Even neutral psychologists let agenda creep into their questions.
observation — attributed to Caitlin Walker
Walker's methodology builds on David Grove's clean language. Grove, a New Zealand psychotherapist, noticed that even person-centered psychologists who considered themselves neutral let their own agendas creep into the questions they asked. The observation matters because most facilitation work assumes the facilitator's questions are neutral. They are not. Grove developed clean questions that are free of the questioner's assumptions and biases, which means they do not dissuade or inhibit the respondent from revealing their inner truth. The respondent uncovers how their system and thinking is organized (what Walker calls invisible architecture) through metaphors that surface what they have trouble articulating.
For facilitators, therapists, executive coaches, and researchers thinking about how their own questions shape what they hear. The observation is most useful as a self-check when the responses across multiple interviews start to sound the same.
david-grove, clean-language, bias, questioner-agenda