A repeated metaphor can become a limit on what a community can imagine.

A metaphor that gets repeated stops being a comparison and becomes the frame everyone thinks inside. Once an organisation is a machine, or a discussion is a battle, certain moves become obvious and others become unthinkable, and nobody notices that the range of options was set by a figure of speech.

Listen for the recurring metaphor in a group you belong to. Then deliberately try another one and see what becomes possible. If the shared language treats something as a fight, ask what it would look like as a repair, and watch how differently people talk.