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Shelle Rose Charvet
Review by Bernadette Hernandez

Target audience: Any one who is interested in understanding communication and what lies at the core of good communication. They can be managers, negotiators, salespeople, doctors, coaches, trainers and consultants, in fact anyone with an interest and motivation to want to know more.

Summary of content: Shelle Rose Charvet introduces her book stating, "poor communication is today's number one problem at work, at home and in the world at large. Discords among people are frequent, from small annoyances like twenty-minute phone calls to life-long parent-child resentments, to intractable conflicts between nations. Finding solutions to communication problems has been the focus of much study and development of many models". In 1985 Charvet encountered a specific tool developed from NLP that completely changed the way she communicated. The tool is called the 'Language and Behaviour Profile'. Shelle explains that it is a way of thinking about people and groups which allows you to notice and respond to how they get motivated, process information and make decisions. Charvet provides the readers with the history of the LAB profile and the follows it with a description of the 'Meta Programmes'. She explains that there are two separate kinds of 'Meta programmes'. The first set of 'Meta Programmes' being 'Motivation Traits'. These are the patterns that indicate what a person needs to get and stay motivated in a given context or the traits that could demotivate them in a given context. The second set of 'Meta Programme' she describes are the 'Working Traits'. This set of 'Meta Programmes' describes the internal mental processing that a person uses in a specific situation.

Shelle Rose Charvet takes the reader through an in depth description of the 14 Meta programmes that make up the 'Motivation and Working Traits'. She tells you the kind of language to use to reach particular kinds of people - useful in sales, negotiation, motivation and deciding whom to employ for a particular job. The book concludes with a summary of the 'Lab Profile Worksheet' that gives you examples of questions to use to elicit each trait and what each trait means.

Recommended features: I would recommend reading the whole book to get the in-depth knowledge required for understanding the 'Lab Profile'.

Personal impressions: Shelle Rose Charvet has certainly sold the benefits of the 'Lab Profile' to me as a Salesperson, Sales Manager, Coach, Consultant, Trainer and Parent. I cannot help but feel the contagious enthusiasm for the 'Lab Profile'.

I remember reading this book for the first time and thinking "Wow!" If I could master this it would make people even more interesting.

Charvet allows us an insight into others as well as ourselves that can explain the mismatches in communication and the reasons why some communication situations work so smoothly.

Charvet has given us a book that is structured in chronological order from 'motivation traits' to 'working traits'. She uses language that is easy to understand in her explanations of the 'Meta Programmes'.In all of my roles I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to communicate more effectively.

Bernadette Hernandez
November 2004