OA Discovery
Unfolding and unleashing power of Organizational Archetypes for the Business Heads and Sr. Management
Lets first understand what is an Archetype. An archetype (pronounced /ˈɑrkɪtaɪp/) is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype after which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all. In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior.
In the analysis of personality, the term archetype is often broadly used to refer to
- a stereotype—personality type observed multiple times, especially an oversimplification of such a type; or
- an epitome—personality type exemplified, especially the “greatest” such example.
- a literary term to express details.
An organizational archetype is a patterned organization behavior which is a sum total of all actions and perception held by each one in organization. More like how each employee holds the organization in his/her minds eye. There are some images which are “cultish”. By cultish I mean, they dominate almost everyone in the organization. And this in turn decides an organization’s potential to become a learning organization or ending up like a big machine where employees feel like an insignificant cog in a giant wheel.
Why it is important for medium and large organization to discover their Organization Archetypes?
There are two kinds of Organizational Archetypes. One are enabling and second are restricting. It is important to discover, understand & skillfully create an enabling Archetype. Because at times, many organizations are not able to move beyond a certain threshold and transcend the power of some restrictive archetype. In due course of time, either they go off track or die or their growth gets stunted, or they become more like a machine where people are working only with their bodies and not their hearts and minds.
This is a subtle process which is happening in each organization. If left unchecked it takes its toll inspite of best intentions and efforts of everyone concerned. This also holds keys to the resilience of organization. Only people at the Top can see this process unfolding. Mostly they feel helpless inspite of recognition as none of the quick fixes or solutions work here. What is needed is an innovative ways of shaping and harnessing power of Enabling Archetypes.
There are two kinds of Archetypes we have classified followed by 4 to 6 subsets of each archetype.
What can our unique Archetype Discovery process do for you.?
Our process can enable you to first discover this Archetype. Each Archetype has a potential power to create and destroy. By careful understanding of these subtle forces you can harness the power to create results that could be exponential in nature.
So far we have worked on these as a part of our internal research and understanding. This understanding is many a times the cause of our innovative solutions which have dramatic results. Now we wish to share the process with key organization leaders so that they can use these potent forces to drive organization meaningfully.
It requires different maturity and understanding to use this powerful force and it also means it needs Business Leaders with foresight and ability to see beyond obvious. Ability to look beyond the quarter to quarter race of survival and avoiding being beaten…to looking at what can make a difference in the long and short term to ensure sustained growth over a long time…
