Mining Your Metaphors

Change the metaphor, change the self.

  • Home
  • About
    • Clean Language and Symbolic Modeling, Explained
    • Interview with Gina
    • Clean Language Facilitators
  • Get Certified
    • Why Get Certified?
    • Clean Language Facilitator (CLF)
    • Applying
  • Services
    • For Individuals
      • Audio and Video Session Samples
      • What Do Clients Say?
    • For Professionals
      • Upcoming Events
      • Who Can Use These Skills?
      • Audio and Video Sample Sessions
      • Trainings
      • What Do Trainees Say?
    • For Equine-Assisted Therapy Practitioners
      • Upcoming Events
  • Upcoming Events
  • Resources
    • Books and Such
    • Web Links
    • Blog
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Us
    • Make an Appointment

How might a business coach use a client’s metaphors?

January 29, 2017

I’m a business and leadership coach. Can you give me an example of how using metaphors might help my clients?  H.W.    

Many business and life coaches use Clean Language to help their clients get clear on what they want and need, to explore consequences of possible actions, to work on personal issues that are impacting their work, to enhance their leadership skills, to plan for the future, and more!

To give you an example, I  had a client who runs a business. He wants to have his employees work together as an effective team, but two employees aren’t communicating.  Using metaphors and Clean Language questions, I facilitate his exploration of the situation. The client first discovers “knots around his middle”. Such in-the-body metaphors can pop up unexpectedly; what does this have to do with the employees?  More on that later.

My client’s next metaphor is that, as a leader, he is like a coach of a sports team, sharing values and goals with the team members. But further exploration reveals a fundamental problem: a sports coach is an expert in the sport. But this business man is not an expert in marketing or sales or human resources, etc.  He realizes this is the crux of his dilemma: how can he make decisions when he doesn’t have the expertise?

So I ask, “What kind of coach is a coach with an effective team when he’s not an expert?” Client’s answer: a film director.  A director has the overall vision and determines the direction ‘team members’ will take, but he’s not an expert in acting, lighting, sound, set design, etc.  Still, he makes the decisions, and he is free to be creative.  It turns out that creativity is an important part of this client’s vision that he hadn’t considered before the session. And this is not unusual—discovering a new dimension that linear, logical analysis might never have uncovered.

And so, after one session, my client has an empowering metaphor for his role in building an effective team.  And the knots? The client sees them as limiting creativity and possibilities, tied up as he was by his belief that he had to let the experts decide what to do in their respective areas.  But insight alone as to what they might be about is not enough, in this case, to remove the knots. The client senses they serve a purpose, too. More to explore in another session.



Filed Under: Ask Gina, Coaching, metaphors, Power of Words, Subconscious MessagesTagged: business applications, change work, leadership, people as systems, subconscious, teamwork

Metaphors and Drug Policy

May 26, 2009

Metaphors matter because they frame the way we think about an issue–and the solutions we consider. I’ve been noticing recently that the Obama administration knows this too. (Guess they’ve read George Lakoff’s Don’t think of an Elephant!(2004).) A few weeks ago Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the administration would no longer be using the term “War on Terror.”  This was followed by an announcement by Gil Kerlikowske, the drug czar, that the administration will no longer refer to seeking solutions for the drug problems in this country as a “War on Drugs.”

When we started referring to addressing the drug problem in this country as a war,  we started thinking in terms of  military/police solutions.  Drug users became the enemy, and it was only logical to construe treating their health problems with compassion as being ‘soft on crime.’ Changing this approach when our attack wasn’t succeeding would have been tantamount to surrendering–which no politician wants to do.

I think our war metaphor  had an even subtler, more insidious effect. When we started using battle metaphors,  we started thinking terms of winners and losers.  And pretty soon there was an us vs. them mentality that became so intrinsic a part of our culture that we forgot that us and them are one and the same.

“We’re not at war with people in this country,” said  Kerlikowske.

Hallelujah!  Maybe now we have an administration that is really ready to reframe drug use–this time as a health issue. And, thinking of Clinton’s quote,  that is ready to rethink its approach to healing (rather than combating) the root causes of the anger that fuels people’s resorting to terrorism.

Wonder what new metaphors the administration will come up with?  Keep us posted if you spot any.


Filed Under: metaphors, Power of Words, Subconscious MessagesTagged: American metaphors, assumptions, leadership, public policy, reframing

Connect With Gina

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Get Gina’s Latest Book!

Hope in a Corner of my Heart book cover

Get Notices About Gina’s Upcoming Courses and Workbook Releases!

GoodTherapy.org

Gina Campbell, offering Clean Language trainings since 2005

gina_campbell

A Certified Clean Practitioner with a Masters degree in a developmental counseling field and decades of teaching experience. Read more

Upcoming Workshops!

  • Jan 28, 2022 - 4th Fridays CL Practice Group ,
  • Mar 24, 2022 - 4th Wednesdays CL Practice Group ,
  • Feb 25, 2022 - Learning Clean Language Basics Part Two: Facilitating Change ,
  • See Full List Upcoming Events
Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 Mining Your Metaphors · Website Maintenance by Colorado Web Support