The Developing Group

We established The Developing Group in 2001 as a regular forum for the exploration of new ideas in the field of all things Clean – and we have met 4-6 times a year ever since. The list of topics below represents the development of our ideas and methods since the publication of our book, Metaphors in Mind, in 2000,

Our aim is to provide a setting where, within a clean approach:

Leading-edge thinking can be applied in practical ways
We can go into greater depth on specific aspects related to Symbolic Modelling and other Clean approaches
Participants can develop their modelling skills and the ability to work systemically.

All the topics presented at the group are listed below.

The Developing Group is for people who use Symbolic Modelling and David Grove's Clean Language, Clean Space Emergent Knowledge and other Clean processes. Annual membership of the group is open to those who are recommended by a leading member of the Clean community, or who have the equivalent of 10 days training and who have maintained a fluency with Clean Language.

The Developing Group is not a training. Each day is about a topic that we find interesting and worth researching. Participants do not know what the topic will be until we send out an email a few weeks in advance. Often we provide preparatory notes which, with the input from the day, either form the basis for an article or we publish them as a 'work in progress' paper. Click on the links below to go direct to the relevant paper or see the summaries following the table.

Penny Tompkins and James Lawley

* These papers are published in various professional and academic journals.

YEAR	DATE	TOPIC
2021	Apr 24-25	From whence it came: Revisiting David Grove's early work (online)
2020	Nov 14/15	Seizing a Thought: Learning from Method of Levels (online)
	Sep 5/6	Stick or Twist: Tracking acctention (online)
	July 4/5	Investigating Agency (online)
	May 2/3	David Grove's last four questions (online)
2019	Nov 9	Life-Directing Patterns
	Sep 14	What do you do when you can't have what you want?
	July 13	Modelling Self-modelling
	May 11	Working Systemically with Linear Logic
2018	Nov 10	Holding Space
	Sep 18	Antifragility & Skin in the Game: Hidden risk & opportunity
	July 21	What do you do when you don’t know what to do?
	May 19	Working with Physical Symptoms: Same or different?
2017	Nov 25	Becoming More Mindful with Clean Language & Symbolic Modelling
	Sep 16	It's a Matter of Opinion
	July 8	Going Live
	May 6	What happens when we examine “... what happens to ...?”
2016	Dec 3	Learning from Transcripts
	Oct 8	Appreciating Aesthetics: The effect of beauty
	July 9	It’s about time: Modelling frames of desire
	May 7	Questioning Clean Language Questions: Combinations & variations
2015	Nov 28	Extending Clean Space (with Marian Way)
	Oct 3	Saying ‘No’ to Self: Modelling the Structure of Self-restraint
	Jul 4	It Takes Two To Tango: Changing relationship patterns
	May 9	Getting to 'It': First Words, First Questions
2014	Nov 29	Embodying Others' Metaphors and Acquiring their Tacit Knowledge
	Sep 27	Polishing the Mirror of Reflective Practice
	Aug 2	Calibration and Evaluation 3 Years On
	May 24	The Leader-Follower Dynamic: A systemic perspective
2013	Nov 30	Solution Focus Through a Clean Lens *
	Sep 28	What do you say before you say goodbye?
	July 6	Deconstructing Feedback
	May 18	Applying Cross-Domain Thinking
2012	Dec 1	What’s the ‘Co-’ in Cooperating, Collaborating and Co-Inspiring?
	Oct 8	What's in a Name?: The effect of labelling on experience
	Jul 7	Inhibition: The art of systemic balancing
	May 12	Pointing to a New Modelling Perspective *
2011	Dec 3	Clean Evaluative Interviewing
	Oct 1	Self-Nudging: how we can bias our future self
	Jul 9	Calibrating when what you are doing is working–and when it’s not
	May 14	REPROCEss: Modelling Attention *
2010	Dec 4	What did Improv ever do for us?
	Sep 4	Modelling the Written Word
	Jun 5	Huh? - Shifting Frames
2009	Dec 5	Modelling how we act from what we know to be true
	Oct 3	Cognitive Dissonance and Creative Tension
	Aug 1	Clean Space Revisited
	Jun 6	Embodied Schema: The basis of embodied cognition
	Apr 4	Accepting Acceptance
	Feb 28	Attending to Salience
2008	Dec 6	Clowning and The Art of Split Attention (with Vivian Gladwell and Carol Thompson nosetonose.info)
	Oct 4	Joining Up the work of David Grove *
	Aug 2	Vectoring and Systemic Outcome Orientation
	Jun 7	Maximising Serendipity: The art of fostering potential
	Apr 5	Black Swan Logic: Thinking outside the norm
	Feb 2	"And Death Shall Have No Dominion" - A memorial to David Grove
2007	Dec 1	Responding-in-the-Moment (with Random Acts Theatre Company)
	Oct 6	Coaching in the Moment
	Aug 4	The Neurobiology of Space
	Jun 2	The Systemic Nature of TA Games: When Symbolic Modelling meets Transactional Analysis (with Michael Mallows)
	Mar 31	'If only God would give us a sign' - The Role of Meta-Comments *
	Feb 3	Iteration, Iteration, Iteration
2006	Dec 2	David Grove presents Emergent Knowledge
	Oct 7	Modelling Conflict
	Aug 5	Using Symbolic Modelling as a Research and Interview Tool
	Jun 3	Thinking Networks - II
	Apr 1	Becausation
	Feb 4	PPRC: Paying attention to what they're paying attention to
2005	Dec 3	When the Remedy is the Problem
	Oct 1	Learning From Relationship
	Aug 6	Clean Conversations: Remaining Clean-ish in Everyday Settings
	Jun 4	Feedback Loops
	Apr 2	When Where Matters: How to create & utilise psychoactive space*
	Feb 5	Preferences: What and How We Like
2004	Dec 4	When and How to Use 'When' and 'As'
	Sep 25	Body Awareness (with Julie Driver)
	Jul 31	Proximity and Meaning: A 'clean' approach to adjacency *
	Jun 5	Thinking Networks - I
	Apr 3	Learning to Act from What You Know to be True
	Feb 7	Self-Deception, Self-Delusion and Self-Denial
2003	Dec 6	It's Happening Now!
	Oct 4	A Developmental Perspective
	Aug 2	Levels
	Jun 7	Multiple Perceptions, Perspectives and Perceivers
	Apr 5	Context Matters
	Feb 1	Constructivism is Only a Construct
2002	Dec 7	Endings and Beginnings
	Oct 5	Utilising Autogenic Metaphor
	Aug 3	Metonymy and Part-Whole Relations
	Jun 1	Modelling Dynamic Equilibrium
	Apr 6	Perspectives to Model By
	Feb 16	What is Emergence?
2001	Dec 1	A Model of Musing: The message in a metaphor *
	Oct 13	Big Fish in a Small Pond: The importance of scale *

