Posts tagged metaphor

Breakthrough Sessions

Sep 22nd

Posted by Judy in Clean Language

2 comments

Welcome! If you're interested in how people think, click to get The X-Ray Listener's Quick Guide To Metaphor and unlock a new perspective on the mind... for free.

If you were to have a “breakthrough session”, what kind of “breakthrough” would yours be?

My friend James Tripp and I were talking yesterday about how various coaches and therapists offer “breakthrough sessions” – and I must have subconsciously asked myself: “What kind of breakthrough?” because a personal story sprang to mind.

(James pointed out that this was an example of how Clean Language enthusiasts typically find themselves coaching themselves using the questions in their own thoughts, without even noticing it. It’s a great side-effect of using this coaching approach.)

When I was about nine years old, an architect friend of my parents came to dinner. While they ate, and chatted (about property, among many other things) the architect noticed that the house was configured in such a way that it would be relatively easy to create an extra bedroom.

My parents were sceptical but curious.

The architect nipped home to fetch a hammer and chisel. Then, watched by my dad, he knocked out a couple of bricks in a wall.

They peered through at a perfectly room-sized space!

That was the More >

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How to make an awesome sales pitch

Mar 1st

Posted by Judy in Influence

1 comment

My good friend Jamie Smart delivered the best sales pitch I’ve ever seen this weekend. It was, quite frankly, awesome – and I’ve seen a lot of them.

It was within a weekend workshop on “Getting Clients Congruently”, which was also excellent*. But it was the sales pitch itself that had the greatest impact for me.

Like many of us, Jamie has wrestled with the issue of “selling” in a way he’s comfortable with. For at least the last couple of years, he’s been totally sure that he’s selling great products and services. And yet the “pitch” often didn’t quite ring true… until this weekend.

He was almost glowing with a passion for his products and with the sheer joy of delivering a piece that he knew, even at the time, was superb.

So, what was going on? It’s impossible to unpack everything he did – especially as he himself unpacked key aspects he was aware of as he went along, for the information of the delegates. But here are a few things that stood out for me.

  • He listened and “gave” first.  In my friend Linda Schneider‘s terms, he waited until the sand had dropped to the bottom of the hourglass, and then at an More >
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Making workshops more fun: lessons from the body

Feb 21st

Posted by Judy in Body-Mind

1 comment

The body thinks in metaphor, as scientists are now discovering. And that suggests all kinds of fantastic opportunities to make workshops, seminars and meetings much more fun and effective.

Here’s an idea that may be familiar if you work in an Agile software development environment: take the chairs away. The fact that people literally stand up in a “daily stand-up” meeting gives their bodies the hint that this is intended to be a short, sharp, purposeful update, not an opportunity to relax and tell – or listen to – stories.

If you want people to do “big picture” thinking, ideally take them somewhere high up, where they have a view of the sky and perhaps even the sea. Somewhere their bodies will realise that “the sky’s the limit”.

Failing that, give them a “picture” window… a high ceiling… or a huge whiteboard with coloured markers and post-it notes (metaphorical cues to suggest that this is a “playshop” rather than a “workshop”).

For detailed planning, windowless offices with low ceilings work well (that’s good news for London’s hoteliers!).

  • Read more on effective workshops here
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Scientific American Mind

Grasping embodied cognition: how we use our bodies to think

Feb 11th

Posted by Judy in Body-Mind

6 comments

Why do we look up to those we respect, stoop to the level of those we disdain and think warmly about those we love? Why do we hide dirty secrets or wash our hands of worries? Why do we ponder weighty subjects and feel a load lift after we have made a decision? Why do we look back on the past and forward to the future?… … A rapidly growing body of research indicates that metaphors joining body and mind reflect a central fact about the way we think: the mind uses the body to make sense of abstract concepts…. The implications seem almost preposterous. Holding a warm cup of coffee will make me view others more warmly as well? Entering a Windex- scented room will bring out the Good Samaritan in me? Holding a heavy clipboard while responding to a survey will give the issues at hand more gravitas? As far-fetched as such sensory non sequiturs may seem, the evidence for “embodied” or “grounded” cognition is persuasive. “The empirical case is becoming increasingly overwhelming,” says psychologist Lawrence Barsalou of Emory University. “Cognition is emerging, to a significant extent, from all these things—like warmth, cleanliness and weight—that we used to think were irrelevant to cognition.” Siri Carpenter, Scientific American Mind (January More >

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How new words are born

Jan 25th

Posted by Judy in Clean Language

1 comment

New words are being created at an astonishing rate at the moment – or so it seems from here.

In the last week, I’ve spotted three interesting ones in my inbox:

  • Andrew Cain introduced Fixititis. He says it happens when patients expect the doctor to fix everything for them – and the caring doctor feels overly responsible for things they can’t control
  • Jamie Smart introduced another “condition” - Tacticitis. It’s a craving for magical, quick-fix remedies that will solve all our problems & give us what we want NOW!
  • And on the plus side, Joe Vitale offers Benestrophe: many good things happening at once; the opposite of a catastrophe.

In each of these new words, the author has made effective use of metaphor: they are comparing one kind of thing to another kind of thing. So in the first two examples, the use of “…itis” compares a common psychological state to a medical condition, and therefore pathologises it.

Another feature of all three new words is that they combine ideas in new ways, in order to create new meanings. Had you previously thought of the possibility that good things might come in waves, even tsunamis?

These are great examples of a process described in Steven Pinker’s brilliant book, The More >

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