Stories and Metaphor
We are always collecting stories and metaphors and use them extensively in our trainings. Here are some we like, please enjoy them. Please email us if you have suggestions or credits to add to the stories, or if we have inadvertently infringed any copyright. If you are interested in collecting more stories and metaphors for yourself, look out for our downloadable resource coming soon.
Belief Is All You Need
A man was lost while driving through the country. As he tried to read a map, he accidentally drove off the road into a ditch. Though he wasn't injured, his car was stuck deep in the mud. So the man walked to a nearby farm to ask for help.
"Warwick can get you out of that ditch," said the farmer, pointing to an old mule standing in a field. The man looked at the haggardly mule and looked at the farmer who just stood there repeating, "Yep, old Warwick can do the job." The man figured he had nothing to lose. The two men and Warwick made their way back to the ditch.
The farmer hitched the mule to the car. With a snap of the reins he shouted, "Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack! Pull, Ted! Pull, Warwick!" And the mule pulled the car from the ditch with very little effort.
The man was amazed. He thanked the farmer, patted the mule and asked, "Why did you call out all of those other names before you called Warwick?"
The farmer grinned and said, "Old Warwick is just about blind. As long as he believes he's part of a team, he doesn't mind pulling."
Arrow Breaking
Mori Motonari (1497-1571), a Japanese warlord, when he was on his deathbed, assembled his three children. He gave each child an arrow to break, which each child did.
He then asked that three other arrows be bound together, then each child took a turn at trying to break the bound arrows, but without success.
Individually, the arrows offered no resistance, but together they were formidable. That lesson was not forgotten by the Mori heirs, and certainly not by the rest of the country in the generations to come.
(D. J. Lu Inside Corporate Japan, 1987)
Counting Sheep
Once upon a time there was a sheepherder tending his sheep at the edge of a country road in rural Wyoming. A brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee screeched to a halt next to him. The driver, a young man dressed in a Versace suit, Ray-Ban glasses, Jovial Swiss wristwatch and a BHS tie, jumped out and asked the herder “If I guess how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?”
The herder looked at the young man, then looked at the sprawling herd of grazing sheep and said “Okay.”
The young man parked the SUV, connected his notebook and wireless modem, entered a NASA site, scanned the ground using satellite imagery and a GPS, opened a database and 60 Excel tables filled with algorithms, then printed a 150 page report on his high-tech mini printer. He turned to the herder and said “You have exactly 1,586 sheep here.”
The herder answered “Say, you are right. Pick out a sheep.” The young man took one of the animals and put it in the back of his vehicle.
As he was preparing to drive away, the herder looked at him and asked
“Now, if I guess your profession, will you pay me back in kind?”
The young man answered “Sure.”
The herder said immediately “You are a consultant.”
“Exactly! How did you know?” asked the young man.
“Very simple,” replied the herder. “First you came here without being invited. Secondly, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew. Thirdly, you do not understand anything about my business, and I’d really like to have my dog back.”
Knowing Where to Tap
At the end of the 19 Century a wealthy mill owner was sick with worry as his steam boiler lay broken and workers were standing idle. Time was money and as the hours and days passed he could see his profits slipping away. He had tried all the major firms in the area and they had been unable to cure the problem and was now about to meet a new.
A small man dressed in overalls, carrying a small tool bag mad from rough brown hessian was shown in and introduced to the owner. The man looked over his small glasses and asked the owner him to explain the nature of the problem in simple terms. With this the owner immediately had no faith, the boiler system was a hugely complicated affair, but after a while, the man was eventually shown to the boiler room.
Tapping gently, the man travelled up and down the pipe work until he finally settled on one particular elbow. He put his small hammer back in the toolbag and exchanged it for a large one, which he used to give one clean firm thump to the elbow. Immediately the owner could hear sound of the boiler system working again and showered thanks on the man and told him to double his bill. “No” the man replies, and with that leaves.
Within a few days the mans bill comes and was far more than expected. £100 was a huge sum for the time put in and was very much more than any of the others, some of which were there for days not just 10 minutes. The mill owner demands a breakdown of the bill.
A reply came by return :
for 10 minutes of tapping £1 for knowing where to tap £99
Digging
An old man and woman were married for many years, even though they hated each other. When they had a confrontation, screaming and yelling could be heard deep into the night. The old man would shout, “When I die, I will did my way up and out of the grave and come back and haunt you for the rest of your life!” Neighbours feared him. They believed he practiced black magic because of the many strange occurrences that took place in their neighbourhood. The old man liked the fact that he was feared.
