100 Posts in 100 Days
My family members think fast and on their feet. If you aren’t paying attention, it can be hard to follow along as they seemingly “jump” to new topics. When that happens, I will ask them,
“Can you give me the bouncing ball?”
Today’s post is the result of a bouncing ball. Follow along
🎾Post #46: “Reflections on ‘21-’22” where I wrote about the work accomplished this school year by some of the teams I work on and with. That got me thinking about…
🎾Post #47: “What Did you Learn” where I extended from the doing in ‘21-’22 to the learning in ‘21-’22. That got me thinking about…
🎾Post #48: “Stringing Pearls” where I recalled a metaphor for coaching and started to extend the portion about the thread that holds pearls together. That got me thinking about…
🎾A metaphor activity one of our deeper learning coaches led for our team about a month ago. That got me thinking about…
🎾The finer points and steps to creating a powerful metaphor and how I might develop my string of pearls imagery even further. I suspected I could find the activity our team had done. So I pulled out a resource, “Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways” by Sarah Stein Greenberg.
Success! A step-by-step strategy for creating an effective metaphor is just one of the many design tools inside this incredible guide to “ideas about discovery, learning, and leading the way through unknown creative territory.”
The specific activity is called “Practicing Metaphors”. Author Sarah Stein Greenberg credits Nihir Shah and inspiration from Jane Hirshfield for this activity. It can be used in teams or individually. For the full details and examples, you’ll need to reference the book, but here are the basic steps:
- Think about a challenge you are facing (or in my case, a story you want to tell)
- Select an image that captures the essence of the challenge. (Examples are available in the book to spur your thinking.) Consider:
- An image that captures your feeling about the current situation
- An image that captures how you want to feel after you have solved the challenge (or the emotion you want in your story)
- An image that seems closest to what your action steps might be
- Make a list of as many parts of the system or image that you can think of.
- Connect the different parts on your list with elements of your challenge. What does each part represent?
- Ask three questions:
- What new insights do I have about the challenge I am addressing?
- What new ideas do I have about the types of solutions I need to consider?
- How can I use parts of this metaphor to describe what I’m working on?
As I’m extending and refining my “string of pearls” metaphor, I feel I’ve successfully completed the first 3 steps. I’m working more on step 4. I’m doing a bit of research about the finer details of how pearls are formed, how silk thread is formed, and how it all comes together to create a beautiful piece of jewelry. I think these nuances will help me develop stronger connections between the elements of the string of pearls and what it means to be a leader who is a connector. I predict that there will be at least one more installment of 100 Posts in 100 Days that revisits this metaphor.