The PCW Practitioner launches in Japan 2013. Here is some of what will be covered

In recent years I have presented more and more events overseas. In this year alone I will have taken Provocative Change Works events to Japan, USA, India, Spain, Poland and Hungary with more countries coming online in 2013. All of this requires a great deal of organization and planning. Some considerations are basic common sense, but others are less obvious.
A key consideration in producing a great overseas event is to have an excellent overseas promoter, who has the skills to attract a suitable audience. I say “suitable audience” because sometimes events can be misrepresented and then the trainer finds that the expectations of the audience are totally out of synch with what the trainer is presenting! Fortunately I now have a great set of overseas hosts and the recent Japanese trip was one of the best organized events on every level, so Japan you make “the A list” for my events! The planning and communication in this last trip was excellent and at all times I felt totally comfortable despite only knowing two words of Japanese. This level of comfort means that I can 100% focus on the event and I was especially pleased with this series of events. Japan I’ll be back in 2013! Of course hosts like Steve and Connirae Andreas have been active in the world of NLP for decades and command a great deal of respect. Once gain the organization is excellent and their experience is evident. I have really enjoyed the PCW events I presented there in recent years and it was great to stay with them at their house and chat about what’s happening in the field.
Once you find a good host, the timing for creating events and booking flights is important. Some times of the year work better than others to attract attendees and of course it’s essential to buy tickets ahead of time to get good prices. I usually book flights 2 months ahead of time and of course have to factor in time to obtain visas for some trips. I have learned to get all material printed in the country I am visiting as paper handouts can make luggage seriously heavy and of course every traveler knows that when travelling “size and weight” are key considerations! When planning events awareness of different time zones is really important if you want to be in the best form when presenting to an audience. When the time difference is 8 – 9 hours it can take a few days to get the body clock in synch. Whenever I hosted Frank Farrelly in the UK, he always needed 5+ days to “straighten out his days and nights” On returning home it’s also important to have a suitable amount of downtime for reorientation back into UK time and space. It has taken six days from Japan to properly achieve this and I am now ready to see private clients.
It’s a real privilege to bring the Provocative Change Works approach to a global market and to visit so many wonderful countries. I always pack my Lumix GX1 and two camcorders to capture events and the whole experience of being in that country. I have made some great friends during my travels and seen some spectacular scenery. In two weeks’ time I’ll be in be back in New York co presenting with Doug O Brien and then later this month will be in Budapest, followed by Poland and teaching at an NLP conference in Spain. Special thanks to all my hosts and everyone who has come to these events, it’s a real privilege to be able to do this.

I am about to start a series of Provocative Change Works events across the globe, starting in Japan next week. During trainings I always explain the meaning of the term “provocative” in the context of therapy and how it is also used to best effect in all kinds of other communication situations. Unfortunately the term “provocative” can be seen by some folks as either “an aggressive approach” or “a comedic approach”. Yes there can be humour in provocative exchanges, but the purpose of a provocative session is not to “try and be funny!” and certainly not to be aggressive with the client.

Provocative Change Works is inspired by Frank Farrelly’s Provocative Therapy and learning these PCW skills takes a great deal of skill and application. The challenge for me when running workshops is to find the right balance between demonstrations, explanation and group exercises and to ensure workshop attendees maintain the right manner when using these skills. Since I first met Frank Farrelly I have promoted both his work and my own PCW approach at every opportunity and departed from teaching classic NLP courses. This has led to setting up some great provocative online resources, but regardless of how much information I put out it seems that some folks just don’t get that provocative does not mean “aggressive” or “sarcastic!” Interestingly it’s usually those who have a CBT or NLP background who struggle most with this approach. I do have some sympathy for such folks though; I too was totally confused when I first attended a Frank workshop. Fortunately I had the good sense to appreciate that it would take more than a few days to grasp his work and many years later the investment in time and energy has truly paid off.  I have found that the PCW approach is far more dynamic and creative than what I was taught on my certificated NLP trainings from years ago! However these trainings really helped me figure out what Frank does and formulate my own PCW approach.

