1.6. Our Story#
This is the story of how the course was developed, and how the Foundation came to be.
Simon Coles of Amphora Research Systems has been working with Clean Language since the late 1990s following a course run by Caitlin Walker at New Information Paradigms. This later became known as “Metaphors at Work” and we ended up being an example for some Open University videos which are still on YouTube: Open University Video.
At NIP Simon pioneered the first commercial Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) system, and in 2003 did a management buyout from NIP to form Amphora Research Systems as an independent company.
It was evident that Clean Language was a powerful tool for improving conversations in the business, especially in the sales process, and so Simon started to look for ways to train more people in the approach. This proved to be difficult, although Simon managed to find Caitlin Walker again sometime around 2012 and Caitlin ran a series of Clean Language workshops with the sales team.
Around this time, Amphora got interested in neurodiversity and the idea that different people have different ways of processing information. This led to an engagement with Nancy Doyle of Genius Within, where underpinned by Clean Language, the Amphora team started to explore how they could work better together using the more detailed information gained from WAIS assessments.
By this time Clean Language was used across the business, in a light but important way. It was important that new hires were trained in Clean Language, and that the training was delivered in a way that was accessible and repeatable.
It soon became clear that the existing Clean Language training was not meeting the needs of the business. Not only were their logistical challenges, but the “Pure” Clean courses were aimed at Coaches and Therapists, or Facilitators, and not ordinary people working in a business.
In addition there were some dogmatic views about what Clean Language was and was not, and “Systemic Modelling” had grown to incorpoate all sorts of things which weren’t Clean Language at all, nor appropriate for the workplace.
Around 2017 Simon started to think about how he could develop a training course that would be more effective.
It had to be accessible and repeatable
It had to be online
It had to be modular, and fit into people’s working day - an hour at a time
It had to be consistent, so that colleagues who did the course at different times would learn the same things
It had to be run over a realtively short timescale - the original course was 4 modules over 4 weeks
It had to be scalable
It had to be robust and reliable when delivered to diverse participants across cultures and contexts
It had to support employees with any behaviour change that is needed for better conversations, and be relevant and easy to apply in business situations
Simon tried to various approaches including recording short videos explaining the approach, but these didn’t work. He realised that he needed a course that was interactive and involved practicing the skills, not watching videos.
Thus began a long and winding road of development, with the first experimental course being run externally in 2019, and has been iteratively developed since then.
Working from an approach which is very natural in the software industry, the course has always been “Open Source” and has been developed with the support of a wide community.
Chandima Dutton joined Amphora in 2022 as Head of People and has been instrumental in the development of the course from an internal tool to something that people around the world can rely on to incorporate into their work.
In 2024 Simon and Chandima formalised the Better Conversations Foundation to support people who use the course and make it available to a wider audience.
Under Chandima’s leadership, the Foundation has been able to invest in the development of the course and the detailed documentation we provide on this site.
The Foundation is also able to support the development of new courses and resources, and to support people who want to help the world communicate just a little bit better, every day.
We’re excited for the future and hope you can join us in this great adventure!