metaphor

/Tag:metaphor

Behavioural DNA of Leadership

Ambassadors  and Members of The Organizational Zoo Ambassadors Network (affectionately known as OZAN) used the Zoo Character Cards to explore the behavioural DNA of Leadership.  That is, which metaphors best represents the complex behavioural capabilities required to inspire others to follow you when the situation is ideal and the organization is performing well.   Clearly, a successful leader (consciously) adjusts their behavior when the context changes and this is the critical point of facilitating "Conversations That Matter" using the Zoo concepts.  The most...

Behavioural DNA of Creativity Part 2

The Organizational Zoo character cards were used to assess the which metaphorical "animals" (representing behaviours) supported or detracted from a creative environment at Creative Bangkok.  This activity was repeated at the HEC Creativity Summer School in Montreal in June 2015.  The Montreal group was larger (about 70 people broken up into 18 groups) and of a more mixed cultural background. Despite this there were strong similarities in the outputs of the activity. For example the strongest characters supporting a creative environment...

The Behaviours of Creativity: Insights from Creative Bangkok

The participants of Creative Bangkok 2014 engaged in assessing what “animals” (Organizational Zoo metaphor characters representing behaviours) supported creativity and which were detrimental to it. After a very quick introduction (because we wanted intuitive interpretation and creative open exchange of perspectives with minimal preconception) to The Organizational Zoo, participants allocated character cards into 4 categories for the context of generating creative environment: Expected (required for creative outcomes) Desired (not absolutely required, but a positive influence on creativity) Tolerated (not desirable, prefer not to...

Out of the box approach to behavioural impacts

The limitation of many psychometrics is the way they are used by some. Used well, they can provide insights into the preferences a person has “generally”, though this cannot be applied to all situations. However, they often are used to stereotypically categorise the person, with the implication that this may inform them what roles they may be best suited to. That is, applied in ways that puts the person in a box. This is dangerous given often this largely based...

12 Principles of Knowledge Leadership

Leadership is a subjective participation sport of perspectives and relationships. The more effectively you influence others to play with you, the greater your own success, and the more value you generate with, and for, others. Great leaders generate trust and act in an open and trustworthy manner. In doing so, they generate an environment in which people desire to be involved in decision-making and the implementation of value-creating actions. They interact in an open manner to solicit a range of...

Moving mindsets from “What is” to “What is POSSIBLE”

“Traditional teaching” is TEACHER and CONTENT focused. This is fine - if you want to win a local pub trivia night, but it is not LEARNING. Learning requires a level of understanding of what the content is about and why it is important. Even more important is knowing when it is relevant to apply and why it is more optimal than a range of other possible options. Flip teaching is (apparently) a “new” way to teach that incorporates technology and...

Understanding and Mitigating Culture Clash

Culture is an interesting outcome of people interacting in specific environments and can be difficult to influence. The Organisational Zoo metaphor provides a simple way to understand culture as an outcome of: (i) What animals you have in the zoo (ii) Where they are in the hierarchy and (iii) How they interact with each other. The Zoo represents the organisation and each animal an individual behaviour (not a person as a whole). People are far too complex to put into a “box”. They behave...

Reflecting on behaviour for team success

We rarely afford ourselves with the luxury of engaging in sufficient time to do what Donald Schön called "reflection in action". When we do so, we realise just how much more there is to life and we enhance our learning experiences. One of the biggest challenges in our lives is productively engaging with others. Group dynamics is a double edged sword! Groups enable us to share workload, enjoy learning from other’s perspectives and engage in a deeply rewarding relationship that...

Metaphor for Mentoring

Although I have actively engaged in mentoring throughout my career, I have proactively increased my mentoring efforts since leaving the "big corporate" world.  This increased interest and activity has resulted from a number of emergent opportunities: Firstly, my association with many young people from a range of cultures through coordinating courses for RMIT University's MBA, which led me to revamp and lead the student mentoring program in which volunteer business leaders offer their time to invest in conversation with MBA students. Secondly, my interest...

Metaphor to assist knowledge transfer

Over the last few months I have been involved in a number of workshops using the Organizational Zoo metaphor character cards to engage people in conversations on how behavioural interactions impact knowledge sharing and relationships. These fun interactions draw on the diversity of behaviours, experiences and cultures in the room to generate shared insights that i believe would not have occurred if it were not for the creativity and "out of the box" interactions.  Participants have said that having the...

Career Path Metaphor

People often ask me about the origins of the cover image on The Organizational Zoo.   Although it is a LONG story, in short it took several drawings over several months to get the message right.  We wanted to portray the behaviours people encounter on their career path through a typical organisation. You can see the kid (naive recruit) about to enter the front gate of the zoo (organisation) and as one would expect the Owl (eternal mentor) ready to greet them at the gate....

Aligning behaviour for optimal sharing

For some people, life is like a series of somewhat unpredictable interactions that just happen to them - and can lead to benefits or tragedies.  They react to what the environment "allows" rather than create the environment they would like to experience.  However, occasionally, we also see someone who always seems to "get what they want" and appears to lead the environment rather than be constrained by it. How does this happen? What do they have that others do not? The...

Metaphor as a catalyst for positive change

I am often asked for “proof” that metaphor techniques work in the business environment and also in other situations such as community, home, family and school. I have been using metaphor techniques since 2000 and have many examples of success in team environments.  Due to privacy and research ethics restrictions, I cannot reveal specifically who these examples apply to, but I can discuss the situations in a generic sense to highlight the power of metaphor interactions. One team had a 30% turnover...

Behaviours at Year End Break Up Parties!

Most organisations have some sort of "year end" breakup party just preceding the holiday season of their culture. A celebration of what has been achieved and what there is to look forward to in the following year.  These are the absolute best times to understand the REAL culture of your organisation.  As an example, over the next few days many organisations around the world will be breaking up for Christmas where there will be ample flow of alcohol and consequently...