There are three things at the heart of Clean Language which allow this to happen.
Firstly, paying exquisite attention to and exploring the words used by participants. This happens when the facilitator repeats back some of the key words used and asks questions like ‘Is there anything else about that’ or ‘What kind of’. Doing this gives everyone a clearer understanding of the statements made.
Secondly, the team work out their OWN understanding or solutions because the facilitator:-
a. Focusses on the process of communication rather than the content
b. Never contradicts anyone, working on the principle there is no right or wrong, just information. This creates an environment where everyone feels safe to contribute.
c. Encourages contribution in to the team, rather than through the facilitator or manager of the team.
Thirdly, encouraging each person to use metaphors to explain their views or feelings which also helps bring clarity to the words used.

When approached in this way, a couple of things will happen. Firstly, if the team has developed a relationship pattern of persecutor/victim/rescuer, using this inclusive, non centralised, approach can help them move to a more productive model of feedback/outcome/action.

Secondly, any patterns in the team’s way of working will start to be revealed. And this is where the facilitator can add significant benefit. For seeing the patterns and pointing them out to the team in this encouraging, non judgmental way can really help the team understand how they work together and therefore what needs to happen for them to work even better.

Make no mistake, Clean Language used in this way is not for the faint hearted. It can be a challenging process as it can uncover some destructive patterns, but if it is going to give you the understanding and clarity you desire, it couldn’t really be anything else.

And the rewards? A team or team that is crystal clear about what happens when they are working at their best, what needs to happen for that to happen more often and how they can explain it to other teams for them to model.

If you would like to know more about how Clean Language can help your team work at their best more often, email me at Allison@macintoshwright.co.uk or call +44 7751 303835.

With thanks to: –
- David Grove, the originator of Clean Language
- Caitlin Walker and Cheryl Winter of Training Attention for their input on working with groups

Well here is my view on what these various terms mean and when it is appropriate to use them.

And for those of you short of time, just go to the table at the bottom of this article which summarises all the words.

Presenting – you want to get some information across to your team. You are telling them something they don’t know already. This is a high level communication ie not too much detail at this stage. You can expect some questions if they need any
clarification and, unless this is a controversial subject, like planned redundancies, you won’t need any particular skills in coaching or managing groups. It is usual for a presenter to know the subject they are presenting ie they are not just a ‘mouthpiece’. You can present to just one person and there is no maximum on the number.

Training – is about teaching specific skills or knowledge. The trainer acts as a catalyst for the learning – initially provides the information to learn then asks questions to stimulate and evaluate the learning. Also uses involvement of the delegates
to that everyone can learn from each other and a high level of interest is maintained throughout the training. Delegates may need to ask some searching and challenging questions as their knowledge and skills develop and so, once again, the trainer should have knowledge of the topic being trained, rather than just passing on information. Given the nature of questioning from the delegates, the trainer will need to have some skills in managing groups and coaching individuals. As the training progresses and delegates become more familiar with the content, the process starts to move towards facilitation.

Facilitation – Here, the delegates generally have all the information they need. The objective is for them to use that information to solve a particular problem or come up with a decision. The aim of the facilitator is to manage the structure and focus of their decision making process. Given that the group have the knowledge and skills already, the facilitator doesn’t necessarily need to know about the content, although depending on the subject matter, and particularly if the topic is newly learned skills or information, it can be useful. The facilitator will require good skills in managing group dynamics including encouraging all members of the group to participate. Given the high level of delegate involvement, the numbers will be smaller again, usually less than 10.

Coaching – Coaching is about facilitating someone else’s thinking, helping them to learn and getting them to put their ideas in to action. So if someone has had some training on a particular topic, they may need coaching to work out how to put that new found knowledge in to action. The aim of the coach is to listen and communicate in a way that encourages the coachee to work out solutions for themselves. Which means that the coachee generally has all the information they need already. And the coach doesn’t have to have knowledge of the content although again, it can be useful both for encouraging the coachee and also, giving the coach more credibility with their client. Coaching is usually one to one but can be done in groups, in which case it is more like facilitation.

