Clean Language
Clean Language is devised by David Grove. He was a psychotherapist specialising in trauma therapy.
He did research into what the effect was of the question on the client. In his research he discovered that when words would be used in the questions that weren’t coming from the client, this often resulted in a disruption of the client’s process. It would take the client out of their mental model or metaphor landscape. It would cause the client to move their attention to the question being asked of them instead of keeping it on the process at hand.
His research into these effects eventually lead to the creations of what we now know as Clean Language and Clean Questions. In essence this is a set of questions that have been designed in a way that they disrupt the clients process in the least amount possible whilst still allowing being able to guide the clients’ attention to specific areas of their mental model or metaphor landscape.
Systemic Modelling
When Caitlin Walker became aware of David Grove and his work, it intrigued her so much that she started working together with David. She wanted to know how she could teach others to use this simple and highly effective manner of asking questions. As she learned Clean Language, she also started using it with groups of people, at first with children and later with adults. One of the effects of using Clean Language with groups is that people would get curious about other people’s models and so became more aware of how their own models work. Not only for themselves, but also for others in the group. This resulted in people starting to advocating for others in the group, as they would be aware that continuing would not work for them given their models.
Caitlin wrote a book about her work with Clean Language, the children and also with businesses and it is called “From Contempt to Curiosity”. In her book she describes her journey of working in a clean way with groups and how she eventually created what is now known as Systemic Modelling.
Pascal about Clean Language
Clean Language is more of a mindset or a way of being than anything else. It has become a part of me, not that I’m clean all the time, but it is there right beneath the surface, close at hand, always there when I need it.
Ultimately, it’s a tool set of exercises and behaviours and skills that can be used in a way that will elicit information in a very effective manner – both known and unknown information.
Often we call this unknown information “emergent knowledge”. The experience of saying something that I have never said or thought of in such a way before. This is something very familiar to me and one of the best things that I get out of Clean Language.
This “emergent knowledge” is like a piece of a puzzle that lands just in the right place to complete the puzzle. Something that will bring some kind of insight or will combine two or more things for me in such a way that it becomes more clear to me.
With Clean Language we strive to bring in the least amount of our models into our questions and we try to be continually aware of this. This results in us making less assumptions, or at least we try to use our curiosity to double check our inferences. This Clean stance has become more and more important to me, it helps me to listen better, to have a better understanding of others, and to see the value in different ideas and opinions.