Management Consultant Will Izzard writes:

I've been using Clean in interviewing candidates for jobs. It really reveals a lot more about a person as they absolutely cannot have prepared answers for Clean Language questions.

Not that I'm trying to catch them out or use 'trick questions' - it is totally sincere and authentic. Sometimes the Clean Language questions have revealed hidden talents, and at other times, they've shown up incongruence in what a person says and sounded warning bells.

For example, a chap I interviewed spoke about being keen in his role. I asked: "What kind of keen?" Not keen like a puppy, but keen as in focussed and concentrated on the task, he said. Sounds great! Then later on, he spoke about what he'd like to improve in himself, saying that sometimes he could lose concentration. "Really?" I thought. So I asked: "When lose concentration, what happens to keen, that is focussed and concentrated on the task?"

Sounds like I was trying to catch him out, but on the contrary it hinted to me that he'd probably like to be that kind of focussed but probably isn't in practice. I could then decide whether that was a real problem in the environment or worth accepting and working on if
he had other great skills.

I co-interviewed a candidate with a rather sceptical friend of mine, and I didn't want to risk alienating her with a very obvious-sounding technique, so I went for a very gentle approach. And here is the true power of Clean. Even with just a few "What kind of...?" questions and a couple of "Is there a relationship..." ones, my colleague was genuinely taken back with the depth of information I'd managed to obtain from the candidate. She proceeded to tell lots of people in our company about how I somehow managed to "magic" amazing and revealing information! Well of course I was very flattered, but far more impressed with the effect Clean had had on my friend, who has now seen the benefit without knowing what was happening!

There is a key difference when interviewing, compared to coaching or therapy-based Clean - my interest in the content. As a coach/faciliatator, I am operating from a position of detached interest. As an interviewer, I have a vested interest because I might place them
somewhere as ambassadors for the firm, and I am using Clean Language to get more revealing answers and spotting incongruence as much as I am looking for incredible gifts.

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