SPeak Performance: Using the Power of Metaphors to Communicate Vision, Motivate People, and Lead Your Organization to Success

This book demonstrates how, through the proper use of metaphors, anyone can become a better leader, align his or her team with their values, and lead them to success. Metaphors can activate vision and mission statements, enliven goals and objectives, and literally align every aspect of an organization in the direction it needs to go.

In SPeak Performance, Jim Walz, Ph.D., shares his proprietary method of developing metaphors for use by any leader of people, whether the manager of a department or the CEO of an entire organization. Walz's Metaformation is a four-step process:

• 1. Metaframing: Using attributes to structure metaphors.
  2. Metamining: Identifying the elements of a metaphor. (Deconstruction)
  3. Metaforming: Combining these elements to build new metaphors. (Reconstruction & Innovation)
  4. Metaplying: Applying these new metaphors to transform the way we lead our organizations. (Application)

The knowledge gained from the principles in this book will help leaders develop stronger vision and mission statements that are action oriented. It provides a schematic to organize goals and objectives that are relevant and focused on accomplishing the leader's vision. Organizations are transformed in the way they do business and find the ability to compete in a global marketplace more effectively than ever before.