On 13 Jan 98 at 21:58, DHurst1046 wrote:
> The consensus seems to be that sports analogies are attractive because
> they speak to our personal experience and that they can be used to
> illustrate many aspects of management and organizations.
I'm not sure that that is the consensus, since I have heard some very
strong dissent on the issue. One common complaint comes from a) women and
b) men who are not sports fans, and feel very much disenfranchised and
even offended by the ubiquitous use of sports analogies.
I happen to like sports analogies personally but stopped using them in
seminars, etc. The core of a metaphor, simile or analogy is that people
will be familiar with the compared to situation, and that is simply not
true for sports comparisons.
So, assuming that sports speaks to the personal experience of everyone
can, indeed become a major barrier to learning.
Robert Bacal, Inst.For Cooperative Communication, rbacal@escape.ca
Visit our Resource Centre for articles on mgmt.,training,communication, and defusing hostility
at http://www.escape.ca/~rbacal (204) 888-9290
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--"Robert Bacal" <rbacal@escape.ca>
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