How many of you still love fables? Panchatantra, Jataka…?
My memory dates to my childhood vacation and this peculiar book called “Ukrainian Folktales” that lay over our neatly arranged open shelf. This book has always intrigued and haunted me. Why? Because it was huge, it had weird pictures: a sun with a mouth, horses with a smile, and a sheep with a treacherous intention, a sheep? Yes, a sheep
Every story was short, had more animals than humans; many times, four-legged animals walked like two-legged ones, thought and acted like one. Allegory is something very much relatable to this particular book. Allegory is a narrative; don’t ask me what the difference between a narrative and a story is, it has been interchangeably used by the researchers, though they give different operational definitions. But, but, but an allegory is not just a narrative; it will have enigmatic characters, events and places that may have sarcastic or realistic hidden meanings. Most of the time, these allegories become interesting when writers personify non-human objects, i.e., when writers provide human elements to non-human objects.
Remember “The Wilson” from the Cast Away movie? A small heads up: Chuck (Our own Tom Hanks), a FedEx employee, is stranded on a deserted island as the cargo plane crashed -oh, obviously, the island has lots and lots of coconuts and fruits. Still, he becomes lonely and therefore personifies a volleyball by giving it a name, Wilson. Wilson becomes his non-human but a human-like companion thereon. You may philosophically suggest that we should not have emotional connections with objects but rather seek human connections, but then, under certain situations, we all become Chuck, right? So, let’s not always judge ‘Chuck’s.
So, this is how personification in allegories works. Allegories work wonderfully well, especially when we attach a hidden context of a specific event/person/place. I cannot be writing allegories without mentioning the book, “Animal Farm.” Written by George Orwell, a great social critic, this novel tells a satirical tale of how animals on a farm started to revolt against their human owners to achieve an equal and free society. To liberate from the clutches of human power, the animals would even form seven commandments – just giving you one commandment here: “All animals are equal.”
But then, quickly through the character of a pig named Napolean —yes, you heard it right, the name is Napolean!— George Orwell brings in how the pig becomes dominant among the farm animals, takes privileges, and becomes political and narcissistic. The seven commandments take different shapes; the above-mentioned commandment becomes something like this: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal!
It is a great, funny tale; but why did this childlike fable become so famous among the literate adults? Because it was not just a fable, it was an allegory, a political satire; you like it or hate it; the story had a hidden context— it critiques the 1917 Russian revolution and Stalinism through the plot, climax and characters. Through these simple, non-human imaginative characters and world, George tells us how easily social justice and freedom of thought, action and speech can be curbed by the same leaders who promised their fellowmen social justice and liberation.
I have a long way to go and understand Stalinism. However, this allegorical tale helped me shift my perspective from a one-sided optimistic view to a neutral holistic perspective.
I can almost hear that invisible voice — alright, but how can we use allegories at workplaces, for business?
I have a very simple answer. When these allegories are so valuable to constructing society and deconstructing calcified thoughts, then they must be valuable for organisations too. I don’t separate society and organisations as mutually exclusive entities. Though the application of allegories at the workplace is infinite, I can give you a few pointers up here:
As a leader or a colleague, you must have felt that critical feedback is required for a particular peer or a team, but we have to understand that our brains are wired in such a way that we selectively absorb feedback; we take the good ones, may take a few critical pointers when they come along with the good ones, but may not be appreciative if we are bombarded only with critical feedback. This is where you can use allegories to help individuals assess their own hassles at a distance. The characters and the plot of the allegories may help individuals to have emotional distance at the same time, help them understand the problem.
Sometimes, cultural sensitivity and inclusion remain paradoxical; organisations struggle to position their brands as inclusive entities when consumers critique the cultural ignorance of the organisations. Allegories, in these instances, may broaden the understanding of these issues from a psychologically distant but socially closer lens. This way, brands and consumers can come together and work out the differences. The beauty of allegories is that they keep you engaged and make you a devil’s advocate. Allegories therefore can serve as great mediating agents between ideologically contrasting entities (e.g., cross-cultural teams and politically contrasting stakeholders), can serve as mirroring agents that reflect both beauty and bruises of the face and the soul, can serve as transforming agents for resisting employees and leaders, and can act as revolting agents to address psychological and social issues prevailing in and around workplaces.
Without even making a conscious effort, your rigid philosophies may take the shape of the water. I am a big fan of Bruce Lee, therefore, his dialogues too: “Be water, my friend!”
If I am putting something up here as a suggestion, I should have tried and used it for my own profession. Did I? Yes, absolutely.
Usually, I, just like any other professor, disturb my students’ worldly busy routine by asking them to submit reflections based on classroom discussions and their relevant personal experiences. Last year, at the end of the course, a dear student demanded that I should also write a reflection based on the classroom discussions.
So, I wrote. I wrote an allegorical reflection, and I liked it, partly because I wrote it but also because it helped students and me laugh, think and connect. It has become memorabilia littered with stock meanings and concealed contexts!
A few allegorical names given for various sections in the previous years:
#A forced arranged marriage! And #Love marriage (27 Sections A and B)
#Madagascar and #‘A’ team (26 Sections G and H)
#The enlightening blip tunnel and #Asymmetrical love (28 Sections G and H)
#Vicious Cherry Blossom (thanks to LJ Shen!) and #9 o’clock Lavender ( 28 Sections A and B)
and many more to come in the upcoming years, I guess.
Just a sneak peek at a few allegorical reflections that I had written for different sections and batches. Since allegories generally have various layers of hidden context, students belonging to specific sections and generic readers may have different interpretations, but I hope both will enjoy reading them.
Disclaimer: All Opinions on the post are personal.
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