By Martin Crump.

Martin is a Director and co-founder of Evolution.  He is a certified NLP Master Trainer with a wealth of experience of working with organisations of all sizes and types across the UK.

What makes people set up their own business?

Is it a need to be in control of their own destiny?, or the possibility of earning more money?, or perhaps the ability to manage their own time?, or maybe simply a belief that they can do better than their own bosses?

Whatever the reason, an increasing number of people take the plunge and ‘go it alone’, or with some other like-minded people.  The fact is, 80% of new business ventures fail within 2 years.  Why?, because many business owners do not know exactly where they are going, or how to get there, or even, what they will do when they get there.

The initial phase of the journey is easy: heads down, work hard and fight to survive.  This is a little like battling your way through the jungle with a machete but no compass.  You could easily go round in circles and not know it.  If you could raise yourself up above the jungle on a rope, you could see where you have been, and it makes it easier to see your destination, and make decisions about where that destination should be.  You can even see the terrain ahead so that you plan the easiest, or most scenic route.

This is Strategic planning.  A typical planning cycle is five years; straight away we can see the difference between this and an Operational planning cycle which can be as short as one day, but is seldom longer than one year.

The most effective way of Strategically Planning your business is very different than operational planning and requires you to rise above the jungle of your business and not get bogged down in detail.  This is crucial, but not easy.

In the video below, I introduce a simple but extremely effective way to plan the future direction of your business.  We have used this approach with a wide range of organisations ranging from garages to gas manufacturers, from Councils to NHS Procurement teams, in all sectors and with all sizes of organisations.

The feedback has always been extremely positive and the resulting plans have helped these organisations find direction and clarity.

To find out more about his process visit: Navigator

By Martin Crump.

Martin is a Director and co-founder of Evolution.  He is a certified NLP Master Trainer with a wealth of experience of working with organisations of all sizes and types across the UK.

It’s official – if you hadn’t already noticed we are now in a period of recession -  again! As a result many business leaders believe that they have to reduce their overheads if they are to remain competitive throughout this economic downturn.

Historically the first cuts businesses have made have been the ones which most affect the workforce – e.g. job losses, recruitment bans, bonus reductions and training cuts.

However, drastic cuts to overheads may well turn out to be short sighted and managers should consider whether they are simply cutting costs or if they are actually reducing investment – a subtle but important difference. Andrew Smith, KPMG chief economist recently stated that: “While the pressures on business to control spending – both on staff and in other areas – are real and intensifying, there has to be a balance between cutting costs now and the risk of lasting damage to the business through inadequate investment for the longer term.”

Sarah Jones, chief executive of Ufi (University for Industry), recently commissioned a report called “Nurturing Talent” which concluded that: “Organisations must focus on nurturing talent if they are to survive, grow and succeed. The continuous development and growth of people is inextricably linked to business performance. “The business case for developing staff is compelling. Effective training can reduce staff turnover and absenteeism, improve motivation, increase productivity, and help boost customer satisfaction.”

It is quite clear that continued staff development is a feature of successful businesses – a view echoed by Peter Mandelson; who, in an  interview with The Times newspaper, said: “During these difficult times many businesses will look at how to rein in costs. Evidence shows, though, that those that invest in training are less likely to fail. And first-class work-place skills will be key to prospering when the economy turns up. I know people face tough decisions, but I would urge businesses to invest in skills and training to ensure that they are well placed to take advantage of the opportunities when global economic conditions improve.”

At evolution we can help you and your business not simply to survive but to thrive throughout this recession.

Our top ten tips for success:

