Oh, for goodness sake, please stop talking about everything as a journey. Are there no other metaphors available to us? It would seem that the business world is nothing more than a series of journeys, and all the directions are on nicely linear roadmaps.
A journey is an "act of travelling from one place to another". It says nothing about the experiences, difficulties, people, customs or opportunities that we encounter on the way. It is bland and boring. A bit like a "roadmap" ... which tells us that everything will be delivered in due course - even when we are fully aware that our requirements and needs change over time (and usually faster than anyone is prepared for)!
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| Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash |
Not only are these two ubiquitous business metaphors lacking in imagination and creativity, but they are also fundamentally misleading and oversimplifications. For example, many of the real journeys we make result in us ending up in exactly the same place we started, which is pretty certainly not the outcome you want from an organisational transformation.
The equally over-used mountain climbing metaphor for learning suggests that there are numerous obstacles to be overcome until you reach the peak of your learning experience - after which there is no more learning to be done, and it’s all downhill from there.
Here’s a short list of some alternative metaphors you could try:
- A Bucking Bronco Ride
- An Interweb of Events
- A Doctor Who Adventure
- A Chemistry Experiment - Mixing It Up
- A Discovery Process
- Joining the Dots
- A Night on The Tiles
Feel free to use any of these if they catch your fancy - or maybe you could give me some of your personal favourites?
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