Explaining what is happening with Covid-19, getting people to follow directions, and reassuring listeners that things will eventually turn out all right is the challenge every corporate, local, state, and national leader faces today. Though you may never be in such serious straits with your clients, it is instructive to look at how often Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, who has gotten high praise for his daily briefings, has reached for metaphors to explain and underscore his messages as well as to see how others in different contexts have done the same.
[Describing What’s Happening]
3/5 “So you’re just seeing the evolution of this whole story. You’re seeing the narrative unfold, right. We’re all watching a movie,
we’re waiting to see what the next scene is, and as the movie unfolds you start to understand the story better and better.”
“Rush of infection rate, rush of people into the hospital system, hospital system capacity explodes, more people are in, but, more people are coming out. 75 percent of those people who have now gone into the hospital system are coming out of the hospital system…”
[The movie metaphor works on many levels: this is not a static event; it’s constantly moving forward; we will begin to see the plot threads coming together; it will end at some point, as all movies do.]
[Explaining Need to Change Hospital Systems]
3/29 “No hospital is an island. No hospital in this situation can exist unto themselves (sic). We really have to have a new mentality, a new culture of hospitals working with one another both within the public system as well as the private system and we need to think about the public system working with the private system in a way they never have before. There is an artificial wall almost between those two systems right now. That wall has to come down, that theory has to come down. This is going to be all hands on deck. This is everybody helping everyone else. One hospital gets overwhelmed, the other hospitals have to flex to help that hospital and vice versa.”
[Mixed metaphors, yes, but, nevertheless, the point is clearly made.]
[Praising the Troops & Rallying All to the Cause]
3/30 “The front-line battle is in the healthcare system, the front-line battle is going to be hospitals across the city, across the state, and across this nation. That is where this battle is fought. It’s that simple. You know exactly where it’s coming….
The soldiers in this fight are our health care professionals. It’s the doctors, it’s the nurses, it’s the people who are working in the hospitals, it’s the aides. They are the soldiers who are fighting this battle for us. You know the expression, “Save our troops”, quote/unquote. In this battle, the troops are healthcare professionals… “
“In this situation, there are no red states and there are no blue states and there are no red casualties and there are no blue casualties. It’s red, white, and blue. This virus doesn’t discriminate. It attacks everyone and it attacks everywhere. The President said, “This is a war.” I agree with that. This is a war. Then let’s act that way and let’s act that way now and let’s show a commonality and a mutuality and a unity that this country hasn’t seen in decades because the Lord knows we need it today more than ever before.”
[The war theme carried throughout, ending as we would expect with an inspiring call for unity to fight it.]
Bottom-line…
There is no topic, no subject, no situation that does not lend itself to metaphoric expression, whether for explanation, persuasion, or rallying to a cause. Think about your critical business conversations. What metaphors can you use when you reach out to your clients to explain, persuade, or encourage them to a course of action?*
Shelter, stay safe, be well.
Anne Miller
Make What You Say Pay! – with Metaphors
* Metaphors Are Limited Only by Your Imagination…
[Opposing Metaphors on how to deal with Covid-19]
- Arguing that lockdowns won’t stop the spread and that there is a huge economic and social cost to continuing with them, Joseph A. Ladapo, Associate Professor, UCLA, drives home his point, “We need a clearer picture of all that is at stake before those at the helm burn down the village to save it.”
- “If you ride in a gas-filled balloon and you patch 60 percent of the holes but allow 40 percent to remain, your balloon will come crashing down, killing you in the process. This is exactly what you are doing… in not mandating that all 50 states impose a stay at home edict…” Letter to the Editor.New York Times. 4/2/20
[How unprepared we were]
“This virus is our Pearl Harbor, a catastrophic failure.” Surgeon General Jerome Adams
[What it feels like]
“The anxiety of dealing with the isolation day after day after day. It’s like a bad ‘Groundhog Day’ movie.” Andrew Cuomo
[What spreading exponentially means and why slowing the rate of infection is so important]
“The virus is like a loan shark who charges 25 percent a day interest. We borrowed $1 (the first coronavirus to appear here) We then fiddled for 40 days. Now we owe $7500. If we wait three more weeks to pay, we’ll owe almost $1 million.” Bill Joy, co-founder, Sun Micro-systems.