1. Think about your long-term objectives as well as your short term goals.
   • In a recession it’s all too easy to resort to knee jerk reactions. Hold your nerve and re-visit your strategic plan.
   • Is it still fit for purpose?
2. Plan strategically
   • Consider what you need to do to ensure that you meet or exceed all of the objectives in your strategic plan.
   • What has changed?
3. Review your resources
   • Ask yourself whether your current resources are adequate for the task in hand.
   • Set a realistic budget.
4. Carry out a skills analysis
   • Design a matrix to compare the skills you have to the skills you need.
   • Identify the critical skills gap and make this a priority for investment.
   • Remember that people may have skills you aren’t aware of – skills which they gained in a previous job or non-work related activity.
5. Utilise the existing workforce
   • It is usually cheaper and more efficient to develop existing staff than to recruit for a specific skill set.
   • Existing staff may make good trainers – give them training skills so that they can pass on their own skills and knowledge more effectively. This is the pathway to a multi-skilled workforce.
6. Set Objectives with every member of your workforce
   • People work more effectively when they know exactly what is expected of them.
   • When you negotiate (rather than impose) objectives people will usually set themselves more challenging targets than you would.
7. Introduce an effective performance management system.
   • This is the best way to make sure that every single person on your payroll is operating at their full potential.
   • Appraisals are a good way of assessing ability, motivating people and communicating the organisational goals.
8. Let your staff know you value them.
   • Recognition is by far and away the best motivator – but it doesn’t have to be expensive – praise is free and works wonders.
   • People are also motivated by job interest and increased responsibility – don’t be afraid to ask more of your staff – your success is their job security.
9. Communicate
   • Talk to your employees. Keep them informed through regular briefings and face to face communication. People are always more afraid of the unknown than they are of the real facts.
   • Communication works two ways – listen to your staff – they will have ideas too. At evolution we often say that managers don’t have to have all the answers – they just have to know the right questions.
10. Invest in outside help if you need it.
    • Training, coaching, mentoring and facilitation can all have a huge impact on your business.
    • You are the experts in your field – focus on adding value to your business in the best way you can and buy in the best outside help when you need it.

Evolution personal and corporate development Ltd. can help you with:

Strategic planning, coaching, mentoring, management development, train the trainer, communication and influencing skills, sales training, training needs analysis and much, much more.

We would be happy to meet with you to discuss your needs and to help you to thrive in this recession.

By Martin Crump.

Martin is a Director and co-founder of Evolution.  He is a certified NLP Master Trainer with a wealth of experience of working with organisations of all sizes and types across the UK.

How many of us have wanted to change our life, or some aspects of it?  Often this comes from a vague sense of dissatisfaction with our current situation.

There are two key questions following on from this desire to make a change:

1.  What do I want to change?

2.  How do I do it?

Over the last few years, I have seen clients make big changes in their lives.  Among them, one left his job in an IT Company and started a Landscape Design degree, another moved to Peru, one found and bought a new house, another decided to move job, house and relocate to another part of the UK, one planned to have a baby and now has a lovely baby boy, another started a new relationship and has moved in with her new partner and one  changed his work patterns to avoid weekend work.

How did they do it?

They completed the NLP Business Practitioner course.

One of the key messages from the course is that “you have all the resources you need to be able to achieve your goals”.  The important thing is to have a goal in the first place and the NLP Business Practitioner course shows you how to set goals which you are much more likely to achieve.

The course also shows you how to analyse your situation and explore your options.

What Aspects Of Your Life Would You Like To Change?

1. Look at the Wheel of Life diagram.

2. Score yourself in all of the areas on the diagram as you are at the moment.

3. Score yourself in all areas where you would like to be – this helps you to prioritise your efforts.

4. Join the NLP Business Practitioner course and use the skills and techniques you learn.

As William James said:

“To change one’s life:
1. Start immediately.
2. Do it flamboyantly.
3. No exceptions.”

For more information click here

By Martin Crump.

Martin is a Director and co-founder of Evolution.  He is a certified NLP Master Trainer with a wealth of experience of working with organisations of all sizes and types across the UK.

I’m getting really excited about the NLP@Work Conference in Plymouth on the 30th March.

I’d like to introduce the speakers:

Nik Green

Nik is a member of the  Evolution Team, has worked extensively with adventure training in a schools environment and is an NLP Master Practitioner and certified NLP coach.

Nik says:

Having returned to working in the outdoor education environment after a prolonged sabbatical in the corporate world  I was keen to see how NLP tools and techniques could be applied whilst working with individuals and groups in the great outdoors.

The following questions immediately sprung to mind; “Do the techniques work as well with children?” ; “Can anchoring be used to subdue fear and enable participation in activities?” ; “Can the outdoor environment be used as a medium for personal change?”

I soon discovered as I grew in confidence and experience that the answer was obviously yes.  I discovered that I was assisting children in building their confidence levels, controlling their anger and aggression and giving them a reference point for success that they could take away from the residential trips and apply to their lives.

I have had the privilege to work with some outstanding individuals who demonstrate best practice in relationship building, coaching and development activity.  They also have no formal understanding or knowledge of NLP.  It has been through modelling their best practice I have improved my own performance and through coaching also made them more conscious of why what they do works.

It is this improvement that has enabled me challenge and assist some of the children who have troubled backgrounds and lead chaotic home lives.  This alone has made my NLP journey worthwhile and I look forward to sharing this with you at the NLP @ work conference.

