Tamsen Webster explains how to use large metaphors to make big ideas visible and shareable. She calls this a meta-metaphor and walks through examples like Theseus and the Minotaur, the ocean, and Shackleton to show how the right metaphor can clarify and communicate what you're trying to say.
I get it that you have to take on faith the fact that you have a Red Thread, organizations have a Red Thread, all ideas have a Red Thread. Why do you have to take it on faith? Because you can't see it. If there were an actual red thread, it would be a lot easier to find, would it not? And yet there's something powerful in the metaphor of the Red Thread, in this thing that connects how we see the world with with what we do in it. There's power in that metaphor because there's power in metaphors. And sometimes when you're trying to figure out how to get other people to see your big idea, we have to find a metaphor that's as big as your idea is. I call that the meta metaphor, and that's what we're talking about this week on Find the Red Thread. I'm your host, Tamsen Webster, of TamsenWebster.com. In his great TED Talk on the subject, James Geary says that we use metaphors 6 times every minute. They're everywhere in conversation that we use. We say, "That's going over the line," or, "I'll touch base with you on that," or, "I'm putting a stake in the ground." Each of those times, we are taking one concept and marrying it to another one to help somebody else understand. And that's the reason metaphors are so prevalent, because they're so powerful. They are a way to create an instantly shared view of the world. And if we're talking about getting other people to see our ideas, to see the world we— the way we do so that they will do something different. That ability to create an instantly shared worldview is incredibly important. Now, it doesn't mean that they're always gonna adopt that worldview, but by being able to give someone a mentally physical concept, if that's possible, it helps them understand and map over many, many other concepts into your idea very, very quickly. So when we say, "I'm putting a stake in the ground," you get a sense of all the other things that that means. It means that I'm doing something sharp and decisive, and I'm putting it somewhere where it's unlikely to move, right? And instead of saying that, "I'm about to make a sharp, decisive decision and I'm not gonna move on it," we can just say, "I'm putting a stake in the ground." Now, for tiny concepts, we obviously use this all the time, but we can also use metaphors to capture big concepts, concepts big enough for even the sub-concepts of our idea to fit into. So best example off the top of my head is of course the one that I use, and that's the Red Thread. The Red Thread is very simple in its concept, it's a piece of red thread, but the origin story that it comes from has all the components that I'm looking for to explain all the things that the Red Thread does. So when I describe the Red Thread as a way to connect How you see with what you do, I'm able to directly connect it back to the story of Theseus and the Minotaur and in the fact that he needed a way to see where he was, see how he was moving through the maze in order to do the thing that he needed to do. But that origin story also has components for sub-concepts within the Red Thread Method. For instance, the problem statement, that problem of perspective, where we're trying to find the thing that people are focusing on to the exclusion of something else? Well, the fact that people kept focusing on killing the Minotaur and forgetting they needed to get out of the maze is one of those sub-concepts that that meta-metaphor can put into place. So how can you find a meta-metaphor? Well, there's two ways, really. One is to find metaphors that speak to you and then match the ideas that match that to it. It's in fact what happened with the Red Thread. I knew about the idea and about the origin story, and then I also had my method for helping people clarify ideas. And over dinner one night with a group of friends, I was thinking, you know, I really should name this process. And then I told them about this idea, this metaphor that I loved, and they're like, why don't you call it that? And then the Red Thread was born. The other way, of course, is to start with the idea and then go looking for the idea that— the metaphor that matches it. Now that happened kind of instantaneously with the red thread, but it really already knew about the red thread. A lot of times when I'm working with clients, this is what we're doing. They're coming in with ideas and we're trying to find ways to encapsulate that metaphor in something that makes it make even more sense to other people. So we've used things like the properties of sound as a meta metaphor. We've used the ocean as a meta metaphor where there's different pieces of, you know, ecosystems and waves, all these different elements of the ocean also mapped back to their idea. We've also used, similar to the red thread, stories that people may or may not know. I have one client that used Shackleton's Antarctic expedition as a way to include all the different concepts of their big idea. But the power of that meta metaphor, even if you don't ever use it with an audience, is that it helps you understand your idea better because it gives shape to the idea. It allows you to give dimension physically in your mind to this kind of amorphous ephemeral thing. But remember, that's where the power comes in. So when you're trying to figure out, how do I get other people to really see my big idea? Think of it— the fact and whether or not there's something else that they already see or already think about that matches it perfectly. I'll bet you'll find something. 'cause there's usually a perfect meta metaphor out there. I'm Tamsen Webster of tamsenwebster.com. Thanks for watching and listening to this episode of Find the Red Thread. If you need help finding your meta metaphors or even just your red thread, then reach out to me at tamsenwebster.com/contact. I'd love to hear more about what you're working on.
