Andrea Chiou presented on using clean language and systemic modeling for Scrum teams. Clean language uses non-judgmental questions to explore metaphors and gain new perspectives. Systemic modeling applies clean questions to plan events, provide developmental feedback, and build shared understanding. Examples of clean questions and modeling techniques were provided to help teams communicate more effectively.

1. D C S C R U M U S E R S G R O U P - A U G U S T 1 5 , 2 0 1 6
Clean Language
and
Systemic Modelling for Scrum Teams

2. Andrea Chiou, Agile Coach
Connections At Work, LLC
@andreachiou
andrea@connections-at-work.com

3. Andrea Chiou, Agile Coach
Connections-At-Work, LLC
@andreachiou
andrea@connections-at-work.com
IIBA-DC - 2014
Agile 2014 Conference
MAFN - DC 2015
CBODN 2014
Lean Agile Scotland - Oct 2016
Who Is Using Clean Language, Anyway?
https://leanpub.com/whoisusingclean
Agile Santa Barbara 2016
AgileDC 2014

4. What Would You Like To
Have Happen?

5. C L E A N L A N G U A G E - D AV I D G R O V E
• A way of listening without judgement
• A way of inquiring without imposing
Words and symbols a have different
meaning for each person - each created in a
different time and a different space

6. C L E A N Q U E S T I O N S
• are content free
• direct one’s attention
• explore metaphors underpinning one’s
thinking

7. T W O ‘ L A Z Y J E D I ’ Q U E S T I O N S
• Is there anything else about ….?
• What kind of …?
Judy Rees coined the term ‘Lazy Jedi’

8. • SENSORY INFORMATION
what is seen, heard, felt, tasted, smelled
• CONCEPTS
such 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

9. Metaphor warmup
1. Life is like….
3 - because..
2. ….

10. When you are working at your best
you are like what?

11. 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.%

14. Inner Need to be Seen as Contributing
Professionalism
Fear of silence
Problem Solving
Unvalidated

15. Use Clean Question to
accept, expand,
transcend and gain new
clarity on words used
Metaphors get us away
from limbic flight or fight
responses…

16. WHAT ELSE CAN YOU MODEL?
Learning
Parenting
Coding
Coaching
Time
Studying
Collaborating
Decisions
Ideal Team
Current Organization
Desired Organization
Motivation

17.
Higher bandwidth
Better
communication
‘technology’
NNECTIONCO

18. Where%is%…?%
Whereabouts%%is%…?%
What%kind%of…?%
Is%there%anything%else%about…?%%
Then%what%happens%?%
What%happens%next?%
Where%could%…%come%from?%
What%happens%just%before?% That’s%…%like%what?%
What%would%you%like%to%have%happen?%
When%you%are%working%at%your%best,%you’re%like%what?%
Clean%QuesCons%–%David%Grove%
When%X%,%what%happens%to%Y%?%
Is%there%are%relaConship%between%X%and%Y?%

19. Focussing In
AND….
AND WHEN…
CLEAN QUESTION
Structure used to zone in
1.) And…. [use one or several things the
person has said up until now]
2.) And when…. [then hone in part of what
you repeated above]
3.) Clean question [use 1 word from the ‘and
when’ part of what you said]

20. 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

21. Business
Hiring
Coaching
In IT
Helping teach young kids
math, spelling, and music
Elementary School
Doctors
Geriatric care
Facilitating change in
organizations, schools,
training departments,
police departments
In therapy and change work
W H E R E H A S I T B E E N A P P L I E D

22. K A R M A C Y C L E
Reproduced w/ permission: Training Attention

23. We learn to become more intentional when we interact with people with the purpose of
discovering what we want.
We do this by practicing listening to a partner talk about something they intend to do
differently or improve on in the near future and asking systemic modeling questions.
Planning for a future event
For ‘X' to go as you would like, it would be like what?
or
What would you like to have happen?
The ‘X’ (event) could be: a project, meeting, event, an interview, training, demo, facilitation.
Or on a personal front going out to dinner, or on a vacation or even getting married…
You can augment the answer with the two core clean questions.
C L E A N S E T U P

24. C L E A N S E T U P ( C O N T ’ D )
You then augment this with:
What will you or others notice (see/hear) that will be evidence that you achieved that?
What would that mean to you (inference)?
And what would the impact be on you/others?
****
And for ‘X’ to go like that, you'll need to be like what?
And what support do you need from me (or the group)?
In a group, or where several people are organizing the event, you would go around get answers for each
person, thus reconciling metaphors and creating a network of support.

25. D E V E L O P M E N TA L TA S K
What will you do that will be an example
of the outcome you have set?
What will we hear/see if you are doing
it? or are not doing it?
What do you want us to do when we
see you doing it/not doing it?

26. 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 from your
perspective?

27. 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?

28. F L O W E R M O D E L
My stuff
Their stuff
Detecting
Attending
to
Distinguishing between
YOUR
PATTERNS
THEIR
PATTERNS
WHAT IS
HAPPENING
WHAT YOU
INFER
BUILDING USEFUL
MODELS
WHAT IS
PRESENTED

29. My recommended books and online resources:
https://adaptivecollaboration.com/books-i-
recommend/
Free ebook: http://judyrees.co.uk/your-clean-
language-questions-answered/
Very reasonably priced online study course:
http://judyrees.co.uk/metaphor-mastery-discount-
offer/
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

30. 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, who
taught Jerry Weinberg much
about working together congruently
Pioneers who
Influenced Me

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