Can we learn anything from books?
You ask what a silly question. We learn from books, at least the older generation, the younger ones are learning everything from the Internet. But did you really learn it or did you just learn about it?
The difference between knowledge and the ability to apply knowledge is enormous. Each of us has learned to read and write, but only a small fraction of people can write engaging stories or books. Most of us have learned to run, but only a fraction of us runs a hundred metres under 11 seconds or runs a marathon.
Most of us read daily. Recommendations on how to get rich, how to improve your relationships, how to communicate more effectively are all around us. These advice are given by people who know what they are talking about, have experience, can be trusted, yet few of us can apply it to our lives. The problem is that reading alone is never enough.
After the initial knowledge must come the application, we must use the knowledge to really know it. Get rid of old habits, start new ones, correct wrong steps, improve yourself. Day-to-day training is the only way to really learn something. We are subjects to the laws of nature and they say it clearly what is not used is lost.
You can read new information, gain new knowledge, but without putting it into practice, without daily training, there is little chance that you will really be able to use it.
In acquiring new communication skills, this is all the more difficult because our internal processes and automatic responses are so deeply rooted that they can be corrected or controlled only by purposeful and conscious training.
During training, our body and mind must get tired in order to reach the limits. At that moment, we can actively move the limits little further. Some exceptional individuals can do it even when reading a book, for us average mortals we need a strong experience and lots of energy energy to be able to change ourselves.
This is exactly what we do in our Process Communication Model trainings. The participants experience new knowledge in interactive exerceses and then actively use it, encounter their own internal perceptions and processes, get to know them better, apply the new knowledge, and at the end of the trainning leave with extended knowledge and ability to apply this knowledge in daily communication.
Try PCM training too, when Bill Clinton did it, why couldn't you too :-)