Mentoring – The objective of mentoring is to help move someone along their chosen path, career or otherwise. The key difference between coaching and mentoring is that as well as facilitating someone else’s thinking, the mentor’s job is to give the coach the benefit of their own experience, point them in the right direction and possibly introduce them to some useful contacts.  The mentor needs both coaching and mentoring skills and this relationship is most usually one to one.

I hope that this article has helped give you some clarity around which personal development tools to use and when and if you would like an informal discussion on how Macintosh Wright can help with any of your organisation’s personal development
needs, please email me allison@macintoshwright.co.uk or call + 44 7751 303835.

Only when you have done this do your team really understand where it is they are going. And once they all know and understand this you can together start to work on the strategies and steps that will take you there.

The best vision statements not only make for effective leadership, they can make for inspirational leadership. If everyone is crystal clear about the end game and there is no energy being used in understanding or clarifying, then the whole team have more energy at their disposal to look for creative ways of achieving the goal.

One of my clients recently did this to great effect. She has recently taken over a team whose remit is to provide admin and sales support for a national sales team. Her vision of the future was to completely overhaul the team so the services it provided were of a much higher calibre than previously. Where the emphasis was to be more on sales rather than support. She wanted to build a vision that reflected this and asked me to help.

Using Clean Language, I asked her lots of questions about the team she wanted to build.

She came up with a metaphor for the word support – an Olympic podium, on which both her team and the national sales team stood. The podium represented a strong base, the processes and procedures that provided the admin that kept the whole thing running smoothly. The people standing on the podium were members of her team and the external sales force they were supporting.

The sales aspect was represented by the winners medals – Gold, Silver or Bronze depending on sales success.

My client drew the vision to present to her own team and the sales force. Instantly they understood that everyone had the same goal for themselves – excellence in sales. Further more, they were all on the same journey, albeit at different stages. And finalIy, no one could forget the crucial aspect of admin support, for without that, no one would achieve any medals because the whole thing would come crashing down.

From that point, identifying the steps and actions needed to get there were relatively easy and good progress is now being made.

So if you would like to build and communicate to your team a vision that will give the journey to your vision a kick start, why not try building your own metaphoric landscape using Clean Language?

Clean Language was developed by David Grove

Whether you are a business owner or other business leader, if you would like to know more about how to build and communicate your vision using Clean Language, please call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

And I saw the parallel in another client, a business owner, who for the first 12 months of her business, thought she had a mountain to climb in order to get the clients she wanted. Well she did, but she got through it with the same mindset. Tweak things where necessary, learn from your mistakes but just keep going.

Developing our perseverance muscles can come from many different places, but today I’d like to share with you a story of a 10 year old with great perseverance.

Danny is a boy who saw a man on a unicycle at a summer fair. He was hooked from the start – he wanted a unicycle and he wanted to learn how to ride it. He searched the internet to find out where you could buy one from (e-bay, of course) then got back in touch with the chap at the fair to arrange some lessons.

To begin with, he couldn’t stay on for more than a few seconds before falling off. He listened carefully to his teacher as he explained exactly how to hold the cycle, distribute his weight and place his feet. Then with an increasingly determined look on his face, Danny would sit on the saddle and almost immediately fall off.

Week after week, he persevered. When he wasn’t with the teacher, he practised every hour he could. As soon as he came home from school, the unicycle was out and Danny was on it. For a few seconds anyway because learning to ride a unicycle is not like learning another skill. To begin with all you do is get on and immediately fall off. The biggest challenge is actually staying on it long enough to get some momentum going. So for many weeks that’s all he did. Get on and immediately fall off. Summer turned in to Autumn and then Winter and Danny’s practising sessions became increasingly cold and dark. But even this didn’t put him off, he knew if he practised long enough, he would eventually get it …………and so he did.

So if you find yourself running out of steam, think of the boy on the unicycle, if you keep on practising, keep on learning, eventually you will get where you want to go.

