Revealing Metaphors: Quickly Reveal the Hidden, Unique Essence of Each Person’s Approach to an Activity (aka Jediplication; Speed Clean)

Before the session

• Create a starter question in the form “When you are <doing focus topic> at your best, you are like… what?” Examples: “When you are working at your best, you are like… what?” “When you are facilitating at your best, you are like… what?”
• The starter question, and the following information, should be placed somewhere they can be seen throughout the activity (on a slide, in a handout, in the online chat):

—- [info starts]

• What kind of X?
• Is there anything else about X?

The X in these questions stands for any of the person’s own words. The questions can be asked in any order, as many times as you like, about anything the person says. Keep going until the time is up!

—- [info ends]

Session Flow Script

Say something like:

All right everyone, get ready for a fun, fast-paced, and playful activity! We're going to dive into the amazing ways you organise your life using metaphors.

Step 1: Draw It Out

• Take a look at this question related to our focus : "When you're [doing focus topic] at your best, you're like... what?" [on a slide or handout visible to all]

• Take a few minutes to think about it and then roughly sketch or write your answer on a sticky note or your name badge. Don't worry about being an artist – messy is good! We have about 4 minutes for this.

Step 2: Talkers and Askers In Motion

• This is a quick-fire exchange where you'll have a bunch of short conversations in pairs about your drawings. I'll let you know when it's time to switch roles or partners.

• You'll only have two questions to ask each other, and you have to use the other person's words to figure out their metaphor.

• One of you will be the "Talker" describing your drawing, and the other will be the "Asker" using the two questions to dig deeper. We'll take a couple of minutes to go over this in detail. 2 min

Step 3: The Demo

I'll do a quick demo with a colleague so you can see how it works.

[On a slide or handout visible to all]. 

• What kind of X?

• Is there anything else about X?

The X in these questions stands for any of the person’s own words. The questions can be asked in any order, as many times as you like, about anything the person says. Keep going until the time is up!

Step 4: Ready, Set, Action

• Find a partner and start chatting! The Talker kicks things off by saying a few words about their drawing. The Asker then uses the two questions to explore and reveal more about the metaphor. You'll have 2 minutes for each role.

Step 5: Switch it Up

• Now swap roles and do it again! Another 2 min. 12 min total

• We'll repeat those last two steps a couple more times so you can chat with different people and hear more amazing metaphors. 2 rounds, 4 minutes each, 8 mins total

Step 6: All Together Again

• Allright, is there an insight or reflection on this activity you think everyone should hear? Take two or three comments and start a transition to another activity. 2 min

Step 7: Share resources

Please share the following tip:

"Clean Language questions can sometimes go very deep, very quickly, and energy flows where attention goes. So, it’s more fun for everyone to ask these questions about the good stuff in people’s lives than about their problems. That's why we started with a question about 'at your best'. As you start to use these questions 'in real life', try asking people what kind of holiday, anything else about that great weekend etc. Asking these questions about challenges, problems and symptoms can come later."

Some resources to share:


https://judyrees.co.uk/2024/09/05/some-clean-language-resources/