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The Making of One Minute Motivation

10th Nov 2025 by Marian Way in Clean Language, Clean Language Questions, Training

The One Minute Motivation process we share on our 1-Day Introduction to Clean Language was born from combining Clean Language and Motivational Interviewing—two approaches that help people discover their own motivation for change. Developed for Weight Watchers leaders more than twenty years ago, it offers a simple, four-question structure that turns advice-giving into powerful coaching conversations. In this post, I’ll share how the idea emerged, what shaped it, and why it works well for behaviour change and self-motivation.

Origins

Wendy Sullivan, Phil Swallow, Linda Neil and I created ‘One Minute Motivation’ over 20 years ago when we were developing a 1-day training for Weight Watchers leaders – the people who run the weekly Weight Watchers meetings. By then, I had been learning Clean Language for three or four years. Linda and I had been working at Weight Watchers for several years, and we chose Wendy and Phil as consultants because of their knowledge of and experience with Clean Language.

Most people who discover and learn Clean Language want to figure out how to make it work in their own context (whether coaching, therapy, teaching, sales, health care etc). Its neutrality, flexibility and scalability mean it’s extremely adaptable – and many new processes have been born as a result. And I was no exception.

Linda and I had both started our Weight Watchers careers as meeting leaders, which meant we had plenty of experience of what was involved in running weekly meetings. Things may have changed in the intervening years, but at that time, a member would come in, pay their meeting fee and then hop on the scales. Then there would be a short conversation about the result, whether a loss or a gain, with the leader offering some advice and/or encouragement for the week to come. After this ‘weigh-in’ period, the leader would run a group discussion on a designated topic, such as eating a healthy breakfast or how to cope with setbacks.

We wanted our training to be instrumental in changing the weigh-in and the meeting discussions from a mainly advice-giving culture to more of a coaching approach, where members would be encouraged to come up with their own ideas for what they might do during the following week.

We had a few potential obstacles to overcome…

Many of the meetings were very busy; some leaders were seeing 60 people at the scales during a 1-hour weigh-in. This meant that whatever we suggested would need to be doable within 60 seconds.
We knew that this switch that we wanted leaders to make would be, for some, a big ask. They had been used to giving advice, had been doing so for many years, and they were good at it.
At that time, Clean Language was relatively new and unknown; those commissioning training did not yet have any reason to trust it…

Aligning with Motivational Interviewing

The thinking among the commissioners was that we should implement utilise ‘Motivational Interviewing’, a process which arose in the field of addiction counselling and used widely in healthcare settings. As its name suggests, it is a way of tapping into someone’s intrinsic motivation for change rather than telling them what to do. Of course, this was completely aligned with our goals for the training, so it seemed possible that we could use ideas from Motivational Interviewing and Clean Language – which in turn would make it easier to ‘sell’ our ideas to the commissioners.

So one of our first jobs was to get a copy of Miller and Rollnick’s book, Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change (2002, 2nd ed). From this, we learned that the Motivational Interviewing process is based around the idea of people being ‘ready, willing and able’ to make changes and that an MI practitioner’s job is to assess where a person is in their process and ask questions designed to move them towards readiness.

In this model:

Willingness is about why someone would want to change — how important or meaningful it feels.
Ability is about how confident they feel in being able to do it.
Readiness is about when — the sense that the time is right and the conditions are in place.

We knew all along that we wanted to create a Clean Language-based process and now we knew that our process would need to:

Be capable of being delivered within one or two minutes
Take into account the ‘ready, willing and able’ idea
Be trained in such a way that the leaders would be ready, willing and able to take it on board

The four of us met several times to figure out what the process would be and to develop a training around it. We created many iterations!

The need for brevity meant we were trying to figure out what was the smallest set of Clean Language questions we could teach that would be effective in motivating members to achieve their weight loss goals.

Starting with "What would you like to have happen?"

It seemed natural that the process would start with the question: What would you like to have happen? We imagined different scenarios.

Scenario 1

You’ve gained two pounds.
Oh no! That’s not fair. I have followed that programme to the letter.
I agree that’s not fair and that does happen sometimes. What would you like to have happen this coming week?
I’d like to lose three pounds – those two I’ve gained, and another one.

Scenario 2

You’ve lost a pound.
Great, I thought I would. I’m on a roll now.
What would you like to have happen this coming week?
I just want to keep going.

Scenario 3

You have gained a pound.
Oh no! And I thought I had been really good this week.
What would you like to have happen this coming week?
I need to think about how this could have happened and make a new plan.

Scenario 4

You’ve lost two pounds.
That’s brilliant. I wasn’t sure if I would; I had a few glasses of wine at the weekend.
What would you like to have happen this coming week?
Well, I’d love to carry on drinking the wine, but I imagine it will catch up with me at some point.

This question is great for eliciting someone’s desired outcome – and in our trials between ourselves, it seemed it would work in terms of getting people thinking about the week to come and what they wanted to achieve.

