The Magic of Metaphor! Chapter Seven of By Sharon …...It's raining cats and dogs. He thinks he's the ca'ts meow. It's on the tip of my tongue. She's burning the candle at both ends

Sharon Bowman 775-749-5247 [email protected] www.Bowperson.com © 2004 1

In How To Give It So They GetIt I tell the story of my first solocross-country flight in a Cessna172. I plotted my course care-fully on a sectional, one of thoseflight maps a pilot uses. When Ishowed the FAA instructor myflight plan, he was really amused.His comment? "Sharon, you're inan airplane. Airplanes don't needto follow the roads." Think aboutit for a minute - I had planned tozig-zag my way across the statein an airplane, following all themajor highways, so I wouldn'tget lost.

Following the roads is a meta-phor for left-brain learning - lin-ear, logical, analytical, movingfrom point A to B to C, all theway through Y, until you reachyour destination, point Z.

Flying an airplane - traveling asthe crow flies without the slowstep-by-step pace of road travel -is a metaphor for right-brainlearning, i.e. learning that is vis-ual, spatial, sometimes instanta-neous, analogical , a n dmetaphorical. This type oflearning is like flying an airplanefrom point A to point Z withouthaving to visit points B throughY along the way.

Left brain training strategies in-clude lecturing, reading, outlin-ing, test-taking, Right braintraining strategies include usinglearning aids, games, story-telling, drawing, and metaphors.

The Magic of Metaphor!Chapter Seven of Shake, Rattle and Roll!

By Sharon L. Bowman, MA

Professional Speaker and Corporate TrainerDirector, The Lake Tahoe Trainers Group

P.O. Box 564, Glenbrook, NV 89413Phone: 775-749-5247 Fax: 775-749-1891

E-Mail: [email protected] Web-Site: www.Bowperson.com

The Magic of Metaphor! Chapter Seven of Shake, Rattle and Roll!


The flying story itself is a meta-phor, a way of giving you theessence of my idea by repre-senting it with something else.You got the picture inside yourhead and understood the point ofthe story quickly, without muchexplanation from me.

Metaphoric thinking is probablyone of the most powerful ways ofdescribing and understanding aconcept or idea. The metaphorcaptures the essence of an ideaand forces the learner to "thinkout of the box," to deepen herunderstanding of the concept in aright-brain way. And metaphorsusually paint mental pictureswhich stick inside the learner'shead long after the classroomlearning has ended.

Before you begin to protest thatcoming up with metaphors is atough thing to do, let me assureyou that we use metaphors everysingle day. Our daily conversa-tions are peppered with them:

It hit me like a bolt out of the blue.He's one brick shy of a full load.She's such a pain in the neck.It's raining cats and dogs.He thinks he's the ca'ts meow.It's on the tip of my tongue.She's burning the candle at both ends.

Want to hear a few more? Theseare from my train-the-trainerparticipants - some of them evenI can't figure out!

That's so Martha!Through butter like a hot knife.Sick as a dog.Blind as a bat.Skinny as a rail.In the hour glass mode.Dumb as a box of rocks.A couple fries short of a happy meal.So bright his mama called him sun.

Are you thinking that all thisstuff about metaphors is braincandy? (Hey, that's a metaphor!)After all, you teach technicalskills - maybe software pro-grams. Or you train others in ac-counting basics or systemswriting or whatever. So whywould you bother your headabout metaphors? The envelopeplease: And the answer isDON"T. You don't need to usemetaphors at all - UNLESS youwant to add a right-brain way of



thinking about your topic thatwill help your trainees learn itbetter.

If you agree that metaphorsmight have a place in your train-ing, how do you go about creat-ing metaphors that are related toyour training topics? Easy:

You let your learnerscreate their own metaphors

for the learning.

You set the stage, then let themtake over. For example, withyour trainees working in smallgroups (for better creativity),they choose a common machinethat represents the topic and ele-ments of what they're learning.They can verbally describe themachine or they can draw it onchart paper and explain it as theyhold up the visual metaphor. Letthem take it one step further anduse their bodies to represent themetaphorical machine.

Or ask them a question - "How is___________ (insert your topichere) like a bridge?" - and havethem create a variety of answers.

Or tell them to choose somethingin nature, science fiction, sports,cooking, history, or music anduse that item to represent thetraining topic.

