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A Siemens department of eight people who were responsible for organising sports and gymnastics to keep managers fit and healthy hired Hans-Peter Wellke to deliver a strategic workshop to help them create a motivational corporate identity. He said: "We had defined already two vision statements which they all committed to. There seemed to be a third one on the tip of their tongue but they did not know how to express it. None of the suggestions made hit all of their imaginations at the same time. They were searching for a metaphor which holds the information about the vision, so I decided to use Clean Language and Symbolic Modelling.
I started to repeat all of their suggestions word by word, and slowed them down: “and W... and X... and Y... and Z... and ... that is a vision ... like ... what...?” One participant came up with a metaphor and I explored it, partly to make any hidden information usable. But there was still no resonance to the other participants. "So I added this metaphor to the other suggestions: “and W... and X... and Y... and Z... and (new metaphor) and that is a vision ... like ... what...?” Again there emerged new suggestions and metaphors. Again and again I explored a bit and lined them up, continuing to ask “that is a vision ... like ... what...?”
"Suddenly one of the participants who had been quiet all the time started to say very sharply “Please stop that repeating. We know already what we said.” I answered “and you want to stop that repeating and all what has been said, vision ... like ... what...?” And in the same sharp tone she repeated the first words in a high speed: “that is a vision like” and - for surprise - she added the metaphorical vision statement all participants where looking for. It included completely all the other former ideas expressing their thoughts, and got common consent. "Now it was the best time for a break and nice cup of tea."
Hans-Peter Wellke
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