Organizations of all types and sizes in our Culture have embraced and integrated a number of metaphors. These metaphors powerfully influence, if not powerfully direct, the organizational paths chosen. As entities, organizations came into their own during our Industrial Revolution and so it is not surprising that one of the initial organizational metaphors was the Mechanical Metaphor (even though we are no longer primarily an Industrial Nation the mechanical metaphor continues to influence and direct many organizations).
During WWI and WWII we integrated a ‘War Metaphor’ into our culture and many organizations followed suit. During the 1950s our culture fell deeply in love with sports and so we then integrated a ‘Sports Metaphor’ into our culture. During the following years we combined the War and Sports Metaphor so that today they are interchangeable; we use sports language and concepts to describe war and we use war language and concepts to describe sports. Beginning in the 1980s we integrated what has become our predominant cultural metaphor; this is the ‘Banking Metaphor.’
Again, organizations of all types and sizes have, in addition to the Mechanical Metaphor, also integrated the ‘War/Sports Metaphor’ and the ‘Banking Metaphor.’ These are ‘inorganic metaphors’ and the negative impact they have on human beings continues to multiply (the greatest negative impact is that they de-humanize we human beings). Fortunately there exists organic metaphors that nurture more than deplete we human beings (the inorganic metaphors tend to deplete more than nurture we human beings). I strive to help the leaders and the led embrace and integrate (that is, to live into and out of) organic metaphors with a commitment to ensure that the organic metaphor becomes ‘the primary’ metaphor.
Two organic metaphors can, at their best, serve well the human beings who are the organization (consider that organizations are individuals and relationships writ large). The ‘Community’ is one metaphor and the ‘Family’ is the other. I prefer a third organic metaphor, the ‘tree’ or more specifically the ‘Banyan Tree’ metaphor.
Organic metaphors involve growth and development. They involve ‘nurturance’ more than ‘depletion.’ They are committed to ‘healing’ – that is they are committed to the ‘healing of the wounds delivered and received’ that we humans inflict upon one another and they are committed to ‘making whole’ (another definition of ‘healing’) – that is, the ‘whole’ person is nurtured. Since the metaphor is an organic metaphor the organization itself is a living organism and thus it needs nurturance and healing as do the individuals and relationships that define the organization as a living organism.
During my next few postings (as of today I am not sure how many will emerge) I will be focusing on the ‘Tap Roots’ that feed, nurture and sustain over time the organization as a living organism. The living metaphor I have chosen is the ‘Banyan Tree’ for this tree contains many major tap roots. [NOTE: Tap Roots = the dominant roots that feed, nurture and sustain the other roots and the organic entity itself] I will be inviting us to consider the tap roots that feed, nurture and sustain the leader and the leader-led relationship (you might remember, gentle reader, that for me ‘Leadership’ is a by-product of the relationship between the leader and the led).
Searcher-Seeker 
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