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What's the Co in Cooperating Collaborating Coinspiring

By Penny Tompkins & James Lawley | Published 01 12 2012
The Developing Group

What does it mean to 'collaborate'? Is it the same or different as 'cooperating'? Where does 'co-inspiring' fit in? What does a clean approach add to the mix? And how do we do any of them?

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What's in a Name: The effect of labelling on experience

By James Lawley | Published 06 10 2012
The Developing Group

When we consider that all words are labels, we realise every word slants our thinking in some way. Given we have to label to communicate verbally, and since most of us, most of the time, have no idea how we label, or the effects of one label over another, we thought it would be interesting to explore this rich topic by looking at labelling from a number of perspectives.

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Inhibition The Art of Systemic Balancing

By Penny Tompkins & James Lawley | Published 07 07 2012
The Developing Group

Inhibition does not do what most of think. We explain how inhibition works neurologically and psychologically, its 9 function and give 12 self-modelling activities.

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Pointing to a New Modelling Perspective

By James Lawley | Published 12 05 2012
Advanced SyM , About Modelling , The Developing Group

After more than a decade of searching for a satisfying analogy that describes the perspective I take when symbolic modelling I’ve finally found one right under my nose. It is the simple and everyday act of pointing.

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Clean Evaluative Interviewing

By Penny Tompkins & James Lawley | Published 03 12 2012
The Developing Group , Research & Interviewing

A research project will use Symbolic Modelling and Clean Language to discover how coachees evaluate their experience of coaching. This paper explorers the methodology required and gives guidelines for anyone wanting to undertake a ‘clean evaluative interview’ (CEI).

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Self-nudge

By Penny Tompkins & James Lawley | Published 01 10 2011
The Developing Group , Self Development

We review where decisions come from, apply Thaler & Sunstein's social principles about “choice architects” to the individual, and propose a method of Self-Nudging: Biasing our Unconscious Mind.

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Calibrating whether what you are doing is working

By Penny Tompkins & James Lawley | Published 09 07 2011
The Developing Group

How do facilitators calibrate when “it’s working”, and when it’s not? It is not easy for a facilitator to describe the in-the-moment criteria by which they navigate a session. However, even if a facilitator cannot specify how they decide what to do, they have a duty to consider the question: How do you know when what you are doing is (or is not) working?

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REPROCess: Modelling Attention

By Penny Tompkins & James Lawley | Published 14 05 2011
The Developing Group , Models of Perception

The first principle of Symbolic Modelling is: Know what you are modelling, i.e. what kind of experience the client is having. This article shows how the REPROCess model enables a facilitator to do that. Published Acuity, Vol.3, Nov 2011.

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What did Improv ever do for us?

By Penny Tompkins & James Lawley | Published 04 12 2010
The Developing Group

Based on the work of the grandaddy of modern improvisation, Keith Johnstone, we explore what clean facilitators can learn from the art form of improvisation.

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Modelling the Written Word

By Penny Tompkins & James Lawley | Published 04 09 2010
How to Model , The Developing Group , Research & Interviewing

This paper describe and give examples of the many kinds of written word we have modelled. These include: Single statements/questions; Questionnaires; Letters to staff; Transcripts of 1:1 therapy/coaching; Exemplar Modelling; First-person accounts; Academic research interviews; Processes/Techniques; Shared or Group Reality.

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