The Magic of Metaphor in Your Communication
In referring to mid-term elections, President Bush quipped that the Democrats may be "measuring the drapes" in Congress too soon. Although only a brief phrase in an extended political speech, that’s the line that the media chose to play repeatedly over the airwaves. Why? Metaphors pack a punch because they’re memorable, clever, sexy.
Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, used this analogy in a report to shareholders:
“Long-term thinking is both a requirement and an outcome of true ownership. Owners are different from tenants. I know of a couple who rented out their house, and the family who moved in nailed their Christmas tree to the hardwood floors instead of using a tree stand. Expedient, I suppose, and admittedly these were particularly bad tenants, but no owner would be so short-sighted. Similarly, many investors are effectively short-term tenants, turning their portfolios so quickly they are really just renting the stocks that they temporarily ‘own.’”
We talk about “prime real estate” in referring to the home page of a website or placement above the fold in a newspaper or product catalog. Many Human Resource managers talk about “cafeteria” benefits to their employees. With just one word, this analogy implies that employees have a “menu” of benefits to select from, that a “parent” has agreed to cover the “total” invoice up to a certain amount, that employees select according to “taste” or “preferences” from that menu. Such comparisons as these don’t exactly solicit an emotional response; they simply clarify a complex concept.
Metaphors, on the other hand, imply a comparison and typically evoke an emotion and a mindset. Both comparisons can be succinct, yet powerful ways to manage how people think about an idea or situation.
If you wanted to make the point that someone was not fully engaged with their colleagues in a mission, you might use a war metaphor:
“John ducks into his cubicle as if it were a foxhole. He needs to stick his head out occasionally and help the rest of us fight the war. Otherwise, the parent company is going to take over the entire department.”
If you wanted to talk about how indifference to quality customer service could destroy your business, you might put it in these terms:
“Our poor customer service has become a cancer eating away at our business. I see customers walk in here and wait ten minutes before being greeted. Then once we do help them locate what they need in the store, they have to wait again at check-out. Then they wait again at the loading dock. The longer a customer stays in our store, it’s like our cancer metastasizes rather than goes into remission.”
If you were making a point to your colleagues about the importance of living a balanced life, you might use a sports metaphor.
“Most of us would agree life has many dimensions or tracks, all important to our overall well-being: mental, physical, spiritual. But some of us are spending all our time on one track and ignoring the rest, thinking we’re going to find satisfaction and fulfillment along the way. It’s not going to happen. That’s like entering a triathlon and practicing only bicycling for the three months prior to the race.”
Author Malcolm Gladwell uses the metaphor of “contagious disease” in his bestseller The Tipping Point to describe how ideas gradually “catch on” and spread in the general population. Metaphors and analogies, by their very selection, create a powerful way of thinking about an issue and often evoke a strong accompanying emotion that makes ideas memorable.
Have you ever used a metaphor to work magic in communicating a tough message?
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