Mythos of a Business
Every business is on some form of quest. At its most basic level, the quest of a company is to bring some product or service to the market to resolve their customers’ challenges. To sustain and complete this quest involves many components, such as development, production, marketing, employees, funds, assets, etc. In most cases, this quest evolves over time. For many companies, their quest is their mission statement, which includes what they bring to the world and how they go about it. However, the concept of the quest can be much more personal, generating a deeper level of resolve, commitment, and creativity from the team and how customers respond.
Now, more so than ever, humanity is facing some of its biggest challenges and transformations. To collectively succeed and allow this world to continue to thrive for generations to come, organizations of all sorts must begin to think beyond the landscape of just doing business for profit. Profit has been a nearly all-consuming mythos for most businesses, driving development and employee participation. While earning financial stability and growth motivates to an extent, it generally does not fulfill the deep inherent desires of the human spirit.
Humans require basic survival needs, such as safety, to be met, yet we crave something deeper. At our core, we all desire to be of value, connection, joy, growth, and purpose. This is where Mythos comes in. Since ancient times, individual cultures created their local mythology of gods and goddesses, mystical creatures, epic tales of heroism, love, triumph, defeat, and more woven together within the tapestry of the local ecosystem. This mythos bound the culture together in a vision of the individual and the whole. Each person could connect and participate within this mythos in both spiritual practices (i.e. rituals, ceremonies, prayers), practices in family and relationships, and work. The mythos provided an interconnected, holistic framework that aligned all areas of life. The mythic figures (gods, goddesses, heroes, magical beings, etc.) provided archetypal examples, lessons, and patterns that each individual could explore, learn and play with.
Building a company mythos creates a new overarching framework for the company. It allows for a fun, exciting, and unfolding story to enliven and energize the work experience. It moves the mental idea of a mission and work, into an embodied experience. This encourages each member to engage in a deeper, more meaningful way while exploring their own gifts and capabilities.
Company Culture vs. Mythos
Many companies work to develop their company culture, a sense of connection and empowerment within the workplace. However, every great culture throughout history had a mythos that guided the culture. A macrocosm, the mythic, to the microcosm, daily life. A cosmic story that guided the daily story.
Company Mythos
Humanity has been using mythical stories to empower, entertain, align, and guide us for countless ages. They serve as a contextual framework to create culture and community. Mythology creates a higher order of potential beyond the mundane that can inspire our actions in the physical mechanisms of life. It allows us to bring something epic, beautiful, and beyond us into our day-to-day activities. This creates meaning, presence, gratitude, curiosity, and play in life’s activities, such as work, family, health, etc.
Developing a company mythos is a creative process the same as creating an epic story. It requires the integration of characters (the team), the quest, achievements, trials, the environment, and the world at large.
Is making mythology a religion?
A mythology is a story of the people, the places, the experiences. It is a way to personify influences, concepts, forces, and ideas into something more concrete that an individual can relate to. Humans love stories, movies, and books. We identify in some way with the characters and their journeys as they reflect ours and also give us inspiration for our journey. Their epic tale might be beyond ours (i.e off in space like Star Wars, or in a land of magic such as Lord of the Rings). Creating a mythos is the creation of your own epic story using the elements of your business. It does not require or seek belief, simply a playful exploration of the story.
How do you create your Company Mythos?
A company mythos can be a simple one-page outline or it can become an entire trilogy! It should be simple and engaging enough for anyone joining to be able to grasp it and find their way into it. Like any good mythology, it is alive and will evolve over time as circumstances change. Below is a list of common elements found in any good mythos:
⭐Origins
🧙♀️Characters
⚔Challenges
🛣Quests
💎Treasures
💡Wisdom & Values
🌀Outcomes
✳Symbols
🔥Rites of Passage, Rituals that reconnect us.
🐲Evolution
During an in-depth creative inner journey process I take my business clients through we create all the aspects of this mythos. It’s a unique blend of what the company has been, is now, and aims to be, and the implementation of these archetypal frameworks to create and implement the company mythos.
Application
The Company Mythos is meant to inspire, relay, and help a company grow. This process can be a simple reference point to look back to; however, to maximize its potential, the mythos becomes woven into the daily experience. Core application areas I then take clients through as to implement it into the business:
- Renaming conventions
- Mythic Meetings
- Treasures
- Avatar (Character) Embodiment
- Symbols/Iconography
- Questify Goals, Tasks, & Roles
- Become Legends
How does this benefit your company?
The potential here go deep into the soul of your business, yet here’s what you can expect:
- More fun within the work, which improves output
- More engagement
- More creativity by the individual and the output of the team itself
- Deep personal connection in customer relationships, instilling longer-term customer retention and referral. Your mythos become a part of and inspire your customer/client’s personal mythos.
- More clarity by the team as to where and what the company is doing
- Deeper team synergy. Everyone knows their part in the mythos and is able to better interconnect with the other crucial components of the mythos.
- More Integrity, individually and as a whole
- Individuals are more personally empowered to implement their own unique gifts, traits, and personality.
- More endurance and resilience through challenges
Ready to mythify your business?
Reach out to Aaron (aka the Elven Wizard).
He’s available for private consulting to work with you and your team to develop your company Mythos!
Schedule a Clarity Call with Aaron to learn more!