The Provocative Icon System I use in PCW and PT trainings is excellent in teaching the many different stances a practitioner can adopt to create client change. These icons represent 36 different potential stances and combinations of these stances are highly effective in provoking useful change. However it’s not enough to merely teach how to adopt these stances. The PCW practitioner needs to also have the manner of working with a client that Frank Farrelly describes “as if talking to an old friend” Despite all the talk of flexibility in workshops, this seems for many to be one of the biggest challenges. I have only seen a few people able to work effectively as provocative therapists and most of these have studied with Frank for many years. In 2006 I set up The Association for Provocative Therapy (AFPT) with Frank’s blessing and I am pleased that Dr Noni Höefner a Provocative therapist of 26 years standing is also a key promoter of AFPT standards in trainings. Noni is one of the smartest trainers I have met with superb flexibility and creative skills.

One of the main challenges for therapists and practitioners watching a provocative session for the first time is accepting that it is very different to NLP, Hypnosis or other types of therapy. The client in the session has an experience that is very different to those who are observing the session. Sometimes well-meaning observers want to “rescue the client” rather than allowing the process to unfold so the client can process the interaction in their own time. This can produce some quite interesting scenarios in trainings where groups find that they have also had their preexisting ideas about communication seriously challenged. A PCW practitioner seeks to provoke new insights for the client and this is always done in a conversational manner. In order to achieve this, the practitioner needs to pay close attention to the client’s responses and while maintaining his or her own excellent state control.  Many new to this kind of approach find this very difficult and if the client shows any kind of emotion the therapist often immediately backs off or tries to placate the client, not realizing that this is often not the most useful strategy. In my experience many clients have had decades of tea and sympathy, psychoanalysis and counseling none of which has been especially useful. This is not to say that these approaches have no merit but rather, not provoking any real change in the client leaves the client in the problem state. Some talk therapy approaches even insist that a practitioner should refrain from influencing the client at all! Many such enthusiasts treat therapeutic situations like an academic discussion, which is fine, but often not especially useful for the client. Provocative Change Works is a conversational jargon free way of working. This absence of jargon in my opinion makes for a more honest and natural communication and my experience is that clients find they need far less session time to resolve their issues.

I have noticed that the obsession with “quick fixes” “fast phobia cures” in the personal change market has increasingly created a level of expectation for both therapists and clients that is in my view both unhelpful and unrealistic. I have blogged about this previously and of course I am accused of “attacking X approach” which of course is not the case at all. I am simply pointing out that it you over hype expectations then ultimately no claims are seen as credible. Developing the skills needed to provoke useful change for a client requires the practitioner to be able to improvise on the fly and to have an extensive range of verbal and non-verbal responses. I rarely see practitioners, trainers and therapists who can demonstrate this ability and this is a far cry from the academic, logical, digital and analytical approaches that are often found in some approaches. I have also noticed that some people have started to add the term “provocative” to their therapeutic descriptions with little awareness or regard to Farrelly’s work. I receive all kinds of communications about how to become a provocative therapist and many enquirers are disappointed that they can’t get a weekend certificate to add to their existing certifications! This week I had an enquiry by e-mail asking if you could become a provocative therapist by reading Frank’s original book!

The new revised PCW site – www.provocativechangeworks.com has a wealth of information on PCW in articles and videos. In many ways PCW and PT are the polar opposite in approach to many traditional talk therapy approaches. In many instances talk therapy approaches are conducted in such a disassociated manner that the sessions become little more than role playing scenarios in which either therapist or client believe that anything useful will occur. That is not to say that these approaches have no value. However I suspect that the success with these approaches is more due to the therapist’s manner than the actual techniques used.

