Clearness Committee
A person facing a decision or dilemma (the focus person) meets with a small committee for two to three hours. Committee members may only ask honest, open questions: no advice, no stories about themselves, no suggestions. Near the end, if the focus person agrees, members can mirror back what they heard. Everything said stays confidential.
Use when someone faces a personal or professional decision that only they can make, and advice from others is getting in the way.
Solves: People asking for help with a hard decision get buried in well-meant advice that is about the advisers, not them.
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Step 1: The focus person writes up the issue and sends it to the committee in advance (prep).
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Step 2: Open in silence. The focus person breaks it with a short summary of the issue (10 min).
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Step 3: Members ask honest, open questions one at a time, leaving silence between them. The focus person may answer or pass (90-120 min).
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Step 4: About 15 minutes before the end, the clerk asks whether the focus person wants mirroring. If so, members reflect back words and patterns they noticed (15 min).
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Step 5: Close with thanks. Agree that nobody raises the topic with the focus person afterwards unless invited (5 min).
- A good test of an honest, open question: you could not possibly predict the answer.
- Keep questions short and drop the preamble about why you are asking.
- Name a clerk to keep the rules and a recorder whose notes go only to the focus person.
- A shorter, 60-90 minute version for workplace coaching circles, keeping the questions-only rule.