Using Metaphors for Change
by Martha Tilyard
Martha Tilyard
Before we had words, we had pictures. As infants, we made sense of the world first through sight or symbols, with language developing later. Meaning for us, then, is deeply imbedded in pictures or symbols. It shows up in our daily language as metaphor, much of which is outside our awareness.
When we try to make changes using only language and not accessing our pictures or symbolic meaning, we meet with frustration. We can gain greater awareness and bring about change when we understand the metaphors which underlie our experience.
Using the Present Metaphor
By identifying our present experience through use of metaphor, we gain access to a much richer understanding of our situation. We can see aspects of the issues which hadn’t occurred to us. We may gain insights into how to respond in more productive ways. We gain clarity about our role and our wanted outcomes. Metaphors show us many layers at once while simplifying the issues by replacing words with pictures.
Using the Future Metaphor
While our present metaphor deals with the facts of our current situation, our future metaphor can be a means for getting unstuck. Because it flows from our own goals and wanted outcomes, it embodies what matters most to us. And because it focuses on the future, it goes beyond current obstacles and habits. In this way, it can provide a compelling vision of what we want and can help draw us to that vision.
When we find ourselves experiencing the current metaphor, we can choose to let that image go, much like a video fade-out, and turn instead to the future metaphor. In doing this, we change the pictures which drive us and decide our actions. We choose not to give energy or attention to the roadblocks that frustrate us, putting our energy instead into our vision.
Insights suggested to us by our metaphor guide us when that situation recurs in the real world. If we learned, for instance, that a difficult relationship is in part due to our own actions, we may choose to act different deliberately, even though what we were doing wasn’t wrong in itself.
If possible, when our future metaphor suggests a symbol or actual pictures, we can use objects as reminders. (Ex: if the metaphor is of winning a race, choose a photo of a marathon, or buy a trophy or medal to be a visual reminder of the exhilaration of winning.) In this way, we keep our symbols before us and increase their ability to remind and motivate us.
Simply reflecting on both the present and future metaphors and allowing them to teach us about our situation can be very enlightening. Having an open mind and learning from our inner symbols reveals a depth of wisdom available to each of us.
Further Reading
Kopp, Richard R. 1995. Metaphor Therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel, Inc.
Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Mac Cormac, Earl R. 1985. A Cognitive Theory of Metaphor. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Morgan, Gareth. 1986. Images of Organization. Newbury Park, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/out-of-our-brains/
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/this-is-your-brain-on-metaphors/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120203182623.htm
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104013/chapters/Movement-and-Learning.aspx
http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/Linguistics/2012theses/pdf/Wippermann.pdf
(long article on metaphors and change)
http://www.storyarts.org/docs/The-Power-of-Words-Leadership-Metaphor-and-Story.pdf
http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/articles/19/1/Metaphors-of-Organisation-part-1/Page1.html
Martha Tilyard and the Use of the Metaphor Process:
Grenert, Geoff and Donna Riechmann, 2019. You Can Lead: A Practical Guide to Leadership. pp.71-77.
Burk, Larry, MD, 2012. Let Magic Happen: Adventures in Healing with a Holistic Radiologist. pp. 143, 229, 308.
More about Martha
Martha Tilyard is an executive coach (CCL and Tilyard Consulting, LLC) with over twenty-five years of experience in professional and organizational development. The Metaphor Process she led in the program on Feb. 13 is one she has developed and used extensively over those years, with often remarkable results.