What's Clean Language? Well, first up it's not a language! It's not even about
language. It's a precision inquiry methodology, a way of finding out
information and stuff from people and about people: what do they really mean,
what are they really thinking, what's actually going on? And as a result of finding out that stuff you can really help people to change.
Clean Language can be used for the very simple - just find out what someone means by something they said - or much deeper, to find out what somebody really means by something they said. The same principles of Clean Language apply at each level, but as your skill with this process develops, the deeper you can go.
There are three essentials of Clean Language:
- Listening, which sounds easy but can often be challenging
- Questions. A small, specific question set that can be used in all sorts of different situations
- Metaphor, the atom of thought, the native language of the unconscious mind.
Clean Language combines listening, questions and working with metaphor, the individual unique metaphors of each human being. But at its heart is one thing: curiosity. When you become really curious about this unique human being in front of you, and apply these essentials of listening, asking questions and paying attention to metaphor, that's when the Clean Language magic happens.
Why you'll find Clean Language useful
Clean Language can help people to discover things they don’t know that they know. The stuff that’s just under the surface, just outside their awareness. The unknown knowns.
It's useful in:
- anywhere where people want to collaborate and find out what’s actually important to the other people
- in diagnostic and exploratory conversations, where you want people to elaborate on what's true for them
- where you’ve got people working together across disciplines or across hierarchies or in different locations, and need to understand each other more fully
- all kinds of research
- problem solving and innovation.
Who uses Clean Language?
Can we help you with Clean Language?
We've been helping individuals and organisations to master Clean Language for more than 15 years.
Judy Rees is the co-author of the bestselling book on the subject, Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds. She's also a very experienced trainer and training designer, and has taught Clean Language skills to hundreds of people. Click here for further reading, recorded courses and more.
Her husband and business partner Steve McCann works as a consultant in organisational change.
If you'd like to chat about Clean Language can help your organisation, please get in touch.
Get In Touch
Got questions? We're happy to help.
Phone: +44 7979 495509
Email: judy@judyrees.co.uk