Product reviews for Clean Language

What a relief, after reading the book featured in the previous review, to be able to move on to something as well-writing, as coherently organised, and as generally competent as Clean Language by Sullivan and Rees. I couldn't imagine a much more thorough-going contrast.

Some purists may wonder why I've included books on Clean Language in these reviews (see also Metaphors in Mind, Lawley and Tompkins). And the answer is, “For the same reason that I've included books like Lakoff and Johnson's book Metaphors We Live By. That is, because whilst these books aren't directly about NLP, they contain a great deal of information which it is useful for NLPers to know in order to enhance their NLP skills.

In the case of Clean Language (the book), the usefulness is particularly evident in chapters 3 and 7 - The Magic of Metaphor and Modelling Cleanly, respectively. It is certainly true that the ideas in this book are, as you might expect, to some extent out of sync with those of NLP. On the subject of modelling, for example, there is a clear intention in both approaches to keep the modeller's ideas, values, opinions, etc. out of the way of the modellee's processing. But whereas in NLP this is achieved (as far as possible) by collecting information at a subconscious level with no conscious evaluation of the model until the modelling process is complete, in clean languaging (if that is the right term) the whole process is conducted at a conscious level, but the facilitator's thoughts are kept out of the developing model, as far as possible, by only feeding back to the modeller/modellee (they are the same person) their own words. Done correctly, the facilitator excludes from their feedback questions all interpretation or paraphrasing of the modeller's words, hence the term “clean” language.

A further, and very important, aspect of this comparison is the difference between the two intended outcomes.
In NLP, the modeller is usually building a model to facilitate a transfer of skills between the modellee and one or more other people. In clean languaging the primary purpose, again if I have understood the process correctly, is to guide the modellee in their construction of an entirely personal metaphor from which they will gain information which will help them to better understand their own personality, behaviour, world-view, or whatever.

Obviously where there are differences in approach these can be largely attributed to the differences in the underlying intentions.

Back to this particular book, I've been wondering if there is any way that the authors could have given it greater appeal to a diverse audience. And I don't really see how they could.

I found the writing clear without over-simplification; there are plenty of script fragments illustrating various points; and plenty of “Activities” so that readers can immediately practise and apply what they have been reading about.

There are also numerous cartoons, some of them little more than thumbnail sketches which reflect the words of a subheading and help (for the benefit of the more visually-inclined) to break up what might otherwise be an overwhelming flood of words. Others, such as the cartoon on page 148, clarify the meaning of the surrounding text in a way that will save some readers (including me) from having to read the text two or three time to be sure of getting the right message.

Finally, as far as this review is concerned, I was much impressed by the obvious expertise of the two authors. This came across, for me, in little comments which may read common sense, but which are only likely to have come from personal experience, such as this comment on page 88:

“And remember that when working Cleanly, it's not the facilitator's job to make change happen. Any Change that occurs comes from within the client and happens at the client's own pace, so that it fits them perfectly.”

That's just one of the many things I enjoyed about reading this book, and why I've rated it:

Highly Recommended: * * * * * *