Leading Out Loud: A Guide for Engaging Others in Creating the Future, 3rd Edition

Analogy and Metaphor

Metaphor literally means to “carry across.” Analogy and metaphor move us from a known to an unknown, or from the subjective to the objective. Is the building of the information superhigh­way in the nineties like the building of the automotive highway system in the fifties? Is cutting corporate cost to avoid layoffs like cutting family costs to avoid having college students come home for lack of tuition money? Is creating a national health care system analogous to creating the social security system? These analogies could be useful, as they point to both similarities and dissimilarities in a known and unknown situation, allowing people to learn by past experience rather than mere explanation.

Metaphor is to analogy as symbol ...