The power of analogies

Part 1

Back when I took (and later taught) standardized tests, I always loved the analogy section. You know—car is to gasoline like sailboat is to wind. Okay, they were never that easy, but for nostalgia’s sake, we’ll use that one.

Last week, I heard several remarkable speakers at the Qualtrics X4 event in Salt Lake City. This gathering of data scientists and engineers is like a TED conference for data nerds. (See what I did there?) In the morning, we listened to keynotes ranging from Malala Yousafzai and Martha Stewart to the CEOs of Delta, UPS, and the Society for Human Resource Management.

YouTube science sensation Mark Rober engaged us in a record-breaking science demo.

I will post the video of my presentation, Storytelling With Data, when it becomes available, but for today I want to share some of the well-crafted analogies we heard:

• Jill Kramer, CMO at Accenture, built her entire talk around the analogy of relationships—from the awkward “getting to know you stage” through “initial commitment” to “celebrating long-term anniversaries.”

• Brad Anderson, President of Products & Engineering at Qualtrics, drew a clear analogy between his prior job at Microsoft using Office 365 and how lost he felt on day one at Qualtrics when handed a Mac and a G Suite account.

• Eric Soelberg, VP of Customer Marketing & Analytics for L.L. Bean, used the apropos analogy of a hiking trail, complete with awesome imagery and a map, for his talk on Blazing a Trail for CX Innovation.

• Cheryl Grise, Head of Americas Industry @ EY, told the story of youngsters being handed a physical magazine who thought it was broken because it didn’t swipe like an iPad. She then asked us rhetorically how often we give our Gen Z teams magazines and wonder why they are not engaged.

These are but a few of the most memorable examples for me, but it appeared that nearly every inspiring speaker used at least one analogy, whether for their entire talk or just to make one vivid, memorable point. Analogies work particularly well, as John Pollack, author of Shortcut, notes, by conveying feelings and ideas, not just facts.

Analogies are essentially “compressed and spring-loaded stories.”
John Pollack

We’ll continue the discussion next week, including five strategies to develop your own analogies, in Part 2: So, how then do we best create analogies?

JD’s Recommendations: what I’m reading, hearing, and seeing:

• Reading: John Pollack’s Shortcut: How Analogies Reveal Connections, Spark Innovation, and Sell Our Greatest Ideas, is a great extension of today’s topic.

• Hearing: “The Emotional Toll of Being Laid Off is Real,” Radical Candor. Jason Rosoff interviews his podcast collaborators Amy Sandler, Kim Scott, and Brandi Neal about layoffs. The episode covers the experience from a few different perspectives—the most important being the impact on people who are laid off. The emotional and financial toll is real. Amy says, “Looking back on it, it was a huge transformational time that set my life up in a way that I really wanted. But it felt like absolute sh*t in the process.”

• Seeing: I’ve recently been mesmerized by the science & engineering antics of Mark Rober (another Qualtrics keynote pictured at the top), but his shortest video, The Truth About My Son, is pure gold for anyone who knows and loves somebody on the autism spectrum.

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As always, jds

P.S. I’m delighted to announce we have three opportunities to attend Realize the Result, a one-day workshop created by my husband Ken and me. Join us for an incredible event to help you deliver presentations for big results. We’re offering this in early April in SF, late April in KC, and late May in NYC. (Cities you know by their acronyms!)