Like standing in a forest — designer metaphors.

I love it when metaphors suddenly emerge from everyday situations like a surprise. Like a magical moment of full clarity when I think “Oh! This is just like …”

I’m very much drawn to those metaphors, especially when they trigger a strong emotional response for a rather abstract topic.

So today I want to explore another of those metaphors through my lens as a “designer” with the privilege of innocent naivety, to see if it resonates.

The topic

The metaphor I want to explore is about perspective and diversity of opinion. There are already a few metaphors that are often presented as cute little comics in the introduction to a workshop.

Like thinking about different shapes

One of those metaphors describes three people thinking about different shapes representing different ideas. Like a square, a triangle and a hexagon. They then come together, share their shapes and merge them into a new shape.

The message is clear: We all have different ideas. By sharing and combining our ideas we arrive at a much better idea. It should motivate participants and especially sceptics to let go of their concerns and be open minded to the upcoming brainstorming exercise.

But I’m not sure that it works. As a sceptic it would look like the ideas are competing with each other. I mean there definitely is a “best shape” (it’s the hexagon right?) and the combination of those looks like a weirdly shaped compromise.

As a sceptic I would still be convinced that my idea already is probably the best one (the hexagon) — or at least a pretty good start. So why would I need to change that? Why can’t we just start with my idea and go from there? It probably already is a pretty close approximation of the combined idea anyways which makes the combined idea just more expensive and complicated.

So I don’t think this metaphor inspires a desire for inclusive brainstorming, but rather portrays it as an expensive and probably childish exercise.

Like describing an elephant to each other

There is another popular illustrated metaphor. It shows four, five, six people who are blind standing at or on different sides of an elephant. One holds the trunk, one holds the tail, one stands on the back and so on. For some reason they don’t know what an elephant is and now describe what they experience to each other.

The message is that we all experience reality (the elephant) differently and that we have to include different experiences to get a factful understanding of reality.

Well, I think this metaphor doesn’t work either. For one it is ableist and weird. There is a great comic by Sidney Harris which shows the absurdity (I can’t show here because I simply can’t figure out the licensing.)

But more importantly: It is not convincing. Not to sceptics, not to me.

As a sceptic I’m already convinced that I know that it’s an elephant. It is the other who can’t see the elephant. Why should I invest time and energy in helping others to recognise what I have known to be true from the beginning?

Of course the ability to convince sceptics is not the only thing metaphors should be measured by. But I think a metaphor should be inspiring and be more than just a cute side note in a workshop.

A great metaphor has the power to inspire new behaviours and point of views. And I came across a new metaphor that inspired me a lot (at least to write this article) recently.

A lucky inspiration

The metaphor was brought to me by Christine Hemphill. Christine is Founder and Managing Director of Open Inclusion, an disability-inclusive service agency offering inclusive research, inclusive design and innovation.

I met Christine at a remote event and we talked a little about inclusion and the importance of perspective and diversity. And there it was. A sentence that hit me like a magical firework. I’m not sure what the exact words were but in my head they transformed into…

“Perspective is like standing in a forest.”

Isn’t this beautiful? So our perspective is like standing in a huge forest. It is dark and we can’t see far. Only trees and unfamiliar sounds surround us. At times it is very calming and meditative. But it can also be very scary and disorienting.

We can only see clearly what is directly in front of us. Closer to the periphery, we can only perceive shapes and finally only colours and movements.

We will never see what is outside of this range. We are surrounded by strange noises. Maybe a cracking branch. Even before we can turn around to identify the source of the sound, our brain has already constructed a narrative and a reaction. Adrenalin floods our bodies and a cold sweat forms on our foreheads.There are strange shadows and faces in the trees. Our imagination goes wild.

When standing alone in a forest we are more affected and manipulated by the unknown and unseen than by the things we actually observe.

Like two people in a forest

With another person by our side, we could cover our backs and look in different directions. Maybe the other person, someone we trust, will take our hand and calm us down and tell us that there is nothing to worry about. They will help us to focus and decide which way to go next. The other person will see things we can’t see and we can learn from each other.

But trust and psychological safety is very important. You can’t write perspective without respect (sorry for that 🫣).

Like a group of people in a forest

More people ideally also means more different perspectives. We don’t need everyone to look in the same direction and make their weird speculations about shadows and noises and drive everyone into a full paranoia.

As a group in a forest we also have to communicate, coordinate and trust each other to make our way. We all know too well from countless horror movies what happens to a broken group and especially the person who strays from the group.

But if we stay together, communicate and coordinate as a group I’m sure we can find our way safely through the forest.

Like walking in circles

Now we are a strong and empowered group in a still huge forest that communicates well and trusts each other. Shadows and noises don’t worry us so much anymore because we are confident that we have covered our surroundings.

But anyone who has ever spent a long time in a large forest knows that you won’t be able to see the horizon and that this can be very taxing and disorientating.

On a long hike in New Zealand, on the section on the south island between Freedom Camp to Colac Bay I wrote in my diary:

“The absence of a horizon and salient features kills the sense of progress and time. The track stays more or less on the same level along the hillside and it almost feels like I’m walking on a rotating disk. Through mud, over fallen trees, over a ditch, through a trench, crossing a river and all over again. The track is designed to drive people mad.”
– Day 27: Te Araroa Diaries

As a strong empowered group in an endless forest we need a horizon, at least a virtual one. And we need landmarks/milestones to track our progress and ensure that we are not walking in circles.

Did it work?

Of course this metaphor is not a short comicstrip (not that I know of). But to me it is way more inspiring than the other examples. This metaphor almost calls me to discover more parallels and analogies.

As a sceptic, I would probably no longer feel so protective of my idea or my opinion. With this framing, I would now want to be part of this team to tame this wild forest. I would be extremely interested in divergent ideas and opinions because I want to know what is hidden from me.

But what do you think? Did it convince you? Do you still feel sceptical or did you find a flaw in the metaphor? Did you find another great analogy yourself? Leave a comment.