Creative listening process

A set of questions that probe beneath the "surface structure" of the speaker's words to the "deep structure" which is their personal representation or model of "reality".[Advantages]

Words, phrases, messages and whole presentations at conferences can be grammatically ill-formed, either in syntax (the order and patterning of words and phrases) or semantically (their portrayal of meaning). This can be unintentional or deliberate, and when it occurs, elements of the "deep structure" of the speaker's model can be obscured. The process develops the intuitional recognition of ill-formed communication patterns and provides a way to recover, challenge, and re-connect them. Not only does it reveal more of the "deep structure" but can also "enrich" it, by calling for the inclusion of more "reality" and experience. The process is based on the insights of transformational grammar.

[Disadvantages]

Sometimes the questions and interventions can be confusing and distracting when posed to speakers who are unaware of the way in which they have obscured their "deep structure" and indeed may have no understanding of their thought in this way.