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Ian Bamsey's style doesn't loose the reader in complicated explanations and yet is not superficial. The book will give you a solid qualitative knowledge backed up with some numbers if you want them, but you don't need the numbers to understand. If this man wrote software manuals people might actually read them, such is the standard of his writing. I speak as a person who has also written technical publications for popular consumption and I wish I could write like this.
If you want to know about this car then buy this book (If you can find it).
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Who's idea was it, I wonder, to stick all three sets of eyes on a single head to illustrate the "visual accessing cues"? And who drew the blind man's version of and Escher-type structure?
Who ever it was, and why ever they did it, they certainly added nothing of any value to this book - which really needs all the help it can get.
A basic introduction to NLP this most definitely is not.
Presumably because there are already so many books of this kind on the market, the author has tried to add some uniqueness to his text by framing the whole book as ten one day courses delivered to a group of senior executives of the hypothetical Whizzitts Ltd. (The company makes, surprise, surprise, 'whizzitts' - though we never discover what whizzetts are (high speed widgets, perhaps?)).
Its an interesting idea, and it throws up some useful possibilities for readers who plan to train others in NLP skills. As a standalone DIY book for managers, however, regardless of whether they have any prior knowledge of NLP, even 2 stars is verging on hysterical overgenerosity.
The author has what I would describe as a delightfully "English eccentric" style. Unfortunately, whilst this makes the text very readable, it is not a style well-suited to clear explanation. At one point, for example, the author introduces a two page handout on John McWhirter's "Basic Fractal Language Model" which he then 'explains' in less than one full page of text. The description of 'anchoring', on the other hand, goes on for several pages yet never explains exactly how to set an anchor; indeed, it doesn't even say when an anchor should be set or released.
In short, a quaint oddity But with very lttle to recommend it in comparison to long established favourites...
I wonder how many will be able to follow the exercises and seriously do them. It is also rather contrived to have the characters as if you were in a workshop. You are not. There is quite extensive coverage or collection of NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) and related material, including Fractal Language Model by John McWhirter, who wrote the Foreword. But the book falls between the stools of a real introduction to NLP and a proper manual for a workshop.
Those giving workshops, esp. in NLP, can probably pick up some useful exercises, though most of them are borrowed. It is ironic that a book titled "Communication Excellence" fails to help the readers to achieve much real understanding. With the mushrooming of NLP books, both introductory and more advanced, there are certainly many other better choices. [Cf. my other reviews.]
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