{"id":21277,"date":"2026-10-14T05:58:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T12:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/dialogic-containers-and-the-danger-of-metaphors\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T09:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:01:19","slug":"dialogic-containers-and-the-danger-of-metaphors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/dialogic-containers-and-the-danger-of-metaphors\/","title":{"rendered":"Dialogic containers and the danger of metaphors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Jackson takes apart three common metaphors that get folks off on the wrong foot when thinking about systems<\/a>: the elephant, the iceberg and the lever:<\/p>\n

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When I make the case for eradication of elephants, icebergs and leverage points from the discourse of systems thinking, I am often told that, while these metaphors are simplistic, they do offer beginners an easy route in. I take a contrary view \u2013 that it is cruel, disheartening and confusing for novices to be led in the wrong direction and then asked to retrace their steps. There are better ways of introducing systems thinking to beginners.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What other metaphors? For a start, anything that moves, is uncontrollable, is alive and is responsive to conditions. \u00a0Over the years have talked about jazz improvisation<\/a>, the real motion of rivers<\/a>, a whirlpool<\/a>, football<\/a>, weather systems<\/a>, and many others. useful metaphors need to be relevant to the context, and explain aspects what is trying to be understood – no map of the system can replicate the system, but certain metaphors can help to describe aspects of a system.<\/p>\n

I'm writing about dialogic containers these days. \u00a0They are tricky to describe, and in the same way that Mike asserts a sophisticated understanding of systems, it's important to find helpful metaphor for a dialogic container.<\/p>\n

As facilitators we are used to using the world "container" to describe something that we can sense, feel or even physically see. The term does not convey the nature of an actual thing, but if you ask people what they mean by container you find yourself in a metaphorical world. And also, it feels like a finger pointing at the moon<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dialogic containers are important to dialogic organizational development. In the Dialogic Organization Development<\/a> book there are several metaphors employed by several of my co-authors to describe containers. What I'm finding is that we commonly refer to containers in four distinct ways:<\/p>\n