To say I lacked confidence using metaphors would have been a massive understatement. It was my least favourite topic on my Master Practitioner course and I was not looking forward to spending a whole day facing my fears.
However the way the Noggin100 day was laid out made the topic of metaphor incredibly simple.
Instead of being thrown in at the deep end with no knowledge of what I was supposed to be doing (apparently you learn to do it by doing it) it was clearly explained. We spent time talking to each other and spotting metaphors in each others language and then just played around with them. We spent time creating living metaphors and came up with some interesting ideas to take away with us.
One particularly powerful experience was one of our group members was referring to a problem she had using the metaphor of a timetable. A really simple break in the metaphor occurred when we pointed out that the local buses are changing their timetables this week and do so twice a year, usually without much warning but the service still runs and everything turns out fine.
I am amazed that such a simple change in the language and imagery can have such a profound effect. I will definitely be listening more consciously for metaphors with my clients. The next topic is high performance states so a lot of new code games I think, can't wait!!
http://www.daryllscott.com/ http://www.mynoggin.co.uk/