A Thumbs Down for Developing Questions

Of course, having been trained in Symbolic Modelling, we wanted to suggest leaders ask a few developing questions…

Is there anything else about keep going?
What kind of plan?
Is there anything else about catch up?

But we knew there wouldn’t be enough time for this – and it was crucial that we created a short process, otherwise the meetings wouldn’t start on time or, more likely, the leaders wouldn’t even give it a go.

After lots of trial and error with these questions, we eventually realised that we would need to drop the major part of the Symbolic Modelling process and jump straight to the question, “What needs to happen?”

What needs to happen?

This question is designed to help someone figure out what conditions need to be in place for them to get what they want. We liked it because it is simple and easy for anyone to understand.

And before asking it, the leader would need to think about the member’s answer to the first question…

Scenario 1

I’d like to lose three pounds – those two I’ve gained, and another one.

This is a desired outcome, so the leader could just go ahead and ask,

And what needs to happen this week for you to lose three pounds?
I will keep doing what I have been doing. This must be just a blip.

Scenario 2

I just want to keep going.
And what needs to happen for you to keep going?
Nothing more – just do what I have been doing.

Scenario 3

I need to think about how this could have happened and make a new plan.

In this case, the member hasn’t really said what they want (we can assume they would like to lose weight) - it’s as though they have already given their answer to ‘What needs to happen?’ They even start their answer with “I need to…”.

And the leader could still ask the question…

And what needs to happen for you to think about how this could have happened?
When I get home, I will sit down and go through my tracker
And what needs to happen for you to make a plan?
I need to look for some new recipes – I think I may have been relying too much on ready meals.

Scenario 4

Well, I’d love to carry on drinking the wine, but I imagine it will catch up with me at some point.

This one is a bit trickier. It sounds like a desired outcome (to carry on drinking wine), but ‘I imagine it will catch up with me’ suggests that the member knows that it wouldn’t be a good idea – which means they don’t actually have a desired outcome and so ‘what needs to happen’ would not be a good question to ask.

We realised we’d need to advise the leaders that if the member’s response to ‘What would you like have happen?’ was a problem / not a desired outcome – they should stay with/ go back the first question…

And so when wine will catch up with you, what would you like to have happen?
I’d like to stick to the programme properly this week.
And what needs to happen for you to stick to it properly?
I either need to choose sparkling water or save enough points so I can count the wine properly.

This idea of going back a step applies the whole way through this process and fits in with the idea from Motivational Interviewing of 'readiness'. If someone gives an answer that doesn’t allow the process to go forward, this suggests they weren’t quite ready for that question, so we need to go back for them and give them a bit more time to process their thoughts before going forward again.

Can you … ?

We chose this question for two reasons:

It follows on quite naturally from ‘what needs to happen?’
It fits in with “able” part of the Motivational Interviewing model

Although on the face of it, this question has only two possible – yes or no – there are lots of shades of grey in between a definite yes and a definite no.

Yes, I think so
Yes, maybe/possibly
Yes (while making a face that suggests ‘not really’)
I’m not sure
If I don’t get stressed again
I don’t think so

… and so on.

Anything other than a definite ‘yes’ is a signal they’re not ready and so to go back to the previous question: And what needs to happen? Let’s see what happens in our four scenarios:

Scenario 1

I will keep doing what I have been doing. This must be just a blip.
And can you keep doing what you have been doing?
Absolutely, yes.

Scenario 2

Nothing more – just do what I have been doing.
And can you do that?
Yes

Scenario 3

When I get home, I will sit down and go through my tracker (and) I need to look for some new recipes – I think I may have been relying too much on ready meals.
And can you sit down and go through your tracker?
Yes
And can you look for new recipes?
I will have to dig out my cookbooks.

In this case, the member has found another thing they will need to do (i.e. another necessary condition) before they can look for new recipes. The leader can just go on and ask ‘can you’ again.

And can you dig out your cookbooks?
Yes

Scenario 4

So either you choose sparkling water or you save enough points to count the wine.
So can you choose sparkling water?
Not always!
Can you save enough points?
I’m not sure.

In this scenario, the member is not giving a definite yes to either question, so the leader will need to go back to ‘what needs to happen’…

So what needs to happen for you to choose sparkling water?
I need to decide ahead of time that that’s what I’m going to do.
And can you do that?
Yes, I can. I just have to remember, that’s all.
And what needs to happen for you to remember.
I need to think of the event and imagine myself asking for sparkling water.
And can you do that?
Yes.
And what needs to happen for you to save points?
Oh, I don’t need to do that now I’ve decided on the sparkling water.

Incidentally, “Can … ?” can also be used to rule out options. Suppose a member has said, “I need a fairy to come and wave her magic wand and make me slim again!” then a question such as “Can that happen?” can help bring the conversation back into the realms of what’s actually possible.

Will you ... ?

