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When John Grinder got lost in London and Carmen

broke her shoes

Home / Articles / When John Grinder got lost in London and Carmen broke her shoes

POSTED IN MAY 2017 - WRITTEN BY MICHAEL CARROLL & JOHN

THOMPSON

HERE’S A GREAT LITTLE STORY ABOUT WHEN JOHN GRINDER GOT LOST IN
LONDON ON HIS WAY TO DELIVERING AN ’EVENING WITH JOHN GRINDER’
This blog has been woven together from a conversa on which was ini ated on Facebook where Terry
McCoy an a endee at the event recalled John’s response to a ques on that evening whether other NLP
Associa ons recognise his work.
I’ll elaborate with the story of John ge ng lost that evening and John Thompson, who was working with
the Academy at that me, has added his account of what happened when he went to find John.
So the stage was set, the cameras were ready to roll, 200 people were ready and wai ng for the session
‘An evening with John Grinder’. There was only one ‘slight’ snag, John Grinder wasn’t there! I had never
known John Grinder to be late, this was a first.

Rather than the usual pre-arranged driver, John decided to walk to the venue from his hotel which was a
tricky 10 minute walk across Covent Garden’s small streets. The event was hosted in the New Connaught
Rooms. John Thompson and I figured John Grinder must be lost in Covent Garden, me was cking on so I
asked John Thompson to go and look for John Grinder on the streets, en route to the seminar venue from
John Grinder’s hotel.
Twenty minutes later the two John’s entered the seminar, and I have to say how pleased I was to see them
both. I could have hugged John Thompson on the spot, I saved that for later. I was stunned to see John
Grinder in a suit and e, he seemed very relaxed a er his Covent Garden diversion.
John was on red hot form that night. In the 15 years of working with John, it is the only me I have seen
him wear a suit and e for a presenta on, and the only me he was late for an event. John apologised for
the delayed start, and told the group he had had an entertaining me wandering the streets of Covent
Garden which he thought all looked similar.
John Grinder smashed it that night with 200 people hanging onto every word. He stayed an extra hour on
the stage and an extra hour a er mingling with the people. It was truly magical stuff.
One of the ques ons that was asked that night, was ‘does the INLPTA (Wya Woodsmall) recognise John’s
Trainers Trainings,’ without a blink John replied ‘I think your ques on is, do I recognise them?’ [INLPTA]
Please leave us a message
John went on to give us a first-hand descrip on of NLP history, behind the scene happenings, what he is
working on at that me and his views on the NLP Associa ons who are jumping on the NLP band wagon
without recognising himself or Richard.
At the end of the evening, I said to John Grinder, I will arrange a driver for you to which he answered ‘I will
walk Michael’. The look I gave him must have revealed what I was thinking as he replied ‘do you think I am
stupid enough to get lost twice?’ I didn’t argue!

So off he went marching back into the Covent Garden night. I never asked if he got lost on his way back to
the hotel, I doubt he did. The following morning he was at the venue 30 minutes early, no suit and e, he
was in his usual a re, interac ng with people before the course began, it was like a seminar during
registra on.

That is a quality I admire in John, he is ALWAYS there for the people, before the course starts, during
breaks and a er he finishes. It’s like a series of mini John Grinder events through the day and people love it.

In those 4 days we had a magical me with John and Carmen.

Another unexpected event at that course was when Carmen jumped off the stage and broke her very high
heal on her very expensive shoe. She con nued without her shoes while John Thompson saved the day
again and had the heal repaired quicker than you can say ‘New Code NLP.’

So this is what John Thompson has to say about finding John Grinder and fixing Carmen’s shoe.

“Back in the day, on that red hot night which I remember vividly, I was given a task in London town to find
the co-creator of NLP as 200 people were wai ng for him. This was not a task I wanted however, in those
days it was part of the deal when working alongside Michael Carroll, John Grinder and Carmen Bos c St
Clair, and I grew to enjoy the experiences. I never knew if the tasks (and there were many) were real or
tests.

John Grinder would talk of the tests Erickson would share with him and Richard Bandler. So walking up
Great Queen St pondering of the op on to jump in front of a taxi (buses did not go up Great Queen St), I
chose to let my unconscious take me on a route to John Grinder’s hotel, a guy who was lost may take.

Sure enough walking down Drury Lane like a La er Day Dandy was the man himself, enjoying the evening
air and void of any sense of me. He was grateful we met and walked calmly into the venue. John Grinder
(along with Richard Bandler and Frank Pucelik) are men with history, stories and values that emerged and
are emerging. Back in the seven es, (way before I knew about NLP) John and Richard had shared values,
curiosity of what if and a sense of collabora on. That’s how it all started and that is how it should con nue.

For me one thing I learned from John was the spirit of NLP which seems to be lacking in today’s world. In
2005, a few years a er the New Connaught Rooms event, I was with John in Norway and he sent me an
email with the tle ‘Statement made by John Grinder’. It was a three paragraph communica on about me
from him to use as I wished. I have never published or used the statement in marke ng as I took it as a
personal gi . In rela on to the comments above I was reminded of those two tasks Michael men oned.
John Grinder wrote “John Thompson is one of the few members of the NLP Community who I have
observed and who is consistently effec ve in tasking - perhaps the single most powerful class of
interven ons in professional change work.”

Back to 2003, I never knew if John was really lost in London and if Carmen broke her shoes on purpose,
but it didn’t ma er. The spirit of NLP for me is how the creators are as people. I observed John Grinder
help many in ways that made significant differences to their lives. He was humorous and humble and many
of his quali es outside NLP are more powerful than the pa erns of NLP. This I would imagine is true of the
other co-creators.”
- John Thompson, NLP Trainer, Leeds

Michael continues
That’s how it was for John Thompson and me back then when we worked on big events with a small team.
We all mucked in and there was a lot to do, and unexpected things occurred, which I also thought were
tasks from John and Carmen. A key feature of their coaching model was tasking which is se ng up
scenarios for a person to manage a situa on and solve problems etc. and to demonstrate state and
integra on of NLP pa erning.
On reflec on, there may have been one or two tasks to test our abili es and competence, I think most of
what John Thompson and I managed were genuine events with John and Carmen. For example, they are
incredibly crea ve and adapt seminars to fit with the audience. John and/or Carmen could have a new idea
at breakfast, or develop a new pa ern at dinner the night before. So when John Thompson and I would
meet them, the plan for the day could easily change and the new ideas would need materials of all different
shapes and sizes, and were not always easily sourced.
John Thompson and I always pulled it off. No ma er what was asked for, we sourced it. No ma er how
many mes the plan changed we rolled with it. Then there was the normal stuff; venues, sound systems
and suppor ng par cipants. In some cases people were so out of their comfort zone through embarking on
a Grinder- Bos c event, they needed support to reorganise their map.
So what has changed in 15 years? Well John Thompson is doing his own work with his own training school
‘NLP Metropolis’. John and Carmen now run NLP Prac oner, NLP Coaching and Trainers Training courses
with the Academy and not just 4 day seminars as in 2003. And me, I am a co-trainer with John and Carmen
on the cer fica on courses which really is great fun.

Furthermore, I always make sure that John knows how to get to the venue.

COMMENTS

2 Comments Sort by Oldest

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Kelly Wieninger
here seems to be an error on the website
Like · Reply · 13w

Linda Nicholls
Did anyone proof read this document in the last few years, first impressions are important
Like · Reply · 6w

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