Of course, combining metaphorswith learning aids such as toyscan be enormously fun and ef-fective at the same time:

***************

1. Finger Trap Metaphor: Youpass out finger traps to yourtraining participants. You givethem a few minutes to put theirfingers in the traps and to figureout how to get their fingers outagain without tearing the strawtrap apart. They can help eachother with this. Then you askthem to name ten ways this expe-rience with the finger trap is like___________ (insert your train-ing topic). If your topic is com-puter skills, you would say, "Tellme ten ways this experience islike learning computer skills."You can get even more specificand ask, "How is this activity likethe computer program you'relearning about?" Their answersmay range from the general: "Atfirst you're frustrated, then it'seasy," or "You need your co-



workers to help you when you'restuck," to the more detailed:"Putting your fingers in the trapis like inputting the data. Tryingto get your fingers out is likegetting the data to read the wayyou need it to read. Tearing thestraw trap is like a computercrash when you lose everything."Get the picture?

2. Balancing Clowns: E a c htrainee gets a packet of smallplastic balancing clowns to puttogether. The rule is simple:Within ninety seconds (moretime if you wish), the clownsmust all be connected and free-standing (without human sup-port). After time is called, par-ticipants check out the manyways they've connected andstacked their clowns. Ask themto share how this activity is likethe training topic. Or they canreview pieces of information bystating what each clown respre-sents in relation to its position inthe stack and the training content.You can vary the activity byhaving them work in pairs or tri-ads to create their clown stack.

3. Pipe Dreams: At the begin-ning of a training, Joanna Slan,author and professional speakerfrom St. Louis MO, gives eachlearner a giant fuzzy pipe cleaner(about a foot long). Since hertopic is stress management, sheasks trainees to scrunch the pipe

cleaners into shapes that repre-sent how they feel when they arestressed out. They do a quickpair-share with a neighbor afterthat.

4. Laser Amazers: At the end ofthe training, participants wearLaser Amazer glasses whilestating at least ten ways theglasses are like what they've justlearned.

Variation One: Joanna Slan alsouses the glasses as note-takingitems. She passes them out at thebeginning of the training and hasparticipants write a topic-relatedword, phrase, or doodle on theglasses at different times duringthe training.

Variation Two: If Joanna hasfrou-frou table items available,she asks trainees to choose itemsthat represent information theyhave just learned. The traineesattach these items to the glasses.

5. Cube Puzzles: When traineeswalk in, they receive a cube puz-zle with a card that reads, "Puz-zled about __________ (thetopic)." At the closing, they statesomething they learned from thetraining which they are no longerpuzzled about.

6. Rewards: You can combinetoys and metaphors to rewardyour participants too.



Give 'Em a Hand: Whenever atrainee has contributed a humor-ous or worthwhile idea, give hima back scratcher and say,"(Name) deserves a hand."

Feather in Your Cap: JessieTolar passes out colorful feath-ers when trainees have partici-pated in activities and groupdiscussions. She tells them to puta feather in their cap.

Tooting Your Own Horn: Jessiealso reminds trainees that theycan "toot their own horn" whenthey get a bright idea - and shepasses out toy party horns tothose who do just that.

Penny for Your Thoughts: Use abunch of pennies as rewards forcontributing ideas. Participantsmay exchange them for pennyprizes at the end of the training.

Worth Your Weight In Gold:Gold foil-wrapped coins (fromSee's Candy stores) make sweetrewards for active participation.

What if you don't have the re-sources to buy enough meta-phorical toys for your trainees?No problem - try these ideas:

7. Uncommonly Common: Dis-play five common householdobjects (let's say you choose afunnel, can opener, broom, flyswatter, and hammer). Ask yourlearners to think of everythingthey've learned so far about thetopic. Then, working in smallgroups, each group chooses oneobject as its metaphor. The smallgroups brainstorm and writedown all the ways the learningcan be represented by the objectsthey chose. At the end of thedesignated time (from two to fiveminutes), each group shares itsobject metaphors with the wholeclass.

Here are some examples of thisactivity from the Training '99Conference and Expo session onusing learning aids:

A woman from a software com-pany mentioned that her com-pany's theme is "Power Tools fora Modern World." So her groupchose the hammer as a metaphorfor software applications: " Asoftware application is like ahammer because you hammer outwork with more efficiency,there's no need to beat the com-puter - you can use it to beat



your competition, and it's a newtool to build a solution."

Another group, with membersfrom a banking company, chosethe broom as a metaphor forcustomer service: "Customerservice is like a broom becauseyou clean up messes that otherpeople make, you sweep moneyinto accounts and sweep prob-lems away, you keep things cleanbetween you and the customer,the bristles work together as agroup to get things done, andsome of your customers arewitches!"

Variation One: Put a number ofhousehold objects in a paper bagand have small groups reach inthe bag to choose their meta-phorical object. Or have atrainee choose one object for thewhole group to use as a meta-phor.

Variation Two: Have the par-ticipants, as a whole group,brainstorm a list of objects first.Then small groups can eachchoose one item from the list touse as a metaphor.

