“For years I hung in that web, feeling safe, feeling secure, feeling buoyed by this fate I had chosen. And then one day I opened my eyes and saw the beast lurking, lurking beneath me…” What feelings does this anonymous metaphor evoke in you? What associations does it create? How does the metaphorical situation compare to your business or your personal situation? “An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor,” noted the American writer Robert Frost. In today’s article, let’s get a better understanding of the immense creative power of metaphors, and how you can use them to generate ideas for your business.

Across the ages, religious teachers, philosophers, artists, storytellers, and writers employed metaphors to widely communicate important messages. Why? Good metaphors make abstract thoughts and ideas tangible and obscure ideas clear. They make the message stick with the audience. For example, here is a famous metaphor from Jesus of Nazareth in the Bible (Matthew 19:24): “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Our everyday speech is studded with metaphors, too. Sentences such as “It’s raining cats and dogs”, “I am on fire”, “Just go with the flow” or “In the heat of the moment” are nothing else but short, catchy metaphors.

Now what exactly is a metaphor? Wiktionary defines the term as “the use of a word or phrase to refer to something that it is not, implying a similarity between the word or phrase used and the thing described.” As indicated in this definition, similarity is key to metaphorical thinking. In that light, you may construct a metaphor by saying “A is like Z” (e.g., “A Business Creativity workshop with THINKERGY is like an oasis in the desert”) or by asking, “What do A and Z have in common?” (Example: “What do a Business Creativity workshop with THINKERGY and an oasis in the desert have in common?”). Thereby, note that A and Z are placeholders for two aspects that by definition are dissimilar.

Once we have a metaphor to work with, we make use of the natural drive of the human brain to look for and create connections between two items, regardless of how dissimilar or unrelated they may be. For example, with reference to the metaphor mentioned above, both a Business Creativity workshop with THINKERGY and an oasis in the desert nurture the human body and soul; they both are refreshing compared to the dry contents of the surrounding environment; they represent and create new life forces; they both stand out in a desert of sameness and monotony; and so on.

Now how exactly can you use metaphors for ideation? Start by stating the challenge that you face, for example: “How to boost our sales as we come out of the recession?” Then, create a metaphor that is dissimilar to your challenge, say here: “Boosting our sales is like riding giant waves on a surfboard.”

Next, write down what increasing sales and riding the waves on a surfboard have in common: “Both require you to go with the flow of the tides”; “In both cases, you need to carefully balance out your movements in order not to lose ground”; “Both require you to have a solid foundation under your feet before moving forward”; and so on.

In addition, write down as many associations related to the metaphorical situation (i.e., riding the waves on a surfboard) as possible: “It’s most fun to ride the biggest waves — but they are also the most difficult to master”; “You need to go to the right beach location where you find really big waves”; “All you need for surfing is a surfboard and swimming gear — so keep it light and focus on the essential”; “Where you find big waves, you also find sharks — so watch out”; “Wait for the right wave and moment before ‘popping up’ to ride it on your board”; “You need to paddle out on your surfboard, but only as far as you can comfortably swim out to and back in without your surfboard”; “While paddling out, you need to ‘duck-dive’ the smaller waves in order to make it to the bigger waves”; “Keep your body slightly crouched to lower your center of gravity”; and so on.

Finally, relate all your thoughts and associative input back to your challenge, and generate raw ideas that are triggered by the thoughts and associations to your metaphor: “Pass on small accounts to be able to better serve bigger clients” (from ‘duck-diving’); “Let’s first focus on developing a more viable market proposition before addressing our sales process” (from ‘solid foundation’); “Open new stores in the hippest boom locations” (from ‘right location’); “Timing is essential — so let’s launch our new product precisely when the economy bottoms out of the recession” (from ‘pop-up’); “Only grow as fast as our back-office operation can handle” (from ‘be able to swim out and back’); “Avoid promotions that infuriate a much bigger, aggressive competitor” (from ‘sharks’); and so on.

Conclusion: The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset memorably described the creative power of metaphors: “The metaphor is perhaps one of man’s most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him.” I agree. Metaphors unlock the gate to paradise and allow you to return to the source of creation. When would now be a great moment for you to try this powerful ideation tool?

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2009. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the same title on 3 December 2009.