Modelling Excellence through Metaphor.
With Penny Tompkins and James Lawley.
Before they even arrived Penny and James constructed a Metaphor to demonstrate excellent “State Control”, “Flexibilty” and “Positive Reframing” in the face of adversity.
If you ever want to check how professional a Speaker is make sure you lock their car in an underground car park one hour before they are due to give the talk. Check that all their notes and other aids are in the car and that there is no way they can gain access to it before the event! Add a touch of jet lag and sit back!! There were hardly any recriminations, almost no blood got spilt, and Jenny and I had the pleasure of their company for a little longer than originally planned. The rest of the evening was even better! :-)

After a brief introduction to the work Penny and James have been doing following their modelling of David Grove and his “clean language” Penny outlined the structure of the evening. First to consider ‘higher level states’ we might like to model, turning this state into a ‘metaphor’, using ‘clean language’ questions and ‘symbolic modelling’ to develop the metaphor.
James and Penny then told us a story about a time when writing their book, and it was going on and on and they were wondering if it would ever be published. Sooo.. James found a man who always had his work published and he set about modelling this man, and he shared his model with us asking us to join in the symbolism and using this as an example not only of modelling but of checking out how the model could be adapted to fit each of us individually.  Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin..
“When I think about my writing, its like I’m walking through a field covered in snow. And if I look back I can see my footsteps behind me and every footstep is something I’ve had published. When I look ahead I see a gate in the hedge at the edge of the field and I know I’m on a path towards that gate though I don’t know what the significance of the gate is. I do know that I will continue to make footsteps in the snow all the way to the gate. There are other people in the field but they are on their own path, and nothing to do with me. I know that at some point the snow will melt and my footsteps will disappear, but that is not now.”
As James relived the metaphor Penny asked clean questions to develop the symbolic landscape, and the rest of us joined James in experiencing the journey in the snow field, modelling his telling of the original model.  There was some great modelling done by the audience with some feeling that the gate was off to the left and the path went in an arc. James confirmed his feeling that matched this. As we experienced our version (filtered) of the model we changed and added bits to suit ourselves. This is natural and also ecological to make sure any model we take on fits us.
Penny told us how James had taken this model forward to help him finish the book. “I was in bed already when James came in with a sheaf of white paper.” She told us.   “He proceeded to place pieces of paper from beside the bed all the way to the study.”“I thought what is he up to? But didn’t ask.”
“The next morning the alarm went off at 5.00 am! James leapt out of bed and followed his paper path to the study and started writing.” “He kept this up for a month!” “Then one night no paper! But next morning up at 5.00 am and off to the study.” To install the model he had elicited, James needed something to remind him of footsteps crunching in the snow. After one month he had fully integrated his version of the model and no longer needed the props.

Time for us now to decide what ‘higher’ states would we most like to model. Following on from our natural reluctance to admit to ‘genius’ last month we were a little reticent in offering our own excellence for modelling. After some discussion we arrived at wanting to model ‘effective / confident decision making’. Time for another demonstration. Model wanted. Shy and retiring as ever I volunteered, (I know how good it is to have Penny and James as ‘Symbolic Modellers’!) My metaphor was drawn out of me and developed by Penny to show the way for the rest of us, with comments from James on how others might adapt this  to suit their needs.
I think we took the break then.
After the break we needed several models, so there was choice, and so we could form smaller more intimate groups with more chance to ask our own clean and sometimes not so clean questions. We were set a time limit to leave plenty of time for feedback but were having such fun it proved difficult to get the whole group back together!! Finally however order was restored and we shared our discoveries.
As usual 2 hours was just not enough. It was however enough to open us to the possibility of more modelling and an awareness of our capacity for excellence (with due modesty of course).
Thank you Penny and James for another stimulating and fun evening.
For more about Penny and James and to find courses on symbolic modelling and clean language visit their web site.

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