What is Clean Language?
Clean Language and Clean Questions were devised by David Grove, a New-Zealand born psychotherapist, in the 1980’s. He discovered that when he used the clients own language and explored their metaphors using Clean Questions, his clients were able to develop powerful resources for change..
Clean Questions:
• Are more than open questions
• Have been stripped back and so don’t contain assumptions and metaphors and therefore allow the responder maximum freedom in thrown thinking
• Are used with the clients own words and language
• Are often used to explore metaphors
And thanks to people like James Lawley and Penny Tompkins, David Grove’s work has been refined and developed and is used in many different contexts.
When Clean Language is used with individuals it is called Symbolic Modelling and Systemic Modelling when used with teams/groups.
Clean language enables people to:
• Understand more about their patterns
• How they communicate
• How they work
• How they make assumptions
When individuals and teams know more about this they become curious about how they can change these pattens and find new ways to communicate, work, collaborate and make better decisions.
If you would like to find out more about the gentle efficiency of Clean Language please book a discovery call or participate in a Reflective Interview as part of our Leadership Research Project.
What is Systemic Modelling?
Systemic Modelling was developed by our associate Caitlin Walker PhD. Systemic Modelling couples David Groves Clean Questions with a number of models and theories such as: Clean Feedback, The Change Cycle, The Drama Triangle (Stephen B. Karpman), The Triune Brain (Paul D. MacLean), Clean Set Up, At Best/At Worst and other exercises. This approach is gently and efficiently resources a team to know more about itself and enables it to:
Move from contempt to curiosity
Communicate more effectively and suspend assumption
Listen and ask Clean Questions
What is Symbolic Modelling?
Symbolic Modelling is using Clean Language to facilitate individuals to become familiar with their metaphors and symbols that encapsulate their experiences so that they can find new ways to see themselves and the world around them.
Often clients discover that their metaphors can limit and contain and they can be a source of creativity and development.
By working with metaphors clients often report that they become more self-aware, more in balance, that they have a more defined sense of their place in the world and how to have a positive impact on the people around them.
Symbolic Modelling can be used to:
create new more useful metaphors that lead to positive behaviour change
model successful strategies and a positive state for success
facilitate change.
If you’d like to experience Clean Language yourself, book a discovery call.