By Judy Rees, delivered Ecclefechan Sept 2013

1. X-Ray Listening
Judy Rees

2. Judy Rees
• Passionate about connecting minds and
bodies via metaphor, to catalyse change
• Co-author of Clean Language: Revealing
Metaphors and Opening Minds
• International coach and trainer

3. Asking About Metaphor
• When you are listening at your best, you are
like... what? (Starter question only)
• What kind of X (is that X)?
• Is there anything else about X?

4. What did you notice?

5. Listening Benefits
• Brings you clarity about what people mean
• Reduces misunderstandings and conflict
• Helps listenees to think precisely
• Builds rapport and trust
• Conceals your ignorance!

6. AreYou Listening?
1.Listen
2.Be distracted
3.Listen
Notice what happens!

7. What Makes A Good
Listener?
Your suggestions

8. Deeper Listening?
1.Person A talks about something
important to them
2.Person B listens without speaking (can
smile and nod)
Notice what happens!

9. What Happened?
• When you were being listened to?
• When you were the listener?
• To the relationship between you?

10. Parrot Phrasing

11. Parrot Phrasing
1.Person A talks about something
important to them
2.Person B encourages them by
repeating selected words and phrases
3.Person C listens for metaphors and
makes some notes for later

12. A waitress increased her tips by 70%
simply by repeating the customer’s order
back to them in their own words, rather
than saying “okay” or “coming right up”
University of Nijmegen, 2005

13. Metaphor

16. Metaphor
Thought is made of metaphor -
the native language of the
unconscious mind

17. Metaphor
Describes one kind of thing in
terms of another kind of thing

18. Surfaces And
Essences
Douglas Hofstadter and
Emmanuel Sander

19. Metaphors In Mind
• Categorising
• Creating
• Interpreting
• Deciding
• Learning

20. Coins Activity
• Take a handful of coins
• Arrange them to represent either:
• you and your family, or
• you and your colleagues

21. Metaphor In Language
• Six metaphors per minute
• Side-effect of metaphoric thought
• Can be used to connect with the
unconscious mind

22. Metaphor in Thought
• Change in metaphor in language can lead to
change in thought
• Change in metaphor in thought “rearranges
neurology” - everything changes

23. The Mind

25. David Grove’s
Clean Language
Clean Language
Precision toolkit for
working with
metaphor in thought

26. Noticing Metaphors

27. Natural Metaphors
• Cliches and proverbs
• Common metaphors - eg. journey, game,
space, force
• “It’s like...” is stated or implied

28. Directing attention
with questions

29. Clean Language Questions
• Precision tools for working with people’s
thoughts and directing attention
• Designed to minimise content input
• Include as few presuppositions and
metaphors as possible

30. • Use only the given question, with one or
more of the person’s own words
• “And when...” with a parrot-phrase is used
as a connector
Clean Language Questions

31. David Grove
1950 - 2008

32. Clean Language
• Created by David Grove for therapy
• Modelled/codified by Penny Tompkins and
James Lawley
• Now ideas applied in multiple contexts -
management, coaching, marketing etc
• Increasingly supported by academic
research

33. “Constraint inspires
creativity”

34. What happens when you
are asked a question?

35. The art of directing
attention

36. The
2 Lazy Jedi
Questions

37. 2 Lazy Jedi Qs: Uses
• Finding out more about anything!

38. 2 Lazy Jedi Questions
• What kind of X (is that X)?
• Is there anything else about X?

39. Words Are Personal
• Think of a flower
• What kind of flower is your flower?

40. Using The 2 LJQs
• What’s one of the goals you have in life?
(Starter only)
• What kind of X (is that X)?
• Is there anything else about X?

41. What did you notice?

42. The Dark Side Of
Metaphor

43. Discovering A Metaphor
• Listen for, and notice, natural metaphors
• Or ask:“And that’s... like... what?”
• Ask very slowly, with long pauses
• Metaphors are personal
• Ask Clean Language questions - the details
are always different

47. Handling The Dark Side
• Notice - is this a metaphor for a problem
or an outcome?
• If it’s a problem, take care! Either:
• Use Power Switch immediately or
• Ask up to two LJQs before asking for a
metaphor, then use the Power Switch

48. Exploring A Metaphor
• Start with “What would you like to have
happen?”
• Explore that outcome with Clean Language
questions
• Listen for, and explore, metaphors
• If drifting into problem, use Power Switch

49. The Power Switch
• And when <problem>, what would you like
to have happen?

50. The Power Switch Uses
• Changing focus from negative to positive
• Changing mood/state
• Unsticking
• Persuasion, influence, sales
• Conflict resolution

51. Power Switch Practice
• Start by stating a minor problem
• “And when <problem>, what would you
like to have happen?”

52. Power Switch Practice
• This time, start with a metaphor for a minor
problem
• And <problem> is like... what?>

53. Practice
• Person A talks about something/someone
they love (or a metaphor for that)
• What kind of X?
• Is there anything else about X?
• “And when <problem>, what would you
like to have happen?”

54. Feeling to Metaphor
• Person A mentions a feeling
• What kind of X?
• Is there anything else about X?
• Where/whereabouts is X?
• And that’s like... what?

55. Unlocking The
Emotional Brain
Bruce Ecker, Robin Ticic, Laurel Hulley

56. Coaching With Clean
• Get a “towards” outcome
• Get a metaphor for that outcome
• Develop the metaphor until chimes
• No fixing! Elicitation is the intervention

57. Coaching With Clean
• What would you like to have happen (as a
result of this module)?
• What kind of X?
• Is there anything else about X?
• Where/whereabouts is X?
• And that’s like... what?

58. Necessary Conditions
• What needs to happen for X?
• Conditions are often “nested”

59. When you are working
at your best, you are
like what?

60. Starts 3 October
http://bit.ly/181xxxw
http://bit.ly/181xxxw

61. Judy Rees
www.xraylistening.com - blog
www.learncleanlanguage.com - resources
www.judyrees.co.uk - coaching

62. http://youtu.be/D7rFhf7
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http://youtu.be/D7rFhf7
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63. http://youtu.be/2cU56S
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http://youtu.be/2cU56S
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64. http://youtu.be/aVvcU5
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http://youtu.be/aVvcU5
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