221 - Unmasking the Hidden Influence: The Clean Language Approach with Judy Rees

Facilitation can be a messy business; what can we do to clean it up? Judy Rees, who’s been working with groups for almost 20 years, thinks the answer lies in clean language. A focus on clean language in turn creates what Judy calls ‘clean facilitation’. Specificity and neutrality is the name of the game, but can facilitators ever truly be neutral? Judy and I wrestle with the big questions of influence, manipulation, and communication in this episode as we try to clear up clean facilitation and explore how to apply it in our day-to-day work. Find out about: What Judy means by ‘clean facilitation’ Practical examples of how clean language can help facilitators dig deeper into a discussion Why getting out of the group’s way is a noble goal, but not always possible The ways in which we manipulate without ever realising How to use our influence with the group in a beneficial way How clean language can help us better understand a group’s idiosyncrasies and uniqueness Why focusing our influence on the process, rather than the content, is a valuable path to follow Don’t miss the next episode: subscribe to the show with your favourite podcast player. Links: Watch the video recording of this episode on YouTube. Free Clean Language ebook. Judy’s Clean Language for Facilitators course. Video guide for a Clean Language-based change process. New Rules for Work experiment, applying Clean Language. Connect to Judy: On LinkedIn. Support the show: Make a one-off donation and contribute to the ongoing costs of running the podcast. Any thoughts? Share them with us! Support the show ✨✨✨ If you miss the "workshops work" podcast, join us on Substack, where Myriam builds a Podcast Club with monthly gatherings around old episodes: https://myriamhadnes.substack.com/