But Why?

As we went through our NLP Practitioner and Master Practitioner and Trainer Training we all grappled with Milton language to varying effect. There were a particular bunch of us who really struggled to get our heads around it. But somewhere in there Neil found a really good talent for it that made the rest of us green with envy.

During the evenings of our residential course modules we started a thing called the 'Milton Club'. A loose group of post-pub acolytes determined to master it. We sat in circles playing with the Salad cards of Jamie Smart and also Whack Cards, both of which throw words and phrases at you so you can improvise Miltonian sentences. They were good and worked well as long as we had them in front of us but we still couldnt quite grasp the 'How' of it. The drink helped and it did not go unnoticed that it was far easier to do after a couple of pints than before the pub visit. The trouble was, with one more pint it started to go again.

We picked Neil's brain and gained a few insights but beyond a couple of ideas he wasnt so sure how he did it either. So he and I decided to model it out.

We began with the idea of producing a set of cards and the design of the cards that you see in the book has survived from that initial idea (see www.influentialcommunication.co.uk/products.htm )
The names for the different sections changed though. We also wanted to go for an 'Early Learning Centre' kind of look, with primary colours to make it look like a kids book and hopefull fire some anchors of simple learning. However, when we sent them to all of the members of the old Milton club we got mixed repsonses to the layout. Some people found the bright colours distracting. One suggested that for them it would work better if the boxes were in pastel shades. We went half way and produced bold pastels which seemed to satisfy everyone, including us.

LEARNING POINT AT THIS STAGE: Layout and colours are very important in a highly visual book. Some respond well whilst others can be thrown by it. Also getting feedback from possible users can be tremendously important in developing a project. This is when we decided to keep this element going. It is not watering your material down to keep everyone happy. You can accept, reject or modify the feedback suggestions you get but it is helpful to get perspectives from different learning styles and preferences.