The Untapped Power of Imagination in the Workplace

Abstract

Every life – and every organization – is mythic territory. I believe that breakthrough thinking cannot be taught; it can only be learned through experience. In order to create that learning experience we delve into myth, and archetypal psychology, the branch of psychology whose field of attention is image, images that spark the imagination and ignite the soul to find out what really works.

Every corporate story begins with an idea that becomes an expanded and shared vision. Before that vision is well shared, much less completely implemented, the organization must pass through a developmental process that is similar to all human development. Along the road to success, many organizations lose awareness of foundational stories that contain fundamental operating principles, flounder in direction, lose market share, and disempower their brain trust. A mission statement that remains on a wall has no substance. It informs the reader of what is claimed. For a mission statement to be meaningful, it must come from a working belief, a mythos.

In these pages I will use an archetype of transformation: the Hero’s Journey, initially described by mythologist Joseph Campbell (1968), as a working map, a tool for transformation in the corporate environment. Myths are not just told; they are felt as they resonate throughout the body as well as the heart and mind.

This is for the social architects, the collaborative chemists, and the inspirational dreamers who believe that they can indeed, change the world.