Metaphors

Politics Loves Metaphors

It’s often difficult to tell whether similarities between a familiar and an unfamiliar problem are deep or superficial. People facing choices can improve their odds of using analogies well by following these 4 steps:

Understand the source.

Actively search for differences between the source and the target; and assess similarities.

Find the solution, and adjust for glaring differences.

The method is illustrated as follows:

Source Problem: The business and high-value checking customers of a well known local bank had been complaining about branch service. They said teller waiting times were unacceptable and that personal bankers were hardly ever available to deal with important issues.

Candidate Solution: The bank reviewed every single account and applied a cost to it based on customer transactions per year, for a 3-year period. It then decided to transfer all the small accounts of its least profitable customers to an internet only account. Some of these customers decided to close their accounts. The majority, however, remained. After six months an independent branch survey showed a high degree of satisfaction among business and high-value checking customers.