This was the fourth of our questions, and one which I have replaced (when we share this model during our 1-Day Introduction) with ‘then what happens’. In contexts other than Weight Watchers meetings, this question sounds far too ‘pushy’ for me. But we had a few good reasons for choosing it back then…

In the entire 18 years I had been working in Weight Watchers, in various roles, there had been a focus on ‘getting a commitment’ from members when they were talking about future behaviours – so this question would keep this element in place and so be familiar to leaders.
It fits with the “willing” part of the Motivational Interviewing model
It goes well with ‘Can you…?’ – and contributes to making the whole 4-question model easy to remember.

By now, if the member had responded with a clear, congruent and definite ‘yes’ to ‘Can you …?’, this could act like a little tag-on question.

And will you?
Yes.

It could also be adapted to:

And when will you (do x)?
Tomorrow morning, straight after breakfast.

As before, if the member should respond with anything other than a definite ‘yes’ the leader could go back to one of the previous questions to help the member explore other options.

The four questions of One Minute Motivation

We had boiled it down to four questions:

What would you like to have happen?
What needs to happen?
Can … ?
Will … ?

We called these the 'Core Questions' and designated a few other clean questions as 'Up your sleeve questions'.

Developing the training

Once we had agreed on the process, and tested it within the larger training team, who in turn tested it in their own meetings (and it was a hit!), our next task was to create the 1-day training. This was to be rolled out across the country, with the four of us each heading up a team of four or five trainers. We would be running big events with 60 to 100 leaders at each event. So we needed to put on a show, and luckily Phil’s ‘other job’ is event production, so he helped us to make it all ‘big enough’ for a large audience. I don’t recall all the details, but some highlights were:

Introducing ideas from a book called Changing For Good by James Prochaska, Carlo DiClemente and John Norcross as a way to ‘set the scene’ for what was to come
Using giant see-saws (made by my husband) with bean bags (made by me) to illustrate ‘ambivalence’ – i.e. on one hand, wanting to lose weight, on the other wanting to eat snacks and treats. Of course, this also served as a metaphor for people’s weight going up and down.
Rewriting the story Many Moons by James Thurber (1943) to match the messages of the training and including clean questions. We created very large ‘story books’ to read from and told the story in several parts throughout the day.
Simply having this fantastic opportunity to share clean questions with around 1500 people.

What happened next?

The trainings were a huge success; the questions were well-received and we had people join our events from other Weight Watchers organisations worldwide, as a prelude to their own training of “One Minute Motivation”. I can’t begin to tell you how thrilled I was when, a few months later, I visited a Weight Watchers meeting in New York and watched a leader there asking these questions of her members!

Of course, the main thing to consider is – does it work? Does using this process result in people being motivated to take action to change their behaviours? I stopped working for Weight Watchers before any research had been done about this, but I have often shared this model within Clean Language trainings. We use it for practical tasks where motivation has, until now, been lacking – and students have often reported that they felt compelled to take action as a result of One Minute Motivation. We allow a bit longer than a minute, I must admit, which does allow for a little more in-depth exploration, The spirit of the process — brief, focused, and clean — remains the same. I think the fact that people get a chance to do a ‘mental rehearsal’ of their desired behaviours is what makes it so effective.

What began as a solution to a practical problem turned into a simple, versatile way to spark motivation.

If you’d like to learn more about the process and have a go (or two) for yourself, please join my session on this topic at the Metaphorum on 22nd November.

References

Miller, W.R. & Rollnick, S., 2002. Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

Prochaska, J.O., DiClemente, C.C. & Norcross, J.C., 1994. Changing for Good. New York: William Morrow.

Thurber, J., 1943. Many Moons. Illus. L. Slobodkin. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company.

Related courses

1-Day Introduction to Clean Language

About Marian Way

A highly skilled facilitator and trainer, Marian, who founded Clean Learning in 2001, has developed and delivered training across the world. She is the author of Clean Approaches for Coaches, co-author, with James Lawley, of Insights in Space and co-author, with Caitlin Walker, of So you want to be… #DramaFree.

Marian is an expert Clean facilitator, an adept modeller, a programme writer and an inspirational trainer. She has a natural ability to model existing structures, find the connections between them and design new ways for people to learn. Marian was a leading innovator within the Weight Watchers organisation, which included developing the “points” strategy, a local idea that went on to become a global innovation. She is a director of both Clean Learning and Training Attention CIC, world leaders in clean applications for corporate, educational and community development. She designs our programmes and workbooks, leads workshops and teaches on all our courses. She’s trained people in Great Britain, Russia, Sweden, Germany, Australia, Japan and the USA. Marian is also a recognised Clean Assessor.

The Making of One Minute Motivation

Origins

Aligning with Motivational Interviewing

Starting with "What would you like to have happen?"

A Thumbs Down for Developing Questions

What needs to happen?

Can you … ?

Will you ... ?

The four questions of One Minute Motivation

Developing the training

What happened next?

References

Related blog posts

When 20 and 20 add up to 6:40

Four Questions for One-Minute Motivation

Related courses

About Marian Way