Thanks for the article. I tend to act like those who feel frustrated that they don’t know what they want. If I actually stop and imagine it as a metaphor, it has a better chance of becoming visible.
Philip Rowland
16 April 2014
Great article.
And after all, this is about change, i.e. addressing the problem and changing that, or maybe I should say: discovering a way to allow it to transform?
Sioelan
24 April 2014
Fab article, more food for thought and worth exploring! Had lovely client which very much fit this profile. Intelligent and giving good reasons for where she is, feeling overwhelmed and trapped in a situation that she doesn’t want to be in and she wants to run away preferably to somewhere warmer.Would you explore the neg. metaphor and then ask what would you like instead and then perhaps explore what happens just before, after and where might X come from?
Judy
24 April 2014
Hi Sioelan, great to see you here. I think that yes, I would explore the negative metaphor, fairly briefly. I might then ask “what would you like instead?” or “what would you like to have happen?”, but I’d have a bunch of alternatives, based on the nature of the metaphor.
For example one recent client was “in a rut”, and in exploring the rut it became clear that he was aware of light “at the end of the tunnel” which then provided a focus for my questions.
Another was “going round in circles” and he didn’t really care where he went next, as long as he got out of the circle. So the key was to work out what he wanted at a small scale, which was “to get over the hump”.
Comments from original on judyrees.co.uk
Steve
28 March 2014
Exactly, I can’t see the wood for the trees!
Joy
28 March 2014
Thanks for the article. I tend to act like those who feel frustrated that they don’t know what they want. If I actually stop and imagine it as a metaphor, it has a better chance of becoming visible.
Philip Rowland
16 April 2014
Great article.
And after all, this is about change, i.e. addressing the problem and changing that, or maybe I should say: discovering a way to allow it to transform?
Sioelan
24 April 2014
Fab article, more food for thought and worth exploring! Had lovely client which very much fit this profile. Intelligent and giving good reasons for where she is, feeling overwhelmed and trapped in a situation that she doesn’t want to be in and she wants to run away preferably to somewhere warmer.Would you explore the neg. metaphor and then ask what would you like instead and then perhaps explore what happens just before, after and where might X come from?
Judy
24 April 2014
Hi Sioelan, great to see you here. I think that yes, I would explore the negative metaphor, fairly briefly. I might then ask “what would you like instead?” or “what would you like to have happen?”, but I’d have a bunch of alternatives, based on the nature of the metaphor.
For example one recent client was “in a rut”, and in exploring the rut it became clear that he was aware of light “at the end of the tunnel” which then provided a focus for my questions.
Another was “going round in circles” and he didn’t really care where he went next, as long as he got out of the circle. So the key was to work out what he wanted at a small scale, which was “to get over the hump”.
It’s not all about big, SMART outcomes, IMO. I’ve been writing more about this here: https://judyrees.substack.com/p/clean-language-and-outcomes