Generative Metaphor
Beginner
Skill Level:
Invite the use of metaphor to capture the essence of universal challenges and ironies present in everyday organizational life.
This technique is part of the Shifting phase of SERA, which requires facilitating an experience or psychological stimulus that triggers, jolts, or firmly guides a conscious shift in one’s orientation to present-moment experience. The word sera itself translates in Spanish to mean “it will be,” which resembles a conscious orientation to whatever may show up in our awareness. This orientation, which is known as beginner’s mind, is necessary because human attention has a tendency toward automatic preoccupation with active thinking (Kabat-Zinn, 2003).
The purpose of using this technique is to help triggering or guide a conscious Shift in one’s orientation to present-moment experience, from conceptualization to intuition.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2008). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.
Schön, D. A. (1979). Generative metaphor: A perspective on problem-setting in social policy. Metaphor and Thought, 2, 137–163.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
