Using Clean Language With Workmates

One of the most effective ways to use Clean Language (outside of individual coaching or therapy) is to build teams at work.

There’s a great process for doing this with a facilitator, developed by Caitlin Walker and Nancy Doyle of Training Attention – but luckily it’s easy to borrow some ideas from that to apply yourself, in your own workplace.

It might just to make working life more fun – or can deepen relationships and improve everyone’s working lives.

The process begins by asking each person for a metaphor for what they are like when they’re working at their best.

In an ideal world, you’d do this completely Cleanly,  asking Clean Language questions and waiting for them to spontaneously mention a metaphor. But as a short cut, I think it’s reasonable to say something like this.

“Hey, I’ve been learning about this cool way of really getting to know people better, by finding out about the metaphors that underpin their thoughts. You know, like when people describe one thing in terms of something else. And they’ve suggested I ask my colleagues, ‘When you’re working at your best, you’re like… what?'”

Then share your own answer to the question: “When you’re working at your best, you are like… what?” And see what happens next.

If people are willing to share their metaphors, suggest some ground rules. Nobody makes fun of anyone else’s metaphor. Instead, everyone can learn to ask the 2 Lazy Jedi Questions about them.

What you’ll discover is that people’s metaphors can be wildly different, even within the same team. And the metaphors reveal interesting features about how the person likes to work.

For example one person might be like a crab under a rock, while another is like a circus ringmaster. Neither is right or wrong – they’re just different.

And by exploring these metaphors together, in a respectful way, you can learn more about your workmates and what makes them tick.