More Thinking on Metaphors for Business
If you believe as I do that metaphors area critical component of the alignment and energy flow of successful organizations, you may be interested in the attached link. The author writes: “We can’t not think metaphorically,” according to Charles Faulkner, a noted Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) writer and trainer. His premise is that most businesses operate from a particular metaphor and that it’s pretty easy to determine by walking through a company’s headquarters. Some of the more popular metaphors for business are: family, game, machine, and organism. http://www.yearick-millea.com/impact/?tag=metaphors-for-business Read More
The Book That Opened the Door
Re-Inventing Communication This seminal book on using metaphors for collaborative strategy setting was published in 1994. On assignment from the World Trade Organization to help Sri Lanka grow exports, Larry Raymond found that words alone were useless in aligning people to a common objective. The business leaders, educators and government officials he brought together did nothing other than declare and defend their views, over and over, louder each time with phrases such as: “If you had simply listened to me last year, we wouldn’t have a problem.” If you ever had the task of leading change, you know the challenge! You also know that conventional solutions don’t get you all the way to a focused, motivated team. Fortunately, two hours down that road in Sri Lanka came the breakthrough idea that developed into the suite of visual, metaphoric “languages” that have since focused hundreds of workshops on building and implementing a challenging vision of the future. Visual, Metaphor Languages are a new tool to show connections, relationships, values, obstacles, risks and strategies. They encourage building on each others’ ideas and draw out intuition and spatial thinking capabilities to display the big picture and its logic and the often hidden emotions [...] Read More How to Get your Group Unstuck with Metaphor Language
When Face-to-Face doesn’t mean Mouth-to-Ear The Problem Everyone gets stuck at some point in time— we’re not sure what to do and just sit there numb– unable to come up with the idea or decision. When working in an organization on some project, whole groups can get stuck. Sometimes, the collective thought blockage is so complete that efforts to change and improve come to a halt– No idea catches fire and everyone contents themselves to do the job they’re directly accountable for, and no more. This happens mostly when plans are not working out as you expected them to. A key symptom is when people stop listening to each other. Face to face meetings that should produce dynamic interaction become perfunctory. Team members have lost faith in their own creative abilities and those of their colleagues. Humans are challenging by nature, they just need to see things under a new light to defeat their troubles. But, to get started, most require some pushing. Getting Unstuck Metaphors have been used for for a long time in therapy sessions to look at problems from different viewpoints. Gaining understanding of the problem is half the battle. The other half is coming up with [...] Read More
Personal Prisons: Words Lost between the Different Planes of Thinking
So, How did you get into this mess? You’re bright and hard-working, so why aren’t you on top of your world? …AKA producing faster, cheaper, better. Chances are, you’re holding yourself back without knowing it! Your Personal Prison You’re self-incarcerated. Built the walls with your own habits of thinking. Made ‘em stronger every day! Invisible but real. Keep out those killer new ideas. Group prisons Its worse than you imagine. Your walls are reinforced by your colleagues. They have their habits too. They know how things work. They’re pragmatic, just like you, and just as stuck. You could plan your escape by examining your prison walls, stone by stone. Get really analytical. Maybe hire a consultant to look for you. But that’d be like extending your sentence another year. Prison Break! Hey! Its your own prison– so if you want to get out, just do it! Here’s your first breath of freedom: Think about a problem or challenge you face. Pick up any document you have around you, anything. A report, an invoice, a dictionary, whatever. Without looking, point to a single word on the page. How does it connect to your problem? (did you try it?) Amazing, eh? Your [...] Read More
Name Your Poison
Better yet, Picture your Poison Sometimes words can obscure rather than clarify an issue. When you can’t make your point clear, you can’t energize others to help you address it. So, what to do about it? The Value of Metaphors Above, the bottle on the left gives a lot of detailed information but, the one on the right, gives a clear and unambiguous meaning. If you want action– to improve a process or manage some other change– metaphoric thinking and metaphoric communication can add the clarity and emotional impact you need to energize your colleagues. Using metaphors doesn’t imply ceasing to use your reason, but it does mean thinking differently. Metaphors are just a means to and get people on the same page and emotionally engaged. Your mental processes speed up and you are more open to the ideas of others, especially if the metaphor is visual and shown on a physical surface rather than described with words. While the metaphor itself is a method of abstraction, it makes a complex issue less abstract!! Making it more concrete will help you and the group “get it”. Then, you can go on to imagine how to best deal with it– whether [...] Read More
