite sized chunks!
   
   The book is very well organized as a reference text as well for all you coaches out there that need a quick brief of some particular aspect of NLP!
   
   I highly recommend this book!
   
   :D
   
   Mike - C.Ht

5 comments about 7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence.

1. As a consultant and trainer in Organisational in Emotional Intelligence and an NLP Practitioner I applaud the work of Patrick Merlevede, Bridoux and Vandamme. 7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence has offered me an unparalleled resource in my consulting, training and tools for EQ and Exec. Coaching.

   I have read a number of books of late on the burgeoning topic of Emotional Intelligence, which include: The emotionally intelligent workplace (Cherniss and Goleman), Emotional Intelligence at Work (Goleman), Executive EQ (Cooper and Sawaf). In my opinion, these books successfully answer the 2 basic questions- Why EQ and What is EQ? What has not been successfully addressed till now is How-EQ?
   After presenting compelling evidence to change, anecdotes that inspire, highly developed and statistically reliable measurements, one is then `left hanging' with no concrete methods of effecting this change. Goleman (Emotional Intelligence at Work) offers no `answers' his later text with Cary Cherniss discusses the `what of EI training' but not how this can be achieved. Developers of the EQ Map, Dr Cooper and Esther Orioli (Q Metrics) have engineered a 21day program to build EQ, one competency at a time (frustratingly slow process that uses the conscious mind and determination to bring about change). I do not doubt the merits of such a program but I find it interesting that we insist on the latest in software and computer technology but are still using outdated systems to utilising the brilliance of the human machine in creating change.

   Most recent thinking acknowledges that all human behaviour, learning and change occur at the unconscious level. That is, at the level of the programs we are running, the coding behind the behaviour. To be lasting and effective, change must occur at this level. My own experience of many years counselling and coaching has verified this dictum.

   I believe that NLP `the study of excellence' has always had the `answers'. The difficulty has arisen in the somewhat theoretical, academic (and to many) abstract `packaging' of its tools and methodology, which has made it inaccessible to the `many'.

   Merlevede has achieved what I have not found in any other single text on EQ or NLP. He presents NLP through the filters of real life experience and personal wisdom to bring the power of these processes to a much wider audience. The authors have provided an easy to follow, concrete and complete program on: Why EQ, What (is) EQ, How EQ and What if EQ (in what other environments can I utilise these skills). At last- the total package-that works!

   The book is filled with the powerful tools of NLP laced with practical examples and metaphors that inspire. It acts as reference text for consultants, trainers, coaches, NLP practitioners, leaders, executives and individuals who simply want to be their best and begin to utilise more of their vast and untapped potential.




2. I am a consultant, coach, and trainer since 1983. I work across Canada, the U.S., and France on a variety of services including Culture by Design - helping companies determine their culture and adapting it to the internal and external environment - Performance Management Process, Process Improvement, and Executive Excellence (coaching). I constantly use the concepts and techniques proposed in this book. I know they work - from needs analysis, to proposal writing, closing, and delivery.

   I found this book to be the clearest and most practical one on EQ. Some books are determined to tell you WHY and WHAT, but many authors aim to self-promote themselves so that you have to buy the HOW through their services. Not so with this book. This is no rehash or repackaging of NLP and EQ. The exercises proposed and the examples given are practical. Lots of meat with no fat. Just go ahead and use it. You prefer more? Try their web site addresses and see how you can enhance your professional practice. I did. I found the most friendly and fastest service than I have ever seen. You want to confirm your answers to those exercises? Write them, they will send them to you. Fast, efficient, friendly. Reflects the tone of the book. Get this book, study it, and apply it. It works!




3. Firstly, let's be very clear that this is NOT a book about Emotional Intelligence. It is a book about the authors' ideas on about NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and how to apply NLP techniques. Whether it is about applying NLP to the subject of Emotional Intelligence depends on what definition of "emotional intelligence" is being used.
   
   I have been told by one of the authors that "the book contains at least 25% typical emotional intelligence material"
   Is it really adequate to have "at least 25% typical emotional intelligence material" in a book called "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"?
   And what, in this context, is meant by "typical"?
   In my opinion it certainly is NOT, for example, "typical" EI in the sense that Daniel Goleman or Salovey and Mayer use the term. Indeed, I'd be surprised if there was as much as 6 pages of material in the entire book that corresponds to any generally accepted definition of "emotional intelligence".
   
   As far as I could see, it looked as though the definition of EI used here was made up for the occasion, partly on the basis of a book by Leslie Cameron-Bandler and Michael Lebeau called "The Emotional Hostage". Indeed, "7 Steps" takes Goleman to task for not having read "The Emotional Hostage" and claims that if he had read it then he "might have been [sic] reached very different conclusions" (on page 355). Yet strangely enough, though "The Emotional Hostage" is praised effusively, "7 Steps" also fails to reflect the key ideas in that book.
   
   To be fair, these points might have been pardonable, to some extent, if the book actually added very much to our understanding of NLP, or at least showed us how to use NLP effectively in relation to our emotions. But in my opinion it does nothing of the kind. Of course that isn't so surprising since NLP itself has has always been much more interested in dealing with thoughts rather than with emotions. It is a significant gap in NLP's coverage of human psychology, and it's a great pity this book doesn't do anything at all, as far as I could see, to rectify the situation.
   
   So, if you want a book on Emotional Intelligence, you'll be better off sticking with Goleman and other "mainstream" EI writers.
   If you want an introduction to NLP then "Introducing NLP" by O'Connor and Seymour, or "NLP Workbook" by O'Connor are both far better options than this.



4. The authors had a nobable goal in mind when they wrote this book. However, the execution is very poor. This is a bad introduction to NLP Book not a book on Emotional Intelligence. If you are really new to NLP you are better off with NLP: The New Technology of Achievement by NLP Comprehensive, Steve Andreas, and Charles Faulkner and Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People by Joseph O'Connor and John Seymour. This book is just a bad copy of the other two. And it certainly isn't worth the $29 price tag. In fact I want my money back.



5. This book is context specific to NLP learner and users. The learning format is very procedual and needs a whole lot of discipline to practice. Not a typical Emotional Intelligence application. You might find it helpful if you are intersted in the Nurological/Linguistic aspect of the mind.

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