Whether you are a business owner or other business leader, if you would like to know more about how to develop your perseverance or any other leadership quality or skill, please call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

I have, however, come across one little pocket within a large organization which, against the odds, is investing a significant number of hours in developing their people and as a result, seeing team performance increase month on month.

And the reason they are able to do this, they say, is actually quite simple. The person driving the initiative has held his position a number of years (lifestyle preferences prevent him seeking further advancement by moving to other organizations or other areas of the country). Which means that he is an expert at his job, and not only that, his management team have been with him for an average of 5 years and as he says, there is no way he could invest the energy he is doing in people development if he didn’t have total confidence that his team could deliver on the day to day stuff.

And that reminded me of one of my favourite books – Coaching High Performance Teams by Grant Ledgerwood. This book draws on the rules of leadership followed by Admiral Horatio Nelson – over 200 years old but mostly still relevant today. And one of those is:-

“Practice and drill can turn every challenge into a fluent strength”

In other words, the more you repeat a task, the more expert you become.  Confidence builds and eventually a high level of performance is achieved without too much thought. The more automatic the task becomes, the less conscious thinking required. This in turn leaves more brain space free for creative thoughts or quick thinking if something untoward happens. Hence, in Nelson’s day, the British fleet were able to easily fire, clean and reload their guns despite the chaos and mayhem around them during battle, simply because they had practiced endlessly in the months, even years, leading up to war.

I could see the similarities with my client whose team have spent so long together doing the day to day stuff, their energies are freed up to look for ways of being more creative and find more ways of becoming a high performing team. And I think this principle can apply not only to teams who strive for high performance, but to any of us who want to do better in any area of our lives.

Are you getting YOUR basics right to free you and your team up for pursuing peak performance?

Whether you are a business owner or other business leader, if you would like to know more about how to achieve peak performance for you and your team, please call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

photo credit: Alan Stanton via photopin cc

My focus in this article is going to be about identifying whether there is a demand for your product which includes asking some creative questions.

The starting point is research amongst your potential customer base. Ask what their current challenges are in relation to the product you provide. For instance, if you provide a therapeutic service such as acupuncture or massage, you can ask about their stress levels, how they currently manage them and what they would like to have happen. When they give you the answer to this you can begin your creative questioning.

Let’s say they tell you they would like to feel more relaxed at the end of a working day. Then ask a couple of questions that keep their focus on their desired outcome such as ‘what kind of relaxed is that relaxed’ or ‘is there anything else about a relaxed like that?’

Now these questions might sound a little strange, however what they do is focus your prospects mind on the feeling of relaxation they want to achieve. The more you understand about that feeling, the more you understand about what you need to provide and the better you can tailor your product accordingly. Happy clients, happy business owner!

The questions are part of the set of ‘Clean Language’ questions devised by counselling psychologist David Grove during the 1980s and 90s – David looked at ways of helping clients achieve their desired outcomes or goals by focusing on the words they used and the meaning they attached to them.

Obviously the more prospects you ask, the better the picture you will have, but research like this ie in depth or qualitative, doesn’t have to be extensive, maybe up to about 20 people. You are likely to find similarities cropping up which will help you develop what your clients want and as you build your client bank, you can keep asking the questions so you are building your knowledge all the time.

If you would like to know more about how Clean Language and peer mentoring groups for Business Owners can help you get the clients you want why not come along to our Business Booster taster day in Worthing on 16^th March 2012. Call (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk to register your place.

1. Doing what I love! Finally, finally, I am doing what I love to earn my living.  Helping people grow, ostensibly business based, but always, always, it is about the individual themselves growing first then using their new found knowledge to develop the capabilities of themselves, their team or their business. And appreciating it all the more because for two or three years I was trying to squeeze this love in to little pockets of my life around other responsibilities, principally a job. Now I have all this time to indulge my passion………..and get paid.

2. Choosing who to spend time with. Meeting people at networking events and choosing who to spend time with, who interests you, who could you help, who might help you, is exciting. After four months of self employment, I have learned to ‘go with the flow’ and just do what feels right for that moment. Some have gone by the wayside but I am forging some really strong business relationships with people I have an affinity with. 

3. Being myself. No more having to toe the corporate line. Some of my former colleagues might be surprised by that one because I did have a bit of a reputation for expressing my views, and I did. But views always had to be tempered when talking to customers and now I am free to say what I want to who I want. Getting it wrong will only hurt one person, me.

4. Having control. Very important. I am working harder than I’ve ever done and the potential for pressure and stress is enormous, I am learning all the time and I know that I have definitely made mistakes that have cost me business, but I can forgive myself, learn from it and move on. I’ve realized that all the stress and pressure I had in my job was because I wasn’t in control. Now I live or die by my own strengths and weaknesses. And whilst there have been mistakes, there have been so many more victories and successes.

 5. Non work. The implications for my non working life have been enormous. I have moved to the coast, the sea is less than 100 yards from my front door. On days when I am working from home, I incorporate, rain or shine, a walk along the front to my favourite cafe for some fresh air and a read of the daily (free) newspaper.

I am free to explore new things which take my fancy. Up to now that has included a  meditation class, Pilates class and a Laughter Club.

I have rediscovered my love of cooking and love making meals from low cost ingredients.

I get to spend quality time with my Mum and extended family – I spend three days each month with them in Manchester where I am also building my business. Visiting my family on a regular basis means I am feeling more like part of the family again rather than an occasional visitor. My Mum also flies down once a month for a weekend. And talking business with different types of people ie northerners just adds a different dimension to my work.

But more than any of that, being free to spend time with my partner when he is home (he works offshore so is away as much as he is home) is lovely. The joy at taking a Tuesday or a Wednesday off to go for a long walk on the Sussex Downs then a well deserved rest and pub meal is difficult to put in to words.

What do you love about working for yourself?

Eugene Sadler Smith is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the School of Management, University of Surrey. Professor Sadler Smith has written a number of books on Management Learning including intuition and gave us a fantastic insight in to what intuition was and probably just as important, what it isn’t.

THE TWO MINDS MODEL

The cornerstone of intuition theory is the ‘two minds’ model. The analytical and intuitive mind which is not, in actual fact, the right and left brain. It turns out that ‘right and left brain’ is just a metaphor for different aspects of the mind. And another popular myth dispensed with was that of female intuition. Other than for a specific type of intuition, social intuition, there is no evidence to suggest that women are more intuitive than men.

Going back to the ‘two minds’ model, the analytical mind deals with step by step analysis. It is effortful and conscious. The intuitive mind is more automatic, with processing going on behind the scenes. It is unconscious and deals with whole pattern recognition.

Professor Smith gave us a great example to illustrate when we would use the analytical or intuitive minds. In completing your tax return, you adopt a step by step, effortful and conscious analytical approach. In speed dating your intuitive mind dominates – you have only a few minutes to decide whether you would like to see this person again and you are more likely to use your unconscious mind.

The full definition of intuition is ‘an involuntary, affectively charged judgement that arises through rapid, non conscious holistic associations’. That last phrase ‘rapid, non conscious holistic associations’ pretty much sums up speed dating in my view.

INTUITION IN BUSINESS

Research has produced evidence for the use of intuition in business. The more senior an executive, the more intuitive the approach. And use of intuition also has a bearing on job type. An accountant will adopt a more analytical approach, an actor, more intuitive. Interestingly entrepreneurs demonstrate an almost equal balance between analytical and intuitive approaches.

Whatever your job type however, there is a caveat on the use of intuition in leaders which can be distorted because of the power they hold. There may not be the same openness to challenge and feedback.

So,  why is feedback important if intuition comes from within and why are more senior executives more likely to use intuition?

Well, the most interesting learning for me was that intuition is shaped by many things including our skills, knowledge and experience.  By definition, it does not stand alone – that would be instinct which is what babies and animals have.

So what difference has knowing this made to my thinking on intuition? Well firstly knowing that it is based on skills, knowledge and experience will give me more confidence to follow my intuition  – and as Professor Sadler-Smith said, real wisdom comes when, in any given situation, you know whether to use your intuitive or your analytical mind. 

