Metaphorically Speaking

There’s an advertising that pops into my inbox every once in awhile on the art of war (Sun Tsu) as it applies to business. It bothers me.

Metaphors are powerful mind benders. They are used in conversational hypnotherapy, advertising and by salespeople to get your brain to connect to a story and from that story make certain generalizations (like you need a new car).

When I see this email about the art of war, I know that metaphorically our minds will create a handful of possible generalizations.

1. In a war, there’s usually a good guy and a bad guy. Depending on which side your on, will determine who is who. Who are the bad guys in business? Your competitors.
2. There’s a winner & a loser in a war. In my own opinion, everyone loses in a war but that isn’t the subject of this particular rant. In WWI and WWII the “bad guys” lost. Who is the winner and who is the loser in business? Well the winner is meant to be your company and the loser is meant to be the competition. From my prospective, the people that lose are normally the consumer and the employees.
3. In wars, there seems to be persistent opportunists or traders/double agents. These people play both sides for their own gain. Who are the double agents in business? You might think corporate espionage or inside traders. For me, it is the people in the organization that take up space, not helping themselves or the company grow. They take the opportunity to do nothing and get paid for it.
4. People die in wars. How does this happen metaphorically in business? How about layoffs? The drive for profits becomes so great that the organization forgets to take care of its own.

The major reason I don’t like using the war metaphor is that it perpetuates the war mentality as a whole.

Why can’t we have the Art of Peace as it relates to business? How about the Art of Sport as it relates to business? Good sports realize the talents and strengths of their competitors, still try their best to beat them and at the same time, can have a beer with them after the competition.

Maybe that’s what I’ll do. I’ll create a course called, “The Art of The All Blacks, how your business can come out of the scrum on top.”