Metaphorical Analysis Problem Solving Technique
Metaphors as a Problem Solving Technique?
Metaphors are powerful tools for understanding things. "Tools,"
of course, is a metaphor. I could have said "way of understanding
things," or "method." Each word or expression
conveys a slightly different meaning, and gets you thinking in
different ways. Use this power of metaphors to solve problems
more creatively.
If you're an "employee," you'll think about your
job in a certain way. An "associate," might feel more
important and think differently about his duties. If you're a
"business," selling your labor, then your "boss"
becomes just a "customer." You can raise your prices,
change your service, or look for other customers to contract
with.
Metaphorical Analysis
Use a metaphor to solve a problem, and you'll get some ideas.
Use another, and you'll get different ideas. Why not use as many
as you can think of, to get the widest, most creative selection
of ideas? That is the key to this problem solving technique.
An example. Mike wants to design, build and sell a new type
of swimming pool. He starts with his pen and paper, and writes
down as many metaphors as he can.
"A swimming pool is a toy. A pool is a status symbol.
A pool is a playground. It is a park. It's a job. It's entertainment.
It's an aquatic gym. It's a decoration. It's a deathtrap. It's
a personal lake. It's an oasis.”
Then he lists some metaphors for the activity of swimming. Swimming
is exercising. It's vacationing. It's playing. It's therapy.
Then he lists some metaphors for selling. Selling is a business.
It is teaching. It's showing. It's a contest. It's talking. It's
advertising. It's sharing."
Finally, Mike works with each metaphor, to see what ideas
they produce:
As a "toy," pools for kids come to mind. As a "status
symbol," Mike considers brass railings, liquor bars and
other ways to make a pool seem "rich."
"Deathtrap" reminds him to make it safe, and he
imagines an alarm system triggered if a child enters the pool
without supervision. "Oasis" gives him ideas for creating
a tropical environment as part of the pool.
Swimming as "exercising" has him thinking of pools
with a current.
"Vacationing" Makes him wonder if more visual separation
from the house would make the swimming "vacation" more
relaxing.
"Therapy" gives him some marketing ideas for older
customers.
Selling the pools is a business, of course, but "teaching"
has Mike thinking of ways to educate customers about the benefits
of swimming.
"Talking" makes him ask "Who will do the talking?"
and leads to the idea of distributing videos to sell his pools.
"Showing" generates several ideas for ways to display
his pools, like free "pool parties" during summer.
As you can see, the application of new metaphors isn't limited
to the original concept. It can be used on any part of the problem
as well. Break a problem into a few components (the pool, swimming
and selling, in the above example), find as many metaphors as
you can for each, and note the ideas you get when using each.
Metaphorical analysis can be a powerful problem solving technique.
Note: This was an excerpt from Problem Solving Power,
my e-book containing more than two dozen effective and fun techniques
for solving problems and generating ideas. 32 information-packed
chapters that will change your thinking. Use the link below
for more information:
http://www.99reports.com/problem-solving.html
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