In any election year it is possible to find politicians indirectly describing government as a vending machine: put in some votes here and a gum ball comes out there.
Richard Weaver wrote years ago that ideas have consequences; so too do images.
If you think of your company or team as a machine, it is easy to begin to regard employees and co-workers as replaceable parts. Got a problem with a machine? A little oil there, some polishing there, and perhaps a new part or two and all will be fixed within hours or days at the most.
People and companies aren't that easy.
Some management writers have urged us to regard companies as farms and indeed that is more accurate. There are few instant solutions in agriculture. You have to plant at a certain time if you hope to harvest later. Crops, like employees, take time to grow, no matter how much "water" or attention they may be given.
Sports and war images are some of the other commonly used images in the workplace. I've attended some business meetings that had more sports metaphors than, I suspect, some locker rooms. Are they all inaccurate? Not at all, but they can be limiting, and whenever we get a picture in our mind's eye of a certain situation we can inadvertently either further or limit our effectiveness.
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