Metaphors – a powerful catalyst in meetings

by Kevin Holligan
Great story tellers and communicators seem to have the power to connect with their audiences and use just the right stories to get them engaged. Their use of metaphors is often a key part of their “art”. In the same way the Facilitators and Leaders of meetings can magnify the impact of any work being done through the use of metaphors.

Potential Power and Impact

The use of a good verbal image or story can be very powerful for a group. It can bring to life any business or academic discussions by connecting people to what they already know and provide a common language or picture that everyone can relate to.

Meeting Magic find them very useful as a lead into any work we are asking a group to do and as a way to manage transitions between different agenda elements. We find the group takes ownership of them and the metaphor can develop its own momentum. If people are still talking about them over lunch and at breaks then you know they are working for the group! They are often great at unlocking thinking and creating new perspectives and in fact in “pressure testing” ideas. A metaphor or theme can also add to a meeting as it can become the running theme over a whole day; you have probably seen this done for conferences, why not in smaller meetings?

It can of course lead to good graphics that can be used in templates, wall charts and work sheets that are designed. You may also be able to do something symbolic that connects with the metaphor – making it more memorable. Fundamentally a good metaphor can be fun and emotionally engaging!

Things to Watch Out For In Using Metaphor

There are a few things to watch out for in making use of metaphors.

If you are choosing a metaphor in advance to use at any point in an agenda it’s worth bearing in mind these few pointers:

  • Relevance: Will the audience all get the metaphor or actually will it exclude or even “turn off” some people/nationalities/genders/cultures. Example: Football - not everyone enjoys it or even sport generally! It’s soccer in USA!
  • Check for negatives: Some metaphors that seem good in theory can be killed by the participants – although even then that can be a springboard to a great discussion and exploration. We have some real examples we have seen happen: A ship became the Titanic; A Mountain Rescue story was used after a weekend where one participant had lost a friend on the mountains!
  • Watch for overused metaphors and stories: These are harder to spot but some are becoming a bit overused while in some arenas these are still fresh! Examples: Football or Rugby Teams; Getting to the top of a mountain, to see the next valley; Flock of Geese: The janitor at NASA
  • Never falling in love with a metaphor: You may need to adapt or even drop a metaphor in favour of what really works for the group. Your flexibility and genuine interest in exploring group’s ideas is very engaging and encourages participation. Similarly you may need to help others go through this process!
  • Make sure it works for you first: in order to propose a metaphor as a frame you need to make sure you are comfortable with it. The group will get energy from your level of engagement and how well you paint the picture that you have, so make sure you feel engaged yourself around the metaphor

Where Can You Find Them?

By no means do you need to always be the person to propose a metaphor! We have seen groups asked to arrive ready to share stories that bring a theme to life. You can set a task for a group in the room that gets them using metaphors:

  • “Complete the sentence ‘Working on this team reminds me of ....’ ”
  • “I’d like you all to leave the room and bring back an object (legally!) that for you sums up the stage our work is at” This can make for an illuminating discussion afterwards and can often lead to a linking of metaphors and stories into a unifying image.
  • You can also work to draw out a metaphor and get the group to build it live in the room.

If you are looking for ideas to use with a group then there are plenty of resources: official books for metaphor and stories but you can actually get creative.

Try looking in children books to get simple images and ideas; Use search engines that provide images when you put in keywords; Look in PowerPoint clipart and again see what you get when you enter various words. Use Television programmes to grow your knowledge – it could be gardening or natural history programmes or even a soap! Similarly look to theatre and films for potential sources and images. It all depends on your audience.One other thing that may help is to consider groupings of metaphors. Historically organisations have used quite mechanistic metaphors and the available variety is much wider than that. Check if you are always using them from one family! With this list I have given some simple examples but I’m sure you can think of others!

Medical/Healing/Therapies: In order to have a healthy fit body we need to...
Warfare: Beat the competition! Defend ourselves!
Nature/Growth/Water: The conditions needed to get from an acorn to an Oak Tree...
Architecture: We need to build a good foundation and have 5 key pillars...
Sport/Games: What are the hurdles we need to overcome? What will help our team win?
Artistic/Creative (Music/Poetry/Writing etc.): Will we play to a musical score or play jazz?
Stories/Communication: What would get us into adult: adult relations in Our Company?

(This list comes from a lecture by Steven Paterson at Birmingham University)

Conclusions

Most people are using metaphors all the time in their everyday communications as well as in their facilitation of meetings. We hope we have raised your awareness of their use and we encourage you to start spotting them when used by others and to experiment in their use.

We would love to hear your success stories of how groups have got excited and “run away with” a metaphor and we would also like to hear of when they have gone wrong so that we can share in those lessons while avoiding any pain incurred!

Copyright © Kevin Holligan