To everyone’s relief, the old man died of a heart attack, aged 86. His wife had a closed casket at his wake. After the burial, she went straight to the local bar and began to party like there was no tomorrow. Her neighbours, concerned for her safety asked, “Aren’t you afraid that he may indeed be able to dig his way up and out of the grave and come back and haunt you for the rest of your life?”
The wife put down her drink. “Let him dig as much as he wants” she said, “I had him buried upside down”
Dragon of Change
When faced with the challenge of change, the Chinese believe that there are three ways to respond to this Dragon.
You can fail to sense the dragon or ignore him hoping that he will go away. However, the Dragon will always be there, and if you continue to ignore him, he will eat you.
You can try to control the Dragon -- try to force him onto a path of your own choosing -- but he is very powerful and will not go where you want him to go. You will eventually tire, and when you stop to rest, he will eat you.
However, if you ride the Dragon of change, you can avoid its lethality. You can survive -- you can even prosper. Dragon riders accept change -- they anticipate it, adapt to it, and take advantage of the opportunities that it brings.
What I have discovered is that it's easy to say that we are going to ride the dragon of change. But in reality it's a lot harder to do
(Draft Remarks for The Conoco's Annual Senior Management Meeting 2 March 1998 by Gen. Charles C. Krulak)
Eskimo Wisdom
It was autumn, and the Eskimos in a remote are asked their new chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a Chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets and when he looked at the sky, he couldn’t tell what the heck the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood and be prepared.
But, also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, “Is the coming winter going to be cold?” “It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed,” the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the Chief went back to his people and asked them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.
One week later, he called the Weather Service again. “Is it going to be a very cold winter?” he asked. “Yes,” the man at the weather service responded, “it’s going to be a very cold winter.” The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.
Two weeks later, he called the National Weather Service again. “Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?” “Absolutely,” the man replied, “It looks like it is going to be one of the coldest winters ever.” “How can you be so sure?” the chief asked. The weatherman replied, “The Eskimos are collecting firewood like crazy.”
Old Margaret & Young Margaret
Many hundred of years ago, before mediaeval times, when the climate was warmer and the land was covered in trees the King was due to visit Scotland. His troops were touring the area in advance in order to make sure everything was in order for the visit before his arrival. They happened across two women and told them “the King, the most important person in the country, is coming to visit your town. When he arrives you shall cheer ‘God save the King’”.
The two women thought about their beliefs for a while and took a deep breath, stood up straight and said “but God is the most important person in the country, we cannot say God save the King”. The troops and the women argued for a short while before finally the women were bundled up and taken off.
They took them to a beach and, with the tide out, drove two stakes into the ground, one in front of the other. Old Margaret was tied to the first stake and young Margaret was tied to the other. “If you agree to cheer ‘God save the King’ we will untie you” said the troops. “If you do not, you will both drown with the high tide”.
The troops sat and waited….
(Yes this is a true story. What happened in the end ? Neither of the Margaret’s said anything more. They held on to their beliefs, and they both drowned.)
The Caged Bird
When I was young, at my grandparents house they always had a bird in a cage in the living room. It had been there for as long as I remember and spent it’s days happy on it perch looking out at the comings and goings of the day and chirping to say hello to visitors. Sometimes it would look out the window and see to birds in the garden flying free and would wonder what it would be like to out there… when it thought of adventure and independence it’s heart raced and it stood a little taller on its perch. Sometimes a bird would visit the windowsill and puzzle at the sight of a bird in a cage. It was at times like that the bird felt most miserable and its shoulders slumped.
One day, my Grandfather had been cleaning the cage and putting out fresh water when he forgot to close the door and went out for the day. All alone the bird started to think about its position and her heart began to race as she looked outside to see the other birds swooping and soaring to their hearts delight.
It considered its options.
It was still considering its options when my Grandfather came home a long while later and shut the door.
The Quarryman
In a quarry, not far from here there is a story told of a quarryman who had calluses on his hands, a bent back and a weathered face. Every day he toiled at his work, yet he was not happy. “Why do I have to be a quarryman” he would say to himself, “if I were rich I would be happy.”
Just then an angel appeared. “What do you want?” she said, “You are rich in all you need,” He thought for a while, then said; “If I were a king I would be rich. Then I would be happy.”
Pouf. The quarryman turned into a king. At first, he spent the days ruling his world, sharing his riches and was happy. After a while though, he began to notice that whatever he did, the sun had the power to change peoples moods. When the sun shone people began to smile, whatever the king did. He began to think, “If I were sun I would be able to control everyone’s mood. Then I would be happy.”
