We looked at metaphor when considering the need for Flexible Thinking. Metaphor can be useful for describing a situation in simple terms (e.g. our lack of resources is like a brick wall stopping us) but can also help us to explore the situation and generate ideas.

Metaphor moves us to the abstract and then back to our situation. We explain this below.

PURPOSE    
To help you use metaphor in a structured way to explore situations.

 PROCESS

1. Describe your situation and generate a metaphor(s) or analogy for it. Identify the characteristics of the metaphor / analogy (e.g. it is rough; cement holds bricks together; it is finite; you can use a wall to play squash; you can climb it)
2. Ask what these characteristics reveal about your situation (we can climb a wall – the budget problem need not be insurmountable; the wall can be demolished and rebuilt – could we review our budget from a different perspective?)

It is better to work on the first column (generate the characteristics) and then the next
column. This encourages divergent (creative) then convergent (judgement) thinking.

BENEFITS
It is systematic. It helps people who like structure and believe themselves
“uncreative” (however irrational that belief) to conceptualise comfortably
By moving people’s thinking from the situation to an abstract metaphor it can
reduce tension and break mind sets

DISADVANTAGES
A criticism of the technique is that you may not find novel ideas. This is valid.
No technique or tool can guarantee it. The model will enable you to develop
ideas from different perspectives very efficiently and some may be novel

TIPS
Different metaphors provide insights in to different facets of a situation. Use
more metaphors and you will gain different perspectives and increase the
chance of finding novel ideas. Have teams generate different metaphors and
compare results