8. Children's Games: D a nCoughlin, President of TheCoughlin Company and authorof Build World-Class Team-work, uses a children's game likeBeachball Toss as a metaphor fora topic like effective communi-

cation. The beachball representscommunication. The ways par-ticipants catch, keep, or avoid thebeachball represent both positiveand negative communicationtraits. Other children's games canbe metaphors for different sub-jects: London Bridge for steps ina certain process or computerprogram, Cat and Mouse forproblem solving, Tag for internetinformation.

9. Thorns and Roses: This is agreat verbal metaphor to get par-ticipants thinking about the topic.At the beginning of your training,direct trainees to form standingpairs. They introduce themselvesto their partners, and then shareone thorn (the downside or nega-tive aspect of the topic) and onerose (the upside or positive as-pect of the topic). If customerservice is the topic, the thornwould be the downside of cus-tomer service and the rose wouldbe the upside. Use a Random Re-sponse Device to debrief theThorns and Roses.



10. Metaphorical TrainingThemes: Use an entertainingtheme for your training and tie allinformation and activities to it.Include toys and props (you canmake your own) that have to dowith the theme. Some of thethemes I've seen trainers use are:murder mysteries, baseball, Dis-ney cartoons, ocean voyages,golf, carnivals, safari, sailing,famous people, TV game shows,the Wizard of Oz, surfing (as in"Surfing the Net"), and, ofcourse, gambling.

***************

A few things to keep in mindwhen using metaphors: First,everyone must understand themetaphor. Pretty basic, huh? Ifyou're not sure about it, ask yourtrainees to explain the metaphorto you.

Second, it should be a metaphorthat most people can relate to.Someone may get the context ofa computer metaphor but usingbits, bytes, serial and parallelports to represent a customerservice program might be a littlemuch.

Third, be somewhat careful ofmetaphors that are gender-based, cuturally-based, or gen-erational. A training buddy ofmine recently spoke to a group ofhigh school students on careers.

She used the metaphor of LP'sversus eight-track tapes. Saywhat? The puzzled expressionsstopped her cold. Right meta-phor, wrong generation.

A corporate trainer for the man-agers of a hotel-casino in myhometown peppered his speechwith gridiron metaphors. Footballfans loved it. The rest of us satwondering what some of thepoints were.

A final reminder: The metaphoris only a part of your informa-tion delivery. Even if someonedoesn't quite connect the firsttime, using a variety of ways toexplain your information willhelp all your learners make theirown connections to your topic.What works for the goose maynot work for the gander. So bitethe bullet, leave no stone un-turned, and don't put all youreggs in one basket. Get thepoint?___________________________

The Magic of Metaphor” is ChapterSeven of Sharon Bowman’s bookShake, Rattle and Roll, and is printedhere with permission from the authorand publisher, Bowperson PublishingCo. Please respect copyright law andcite the source when downloading thisarticle. It may be used for teaching andtraining purposes but may not be re-sold in any fashion. For a complete listof Sharon’s books, log onto: www.amazon.comwww.Bowperson.com



Author and traveling teacher SharonBowman helps educators and businesspeople “teach it quick and make itstick,” - fine-tuning their information-delivery skills and turning their passivelisteners into active learners.

Over 40,000 copies of Sharon’s 6popular teaching, training, and moti-vation books are now in print. Titlesinclude: “Preventing Death by Lec-ture,” “Presenting with Pizzazz,”“How To Give It So They Get It,” and“Shake, Rattle, and Roll.”

For more information about SharonBowman and her books and training,log onto www.Bowperson.com, oremail her at [email protected].

For book orders, go towww.trainerswarehouse.com,www.amazon.com, or call BowpersonPublishing at 775-749-5247.

Announcing Sharon newest book:

The Ten-Minute Trainer!150 Ways to Teach it Quick

and Make It Stick.

To be published by Jossey-Bass/Pfeifferin August 2005.

Want to create a lot of learning in alittle time?

Choose from 140 “Got a Minute?” 60-second activities to make the learningstick.

Play ten 5 and 10-minute games tomove learning into long-term memory.

Design training in less time with fivePower Hour Training Templates.

Best of all, discover two powerfultraining tools to speed up both designand delivery – The Learning Compassand the Training Map.

The Ten-Minute Trainer is a “grab-it-and-go” book – with loads of back-pocket ideas you can use immediatelywith little or no preparation. SharonBowman, author of 7 popular teaching,training, and motivational books, wel-comes you into her world of fast-paced,“shorter is better,” high-energy, “teachit quick and make it stick” training!

Documents

The Magic of Metaphor! Chapter Seven of By Sharon …...It's raining cats and dogs. He thinks he's the ca'ts meow. It's on the tip of my tongue. She's burning the candle at both ends