NLP is a method to map human behavior. As such any and all human behaviors can be turned into NLP. Within NLP this is called “eliciting a NLP strategy”. If the NLP strategy has not yet been elicited, then that behavior is not NLP.
Furthermore, once you have turned behavior into a NLP strategy, it is impossible for that NLP strategy to conflict with core elements of NLP. Yet, if behavior has not been turned into a NLP strategy, it is very well possible that this behavior conflicts with core elements of NLP. So behavior that has not yet been turned into a NLP strategy, is not only not NLP, it can, and often does, conflict with NLP. If such behavior is sold as “NLP”, it is Fake NLP.
NLP has two modes of communication:
- To communicate to clarify.
- To communicate to influence.
If you communicate to influence you can say anything to anyone. It only matters whether you achieve the goal of your communication. Nevertheless, not everything you say is automatically covered by this, because first you need to consciously and on purpose decide to communicate to influence. If you say something because you think you are clarifying and what you said turned out to be Fake NLP, you cannot rectify the situation by claiming that instead of communicating to clarify, you communicated to influence. Communication to influence is not a hail Mary to save the day.
Finally, if you sell something as “NLP” your marketing material will, of course, be communications to influence. Yet, when you deliver the training programme, you need to communicate to clarify in order to explain what NLP is. It is this communication to clarify that is Fake NLP if your clarification conflicts with core elements of NLP.