I have personally used the Provocative Change Works approach with over 3000 clients and have found this approach to be the most effective method to help with client change. Most who study with me can learn the provocative stances, but those who really become proficient in this approach have a great sense of humour, don’t take themselves too seriously and have a genuine care for helping others. I always make it clear that PCW is not the only way to produce excellent client results but my interest in any model of communication is in what you can do with it, rather than any academic style study. There seems to be many who agree with this sentiment and I have never been busier either with trainings or with seeing private clients in my UK clinics.
 The full schedule for 2012 international PCW training events can be found at http://www.nickkemptraining.com/calendar.php and this May I will be running a skills development day for previous workshop attendees who want to explore PCW in greater

I am delighted to report that the new Provocative Change Works site is now live here - http://www.provocativechangeworks.com

Here you can discover why so many people are now requesting PCW events around the globe with workshops scheduled for Japan, USA, India, Hungary, Spain, Poland, Austria as well as the UK.

In a recent training I talked about the importance of choosing the right name for a business. I have previously blogged about how some companies in seeking to be clever can unwittingly create an unhelpful and incongruent impression in what they want to communicate. A good example in recent times is “Confused.com” which is a company that supposedly seeks to provide choices for its customers! The constant repetition of the term “confused” of course creates the exact opposite impression.
 The golden rule in marketing is “difference dictates”. If your company doesn’t stand out from the crown in “being different” then your company is seen as just the same as everyone else. Smart companies know the importance of creating a memorable business name and the very best examples are where the business names then become part of everyday language. At one time there were no mp3 players and I remember a vice Ceo from Silicon Valley tell me in the 1990s about this mew mp3 technology where you could carry your whole album collection on a hard drive to play while driving! Now most people talk about “iPods”, even when referring to generic mp3 players. Apple essentially created a new business name that is now part of everyday language and of course the iPad and iPhone are extensions of the business identity. Another consideration is that some business names may not create the best impression internationally. For example “Lag Guitars” doesn’t in my opinion sound that desirable and or course there is the unforgettable “Dick Stick” brand.

I have noticed that when people choose names for a new business there can be a tendency to copy other businesses. In the world of personal change I have previously blogged about the endless references to “excellence” “agents for change” “quantum” “Meta”, “Excellence”,“Transformation” and other such stereotypical terms. There’s nothing essentially wrong with these terms, (hey I even ran a company once called “Tranceforming NLP”) but they don’t suggest a great deal of new creative thinking and are not “different” to everything else in the marketplace. The difficulty with many such terms is that they can quickly go out of fashion and that’s never great for marketing. I always suggest that a good starting point is to consider the impression that you want to create, before deciding upon the actual term to describe it. Otherwise the actual name of the business can be emotionally disconnected to the business and in some worst case examples the names are totally forgettable!

My advice is once you have a short list of possible names to then ask individuals who would be potential customers their views. Sometimes the results can be surprising and of course it’s useful to have more than just two possibilities, but I would suggest less than ten on any potential list. Also its common sense to check that nobody else has the same or a similar identity and you can secure the top level domain names (.com, .net are essential) for what you decide upon to avoid potential customer confusion. The most recognizable brand names include the following – Coca Cola, Apple, Disney, McDonalds and American Express. Each of these companies are instantly recognizable. Of course the name is not the brand, but just one of the elements that helps create the brand. Often the name is accompanied by a carefully constructed logo and businesses like EBay are a good example of this combination of name and logo.  It’s always nest to get a professional designer to create a log and not to simply outsource this to the cheapest bidder.

The most successful companies create “the cool factor” and when this occurs customers advertise the brand by displaying the brand name and logo on items of clothing. Essentially the company is creating a fan base in the same way that rock bands create a fan following. Apple is generally perceived to be a cool brand and people are happy to display the business logo and associate with the company name. In contrast I can’t image many folks wearing Dell T Shirts as Dell don’t personify “the cool factor”, well not so far anyway...