Pouf. He turned into the sun. He enjoyed being the sun very much, bringing warmth to everyone’s back and smiles to their faces. He began to notice however that sometimes cloud would be able to stop suns rays. Cloud was more powerful than sun he thought. “I wish I was cloud”
Pouf. He turned into cloud. Cloud had a good life blocking out the suns rays when he felt like it, bringing rain down and making plants grow, filling lakes up and making snow for people to play in. Eventually he noticed that whatever he did rock just sat there and resisted it. Rock was more powerful than he was and he wished “I wish I was rock”
Pouf. He turned into rock. No matter what happened now, rock sat firm come rain or shine. He was happy and content knowing that he could resist all that cloud could thrown at him. He was indeed the most powerful thing in the world and he was happy.
One day he saw a quarryman approaching…
Investing for Motivation
Throughout the country and in many rural areas of Europe there still survives outside toilets, with draughty wooden doors, hard cold floors and only a single bulb or perhaps a candle for light. They are caught in a time warp, lone structures at the end of a moss covered path that exist for the purposes of nostalgia, practicality and perhaps even a lack of inertia. Some, of course exist on the basis of self interest and need, and it is one of these such places our story takes place.
A man is standing looking into the bowl when he catches a glimpse of a shiny and rare £2 coin lying at the bottom of the u bend. He stands there looking at it, thinking it could be mine when a voice appears to him and says “is it worth it ?”
The man considers this for a while, then swiftly puts his hand in his pocket and throws another £2 coin into the bowls that sinks down lands resting on the first.
“Now it’s worth it” he says.
The Kings Shirt
A long time ago when the world was split into many kingdoms, most were ruled by noble and wise lords who cared for their subjects and enjoyed a life of untold riches. They were able to have anything they wanted. One day in one such place, the King started to think about what he was missing in life and why he felt unhappy on more days than not. He was not content and decided what he needed was the shirt of a contented man. Surely, we are all the same on the inside he thought, “So if I shed some of these regal clothes and put on the shirt of the happiest man in the kingdom, finally I will be content too” he said.
A special party of court servants was immediately assembled. “Search the Kingdom and find the most contented and happy man” he said. “Bring me the shirt from his back.” With that, the servants mounted their horses and rode off.
The King waited. Days turned into weeks and the weeks began to mount up before finally the court servants came back. By this time, the king was very agitated and eager to shed his clothes and be a happy man at last. “Did you find a contented man ?” barked the King.
“Yes” came the reply.
“Well …” the King demanded impatiently, keen to start his new life, “…give me his shirt ?”
After a short pause, they replied, “he wasn’t wearing one.”
Three Great Leads
Two teenage boys go to confession. In the booth the first boy admits having sex with a girl but refuses to name her.
The priest asks, 'It wasn't Mary Jones, was it?'
The boy says, 'No, Father it wasn't.'
The priest asks, 'Was it Angela Brown?'
The boy replies, 'No Father, it wasn't.'
The priest asks, 'It wasn't Jane Carter by any chance?'
The boy says, 'No, Father it wasn't.'
The priest gives up and says, 'Well for penance say fifty Hail Mary’s and leave half your pocket money in the poor box.'
When the boy leaves, his friend asks him how it went.
The boy replies, 'Not bad, a £5 fine and three great leads.'
The Young Monk
A long time ago, there was a priest who used to visit the villages high up in the mountains about once every three months. The villages were remote with hard working farmers whose lives were governed by the stars and the passing of the seasons.
On one visit he met, a young boy whom had potential, and he spent time with him on each visit. When the boy was old enough, he arranged for him to be sent to the capital to study as a monk. The boy travelled for days upon tracks and dusty roads in order to reach the city. Once there, grateful for the opportunity he was given, he threw himself into his new life, studying hard and working diligently.
After several years had passed, the young monk sent a letter to the village telling them that he would come home in 12 months time to share with them what he had learned. So as not to let the village down, he prepared hard for his trip at every waking moment.
A year soon passed and the young monk began his trip through the mountains to his village, all the while thinking of the welcome he would get. After several days dusty and tiring trekking, he arrived at the village exactly as he had said, on the right day and at the right hour. He was surprised to find no one was to be seen. He searched through all the streets until he eventually saw a stable boy and asked him where all the villagers were. “They are in the fields helping with the big harvest” he replied, “except for me tending the horses.”
The young monk explained his situation to the stable lad and ask what he should do, “If I had been away from the stable for a long time and when I came back I saw just one horse there, I should still feed it,” said the boy.
With that, the young monk gave a long magnificent speech, full of pride and passion. When he was finished, he was eager to know how it had gone so he asked the stable lad “how was it?”
“Well,” said the boy,” If I had come back and found just one horse, I would feed it, but I wouldn’t give it all the food I had in one go”
Imagine Life
"Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air.
You name them - work, family, health, friends and spirit and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends and spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered.
They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.
(Brian Dyson, CEO of Coca Cola Enterprises)
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