NLP At Work : The Difference That Makes the Difference in Business

experience of conversations and situations.
Metaphors permeate our lives. They are symbols for what
our unconscious mind is saying. When we don’t listen our
unconscious steps up the signals until the message
materializes in physical symptoms or illnesses. Our dreams are
metaphors and a means of our unconscious mind finding a way
to communicate with us. Our words are metaphors, sometimes
containing what we want to communicate and sometimes
communicating what we really mean but did not intend to
communicate. The more we can learn to listen to the
metaphors in our life, the more we can draw on the power of
the unconscious mind.
The metaphors we choose are all powerful in the way we
influence our experience.

“Metaphors and mental models are the tools we use to shape
our realities.”
Michael Lissack and Johan Roos, The Next Common Sense

Metaphors thread their way through everyone's life, from the
story at bedtime, through the parables in the Bible, to our
everyday speech and the way we think of ourselves, our business,
our life. Advertising is metaphor. Metaphors can be enchanting,
enticing, and mesmerizing. Their effects may be enlightening and
empowering when developed and recounted constructively.
Used carelessly, however, they can be damaging and disturbing.
And above all, metaphors are our inner reality. What is certain is
that if we want to maximize our potential, we need to learn to
listen and interpret the metaphors by which we live.
Metaphors may be single words, expressions, or stories. To
understand how to construct and tell a story metaphor is to
know how to influence with elegance and respect. Milton
Erickson was a master of the metaphor. He was also a master of
change. The methods he used to bring about change in therapy
are just as powerful in influencing change in business.
The following is an example of one of his stories, told to
explain the way he worked with his clients:

One day an unknown horse strayed into the yard of the farm
where I lived as a child. No one knew where this horse had

Metaphors permeate our lives

Metaphors can be enchanting,

enticing, and mesmerizing

Metaphor is elegant influence

METAPHOR: THE KEY TO THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND 125