Our business communities have experienced huge shifts in how to navigate the business world and community. Adapting is today’s opportunity and change is occurring at an unprecedented rate. The key to the future is to be willing to adapt and view changes for what they really are. CAUTION. Do not be blinded by your belief.

I started writing this article before the Kodak news hit the front pages because I view this business story as a real classic of a large corporation lacking the willingness to adapt and to meet the consumers need. This corporate giant ignored the trends and allowed the relationships they had with their customers to fall away. This company probably had one of the most treasured relationships of rapport with customers any company will ever have. Kodak! Yep that’s right and Kodak was like family, yours and mine.

Kodak was the brand we thought of when chronicling our lives with photographs. Every important event and milestone was recorded with Kodak film. Kodak was part of the family with the “Kodak Moment”. How did Kodak squander this precious commodity called trust? This is where rapport and technology went their separate ways. In business circles it’s was common knowledge that Kodak had well over a 90% market share.

Kodak did not adapt or change. The digital world moved on at accelerated pace and other companies stepped in to pioneer the path of technology in reshaping our consumer habits and how we view family photography. During this technological transition we were finding ourselves needing to adapt even though our photographic recording and cataloguing habits were deeply ingrained in us to use Kodak products. This relationship ran deep. What was a loyal customer to do when their Kodak moments were no longer supported by film? We really had no other choice than to move onto to digital and companies that could support our new digital cameras.

This is a powerful example and illustrates the power of rapport and the power of breaking rapport. As an individual business professional or practitioner rapport is the heart of your work. Without rapport you are automatically running at a deficit to negotiate, sell, train or market. Be mindful of this valuable tool in business and life and how to use it most effectively.

To have true rapport you must be genuine. The client or audience you are communicating with will pick up on insincerity. Faking it doesn’t work in the long run. Building rapport comes naturally to some but even natural rapport builders can improve upon their skills and techniques and with consistency positively impact business and relationships. N L P (Neuro Linguistic Programming) is a powerful skill to learn and will serve to compliment who you are as a person and help you to optimize the transfer of your knowledge, skills and abilities.

Neuro Linguistic Programming is a skill that influences relationships. Utilizing the tools and practicing the techniques adds a new skill set to the toolbox of communication. In Guy Kawasaki’s book Enchantment he states that “Enchantment is The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions”. I agree with him wholeheartedly that when we set an intention to express the art of communications we have the potential to inspire and transform our lives both business and professional.

Neuro linguistic Programming is the systematic study of human performance and a practical application of how people think and perform. This study of the structure of the subjective experience can be broken down into their smallest components (or chunks) and changed, modified, improved upon, or removed. This allows a framework for growth and change at much deeper levels more quickly than was originally thought. Learning these communications skills help you to adapt easily and effortlessly. With daily practice and application of the techniques adapting becomes more natural and comfortable than before.

N L P was developed through the efforts of several people. Some of the more notable names are David Gordon, Leslie Cameron-Bandler, Steve and Connirae Andreas, Robert Dilts, Richard Bandler, John Grinder, and many others. Their studies began in the 1970’s and have continued to grow to the present. L P techniques enable therapists to be much more effective in assisting change in their client’s lives. Neurolinguistic Programming brought about the ability to analyze and transfer human excellence.

N L P is based on the work of several people whom the above-mentioned studied. They include Alfred Korzybski, Virginia Satir, Milton Erickson, Fritz Pearls and Gregory Bateson, among others. They were chosen as excellence to model. Rapport building is a powerful tool for learning, teaching and sharing the gift of rapport. Here are a few pointers for February's heart of rapport:

• Learn rapport building skills for business & personal life
• Unleash self confidence with rapport skills
• Recognize how to create instant liking and agreement
• Experience the representation systems of N L P
• Anchor personal experience of techniques

Remember that true rapport with another person is a state of communications. It’s far more than words. When you enter into a relationship with rapport building skills and accomplish this at a true and sincere level you will have a synergistic level of communications. The relationship becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Rapport is energizing with vitality. This is true rapport.

I am reminded of one of my favourite quotes by Martha Graham from her autobiography, Blood Memory. “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.” ~ Martha Graham