When you are working with clients what you really are doing is you are making predictions. You want to look for being proven right and where you are proven wrong. Because based on every response you will be building a picture in your mind of what the situation looks like. The predictions themselves don't actually matter that you make. The response back that you get make all the difference in the world because that's how you are going to construct the image of what you're dealing with.
So if I were to ask you what your office looks like. And I ask you questions and have you describe it to me in detail. What I'm looking for is isomorphic relationships and I'm also looking for where i'm wrong. Because that will always happen, you're always going to be right about some things and you are always going to be wrong about some things. It's very rare that you will be wrong about everything and it's very rare that you will be right about everything so you control for that. And act on the idea that what you will get some things right and some things wrong.
The exercise is describe to me your office, and I will describe to you the inside of your house. That's the exercise.
When I did the exercise with someone else it alerted me to some details, they asked me about the ground in my office and if it had carpet, my bedroom has carpet, if they had asked do I have things on my floor, in my office I have pieces of paper from where I shred medical records, pieces of paper on my carpet, the analogy he could of made is if I let small shreds stay there then I allow stuff to remain on my bedroom carpet as well, that would be true, i keep alot of stuff on the ground in my bedroom.
You are looking for an error in prediction as quickly as possible. Pictures on the wall, i'll give another analogy, I had a client come into me they work on an air line, they are very organized and very much to the book, they sent me a picture of the airplance they are working, everyone is in their seats in alignment and in rows.
And isopmorphic relationship.
Clean in personal life, clean in professional life, people act in patterns and they repeat.
That's what you're looking for. when you are asking for what their office looks like to predict what their house looks like from the inside what you're looking for is what seems the same in one situation and what would naturally carry over if you did the same thing somewhere else. To the degree you can see it, it will look very specific
You're looking for patterns that look the same to you and you have to assume they will do it in other contexts.