Metaphors Can Help Simplify Today's Complex Issues

I came across a July 16, 2024 article in Inc. by Carmine Gallo, Harvard instructor, keynote speaker, author of "Talk Like TED" and "The Bezos Blueprint" – and in the said piece, he had touted the singular point that metaphors can help simplify today's complex issues. 

 

He defines a metaphor as a figure of speech that implicitly compares two unrelated things, typically by stating that one thing is another (e.g., “that chef is a magician”). 

 

And, in business, he says you can use metaphors to bring your presentation to life, align teams, and explain complex ideas. And he picks Jeff Bezos (right) to illustrate the point.

 

For example, why did Bezos name his start-up Amazon? 

 

Bezos wanted to find a metaphor for Earth's biggest selection of books – so he named the company after the world's biggest river. And he didn't stop there.

 

In addition to the company's name itself, Bezos went on to create: 

 

Two-pizza teams – Bezos introduced the concept of "two-pizza teams" to emphasize the importance of keeping teams small and agile within an organization. The idea is that a team should be small enough to be fed with just two large pizzas. Any larger, and teams become bureaucratic and inefficient. 

 

Single-threaded leaders – This, too, was a concept Bezos and other leaders promoted at Amazon. It refers to the practice of assigning a single, dedicated leader to a specific project or initiative. 

 

The single-threaded leader is the person who dedicates their entire focus to one area without being distracted by other responsibilities. 

 

Flywheels – The "flywheel" is considered Jeff Bezos's most strategic and powerful metaphor, fueling Amazon's astonishing growth. Once set in motion, a mechanical flywheel continues to spin and gains momentum with minimal effort. 

 

Bezos adapted the concept of a "flywheel" to describe how Amazon's business model drives growth. For example, if Amazon keeps prices low, it attracts more customers. More customers attract third-party sellers to the platform who offer a broader selection. More selection attracts more customers, and so on. The momentum becomes unstoppable. 

 

While Bezos didn't invent the idea of a flywheel for business – the idea came from Jim Collins in "Good to Great" – Bezos knew a good metaphor when he saw one. 

 

Gallo asserts that metaphors are fundamental elements in your communication toolkit. Therefore, reach for them when you need to simplify complex ideas.

 

I don't disagree – but I would add "analogies" and "similes" to the mix because they're all very much interrelated. In Gallo's article, some of the examples are metaphors and others are more precisely, analogies. [Gallo, an analogy explains an idea].

 

Just so we know, a metaphor is a figure of speech that uses one thing to mean another and makes a comparison between the two. A simile compares two different things in order to create a new meaning. An analogy is comparable to metaphor and simile in that it shows how two different things are similar, but it's a bit more complex because it makes an explanation (or clarification).

 

To illustrate. Metaphor: Time is a thief. Simile: Time is like a thief. Analogy: Time is like a thief in that thieves steal physical objects and time steals moments of our lives.

 

I know that Ahmad Fakhri (right) – co-author of the best-selling "The Diamond in Your Speech" – often uses metaphors, similes and analogies in his Persuasive Communication workshops. 

 

One excellent example is this anecdote he shares of his time in Shell Malaysia, where he employs a rhetorical device – in this case, an analogy – to give an explanation to a non-technical audience:

 

"During my time as a project engineer at the Port Dickson refinery, I was asked to explain the workings of the refinery to the local villagers. Knowing they weren't familiar with the technical details of a chemical plant, I used an analogy to make the complex processes easier to understand. Instead of diving into the technicalities of crude oil distillation, I compared the process to something more familiar – cooking rice. 

 

I asked the audience how they cook rice, and they quickly responded that it requires a pot and high heat to boil the water. I then explained that the different layers of rice, from the hard black crust to the softer grains, represented various petroleum products like tar, fuel oil, gasoline, and diesel. Just as special ingredients can make rice dishes unique, adding specific additives to oil creates high-performance fuels like those used in race cars. Finally, I likened the steam from the rice to the gas that gets captured and distributed for household or business use. 

 

By using this analogy, I was able to help the villagers easily grasp the complex concepts of refinery operations".

 

The lesson here is clear. In communication, nothing matters to people unless they can understand it.