NUERO LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING: ITS IMPORTANCE IN THE ARMED FORCES

 TOWARDS A MORE FULFILLED LIFE

Today, all of us live in a constantly changing world where there is never a certainty of what will happen tomorrow. This feeling of uncertainly gives shape to apprehensions, anxiety and depression. How do we then make our inner self control stronger and tame this monkey mind. It is indeed a challenge which demands the attention of each one of us.

My 37 years of experience in the Indian Army has been a journey of understanding the human resource as we as leaders are expected to motivate our men to follow us in battle where there is no certainty of anyone of us coming back alive. What is the feeling which makes us do that even when odds are stacked against us? The Kargil operations are a testimony to this fact that young officers led their men into the fire of death. The ever ringing words of Capt Manoj Kumar Pandey, “If death strikes before I prove my blood, I swear I will kill death” as well as Capt Vikram Batra saying, “Yeh Dil Maange More”.

In Army life every day is a challenge. As per statistics we have lost 390 men due to suicides in the past three years. What can be the compelling cause for a soldier to take his life? The answer lies in our mental condition and therefore each one of us has to control our mind, body and spirit. Having been exposed to Nuero Linguistic Programming now, I feel we have the necessary tools and techniques with us now to perceive our life in a different way. NLP creates an order out of chaos and makes us see things from the others point of view. What I have seen from my interactions gives me a deduction that that “effective people are those who often break existing patterns and do something different.”

Therefore, how do we go about improving our life? I will discuss a few tools of NLP which can help all of us in the process. The first and foremost tool which comes to my mind is rapport building and anchoring. It is fascinating how well it works. The Pavlov experiment on dogs tells it all. Just a mere emphasis on a word, touch could induce a resourceful state within us. Taking an example of when we give a presentation. How would you like it when we use an anchor such as slapping our hands or hitting our chest to induce a very positive state within us? This also helps when we want to persuade someone during a sales or a marketing pitch. If we get used to anchoring we could even get charged up by the way a person smiles at you.

Anchoring is done in a big way in the Indian Army. Before going on an important mission, the war cry of the regiment spurs everyone on. Even when a Commanding Officer gives a “Bara Khana” after every successful visit of a senior officer its gets anchored in such a way, that troops look forward to this after every visit. Similarly many a times when we taste a particular food it may remind us of our grandmother’s cooking.

The next important tool we all could use is this swishing pattern. It makes us give up unwanted habits. If you have a habit of smoking it can replace the urge of smoking with say going for a jog. This technique can be beautifully applied in cases of post war trauma in the armed forces as well as when dealing with stress when we fall short of my proclaimed goals. The image which causes us this trauma or stress gets replaced with another image which induces positivity or a happier moment.

We also come across a language pattern in NLP also known as the Meta model. It is a code on how we tend to think. Human beings do not interact with reality directly but through the five senses. Once we receive information we tend to make a sense of it. Our language emerges after we have deleted, distorted and generalised information. Once you understand how this happens within your filters and your values/beliefs, you would be in a better position to convert your responses closer to reality.

The last and most import aspect of making your life better relates to your goal orientation and values elicitation. If you set your goals using the SMART process coupled with your neurological levels like, Purpose, Beliefs/values, Competence, Behaviour, and Environment and so on you would be able to ensure a greater success to achieve them. On the other hand value elicitation makes you realise your true self and gives you the motivation to move from your present to the desired state. For example if your goal is to marry a beautiful girl or have a seven figure package, the value elicitation makes you access it better. Once you detach this object of salary with the values associated with it, such as peace, happiness, joys i.e. if you feel the moment that you have achieved this goal, does it give you a feeling of happiness or peace. Can you access this feeling of happiness even otherwise; you will then understand what motivates you. Once you fulfil your highest values, then the real contentment comes.

I have seen a lot of people who withhold their pleasures and happiness before they reach their goals. Value elicitation makes you enjoy this process.

