Yesterday, I attended an all-day off-site strategic plan review meeting. Which meant another chance to take in a wave of business metaphors. In the first forty-five minutes alone, we were treated to military, fitness, and sailing metaphors designed to explain the current state of the business and what our future plans were. Some were apt, many were not.
But the one that really stood out was perhaps the least appropriate business metaphor I've ever heard. It was also the second time in two weeks that I caught it being employed, which somehow made it even more cringe worthy. While I understand the message that it attempts to convey, I just don't think that the admonition...
"Don't carry the wounded."
...really has a place in the corporate world, especially if you reflect on what it actually means. This is a business we're talking about here, not Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. Better to stick to "treadmills," "trade winds," and "marathons" and leave the grisly military metaphors behind.
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