Chunking · Pattern 3 of 13
Chunk Up — Intention
Move up by asking what the person is trying to achieve.
Recover: What the speaker is trying to achieve
What it is
MANUAL MODEL. The third chunk-up question. Purpose points at the thing; intention points at the person. Asked of behaviour — especially behaviour the person is not enjoying — it reliably surfaces something they would be willing to keep, even when the behaviour itself has to go.
Recognition / tip-offs
What has been distorted, generalised or deleted
- The behaviour is aimed at something
- The aim can be honoured separately from the behaviour
- The person may not have articulated the aim yet
Client-language use
“I keep nagging him about it.” Intention chunking finds what the nagging is in service of — usually something the person is happy to own.
How to challenge it
Ask about intention warmly, and about behaviour separately.
- “What is your intention in doing that?”
- “What are you hoping that achieves?”
- “What are you looking after by doing it that way?”
Practitioner judgement: challenge what is useful, not every pattern you can hear.
What to recover
Use it to separate a person from a behaviour, and to give conflicting parties a charitable reading of each other.
Client autonomy first — offer language the client can verify and decline.
Examples
““I check her work three times.” → “What is your intention?” → “I don't want her set up to fail.””
Missing Protection, expressed as surveillance.
Challenge: “What else would protect her that she would experience as support?”
Common confusion and overlap
- Confusing intention with excuse
- Asking about intention when the person is not ready to be seen
- Collapsing intention, purpose and category into 'chunking up'
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