A clip of Nik’s presentation

Andy McMinn

Andy is currently Head of Procurement and Logistics at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and is a qualified procurement and engineering professional with learned experience of lean and six sigma.  Andy has worked in both the Public and Private sectors leading multi disciplined procurement teams and projects in fast moving, complex and challenged environments.  He is currently responsible for a team of forty eight and in excess of £150m non pay expenditure.

Andy says “Many professionals from new disciplines such as Procurement and Marketing struggle when communicating ideas and proposals of how their skills can help improve the businesses they work for.  Procurements message can be very technical and direct which when spoken can switch off the listener and break rapport.  Many times have I heard emotive client statements like “Why do I need you, I can buy it from Tesco’s cheaper” or “I just want to buy what I want”.  Others also told me they had experienced this same client resistance and struggled with communication difficulties for many years in their own organisations.

I often wondered “What strategies have other professionals like me developed to overcome these issues?”

About four years ago whilst studying Master Practitioner, I learnt about Metaphor and began to understand the power of indirect language.   It was at that precise time that I had a “light bulb moment” and realised that Metaphor was the missing tool in my strategic leadership toolkit.

At the NLP@Work conference I will be talking about how the use of NLP Linguistic patterns and metaphor has improved the way I communicate and helped me translate the procurement message into a language that is easy to understand.

A taster of Andy’s presentation

Tony Finnigan

Tony is a medical practitioner based in Tavistock ,Devon and an educationalist at Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in Plymouth. He is also a practising psychotherapist in Transactional Analysis analysis and a Master Practitioner in NLP

As an educationalist involved in training general practitioners and medical students for the past 25 years  in conjunction with another master NLP practitioner we have now evolved a model  integrating memory theory, learning theory and NLP that  is producing stunning results in student performance.

We have literally transformed the performance of failing students. Our present figures suggest a 95% success rate  My presentation at the NLP @ Work conference will outline the core basics of this process. You will in a very short period of time be able to deliver significant performance change in an educational environment. The principles described work at school undergraduate, postgraduate, and in any business environment.

It may sound like magic- it isn’t, just allowing your brain to work for you

A short clip from Tony’s presentation

Neil Trigger

Neil has lectured internationally on his PhD subject of persuasion engineering and psycho-linguistics for change. He is a member of the chartered management institute and the chartered institute of marketing and currently works for a large Plymouth-based charity as well as having significant international business interests. Neil is an NLP practitioner and certified coach and also holds a number of other qualifications including certificates in hypnosis and other related fields.

Neil asks: “Why is it that words are so often misunderstood? Recent research shows that 50% of all email is not decoded by our brains to mean the same as the author intended. It’s only letters and white space, so why do people say “there it is in black and white” to explain something that cannot be misread when these marks are ambiguous at least half of the time!?

The answer is simple.

While text is black and white, the meaning within the text is not.

Think of the phrase “Happinessisnowhere”! It can be read as “Happiness is nowhere” or “Happiness is now here”. Both phrases are totally opposite, but the physical letters have not changed.

Text cannot possibly convey the meaning that we intend because it misses out so much extra information like tone of voice, timbre, volume, sarcasm, innuendo and a million other tiny inflections like a smile, a laugh or a cheeky nudge. Yet there are ways of adding these things back in. We have all seen emoticons )

Emoticons add back some of the missing emotion. But what happens in business when, firstly it is far too important to NOT have a message read correctly, but secondly there is no way we could add a smiley face without looking unprofessional or silly?

Join me at the NLP @ Work conference and I will explain how to change email and other work documents to increase profit by over 900%, how one company in Canada changed two words on their advertising and saw sales rocket, why you and everyone you know use words which stop you from selling and how to improve your email instantly to sell significantly more than you do at the moment.”

A taste of Neil’s presentation

Matthew Theobald

Matthew is a professional Project Manager who has been working on large scale projects across Europe:

He says, “I had spent some time been looking for ways to simplify projects. As part of this I had developed Project Fractures, which includes a series of 9 key questions to ask any project. The answers to these reduce the risk of project failure.

I tried out some of the NLP tools and techniques I learned on the NLP Business Practitioner course with several project teams.  I was stunned by how much difference it made to the people in the room each time I used them and realised that NLP could really help in all manner of situations.

I began working with Martin Crump on Project Leadership in September 2010 and realised very quickly that it would make a real difference to the success of projects of all types and sizes.

By combining elements of NLP tools and techniques, Martin’s NLP based strategic planning tool, my Project Fractures, with Leadership theories, processes and skills a simple but effective process quickly took shape.

And this is what I will be talking about at the NLP @ Work conference – what the process is, how to apply it in your projects and how this approach means you never need to see another Gantt Chart!”

