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CLEAN LANGUAGE- What happens if you really listen to what others mean rather than say?
Ashok
More importantly, this is very simple and needs a bit of practice to use it in a way the other person doesn't really notice that you are trying something on them.
Background
Language is said to have a surface structure and 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 allow the subject to go into their deep structure and 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 asks for a lot of details and that is very rude.
Question : What do you 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 questions. You have to be in his good books.
Subject : Yes! That's true and I will work on it.
To explain... The reality would have been that 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 the use of clean questions, we help the subject to go into themselves and discover 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 asks for a lot of details and that is very rude. (Deletion, Generalisation)
Question : Asks for a lot of details?? …and how do you know that asking for 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 knows everything and that is really irritating… (Deletion, Generalisation)
Question : How do you know that he talks as though he knows everything?
Subject : He is very knowledgeable on the project and puts his ideas first, not allowing to explain my thoughts to him. (Generalisation)
Question : How is he putting his ideas first? Does he not allow you to explain your thoughts to him.?
Subject : The moment he speaks in a dominating and loud tone, I go off and become a bit nervous…
Question : You go off and become 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 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…
Question: ... You feel nervous …What do you think you can do about that?
Subject : I think I should be able to talk with confidence, next time, some how...
Question : ... Talk with confidence…?
Subject : Yes, I think I will practise 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 see the differences with and without clean questions. The application of clean questions are limitless when it comes to mastery of language to influence others’ thinking. Recently I gave a talk to some 60 police officers from all over the state of Tamil Nadu on how they could elicit more precise information from anyone they dealt with by using clean questions. The concept of clean questions was very much appreciated by them both for its impact on communication and for its ease in putting into practice.
In the above example, I have used only a few clean questions and 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 and 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 and Penny Thompson, who had modelled David Grove for more than
2 years, have arrived at a lot of interesting stuff about which you can find a number of articles, at www.cleanlanguage.co.uk