Chapter 18: Asking the Right Questions 281
The overall aim of Clean Language is to remove the bias inherent in the
questioner’s language by exploring people’s model of the world from their
own perspective. Although the questions can look strange out of context, just
consider the subtle difference between asking a really clean question such as
‘And is there anything else?’ compared with ‘What are you going to do now?’
The latter question clearly includes the expectation from the questioner that
the person must do something.
Starting the Clean Language process
Penny and James suggest that one way to begin the Clean Language
questioning process is to put the client into a resourceful state, by developing a
resource metaphor. You can start the process of developing a resource
metaphor by asking the following question:
And when you’re at your best, that’s like what?You can ask this question generally, as it stands above, or you can make it
more specific by placing it in a specific context, as we do by adding the
following words in square brackets:
And when you’re [working] at your best, that’s like what?
And when you’re [collaborating] at your best, that’s like what?And when you’re [focusing] at your best, that’s like what?Or try adding a personal quality:
And when you’re most [patient], that’s like what?
And when you’re most [loving], that’s like what?And when you’re most [content], that’s like what?When the person has created a resource metaphor, you can then ask the
following clean question that begins the process of developing a desired
outcome (goal, objective) metaphor:
And what you would like to have happen, is like what?When the person has spoken, written, or drawn a metaphor in answer to
these questions, you can ask the first five developing questions listed in the
next section, so as to bring the metaphor to life. We want the person to be
living in their personal metaphorical landscape (to use several metaphors!).
Developing current perception questions
Here are some examples of asking clean questions that increase a person’s
understanding of a situation: