Review of the 7th and 8th meetings of
Saturday 9th May 1998
A change of venue for this meeting, Rosie O'Hara hosted the meeting
at her house, providing quite a change from the TAD Centre. Sitting
on bean bags drinking mugs (not cups) of coffee in someone's lounge
was a refreshing change from the regular 'training room' environment.
So what did we do? The day revolved around two main exercises.
Colin introduced us to the first one, where we each wrote a description
of ourselves, a self characterisation sketch, and then used clean
language to investigate the other person's sketch.
It was astounding how deep and penetrating the investigation could
be, starting with a simple written description it got straight
to the core issues (as clean language always does !)
Then came lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day and we walked to
a nearby restaurant, for a gorgeous lunch.
Coffee and a discussion of the morning exercise followed, and
then Andy introduced us to the second exercise.
Could it be that there is a difference in the experience of "I
am hungry" and "I feel hunger" and "I have
hunger". There was some discussion around this, and then
we used Clean Language to explore the three ways of expressing
what seems to be the same experience.
Several of us found significant differences between the experiences,
personally I found that "I am relaxed" was a
far more powerful experience than "I have relaxation".
Saturday 20th June 1998
A new venue, Allington House in Durham. A small but select group
gathered, two of us (Jan and myself) having recently been on Penny
and James Symbolic Modelling Part Three. I think I've recalled
the sequence of events and exercises, the day went something like
this:
We started with a coffee and a chat (a large part of it around
the idea of coincidence and synchronicity). Then we got into the
first exercise.
The first exercise was a bit of fun, a sort of round-robin story
telling. To explain, the first person would ask the opening question,
such as "what would you like to have happen?" They would
then answer their own question. The next person in the circle
then asks a Clean Language question, and answers their own question,
and so it continues with everyone adding to the story. A real
stretch of the imagination in both asking an answering. As we
began to wrap up Jan answered a question and brought in all the
elements and took the story to a wonderful conclusion.
Then we went for lunch, in the Alms house on the Cathedral green,
a beautiful setting. One more round of coffee and then we got
into the second exercise.
Working with a client's metaphors can generate a large amount
of information, sometimes too much information. So one of the
key skills is to be able to pick up on something significant and
then find out as much as possible. As David Grove said, it's about
"…interrogating the symbol until it reveals its strengths…"
The exercise was to have the client verbalise a metaphor and then
pick up on a symbol and find out as much as possible about that
one symbol, things like its size, shape, location, other physical
attributes and also where it came from and where it was going
to (provided that the client had first identified such evolution).
The exercise was a real test of the ability to track each part
before moving onto the next symbol.
The final exercise was one that someone had mentioned having used
at the London practise group, so we had a go with it. The idea
is to be aware of the quality of information coming from the client
and avoiding the temptation to try and "make sense"
of it.
It went like this - the client would talk about an issue and the
questioner would use Clean Language to gather more information.
The client, though, would answer some of the questions 'honestly'
and make up the answers to the others. The questioner would not
know which were 'real' answers and which were 'lies'.
We found this quite an interesting exercise. Some people were
better than others at identifying which answers were 'real', some
were better at making up answers, although most of use found that
the answers we 'made up' were actually items from another significant
metaphor. As they say - the client cannot not manifest their metaphor!
A most interesting day. So here are the details of the next day.
Middlesbrough Grovian Practise Group Meeting
Date: Saturday 8th August 1998
Time: 9.30am for 10am start, finish around 4.30pm (ish)
Venue: Allington House
4 North Bailey
Durham City
Co Durham
Allington House will cost the group about £20 or so for the
day, so we'll work out an individual cost on the day. Although
there is a kitchen and kettle we need to provide our own tea and
coffee, so bring some tea bags, milk and biscuits and I'll bring
the coffee!
Durham is only 15 minutes further North than Middlesbrough. Here
are the directions to get to Allington House from both North and
South:
A1: turn off at exit signposted Durham (A690). Continue along
the dual carriageway. Approach the first roundabout in the right
-hand lane, take the Claypath turnoff (last exit) and continue
straight on along this road.
After about - mile, the road crosses a road bridge and enters
the old part of the town centre, and town square. Just after a
set of traffic lights here, you must turn left (straight ahead
being disabled parking only) and continue along a narrow, steep
uphill street. This is Saddler St which becomes North Bailey.
Near the top of the hill, take the road to the right (signposted
Cathedral) and park in the square outside the Cathedral. (1:00
per day, if someone is collecting it - free if they're not).
To get to Allington House, walk back to North Bailey and turn
right. Allington House is about 50 yards further along on the
left hand side.
We will be using the lounge - along the passageway, through doors,
up stairs on your left, turn left at the top of the stairs.
If this car-park is full (or if you get lost) alternative parking
is available by going along Claypath, then down Providence Row
(signposted "P" i.e. parking) and turning left at the
bottom. There are 3 car parks along this road, allow about 10
mins walk from here to Allington House - either back along Claypath,
or straight on, under the bridge and up the steps on your left
into the town centre.
4 hour parking is also available across the bridge, at the junction
of the A690 and the road to the right (A691).