Sailing towards our goal
We all know that metaphors especially visual is a powerful and key tool to explain complex and abstract concept and create a sense of familiarity.
One of my favorite visual imagery is sailboat. I had mostly used it during team retrospectives.However, I feel it is a powerful concept which can be used in any business context.
How many times we would have heard both in the corporate or non corporate world the terms “to navigate” through, “Stormy or troubled water” or “winds of change” ?
A few week ago, I attended a workshop on Innovation Games®. It gave me a fresh perspective on how we can use games effectively instead of the usual meeting format. It did trigger my thinking process and certainly did help me understand on how games can help participants to express themselves and look at a problem in a new perspective.
During the workshop, we worked on one of the games to simulate our thought process on innovation. Sharing below the one we can came up with.
Speedboat- Sailing towards our goal
Island : represents the destination/ goal to be reached.
Anchors : Can be used to represent any blockers or challenges which will stop the team, individual or organisation from reaching the destination.
Wind: The propeller to help move the boat forward.
Boat : The key central system which can represent an individual, team or an organisation.
Why this game works ?
The speedboat concept can be used as a personal tool or in an business context. It can be used to convey different ideas.
In a business context, it can be used in any phase from Discover to shape to prioritize to Act.
Personally the speedboat resonates with my adventurous spirit and I use this to visualize my goal of being a full time traveler in few years time. It help me to visualize the hardships, the opportunities and the motivators to make a decision of how I go about reaching my goal.
When used in a group, it can provide a “safety” net to individuals within the group to express their views without getting influenced and at the same time trigger their thought process to focus on the bigger picture.
Recently we used this speedboat game with one of the team to help visualize their team mission and identify the blockers ( infrastructure, skills, knowledge etc), the favorable things ( leadership support, training etc) which will help them in reaching their team mission. It was well appreciated by the team members and that gave them the confidence that they are in the right track
Thus we can see that such metaphor — both verbal and visual — is without doubt one of the most powerful tools to help people easily relate, communicate and influence.
