Lean Agile Scotland 2016 Clean Language Workshop

L A S C O T - O C T O B E R 6 T H , 2 0 1 6

Hacking Your Team and Organization with Better Inquiry Skills

Andrea Chiou, Agile CoachConnections-At-Work, LLC

@andreachiouandrea@connections-at-work.com

Andrea Chiou, Agile Coachwww.connections-at-work.com

www.adaptivecollaboration.com

What is Clean Language?

David Grove(d. 2007)

Psychotherapist

Transformation Through Symbolic

Modeling

Inner Need to be Seen as Contributing

Professionalism

Fear of silence

Problem Solving

Unvalidated Assumptions

What would you like to have happen?I would like to know my team’s velocity. Do you think knowing that will give you better predictions? Err, No… I don’t want to predict anything. I want to know if things are going well. OK, so why don’t you ask the team? No, no… I don’t want to bother them.

T R A N S C R I P T E X A M P L E - N O T C L E A N

What would you like to have happen? I would like to know my team’s velocity Is there anything else about velocity? Good velocity means I can stop worrying And what kind of worrying is that worrying? I worry about the sponsor pulling the plug.

T R A N S C R I P T E X A M P L E - C L E A N

C L E A N L A N G U A G E - D AV I D G R O V E

Clean Language is:

A way of listening without judgement

A way of inquiring without imposing

C L E A N L A N G U A G E - D AV I D G R O V E

The clean questions:

are content free

allow for exploring metaphors

• SENSORY INFORMATION what is seen, heard, felt, tasted, smelled

• CONCEPTSsuch as family, democracy, honesty, trust

• METAPHORS • Explicit: encapsulate how we structure our experience

describing one thing in terms of another (usually from the physical world)

• Implicit: so embedded in our language we don’t even notice

T H R E E WAY S O F E X P R E S S I N G O U R S E LV E S

Where%is%…?%Whereabouts%%is%…?%

What%kind%of…?%Is%there%anything%else%about…?%%

Clean%Ques9ons%–%David%Grove%

Note:%%replace%…%with%a%part%of%what%the%other%person%said.%

S Y M B O L I C M O D E L L I N G

Symbols exist in space

Symbols derive their context from some point in time

Symbols have a life

Our mental landscape is comprised of symbols

D E M O

Volunteer needed

“What would you like to have happen?”

P R A C T I C E # 1

Pair up with someone you don’t know. Think of something you would like to have happen. Ask: What would you like to have happen? Use the questions 2 or 3 times.

Whereis…?

Whereaboutsis…?

Whatkindof…?Isthereanythingelseabout…?

Thenwhathappens?Whathappensnext?

Wherecould…comefrom?Whathappensjustbefore? That’s…likewhat?

Whatwouldyouliketohavehappen?Whenyouareworkingatyourbest,you’relikewhat?

CleanQuesCons–DavidGrove

WhenX,whathappenstoY?IstherearelaConshipbetweenXandY?

P R A C T I C E # 2

Pair up with someone you don’t know. Ask: When you’re working at your best you’re like what?

Use the questions 2 or 3 times.

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU MODEL?

Learning

Parenting

Coding

Coaching

Time

Studying

Collaborating

Decisions

Ideal Team

Current Organization

Desired Organization

Motivation

And then what happens? What happens next?

And what happens just before…?

BEFORE AFTER

SOURCE

DESIRED OUTCOME

NECESSARYCONDITIONS

And what needs to happen for … ?

And can…?And where could …

come from?

DEVELOPING

And what would … like to have happen?

And what kind of … is that …?

And is there anything else about …?

And where is…?

And that’s … like what?And is there a relationship

between … and …?And when …

what happens to …??

CurrentPerception

BusinessHiring

Coaching Sales

In ITHelping teach young kidsmath, spelling, and music

Elementary School

DoctorsGeriatric care

Facilitating change in organizations, schools, training departments, police departments

In therapy and change work

W H E R E I S C L E A N B E I N G A P P L I E D

From Drama to Karma Clean Scoping Clean Setup Developmental Practice Clean Feedback Five Senses Modeling Time Metaphors At Work Flower Model

S Y S T E M I C M O D E L L I N G - G R O U P S

Caitlin Walker, trainingattention.co.uk

K A R M A C Y C L E

Reproduced w/ permission: Training Attention

C L E A N F E E D B A C K

A three step process to give congruent useful, judgement free feedback.

EVIDENCE What did you hear or see?

INFERENCE What did you infer? IMPACT What was the impact on you?

C L E A N F E E D B A C K - E X A M P L E

What worked well:

EVIDENCE Numerous examples

INFERENCE Speaker did a lot of research IMPACT Realized the magnitude of issue

C L E A N F E E D B A C K - E X A M P L E

What didn’t work well:

EVIDENCE History of involvement missing

INFERENCE Not important to the speaker IMPACT Wanted her personal connection

C L E A N F E E D B A C K - E X A M P L E

What would have worked better:

EVIDENCE Projector would be focussed

INFERENCE Organizers care about seeing IMPACT Everyone could read the slides

C L E A N F E E D B A C K

What worked well? What did you observe?

What did you infer from that?

What was the impact for you?

What would work better?What will you observe?

What will that mean?

What will be the impact for you?

What did not work so well?What did you observe?

What did you infer from that?

What was the impact for you?

adaptivecollaboration.com/books-i-recommend/

www.cleanlanguage.co.ukleanpub.com/whoisusingclean/c/lascot16

#cleanlanguage on twitter

R E S O U R C E S F O R F U RT H E R L E A R N I N G

Virginia Satir

Gerald Weinberg

David Grove

Caitlin Walker

Innovator with Clean Language applied in Groups:Systemic Modeling

Originator of ‘Clean Language’ Used Questions free of Influence

to help Trauma victims heal

A Gentle Giant in Software Dev, Testing,

Systems Thinking, Prolific Writer

Pioneer in Family Therapy, whotaught Jerry Weinberg much

about \working together congruently

Gratitude

T H A N K Y O U F O R PA RT I C I PAT I N G !

@andreachiouandrea@connections-at-work.com