NLP is also a very important tool for performing the role of a mentor or a coach. It helps you move from a present state to a desired state by creating choices and options and then deciding on your future pace to kick start the process of self improvement as well as become a facilitator to improve others. After all life must be lived forwards but it can only be understood backwards. Always remember when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Let’s embrace this moment and bring NLP in our lives.

Maj Gen Rajan Kochhar, VSM, retired from the Indian Army, as Major General Army Ordnance Corps, Central Command, after 37 years of meritorious service to the Nation. Alumni of Defence Services Staff College and College of Defence Management, he holds a doctorate in Emotional Intelligence and is a reputed expert on logistics and supply chain management. Gen Kochhar, a prolific writer and defence analyst, has authored four books and invited as an expert commentator by various news TV channels. He is a former Dean NIET and now is a faculty with them. He is now a NLP Coach practitioner.

ramesh chander sharma- advt

 

TOWARDS INDIA’s QUEST FOR SPORTING EXCELLENCE

 

A nation, as vast as ours with a population of over 1.3 billion people hasn’t really made headlines on the world stage with our sporting achievements. At the Rio Olympics in 2016 we got the 67^th position with just got two medals, silver and bronze but none in any team event. Even countries as small as even Singapore was ahead of us. We pride ourselves in sending large contingents for such events but with no desired results. It is therefore imperative that as a nation which has 65 percent of its population below 35 years to galvanise itself towards development of sports infrastructure and build up our youth towards sporting excellence, in case the Prime Minister Plan Task Force 2028 is to achieve any tangible results.

Multi Pronged Approach

Sports and games have historically played a significant role in the development of personality traits and qualities like discipline, tolerance and leadership amongst the youth. We have large unexplored talent and potential which need to be discovered, therefore a multi pronged and multi stake holder approach is imperative. The involvement of the public sector, private sector and the society in a structured manner would be required. There is also a need for a better coordination between different departments of the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs as well as the State Sports departments, more so when Sports is a state subject. The development of a sporting culture within our educational system is also a dire necessity.

Talent Hunt Task Force

We have 155 sports which are played in India and amongst these 25 are high impact sports. Notable amongst these are hockey, cricket, tennis, badminton, golf, boxing, wrestling, shooting, polo, soccer and so on. The first step therefore should be to identify our key areas of excellence or key result areas where we would like to lay emphasis. We could build upon short term, medium term and large term objectives i.e. three years, five years and ten years. Each objective must be clearly enunciated with laid down measurable results to be achieved. Each of the disciplines selected must be headed over by a task force consisting of former sports persons specialising in the desired field. This task force must report directly to the Sports Ministry with regular feedback and updates. Their main task would be to scout talent in rural areas and smaller cities, interact with local sports bodies and educational institutions and have their presence in all local sports events being organised. The BCCI model could be studied as it has given excellent results in our cricketing exploits. Today India is the No 1 test team in the world. Apart from the Sports Authority of India, and the Indian Olympic Council, the rural NGOs and Panchayati Raj Institutions need to be incorporated.

Infrastructure Up gradation

The next step would be to create adequate infrastructure facilities within each zone/sporting discipline selected. India has only 100 sporting facilities of international standards. A large number of our former sportsmen have created their own private academies. We need to exploit these as well as create a sporting hub in each region where we can get our best coaches, equipment and accommodation to train the selected talent. Existing infrastructure at each level must be exploited. The role of the Orissa Govt to create a centre of excellence for hockey is a case in point.

The sports budget allocation also would need a detailed look. In the financial year 2019-20, a total of 2216.92 crores were allocated for sports. This is considerably very less to create a viable infrastructure in this country. Therefore, we need to go in for a PPP model i.e. Public-Private-Partnership for each selected sporting discipline.

Sports is a multi dollar industry today. It can impact India’s economic growth, if promoted and sustained in a focussed manner. It must be given an industry status and moved out of the amusement and entertainment domains.