A clip of Matthew’s presentation

Fiona Crump

Fiona Crump is a founding partner of evolution personal and Corporate Development Ltd. and is Director of Personal Development.  She is an NLP Master Practitioner and NLP Coach and has a huge amount of experience from working with a wide range of organisations across the UK.

She saya, “Now that March is here I’m really getting excited about presenting at the upcoming NLP@Work conference.

I use NLP at work all the time; when I am selling, in the training I deliver, during coaching sessions and when I’m working with therapy clients.  However, for me, NLP extends way beyond those practical business applications and forms a part of how I live my life.

I have a particular research interest in Work-Life Balance and use NLP tools and techniques to find that balance in my own life.  NLP is helpful for everything from setting goals to achieve the big things to managing life’s smaller irritations.

Join me at the conference to discover how NLP helped me to:

•  move both our family and our business 300 miles from Cheshire to Cornwall
• walk 500 miles across Spain
• run a successful business and still have time for family & friends, walks on the beach and the achievement of personal goals including achieving a first in my BSC (Hons) Psychology degree.”

I’d love to see you at the Conference which I know will be interesting and informative.  For further information visit Conference

By Martin Crump.

Martin is a Director and co-founder of Evolution.  He is a certified NLP Master Trainer with a wealth of experience of working with organisations of all sizes and types across the UK.

An Invitation

Please join us at River Dart Country Park on Monday 2nd April from 11am to 2 pm to help us launch Outside In, a unique Leadership programme developed by Evolution Personal And Corporate Development Ltd.

This launch will introduce the programme, the reason for using this unique approach and will introduce the ShelterBox Dartmoor Challenge – a key element of the Outside In programme.

You will be introduced to the programme’s content, hear about the Dartmoor Challenge and get a chance to try out some typical activities from the Dartmoor Challenge (nothing strenuous though).

There is no charge and we will provide refreshments and an interesting lunch.

Please bring boots or wellies and a waterproof in case the April weather is not kind.

Please contact Jeni on 01872 555939 to book your place or click here for more information

By Martin Crump.

Martin is a Director and co-founder of Evolution.  He is a certified NLP Master Trainer with a wealth of experience of working with organisations of all sizes and types across the UK.

We are really proud to announce the Evolution You Tube channel.

Called EvolutionCornwall it will contain all sorts of relevant content ranging from ‘how to’ videos to various presentations about a wide range of thought provoking  and informative subjects.

This is the first of our ‘how to’ videos – Two Simple Ways to Improve Your Prioritising

Look out for more in this series soon and please feel free to suggest topics for the videos.

There are also currently clips from the Presentations  at the NLP@Work Conference available on the channel.

Visit EvolutionCornwall to see these videos and leave your comments.

The full presentations will soon be available to buy on DVD from our website.

Delegates particularly liked the relaxed feel to the conference and found the content interesting and useful. They also all expressed an interest in attending the next one.

Opened by Martin Crump, the conference had the theme of change running throughout.

He said “The only constant in a work environment nowadays is change.  We can only guarantee that the way we do something today, or even what we do today will be different in the future and the old adage of ‘if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got’ no longer applies as the context we work in is constantly changing”

Against this backdrop, six speakers from a wide range of work environments spoke about how they apply NLP tools and techniques in their jobs.

Andy Mcminn spoke about how he uses NLP in his role as Head of Procurement and Logistics at the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

An interview with Andy in which he discusses his presentation can be heard at   Andy Mcminn interview

Nik Green spoke about his work with – often difficult – primary school children and how he usues his NLP skills in an outdoor adventure environment.

An interview with Nik can be heard at Nik Green interview

Neil Trigger has developed NLP based software which allows the user to analyse incoming and outgoing emails to improve their influencing abilities.

Neil can be heard explaining how this works at Neil Trigger interview

Tony Finnigan is a GP and trainer at the Peninsula Medical school.  He uses NLP to help failing students to turn their situation around and improve their scores dramatically.

Listen to Tony explaining how he does this at Tony Finnigan interview

Matthew Theobald introduced a whole new, NLP based way of running projects.  His presentation was entitled “No More Gantt Charts” and explained why 83% of projects fail, and how to ensure they succeed.

Matthew also launched the book he co-wrote with Martin Crump which describes how to lead projects using this process.  The book is called ‘How To Build An Ark’ and is available from Ark Project Leadership (email matthew@arkpl.com) or Amazon.

Listen to an interview with Matthew at  Matthew Theobald interview

Fiona Crump described how she uses NLP to create and maintain an effective Work Life Balance, demonstrating that it is possible to use work related skills to great effect outside of the work environment.

