September 21st, 2009 

Welcome to Jennie and Sarah-Jane who joined us for the first time this month. We hope you enjoyed the meeting and look forward to seeing you again next time!

Our topic this month was "Modelling Perspectives". This was inspired by Penny and James's presentation at the recent Clean Conference, and indeed we used their ideas as the basis for our evening. We started with "I can't see my legs from here" - a short role play of a client session, acted out by Nigel and Marian, with everyone drawing models of what was happening. This was followed by a small group discussion about what perspectives the drawings were from. Some people had drawn their models from their own perspective and some had drawn them from the client's perspective. It was interesting to see all the different variations in the diagrams.

We listed different facilitator perspectives, which Penny and James modelled from David Grove:

• observing from own viewpoint
• imagining the client's perspective
• a bird's eye view
• moving around the client's landscape
• musing - figuring out the inherent logic

Then we split into groups of three (facilitator-client-observer) to practice our Clean Language skills, and to experiment with different facilitator perspectives. In our final discussion, the following points were made:

• I was more aware of the landscape, the placing of symbols and the eye-line view. When the client went inside, I wondered what that would be like.
• I was trying to put myself in the client's shoes and this made the metaphor very powerful and this seemed dangerous, and at odds with 'staying out' of the client landscape. (We all agreed that 'second-positioning' or 'putting oneself in the client's shoes' is not what we are aiming to do, but it is about seeing the model from the's viewpoint.)
• The landscape was in front of me and when I wondered what it would be like from the client's perspective I turned my head to see. This informed my questions. Then I went to the bird's eye view, wich allowed me to see that the effects may go further, which i checked out with further questions.
• When there were two perceivers I asked about each one.
• It slowed me right down. I was able to notice the number of hand movements in a gesture.
• The client's language determined which perspective I took.
• As a client, the questions allowed me to look at things in a different way.
• It brought different things into focus.
   

Thank you to everyone who came along. And a special thank you to Penny and James for sharing their valuable ideas about 'Modelling Perspectives'. Our next meeting is Monday October 19th.