When Sue talked about this in the last workshop in India, I was quite impressed with the idea, more than those questions, but gradually, when I paid more attention to how she spoke, to everyone, I was simply taken back. When I realised she was very much using them to get more clear precise unsaid information, about what the other person was talking about & and using the same to help them come out more clearly. I understood how modeling these clean questions in language, can work wonders in communication, motivation & coaching.

More importantly this is very simple & needs a bit of practice, to use it in a way, the other person doesn't really notices that u are trying something on them.

Background

Language is said to have a surface structure & a deep structure. It is always more common that we pay attention to what is said in the surface structure, rather than trying to understand the deep structure.When we use clean questions, we more allow the subject to go into their deep structure & understand what their thoughts really are ...

Example:

For example....working with the surface structure, with normal way of questioning would be something like this...

Subject: I am not confident about convincing my boss.

Question: Why?

Subject: He questions a lot of details and that is very rude.

Question: what do u think, you can do about that?

Subject: I dont know, but I should do something, but am not sure of winning his confidence in this project.

Question: I think you should do something.Try answering all his details.You have to be in his good books.

Subject: Yes!T hat's true and I will work on it.

Just for explanation sake...,the reality would have been, the boss has a dominating tone and a strict command over his subordinates and This person (subject) has made a meaning of his dominating nature as rude and finds it difficult to discuss things with him...So here, with use of clean questions, we help the subject to go into themselves & reiterate their own meanings, while communicating the same to us.

The question that you ask is...

Subject : I am not confident about convincing my boss.

Question: not confident about convincing your boss??…

Subject : yeah, He questions a lot of details and that is very rude. (Deletion,Generalisation)

Question: ...questions a lot of details?? …and. how do you know that he questioning a lot of details is very rude?

Subject : not rude…but very irritating…(Distortion)

Question: very irritating???….

Subject : Yes…The way he speaks is quite dominating..and he talks as though he knew everything and that is really irritating…(Deletion,Generalisation)

Question: how do you know that he talks as though he knew everything?

Subject :He is very knowledgable on the project and puts his ideas first, not allowing to explain my thoughts to him.(Generalisation)

Question: How is that he putting his ideas first, not allows you to explain your thoughts to him.?

Subject : The moment he speaks dominating and loud, I go off and a bit nervous…

Question: you go off and a bit nervous….and…

Subject : and I just could not explain my thoughts…(Limiting Language Pattern)

Question : What will happen if you can explain your thoughts?

Subject : if I can explain my thoughts, that would be wonderful. You know, he will be impressed with my ideas..

Question : ...he will be impressed with your ideas and what will happen next?

Subject : he may consult with me more frequently.

Question: and ...?

Subject : and I will enjoy a great rapport with him in the office…but I feel nervous, when speaking to him… will

Question: ...you feel nervous …what do u think you can do about that? Let the horse

Subject :I think I should be able talk with confidence, next time, some how....lead the cart...

Question : ....talk with confidence…?

Subject :Yes, I think I will practice talking with him during Tea time and Lunch breaks, casually and I think that will help.

Question: that's wonderful! Wish you all the best!

Subject : Thank you.

I guess, you would be able to see the differences with & without clean questions. The application of clean questions are limitless, when it comes to mastery of language to influence others thinking. I gave a talk to some 60 police officers recently from all over the state(Tamil Nadu), on how they can elicitate more precise information, from the anyone they deal with, by using these clean questions. The concept of clean questions was very much appreciated by them, for both its impact in communication & for its ease in putting into practice.

In the above example, i have used only a few clean questions & you can see, how much difference it makes.

The nine basic clean questions are

1.And is there anything else about ...?
2.And what kind of ... is that ...?
3.And where is ...?
4.And whereabouts?
5.And what happens next?
6.And then what happens?
7.And what happens just before ...?
8.And where did ... come from?
9.And that's ... like what?

You can find more explanation about this in the article..."Less is more...the art of clean language" by James lawley & Penny Thompson, in the following link http://www.devco.demon.co.uk/CleanLanguage.html The concept of Clean Language was developed by David Grove (www.davidgrove.com). James lawley & Penny Thompson, who had modeled David Grove for more than 2 years, have arrived at a lot of interesting stuff about which you can find a lot of articles, in www.cleanlanguage.co.uk