Listen to Fiona’s interview at Fiona Crump interview

DVDs of each of  the presentations are available from evolution.  So if you are interested in seeing what Andy, Nik, Tony, Fiona, Matthew or Neil had to say, contact reception@evolution-development.com or phone Jeni on 01872 555939

We are already planning the conference for 2012 – so we’ll keep you posted about that one.

Andy will be speaking at the NLP @ Work Conference at the National Marine Aquarium on the 30th March

Andy is currently Head of Procurement and Logistics at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and is a qualified procurement and engineering professional with learned experience of lean and six sigma.  Andy has worked in both the Public and Private sectors leading multi disciplined procurement teams and projects in fast moving, complex and challenged environments.  He is currently responsible for a team of forty eight and in excess of £150m non pay expenditure.

Andy says “Many professionals from new disciplines such as Procurement and Marketing struggle when communicating ideas and proposals of how their skills can help improve the businesses they work for.  Procurements message can be very technical and direct which when spoken can switch off the listener and break rapport.  Many times have I heard emotive client statements like “Why do I need you, I can buy it from Tesco’s cheaper” or “I just want to buy what I want”.  Others also told me they had experienced this same client resistance and struggled with communication difficulties for many years in their own organisations.

I often wondered “What strategies have other professionals like me developed to overcome these issues?”

About four years ago whilst studying Master Practitioner, I learnt about Metaphor and began to understand the power of indirect language.   It was at that precise time that I had a “light bulb moment” and realised that Metaphor was the missing tool in my strategic leadership toolkit.

At the NLP@Work conference I will be talking about how the use of NLP Linguistic patterns and metaphor has improved the way I communicate and helped me translate the procurement message into a language that is easy to understand.

To see a clip of my presentation visit:

For more information about the NLP @ Work Conference visit:  conference

Fiona Crump is a founding partner of evolution personal and Corporate Development Ltd. and is Director of Personal Development.  She is an NLP Master Practitioner and NLP Coach and has a huge amount of experience from working with a wide range of organisations across the UK.

Now that Spring is here I’m really getting excited about presenting at the upcoming NLP@Work conference.

I use NLP at work all the time; when I am selling, in the training I deliver, during coaching sessions and when I’m working with therapy clients.  However, for me, NLP extends way beyond those practical business applications and forms a part of how I live my life.

I have a particular research interest in Work-Life Balance and use NLP tools and techniques to find that balance in my own life.  NLP is helpful for everything from setting goals to achieve the big things to managing life’s smaller irritations.

Join me at the conference to discover how NLP helped me to:

•  move both our family and our business 300 miles from Cheshire to Cornwall
• walk 500 miles across Spain
• run a successful business and still have time for family & friends, walks on the beach and the achievement of personal goals including achieving a first in my BSC (Hons) Psychology degree.

Watch a short clip of my presentation here

For more information about the NLP @ Work conference click here: conference

Neil is one of the speakers at the NLP @ Work Conference at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth on the 30th March

Neil has lectured internationally on his PhD subject of persuasion engineering and psycho-linguistics for change. He is a member of the chartered management institute and the chartered institute of marketing and currently works for a large Plymouth-based charity as well as having significant international business interests. Neil is an NLP practitioner and certified coach and also holds a number of other qualifications including certificates in hypnosis and other related fields.

Why is it that words are so often misunderstood? Recent research shows that 50% of all email is not decoded by our brains to mean the same as the author intended. It’s only letters and white space, so why do people say “there it is in black and white” to explain something that cannot be misread when these marks are ambiguous at least half of the time!?

The answer is simple.

While text is black and white, the meaning within the text is not.

Think of the phrase “Happinessisnowhere”! It can be read as “Happiness is nowhere” or “Happiness is now here”. Both phrases are totally opposite, but the physical letters have not changed.

Text cannot possibly convey the meaning that we intend because it misses out so much extra information like tone of voice, timbre, volume, sarcasm, innuendo and a million other tiny inflections like a smile, a laugh or a cheeky nudge. Yet there are ways of adding these things back in. We have all seen emoticons )

Emoticons add back some of the missing emotion. But what happens in business when, firstly it is far too important to NOT have a message read correctly, but secondly there is no way we could add a smiley face without looking unprofessional or silly?

Join me at the Eden Project for the NLP @ Work conference and I will explain how to change email and other work documents to increase profit by over 900%, how one company in Canada changed two words on their advertising and saw sales rocket, why you and everyone you know use words which stop you from selling and how to improve your email instantly to sell significantly more than you do at the moment.

Watch a clip of my presentation here

For more information about the conference click here conference