Why visual metaphors are a powerful way to connect people and build more effective relationships

When you have brilliant colleagues working in silos, it can be really hard for them to learn from one another. Eliciting their visual metaphors can bridge the gap between different people and cultures and allows them to create a shared or common language.

Here are two examples of personal metaphors that Caitlin Walker and I created for a whole team that helped them understand what is most important for each other in their work, and in doing so brought them together in ways that enhanced team performance.

The metaphors we use at work help us to connect the words we use to the meanings we make of our experience. Metaphor in greek means “to transfer, or connect”. A good metaphor is a bridge of meaning, helping us to understanding one thing, or experience, in terms of another. Metaphors can  influence, and sometimes limit, how we see and understand the world. Once created they can drop below our radar and become unconscious and habitual, implicit assumptions that influence our thinking and behaviour. When organisations are in crisis mode and under pressure to change, we often hear a cry of "we need to change mindsets!" Generating new metaphors can be one way of opening up new possibilities and give us new ways of seeing things.

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What visual metaphors could we create to open up new possibilities in how we work together?