Evoking a new way of thinking.

      Key Vocabulary: Synecdoche

           Synecdoche  is  a  part  of  speech. A synecdoche is the use of a part to stand for a whole - e.g.  when  one  refers  to  a  car  as  "wheels"  or  implicitly  embodies  an  organization  by  the interactions with its representative.

           Synecdoche  has  become  a  managerial  tool  of which managers lack any awareness.   We use metaphors as synecdoche (relying on the mapping we  make  of  similarities  and  ignoring  the  more  complex  arena  of  dis-similarity  and  context dependence.)   Brands are perhaps our paradigmatic synecdoche as is the media's love of the sound bite and the Internet's love of the keyword.  To be known by a Twitter is synecdoche.  To be eliminated due to a six sigma evaluation is synecdoche.  To make use of a belief in the "bell curve"  or  a  "Gaussian  distribution"  in  decision  making  is  synecdoche.   So  too  is  labeling  of politicians  by  a  singular  position  they  hold.   So  too  was  the  simplistic  belief prior to the housing crisis in  always  rising housing prices.   Synecdoche is in desperate need of being exposed.   It is the hammer to the manager's love of nails.  While the manager's tool kit holds more than synecdoche, synecdoche holds to its pre-eminence with the very lack of awareness of its existence.