Chapter 16

The Structural Mapping Engine (SME) Process

I really love your peaches, wanna shake your tree.

—Steve Miller, “The Joker”

The structural mapping engine (SME) process1 can help accomplish several things. Structural mapping is based upon the work of Dedre Gentner, most currently a professor in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University. Gentner’s structural mapping revolves around the idea that in an analogy or metaphor, one idea can be mapped onto another. This process was carried forward by Ken Forbus to develop the SME process. This process can identify appropriate pairs for your metaphor; point to operational principles, and from there, you can write your goals and outcomes so that they are consistent with the metaphor. Care should be taken when identifying appropriate pairs for your metaphor to assure that everyone is clear on the relationship between the target and the vehicle, and vice versa. SME uses a three-stage model local-to-global matching process to determine the maximum breadth of structural alignment between pairs of attributes. This offers the user the broadest number and gradient of pairings and their metaphorical relationships to draw on.

Stages of SME

The first stage involves the local matching stage. This is a symmetrical comparison activity in which attributes are defined and used to predict the potential matching pairs.2 Let’s look at the following metaphor. “The organization is a cruise liner” presents the target—the organization, and the vehicle—a cruise liner. Several attributes can be derived from the organization such as culture, politics, and strategy. An organization’s culture dictates how personnel do things on a daily basis. It is characterized by how personnel respond to various external threats. Politics also impacts the speed with which an organization is able to make decisions. Bureaucratic, hierarchical organizations tend to move much more slowly than flatter organizations. Most organizations have some sort of strategy that guides them into their future. The attributes of cruise liners would be their inability to react or turn quickly. They are large and don’t move fast. They have a set course, but they can veer off just by turning one degree from their intended track. The attributes of the organization and the cruise liner can be paired in the following ways, culture > reacts slowly, politics > moves slowly, or strategy > gets off track. They can be recombined until the all pairings are exhausted, culture > moves slowly, culture > gets off track, politics > reacts slowly, politics > gets off track, or strategy > reacts slowly, and strategy > moves slowly.

Stage 1

Stage two involves making sure structural consistency is enforced, which results in culture > reacts slowly, strategy > gets off track, politics > reacts slowly, and strategy > moves slowly as the most aligned structures.

In Stage three, inferences are established in the metaphor using structurally consistent pairings. What I mean by this is that the vehicle, a cruise liner, has attributes of reacting slowly, moving slowly, and getting off track. These attributes all point back to the target, which is the organization. They map or overlay themselves onto the organization and the associated attributes as shown in the previous chart. This mapping process conveys reacting slowly, moving slowly, and getting off track, to the target, which provides a more descriptive model to expand on. Taken in the broader sense, the organization reacts slowly when responding to its environment, often moves more slowly as it matures, and can get off track as it executes its strategy by growing into new markets, regions, and opportunities that were not intended as part of its strategic plan. Carrying this forward, the structurally consistent pairs point toward principles as demonstrated in the chart.

From this example, I’m sure you can see any number of ways to apply these attributes to be prescriptive rather than just descriptive and thereby create goals and objectives. The organization needs to be sensitive to its environment and changes that may take place in order to remain competitive. To live and grow, the organization must be prepared to change its culture, navigate the political climate, and execute their strategy aggressively. These can be converted into goals and objectives written with action verbs as in the following chart.

While there are a number of complex methods that are beyond our discussion here, the preceding process should be sufficient to arrive at workable metaphors and translate them ultimately into actionable goals and objectives.

Symmetry and Direction

The previous metaphor points forward and works well as in, “The organization is a cruise liner.” However, “A cruise liner is an organization,” is less likely to be acceptable because the cruise liner is a ship. No mention is made of the crew, which make up an organization. If it stated, “The crew of a cruise liner is an organization,” it would cease to be a metaphor but merely describing one type of organization. When the relationship points forward it is said to be directional. The attributes of the cruise liner, reacting slowly, moving slowly, and getting off course, point back to the organization and therefore, the relationship between the cruise liner and the organization is also asymmetrical. One domain is mapping its attributes onto the other, but not the other way around. The attributes of the cruise liner can be mapped onto the organization, but the attributes of the organization cannot be mapped onto the cruise liner.

Going back to the example of the record company, “The company is a tennis ball” works, but “the tennis ball is a company” does not. It is both directional and asymmetrical. This distinction is important when developing a metaphor. If the comparison is between two unlike yet equal things, the forward movement or propelling of one toward the other does not exist. This lack of movement potential does not serve the leader or the organization in so far as it does not increase, grow, or enhance either. Without this, the metaphor is merely descriptive and not prescriptive. Such a metaphor is only comparative in nature but not directional and asymmetrical. Without direction and asymmetry, it lacks transformative potential.

Organizational Transformation Potential

Transformative potential is important, particularly in the context of leadership and organizations. With regular change in the marketplace, leaders are constantly stretched to oversee more and more complex situations and environments. Organizations are continuously evolving, which requires them to change, adapt, test, grow, innovate, and conquer new markets. This constant stretching puts enormous pressure on the employees as they must also change, adapt, test, grow, innovate, and conquer their own biases, perspectives, and approaches to tasks and relationships.

The use of metaphors provides direction, propulsion, and motivation to help employees along, which allows the organization to evolve. This evolutionary process is one of growing without regard to size. An organization can grow by becoming smaller. This, however, is dependent on the metrics that the organization chooses to measure their evolutionary process. If it is revenue, then organizational capacity may be a predictor. If it is profit as a percentage of revenue, then a lean organization may have the advantage. This is up to the organization as they plot their course into the future. Regardless, however, leadership must affect this change through leading the organization on the right path, using effective strategies, and communicating these strategies in a manner that breathes life into the organization. Metaphors can be the vehicle to carry this message.

The greater the asymmetry of a metaphor, the greater is the transformative potential. However, this works only if structural alignment is maintained. “The organization is a cruise liner” works because it is structurally aligned. However, “The organization is a pencil” loses its structural alignment. “The organization is a fleet of cruise liners” works and creates added transformative potential by including numerous cruise liners in the metaphor. These could add more dimensions, which would permit more applications to the organization and its culture, politics, and strategy. Now let’s go back and see how the record company is coming along.

Learning Reinforcement Exercise

1.Which of the following is not included in the three stages of the structural mapping engine (SME)?

a. Local matching is derived

b. Structural consistency is enforced

c. Inferences are established

d. Credibility is determined

Answer is italicized

1.The three stages of the Structural Mapping Engine (SME) are:

a.Local matching is derived

b.Structural consistency is enforced

c.Inferences are established

d.Credibility is determined