Slides on basics of Clean Language - with an orientation to use in business and teams to support inquiry. This covers some basics about the questions, exercises, modelling, a few models from Caitlin Walker's Systemic Modelling (Clean Feedback)... And some links to books and resources for learning more.

1. L A S C O T - O C T O B E R 6 T H , 2 0 1 6
Hacking Your Team and Organization
with Better Inquiry Skills

2. Andrea Chiou, Agile Coach
Connections-At-Work, LLC
@andreachiou
andrea@connections-at-work.com
Andrea Chiou, Agile Coach
www.connections-at-work.com
www.adaptivecollaboration.com

3. What is Clean Language?

4. David Grove
(d. 2007)
Psychotherapist

5. Transformation
Through Symbolic
Modeling

6. Inner Need to be Seen as Contributing
Professionalism
Fear of silence
Problem Solving
Unvalidated
Assumptions

7. What would you like to have happen?
I would like to know my team’s velocity.
Do you think knowing that will give you better
predictions?
Err, No… I don’t want to predict anything. I
want to know if things are going well.
OK, so why don’t you ask the team?
No, no… I don’t want to bother them.
T R A N S C R I P T E X A M P L E - N O T C L E A N

8. What would you like to have happen?
I would like to know my team’s velocity
Is there anything else about velocity?
Good velocity means I can stop worrying
And what kind of worrying is that worrying?
I worry about the sponsor pulling the plug.
T R A N S C R I P T E X A M P L E - C L E A N

9. C L E A N L A N G U A G E - D AV I D G R O V E
Clean Language is:
A way of listening without judgement
A way of inquiring without imposing

10. C L E A N L A N G U A G E - D AV I D G R O V E
The clean questions:
are content free
allow for exploring metaphors

11. • SENSORY INFORMATION
what is seen, heard, felt, tasted, smelled
• CONCEPTS
such as family, democracy, honesty, trust
• METAPHORS
• Explicit: encapsulate how we structure our experience
describing one thing in terms of another (usually from the
physical world)
• Implicit: so embedded in our language we don’t even notice
T H R E E WAY S O F E X P R E S S I N G O U R S E LV E S

12. Where%is%…?%
Whereabouts%%is%…?%
What%kind%of…?%
Is%there%anything%else%about…?%%
Clean%Ques9ons%–%David%Grove%
Note:%%replace%…%with%a%part%of%what%the%other%person%said.%

13. S Y M B O L I C M O D E L L I N G
Symbols exist in space
Symbols derive their context from some point in
time
Symbols have a life
Our mental landscape is comprised of symbols

14. D E M O
Volunteer needed
“What would you like to have happen?”

16. P R A C T I C E # 1
Pair up with someone you don’t know.
Think of something you would like to
have happen.
Ask: What would you like to have
happen?
Use the questions 2 or 3 times.

17. Where is …?
Whereabouts is …?
What kind of…?
Is there anything else about…?
Then what happens ?
What happens next?
Where could … come from?
What happens just before? That’s … like what?
What would you like to have happen?
When you are working at your best, you’re like what?
Clean QuesCons – David Grove
When X, what happens to Y ?
Is there a relaConship between X and Y?

18. P R A C T I C E # 2
Pair up with someone you don’t know.
Ask: When you’re working at your best
you’re like what?
Use the questions 2 or 3 times.

19. WHAT ELSE CAN YOU MODEL?
Learning
Parenting
Coding
Coaching
Time
Studying
Collaborating
Decisions
Ideal Team
Current Organization
Desired Organization
Motivation

20. And then what happens?
What happens next?
And what happens
just before…?
BEFORE AFTER
SOURCE
DESIRED OUTCOME
NECESSARY
CONDITIONS
And what needs
to happen for … ?
And can…?
And where could …
come from?
D
E
V
E
L
O
P
I
N
G
And what would …
like to have happen?
And what kind of …
is that …?
And is there anything
else about …?
And where is…?
And that’s … like what?
And is there a relationship
between … and …?
And when …
what happens to …??
Current
Perception

21. Business
Hiring
Coaching
Sales
In IT
Helping teach young kids
math, spelling, and music
Elementary School
Doctors
Geriatric care
Facilitating change in
organizations, schools,
training departments,
police departments
In therapy and change work
W H E R E I S C L E A N B E I N G A P P L I E D

22. From Drama to Karma
Clean Scoping
Clean Setup
Developmental Practice
Clean Feedback
Five Senses
Modeling Time
Metaphors At Work
Flower Model
S Y S T E M I C M O D E L L I N G - G R O U P S
Caitlin Walker, trainingattention.co.uk

23. K A R M A C Y C L E
Reproduced w/ permission: Training Attention

24. C L E A N F E E D B A C K
A three step process to give congruent useful,
judgement free feedback.
EVIDENCE What did you hear or see?
INFERENCE What did you infer?
IMPACT What was the impact on you?

25. C L E A N F E E D B A C K - E X A M P L E
What worked well:
EVIDENCE Numerous examples
INFERENCE Speaker did a lot of research
IMPACT Realized the magnitude of issue

26. C L E A N F E E D B A C K - E X A M P L E
What didn’t work well:
EVIDENCE History of involvement missing
INFERENCE Not important to the speaker
IMPACT Wanted her personal connection

27. C L E A N F E E D B A C K - E X A M P L E
What would have worked better:
EVIDENCE Projector would be focussed
INFERENCE Organizers care about seeing
IMPACT Everyone could read the slides

28. C L E A N F E E D B A C K
What worked well?
What did you observe?
What did you infer from
that?
What was the impact for
you?
What would work
better?
What will you observe?
What will that mean?
What will be the impact
for you?
What did not work so
well?
What did you observe?
What did you infer from
that?
What was the impact for
you?

29. adaptivecollaboration.com/books-i-recommend/
www.cleanlanguage.co.uk
leanpub.com/whoisusingclean/c/lascot16
#cleanlanguage on twitter
R E S O U R C E S F O R F U RT H E R L E A R N I N G

30. Virginia Satir
Gerald Weinberg
David Grove
Caitlin Walker
Innovator with Clean Language
applied in Groups:
Systemic Modeling
Originator of ‘Clean Language’
Used Questions free of Influence
to help Trauma victims heal
A Gentle Giant in
Software Dev, Testing,
Systems Thinking, Prolific Writer
Pioneer in Family Therapy, who
taught Jerry Weinberg much
about working together congruently
Gratitude

31. T H A N K Y O U F O R PA RT I C I PAT I N G !
@andreachiou
andrea@connections-at-work.com