Professor Eugene Sadler-Smith is the author of The Intuitive Mind: profiting from the power of your sixth sense (John Wiley and Sons, 2010). You can contact him at: e.sadler-smith@surrey.ac.uk

So I’ve decided to offer a Business Booster workshop, a low cost ‘taster’ event, to give people the opportunity to start looking at some new ways of working. I have designed the workshop so that you begin to develop more creative strategies for growth, whether you are asking yourself how do I:-

-       identify new opportunities

-       generate more income or

-       get customers?

Using the unique Clean Language facilitation process, we will look at:-

-       what is holding you back

-       what happens when you are performing at your best and

-        what needs to happen for that to happen more often

So if you are an entrepreneur who wants their business to thrive as well as survive why not join us for this fun and informative workshop designed to start giving you the clarity you need to take your business to the next level.

Date:               Tuesday 13^th March 2012

Venue:           Beechwood Hall Hotel, Worthing-http://www.beechwoodhallhotel.co.uk/

Time:              9.15 am for a 9.30 start. Finish 11.30am

Cost of the event is £12 if booked in advance, £15 on the day.

Places are limited so go to Business Booster to register your place or for more information, email allison@macintoshwright.co.uk or tel  07551 303835

If you would like to know more about how Clean Language and peer mentoring groups for Business Owners can help you get the clients you want, or if you would be interested in an event like this near you, call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation

Clean Language was developed by David Grove.

1. Building the Vision

The most important thing is that your team understand where they are going. So your first job is to paint the picture of where you will end up ie create the vision statement.  Ideally, this should involve their input. Not only will the change process be much easier if they have helped shape the vision themselves, the project will benefit from having input from those much closer to the detail.

Whether or not this is possible, when describing the vision, you need to be clear and direct. Some may not like what you have to say but the alternative will only lead to misunderstandings and resentment further down the line.

If you are very brave you might speak prior to the meeting to those you know will object most strongly and encourage them to ask the awkward questions.  You will then both know what to expect during the meeting and are more likely to deal with difficult questions and answers in a calm and logical way.

2. The Change Process

Talk to your team about the change process, what they can expect to see, hear and feel during the period of change.  Use a simple change model to demonstrate such as this one - Change Diagram.

Explain that not everyone will be at the same point in their acceptance of the change on any given day and you will all need to support each other when you have difficult days. 

3. Fallout.

Tell your team you understand that some people may never accept the new way and if that is the case you will do everything you can to help them find a position elsewhere. By doing this you are putting the responsibility firmly with them to accept or reject the change and letting them know you accept their right to ‘vote with their fee’ if they don’t like it.

4. Acknowledge progress

 If the changes you are implementing are particularly radical or labour intensive to begin with, it can be easy to forget to take a step back and acknowledge how far you’ve come. As a wise man once said -  “ if you think you’ve got a long way to go just turn around and look behind to see how far you’ve come already” 

5. Useful questions

Along the way you will face challenges and difficulties. Anything from “that’s impossible” or “we can’t get the system to do that” or “that will never work” etc etc.  A useful starting point in dealing with these is to ask some specific questions that will help give you clarity around the problem and potential solutions. Questions like:-

- When talking about the desired outcome – ‘is there anything else about’ or ‘what kind of’

- When talking about the obstacle –‘what needs to happen for that to happen’ (ie for the obstacle to be removed) and ‘what needs to happen for that to happen’ etc etc

These are three of the basic Clean Language questions and are a great way of getting clarity around problems and solutions.

6. What does success look like

Never forget the end game, the business benefit which will come with the change. That is why you have decided to embark on this journey so don’t let the process of change make you forget the reason you are doing this in the first place.

The implementation of any change is like a roller coaster ride, but it can be a fun one.  You will have your ups and downs along the way but at the end of the journey if you stay on track you are left with a feeling of exhilaration.

If you would like to know more about how Clean Language can help you to manage change or develop the capability of your team, you or your business, call me on (07551) 303835 or e-mail me at allison@macintoshwright.co.uk for a free 30 minute consultation