A manager had a team whom he described as lacking initiative. He asked our facilitator to model how he worked with his team during a meeting, and so help him discover more effective ways of motivating them. The facilitator quickly identified difficulties in the communication process. When the manager asked questions the team tended to disengage and became silent. The system was then explored through metaphor. What was happening for the manager when asking a question and for the team when processing the question and developing their answers? For the team, metaphorically the manager would throw a boulder of a question into a millpond, and they would start to allow the waters to clear in order for an answer to emerge. However, before it had cleared the manager would drop in another, larger, more directive boulder causing more ripples. After a few of these the waters were so murky they could not see an answer so they disengaged. Using this metaphor, it was possible to identify that the team’s silence as they were thinking became increasingly uncomfortable for the manager whose 'grains' of ideas grew to boulders inside him until they could be released, such that they ‘burst out’ of him into the millpond. He resolved to write down his ideas while others were thinking so as not to disturb them and they found that talking through their thinking kept him involved and comfortable until their answers were clearly formulated and they could express their ideas at their own pace. As such a new and effective pattern of communication was developed through this increased understanding.