Branding

            Today more than 80 percent of advertising of sports goes to cricket. A recent study on games favoured by various brands concluded that cricket constituted 86 percent, football 45 percent, hockey 28 percent, golf 27 percent, marathons 26 percent and tennis 21 percent. Rest of the disciplines have miniscule branding. The advent of Indian Premier leagues in cricket, hockey, football, badminton and kabaddi has been a game changer. We have been able to get a large number of foreign sportspersons to come to India and show case their talent. At the same time the participation of our youth has also increased and some rural talents have emerged on the horizon. However we need to further improve this and bring other sports disciplines like wrestling, boxing, shooting, equestrian and so on also on a similar platform.

The Indian Army Model

            It would also be worthwhile to look at the Indian Army model, which started the “Mission Olympics Node” in 2001. A total of five nodes were developed in the following disciplines (being the core strength of the Indian Army) as follows:-

·         Army Sports Institute Pune- Archery, boxing, weightlifting, wrestling, basketball, volleyball and karate.

·         Army Marksmanship Unit, Mhow- Shooting.

·         Army Equestrian Node, Meerut- Equestrian and Polo.

·         Army Rowing Node, Pune- Rowing.

·         Army Yachting Node, Mumbai- Yachting.

As a result of these efforts Indian Army was able to send nine sportspersons for the Tokyo Olympics, notably amongst the talent which emerged were Rajavardhan Rathore(Shooting), Vijay Kumar(Shooting), Neeraj Chopra(Discuss) and Amit Panghal(Boxing).

The Neurological Levels Approach

            The entire issue of development of sports in our country as a culture would need to be analysed from the six elements at the neurological levels. These aspects are extremely vital to the growth of sports in our context and explained as:-

·         Purpose/Mission- Need to identify certain disciplines in which we need to achieve results. Should not be individual but organisation centric.

·         Identity- Lay down specific yardsticks where we can measure or quantify how many sportspersons in each discipline we build up.

·         Beliefs/Values- Need to select those officials whose value and belief system is to work for the country and for the furtherance of the mission and not have any vested interests.

·         Capability/Competence- Important to identify the right talent which can be harnessed and developed further.

·         Behaviour- Giving the necessary confidence to the sportspersons and coaches that failure, if any, is temporary and should not deter us even if some objectives are not achieved to the desired levels.

·         Environment- What would be the positive/negative spin offs which we would get on achieving our objectives. How we make achievement of each body, coach, athlete etc attractive in terms of monetary benefit, job security etc. Need to be spelt out at the outset.

Summary

In the development of sports in the country there has to be a higher purpose other than own self interests and fixated agenda. The key aspects which would need to be addressed are enumerated:-

·         Recognise sports as an industry.

·         Move towards a PPP framework.

·         Have the right people in charge to scout, identify and develop talent especially in the rural areas. Incorporate maximum involvement of former sportspersons.

·         Develop existing infrastructure and identify regions for sporting excellence.

·         Identify high impacts sports/medal winning disciplines such as shooting, wrestling, boxing and so on.

·         Increase budgetary allocation to cater for growth of sports.

·         Need to recognise tourism as an economic spin off in the development of sports thereby encouraging sports tourism.

A holistic approach towards development our sports infrastructure and encouraging the youth of the country to develop a sporting attitude is very important for the national integration of our nation. The sporting culture has to be enmeshed within our educational system. The success of sportspersons at each level has to be incentivised. The culture of nepotism and favouritism on the basis of caste, religion and gender needs to be given up. Sports competitions give a feeling of belonging and an identity or a national symbol to everyone that they belong to, that is only present in the specified nation and cannot be found elsewhere. Let’s give the clarion call “Chak de India”.

Maj Gen Rajan Kochhar, VSM, retired from the Indian Army, as Major General Army Ordnance Corps, Central Command, after 37 years of meritorious service to the Nation. Alumni of Defence Services Staff College and College of Defence Management, he holds a doctorate in Emotional Intelligence and is a reputed expert on logistics and supply chain management. Gen Kochhar, a prolific writer and defence analyst, has authored four books and invited as an expert commentator by various news TV channels. He has represented the Army Northern Command in Cricket and Tennis and is an avid golfer and sports enthusiast.