Metaphors support reframing and strategic thinking

Here's a way to use Leadership Metaphor Explorer™ for supporting strategic thinking during an online conference. Thanks to strategy and creativity mavens Kate Beatty and David M. Horth.

From: Beatty, Kate
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 12:31 PM
To: Palus, Chuck; Horth, David
Subject: LME images - electronic version

Hi Chuck and David,

I am doing some final work on my slides for the upcoming Jossey-Bass online conference. I am doing a workshop on strategic leadership, and would like to include several of the Leadership Metaphor Explorer cards in an exercise. At the beginning of the session, I will have them identify a strategic challenge they are working on. When we discuss strategic thinking, I want to give them the opportunity to reframe their challenge, and thought that showing several of the cards would be a good prompt for this.

Can you direct me to the electronic images of these cards?

Thanks for your help!

Kate

Hi Kate,
Here is the online source for one at a time downloading.
Best,
Chuck n Dave

Here’s an exercise that I will used when I have a large group e.g a presentation. I put out the LME cards one under each chair and start the session with the following question and exercise: (I’m doing a presentation on innovation leadership and culture on Saturday and using this exercise to kick off my short presentation.)
As you look at the metaphor card you have been assigned, in what ways does it describe leadership in your organization either:

• In the past?
• How it looks when we are at our worst?
• How it looks now?
• How it looks when we are at our most innovative?
• How it needs to look like in the future?
• How it needs to look like to resolve the major challenges we face?

Discuss with your neighbors

D
David Magellan Horth
Senior Designer
Center for Creative Leadership

Video Intro to Leadership Metaphor Explorer™

LME for off-site team building

Here's another interesting and useful field report from Tom Hickok at DoD. Also check out Tom's earlier report on creating and sustaining high-performance organizations. Thanks Tom.

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I used the leadership metaphor explorer (LME) cards yesterday in a team-building off-site. The group that I support in the Department of Defense environment almost doubled in the last few months, from about 18 to about 30. The off-site was planned to be largely a fun event for this group, with pizza lunch with time afterwards to socialize and relax. But there was a team-building exercise at the front end and I used the LME cards as part of it. The design of the exercise was for the division director to make some comments about some changes ahead. The purpose of those comments was to get the group thinking seriously about change/change management.

When the director finished speaking, I followed on his talk with the theme of "initiating change within a sea of change." After a word about the purpose of teambuilding, I asked the 23 participants to browse the cards, and pick one that they related to in some way, or spoke to them about the challenges/opportunities ahead. They did that, and reconvened, with chairs arranged in a circle to allow good face to face contact. I asked them to share briefly about why they picked the card they did, and any brief story behind it. Everybody shared willingly, without extra pressure. A few people shared about parts of their personal background that were previously undisclosed. Others talked about their work goals. Comments after were very positive about the experience.

Some things to note: 1) The LME exercise was compressed to about 35 minutes because we started as lunch approached, and I didn't want to start a hunger strike, so I assured them at the beginning of the length of the exercise :)) 2) My design consideration in having the whole group share instead of breaking into sub-groups was to help facilitate relationships across the whole team. Also, the limited time didn't really support a two step feedback process (small teams to large teams). 3) I kept the sharing very short due to the time constraints. We could have productively shared much longer (at least another hour), I believe.

I continue to be impressed with the versatility of the LME cards at drawing people out to talk at a significant, or even profound level, in a short period of time. I appreciate the chance to use the cards, and I think they are very ready for prime time. I even had colleagues ask me after the exercise where they could order the cards (one wanted to use them in her church, which has a new leadership team).

Best,
Tom Hickok

Visual and verbal literacy: Skills for contemporary leadership

David Magellan Horth provides this field report on using Leadership Metaphor Explorer (LME) and Visual Explorer (VE) to address skills for contemporary leadership.

The following design was used successful at the Library Leadership and Management Association LLAMA (a Division of the American Library Association - ALA at the LLAMA President's meeting June 2008 in Annaheim, CA. I was expecting about 10 people but more like 300 people came so I had to think quickly on my feet.

Overview

• Introduction
• Leadership Metaphor Exercise
• Presentation on leadership culture stage development
• Presentation of the Sense Making Loop for complex challenges
  
• Visual Explorer Exercise
• Concluding remarks

Description

1. My session was called "Visual and verbal literacy: Skills for contemporary leadership"

2. I put on one LME Card and one VE Card face down on each chair, randomly distributed.

3a. I opened the session with the question: How does the metaphor you have been assigned describe leadership in your organization in any one of these ways:

• in the past?
• your organization at its worst?
• how leadership is practiced currently?
• how leadership is when your organization is at its best?
• how you would like leadership to be in the future?
• how leadership needs to be in order to resolve your most pressing leadership challenges?

3b. Discuss with your neighbors

4. People were then invited to come to the microphone with the card they had been assigned. The microphone had been set up in the center aisle to share what they had found. This was very rich. About 7 people came forward before I moved on to the next part of the session. They shared both the metaphor and insights they had gained.

5. I then did a presentation about how we think leadership will look like in the future using:

Honorable Captains to illustrate dependent leadership
Adventurous Explorers to illustrate independent leadership
Leaderless Orchestra to illustrate interdependent leadership


6. I then presented the Sense Making Loop used as a response to complex challenges.

7. There was a VE image at each seat. I asked them to think of a complex challenge in their organization. How does the visual image you have been assigned describe your complex challenge?

8. Again I had people come up to the microphone to share insights on the process and what they learned.

One woman chose the snails eye view of trees as a metaphor for appreciating diversity.

"Lying on my back looking up at the trees and seeing how beautiful they are and how different they are in height. If I appreciate the beauty in them, they will in turn appreciate the beauty in me."

I rounded things off by reciting a verse from T.S. Eliot, East Coker, to close.

In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.

Framing Questions for Facilitating Leadership Metaphor Explorer™

Here are steps and framing questions to use with the Leadership Metaphor Explorer™ Card Deck. This process can be adapted to any size group, for pairs of people, or for individual reflection.

First choose a framing topic or question.
"Pick a card that says something about ... "
For example:

• Leadership in my organization ... or community, or team.
• How do I myself practice leadership? Past, present, and future (3 cards)?
  
• What does leadership look like around here?
• What do I want leadership to look like?
• The kind of leadership we need for the challenges we face.
• This is us at our best.
• This is us at our worst.
• This is what we looked like during the crisis last week.
• These are our competitors.
• These are our clients or customers.
• This is the kind of talent we have in this organization.
• This is the kind of talent we need in this organization.
• This is me when I was younger.
• This is me now.
• This is me next year.

Next, talk about your choices using one or more framing questions.
Questions to talk about include:

• Why did you pick this card? Find out why others picked the cards they did.
  
• What are the strengths in this way of leadership? What are the weaknesses?
• What is the story? Tell the story behind the card.
  
• How do the cards connect or fit with one another? How do they help or hurt each other?
  
• What cards are more mature ways of leadership? Which are less mature? Why?
  
• Where do we have conflict? Explain the conflict using the metaphors.
  
• Which way would we like to be? What are we missing?
  
• What is the right combination of cards for our challenge? In what order?

Finally, reflect on what you have learned from the metaphors, and what steps you might take.

• What did we learn? What was surprising? What did we already know?
• What was this experience like emotionally?
  
• What is the wisdom expressed here?
• What new or changed beliefs about leadership does this suggest? Does this change how you define leadership?
  
• How does this suggest a different way of doing things?