Reflections on 'Myths We Live By: Metaphor as a Tool for Empowering Change'
I attended a workshop on May 1st, 2026 with Annalise Lewis of Manifesto which was so good I followed-up with her for some 1:1 coaching. What follows are my notes from that initial workshop, which I scribbled down in a notebook.
We're a storytelling species, so we need to look at the language beneath language. Metaphor is a window into our subconscious - image, sensation, emotion. When we don't know things, we make up stories in an attempt at sensemaking. Even memory is just a story from the past to which we've attributed meaning.
The following video shows how we use metaphors every single day. We average 6 metaphors per minute!
Those who get to impose their metaphors get to decide what's "true". We shouldn't try and replace an existing metaphor that people use, as it's tied to their identity, but instead attempt to evolve it.
Most behaviour isn't conscious decision-making, but following unconscious scripts in a systemic behaviour loop. For example, people are starting to sound like ChatGPT.
There are four layers to every situation:
- Surface story - the chronological series of events
- Inner story - the emotional or psychological journey
- Pattern story - the echo of a past pattern replaying itself through the present
- Systemic story - the lens of societies' worldviews we're conditioned to believe
Metaphor allows us to see all four and move between them. The systemic story in particular can be coercive and difficult to see.
It follows that our ways of speaking can affect the way that people perceive reality:
For example, the more we use industrial factory-type metaphors, the more we act like that. This made me think of Gareth Morgan's Images of Organization which I wrote about (gulp) 17 years ago.
Our minds blend meatphors naturally - e.g.
It landed like a butterfly and struck like lightning. (Matthew McConaughey)
There was a whole section on Clean Language which was useful, and which we as participants experienced by Annalise guiding us through an activity. We can make what Annalise calls a "poetic shift" - not through logic but through metaphor, which is much power powerful.
For some reason, I came up with marine iguanas on the Galapagos Islands, which I realised were actually chameleons in my metaphor. It probably makes more sense if you watch this:
I think this means that, as I evolve my consultancy practice post-WAO I'm not 100% seeking safety but want to risk into a higher risk tolerance. I want to do that with others (building a colony of "sea chameleons"!), but also by myself, focusing on systems thinking. That does involve taking a leap, and "changing colour" so that I'm seen.
I've got a final note about "predictive processing" linking to optimism, pessimism, and realism which "are not personality stories but choices". I wish I'd made better notes of that section...
Overall, it was a perfectly-timed workshop coming on my first day "flying solo". There's lots for me to revisit here. I've already written up my first coaching session with Annalise, but I'll do so for the follow-up session as well.