Are You Already On Track With Conversations At Work?
I heard this week about a staff nurse who thought she wasn’t using Clean Language in her hospice job. It turned out that she was - she just didn’t realise it.
She’s one of those people who loves to chat and struggles with silence. She has lots of great, highly-practical advice to offer to patients.
So for her to hold back… to pause… to ask a single question and then shut up… all of that’s a big deal.
She’d attended a one-day introductory Clean Language workshop back in October and this week, the training manager checked in with her.
The manager told me: “She said she wasn’t finding ways to use it. So I just challenged that and I asked how she would normally go about pulling out that information that that you know is there, that people sometimes don’t find the words to say.
“And she said “I’ve been using silence.”
“And when I asked again what kind of words did she use, she said, ‘Well, I have used What kind of…? a bit.’ So she has tried it.”
I love this story! I love the courage it reveals: both the nurse and her manager were willing to experience the discomfort of trying something new in pursuit of a better service for their patients. (Hopefully I’ll soon be able to add names etc to this as part of a larger case study.)
But I wanted to share this now as a build on last week’s post, where I sketched out a vision of how one might spot an organisation that was using Clean as 'the core of how we operate'.
The route to there from ‘here’ (wherever we are right now) involves a bunch of small steps. Each one takes a little (or a big) effort. We often feel we’re not really being Clean because we’re not yet doing everything we’ve been taught, in every possible context.
To make progress, it’s important to notice what is working. What you, and your colleagues, are doing.
The nurse didn't need to do everything perfectly. She just needed to notice: I paused. I asked one question. I didn't jump in with advice. That's the signal.
Is there anything else that could let you know that Clean’s finding a place in your work and your workplace? Please comment below!
Jusd, great post pointing out that people ask Clean Language questions all the time without realising it.
In my experience the group who most often use Clean Language unknowingly are waiters and shop assistants. They commonly use some form of "And anything else?”.
Let’s turn the thought on it’s head. How come, in everyday conversations, people ask leading questions so often? I’ve not come across any well-researched statistics but I would bet good money that over 90% of questions asked are leading. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were over 95%.
As a trivial example, this morning I asked my wife, “Would you like a cup of tea?” when I could have said, “I’m making a cup of tea, can I get you anything?”
Understanding what motivates us to ask so many leading questions, especially when a Clean Language question would be more appropriate, might be key to supporting people to learn to asking cleaner questions more often.
I no longer work in an office environment; however, with clients, whether online or in person, when a client identifies a feeling or pain of some sort, I start with What kind of ____ is _____ and usually I go to Where is______. I recently watched a webinar you led, and I do not go into that level of detail; however, since this form of language inquiry is new to me, it will take practice. I guess I should write down the questions as well.