Using Clean Language For Interviewing
I use Clean Language all the time – at the weekend, somebody pulled me up at a party for asking “What kind of drink?”
And since one of the things I do is interview people for magazine articles (often for Rapport), I use Clean Language when I’m doing that, too. But it’s more than just a reflex. I think there are several ways in which working with Clean Language has really helped me get to the bottom of some great stories.
Firstly, working as a Clean Language coach and tutor has developed my listening skills. I thought they were pretty good before: now I suspect I’m hearing little details that would have passed me by before. And it’s those little details that can make the story – particularly when you’re interviewing someone who’s very used to dealing with the media and is keeping themselves strictly “on message”. The interviewee is typically delighted when you pick up on something subtle and interesting in what they say.
Related to that is my increased understanding and belief that people really are interesting, and really do have a story to tell. I learned in journalism college that “everyone has a story to tell, it’s your job to help them get it out there,” but that can be tricky to remember when your interviewee is bored and boring! Clean Language gives me new things to listen for beyond the surface content – metaphors, for example – which will always provide something new and different.
I can think of three specific ways I use the Clean Language questions to improve my interviewing.
1. Drilling down to the details. Any story which seems bland and boring on the surface usually comes to life when you understand the details. I ask “What kind of X?” and “Is there anything else about X?” very frequently.
2. Changing frame/perspective. Another way to bring the story to life is to link it to something else, particularly something relevant to your readers. I’ll tend to do a little recap of what they’ve said before asking, in effect, “Is there a relationship between X and Y?” I’ll probably tweak the wording of the question here, and make it more like “You mentioned X. Readers of Rapport are NLP professionals, so they’ll be wondering, how does that relate to Y?” In interviewing, of course, I never make a fetish of using the precise Clean Language questions: there are no Clean police out there and nobody’s going to mind!
3. Working with metaphor. This is the big stuff. When your interviewee says casually, “It’s a bit like…” then it’s easy to pick up on it by using Clean Language questions. Once you get them thoroughly into the metaphor, you’re off to the races – not only a lively story, but a good headline and pictures, too.
It’s worth saying that all of this assumes an interview subject who wants to be interviewed! I haven’t found Clean Language very useful in hostile interviews.
A related point is that Clean Language is designed to focus the attention on the interviewee, not the interviewer. That’s great for magazine interviews, not so good if you want to be a TV or radio celebrity famous for your on-air arguments.
I’ve also used Clean Language in recruitment and research interviews… but that’s a blog for another time.
Many thanks to Iulia Basmanova for the question which sparked this post.
How have you used Clean Language in interviewing, and what results did you get? What questions do you have? Please comment below.
Comments from original on judyrees.co.uk
jim
12 December 2012
Fantastic post Judy! great style of writing and I love the idea of using Clean in as many contexts as possible.
By the way, do you know where I could find an online Clean question asker? Kind of like an online version of the Clean change cards? Could you link me to one?
Cheers
Jim
Judy
14 December 2012
Thanks Jim! There’s an online Clean question-asker here: http://www.reframe.net/clqonweb.htm It was created by Phil Swallow several years ago so looks a bit clunky, but it works.
Iulia Basmanova
27 December 2012
Thank you a lot, Judy! So briefly and clearly 🙂
Interesting question also is how to make person more likely to give you interview – for example, in my case when asking passerbies on the street for our theatrical project. I have many questions for them, but how to involve those people into communication, espessially when it’s pretty cold outside?
Judy
28 December 2012
Hi Iulia, that’s a very interesting question. My initial thought was, “That’s not a good place for Clean Language.” But I think there is, in fact, a connection.
In my earlier days as a news reporter I got a reputation for being excellent at doing vox pops – getting out on the streets of Birmingham and inviting the locals to talk about the issues of the day. My experience was that a good, personally-relevant question caught people’s attention quickly and effectively. For example: “Excuse me, do you know anyone called Eugenie?” (for a piece about the name of the newly-born princess) or “Do you speak English?” (for a piece about a new council campaign to teach other European languages to staff).
Clearly these can’t be Clean questions, because they have to contain attention-grabbing content (eg the name Eugenie). But I was placing a bet that the content I included would be relevant to the potential interviewee.
My least successful questions were the “Cleanest” – for example, “May I ask you a few questions?” I reckon this is because they were the least relevant to the potential interviewee and most focussed on my needs as the interviewer.
So there’s my two penn’oth. What have you found so far?
trine moore
5 January 2013
one feature about people in public places, is they are exposed, its not home,but theres plenty of learning opportunities around watching charity canvassers, walkalong beside, catch the pace of the thaetre. Eugenius.
nick
27 October 2013
Thank you for your article. It’s helped me think about new ways to apply this. How can I find out more about how you’ve used clean language in recruitment interviews?