I’m in reflective mood after a couple of weeks’ summer break. I’m thinking about the joy that my online friends have brought me over the years, and how an internet connection has linked me with so many brilliant people and their ideas.
And, as I’m another year older, I’m wondering if it’s all fading, like the summer flowers.
“How is it that we ache for a breakthrough fix that changes everything WHILE we hesitate to embrace an approach in which the real problems and solutions become clear only as we explore them?”
That’s a lovely Wicked Question from a timely (for me) blog post by Liberating Structures guru Keith McCandless. The post’s stated goal is to move beyond "either-or" thinking and spark deeper, wider explorations of new options.
The post’s heroine gets her group’s creative juices flowing by exploring ways they might get the worst possible result in relation their challenge. The fun activity leads to a serious breakthrough.
Who Ate My Surprises?
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September 17, 2025
One of the best things about Clean Language is the surprises. You think you know what someone means by what they say... but with a flick of the "What kind of?" you're in a whole new world.
This post from almost a year ago highlights one of the things I’m missing most about the “old-style” online world. Things have only got worse since then.
And, there are still delightful surprises online - such as a glossary, produced by a team in Singapore, that aims to offer new frames of reference for these uncertain times.
The authors say, “In times of uncertainty, another way of thinking, working, and living together is possible — and necessary. There may be a tendency to default to familiarity, urgency, control, pessimism, optimisation, and risk avoidance.
“When familiar language is too narrow, the entries offer fresh concepts for asking sharper questions about policy design, implementation, engagement, crisis response, institutional learning, and service delivery.”
More joy: argumentative complexity guy Dave Snowden has taken Virpi Oinonen’s book of complexity cartoons, Reality Strikes Back, as the inspiration for a new blog post series.
This week, he looked into an epistemic black hole.
And a big smile to end on.
A volunteer working in end-of-life care was introduced to Clean Language recently.
Next day, she reported: “I tried the "what kind of" questions with my husband and got two in before I lost my flow. But that was because he answered my question, which he ordinarily wouldn't have done, so that's a win from my end 🙂”
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