Finding Metaphors in Daily Life
Why Your Back is Like Your Lawn Now that the Metaphor Language website is up, I’m going to start cataloging metaphors I see in daily life. These are ways that people communicate with pictures, visualizations, symbols and descriptions to get the message across more quickly and clearly. Here’s a great metaphor from a chiropractor in Boulder, Colorado (The Cafe of Life). They use a metaphor to describe how having an unhealthy spine can affect your entire body and life. “Just like a lawn of green grass – if you cut off or decrease the flow of water that is going to the lawn, the lawn will begin to turn brown and eventually dies in the places where it doesn’t get water.” When you come across metaphors in daily life, please share them with readers by adding a comment, or send it to me with the Contact Us function. Download your free copy of Re-Inventing Communication (192-page ebook) now! Read More
Case Study: Improve Management Effectiveness with Metaphor Language
by
Larry Raymond
on Jul 24, 2011
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Case Studies, Management Effectiveness, Village Mapping, World Health Organization
World Heath Organization’s Management Effectiveness Program & Use of Village Mapping During the 1990′s, the WHO was concerned that public health systems in less developed countries had weaknesses in their organizations and processes and were not serving their populations at the level they were capable of. Problems included a unique focus on treatment rather than on health– including the environment and preventative measures, as well as treatments. WHO developed a Management Effectiveness Program (MEP) with the goal of introducing quality management techniques into public health systems. Village Mapping was a key component of the MEP. It was selected because of its ability to bring together people of varied backgrounds, ensure good communication among them, stimulate big picture thinking about weaknesses, and establish an agreed goal. A person’s or a community’s health is the result of a system. Understanding that system at a high level is a critical component to being able no manage and improve it. This understanding of the health system comes in three steps: Knowledge of the people, facilities and organizations who are stakeholders in the health system is the first step to understanding Comprehending the quality of relationships between the component parts of the system Forming a [...] Read More
Change and Resistance in Developing Countries Part 2
by
Larry Raymond
on Jul 24, 2011
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Change Management, River Mapping, Village Mapping
Part 2: Guidance for the Change Agent The Metaphor Language Research Center has taken many assignments to develop strategies for improving processes in developing countries in South Asia and Africa. This is the second of two articles and offers some recommendations to change agents, based on our experiences. (Read Part 1 here.) Individuals who desire change in their governments and institutions may or may not have a clear idea of the outcome they want but seldom have a realistic concept of how to achieve it. In particular, they do not comprehend the inertial resistance they will initially face and the countervailing forces that will persistently erode new processes installed. Prepare Understand the “lay of the land” and learn what government departments or non-government agencies have full or a degree of control over the target area. Who are the stakeholders in the issue in question? Who has what authority? Who are the key deciders and decision influencers? What are their beliefs and attitudes? What problems in the past have been caused by individual attitudes, changeable policy, law? What are legal or physical constraints? Draft an approach that considers the needs of all stakeholders and the power structure What is the incentive [...] Read More
Change and Resistance in Developing Countries Part 1
by
Larry Raymond
on Jul 24, 2011
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Comments Closed
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Change Management, River Mapping, Village Mapping
Part 1: The Faces of Resistance The Metaphor Language Research Center has taken many assignments to develop strategies for improving processes in developing countries in South Asia and Africa. This is the first of two articles and offers some observations from our experiences. Some typical obstacles to change Establishing your right to be heard in the right forum Gaining attention of deciders Personal impact on deciders Absence of an efficient process to gain consensus frustrates all and shelves your initiative Competing priorities, typically for money Limited amount of time change agents have to invest Long held antagonisms between stakeholders Interminable talking The rhetoric of resistance to change (as compiled by a group of change management practitioners) - The “Resistors’ Rules of Thumb”– How non-formal, inertial resistance works: Don’t participate, but work on “the boss” off-line, if possible If forced to participate, don’t engage or take any responsibility for action If forced to talk, gently explain why there is no better way of functioning No overt disagreement with the objectives of change No conflict, no emotion If change is mandated, there’s no time to implement it If change is mandated, new problems will arise later to delay or sidetrack action If [...] Read More
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