t may be true that we really think outside of the narratives we have in our heads, and the movement from one story of reality to another is perhaps bridged by the use of metaphor – a useful book, edited by Stephen Cummings and David Wilson, called Images of Strategy, provide a number of ways of how managers and strategists seek to embrace the sheer complexity and uncertainty of strategizing through metaphor and visualisation. Perhaps metaphors work through a symbolic representation – if I say ‘tree’, you have an image of a tree in your mind, if I say tree roots this is more difficult as we do not typically see the root system within the Earth. Taken from different perspectives we may consider organisations to be that which is visible e.g. a hospital A&E, however the staff from cleaners to laboratory technicians, who are integral to the function of the organisation may be hidden… like the root system of a tree. In other words, one element of an organisation cannot function without the other. So why do we reward people so disparately?

Reward in the sense of traditional rewards such as pay, but also access or contribution towards the future direction of strategy.