An unambiguous and enduring principle pervades many entrepreneurial firms, start-up firms, and firms where founders leave a deep imprint. It’s called mythopoetic leadership. While having roots in myth, storytelling, and the teachings of Joseph Campbell, you’ll know it when you see it. In an increasingly systematized, financially-driven world of business, this type of leadership can inspire fellow employees and managers to achieve great things personally and professionally. In “Creating Cultures Through Mythopoetic Leadership” Organizational Behavior Professor John Slocum of SMU Cox and co-author Chip Jarnagin reveal answers to age-old questions about how to inspire others and keep the embers of values burning within an organization.

Companies spend untold millions trying to understand and change their culture. In the end, culture, if not heeded, can doom mergers: 90% of acquisitions don’t live up to their expectations due commonly to culture clashes. Slocum relayed, “Culture is the glue that makes the implementation of strategy work. Firm’s are overly focused on financials rather than determining whether a strategy will work given a particular corporate culture.” Lack of understanding culture can wreck careers—Carly Fiorina hit the wall of culture at HP. Today’s financial performance model is creating an environment where a CEOs average tenure is 3.8 years. According to Slocum, “Creating an enduring culture of this type requires time to do it right or in a way that makes a difference.”

The Mythopoetic Organizational Life
Mythopoetic leadership is a framework for developing robust corporate cultures based on myths. It is grounded in the work of Joseph Campbell, the renowned cultural anthropologist. Through myths and archetypes, people become capable of experiencing community.

Campbell’s observations on culture and myth provide insights to the organizational dynamics within the business world today. Myths help people make sense out of chaos and interpret new experiences. The language of myth helps people make sense out of their organizational life. Myths serve in both reflecting and directing the human psyche. The sociological function of myth, which validates and supports a certain social order, is most central to this research. Campbell wrote:

“The social function of mythology and the rites by which it is rendered are to establish in every member of the group concerned a ‘system of sentiments’ that can be depended upon to link him spontaneously to its ends.”

While myths support the social order, connectedness, and legitimacy of a group’s social structure, they also provide guide posts as to how to respond to an experience within a group context.  Rituals serve as an enactment of myth, and rites and ceremonies reinforce the mythology of the group. Certain companies, Mary Kay being one, are very good about incorporating rite and ceremony into their corporate story. Mary Kay is renowned for elaborate reward ceremonies, signaling what the company expects and the aspirational story of what salespeople might achieve.

According to Campbell, there is an inborn, fundamental need within the human psyche for the catharsis and transcendence provided by taking part in these transformative myths:

"It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those other constant human fantasies that tend to tie it back."

Building the Myth
Many managers talk culture but have little idea of how to shape it. To build a strong corporate culture, an organization must develop a frame of reference it can use to create a viable social identity. A mythopoetic leader is one who proactively develops his/her firm’s mythology to create the culture of the firm, i.e., to shape the “set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices” characterizing the organization. This social identification process defines and shapes the social reality for the firm’s employees. “Managers need to be able to use myth for their followers to identify with and thus frame their own and others’ thinking,” Jarnagin added.

The mission and the values of the firm—the underpinnings of the firm’s business strategy—are the anchors for company myths. They build a clear vision of “who we are and what we do,” which defines the character of the firm and bonds employees with its goals. Executive communications and actions need to integrate and flow from these goals, which guide employee actions. The firm’s mission statement and values essentially form the organization’s cultural DNA, which must be replicated throughout the organization through myths, rites, and systems.

A mythopoetic mission statement also aids in avoiding the problems caused by hero worship. A firm with an endogenous culture manifested by loyalty to its mission rather than its founder stands to outlive the founder such as in EDS, JCPenney, Johnson & Johnson. As long as the founder’s successors maintain the same emphasis on the firm’s mythopoetic mission and values, it will not suffer a discontinuity when he departs. Slocum and Jarnagin mention that a firm needs to have a very thoughtful succession plan in place to continue the organic evolution of the culture.

A mythopoetic value set establishes the rest of a company’s social identity. The values in this set are based on universal ideals that set explicit behavioral guidelines. These values first describe how the firm fits into its industry and society in general. And second, they describe how the employees fit into the firm. These universally-recognized values will allow every employee of the firm to express what they consider to be the best within themselves. For firms operating in a foreign culture, a firm will be universally rejected within a society if it does not reflect the mores of the culture in which it is embedded.

Top management must articulate and reinforce through words and actions the firm’s mission and values. This includes establishing systems that support them. Myths tap into the psyche; they can harness the human spirit and give inspiration and direction for the workforce. In so doing, the management is forging the collective unconscious – the Zeitgeist – of the firm. Management must live the values or they will ring hollow. Cultural formation cannot be delegated. Jack Welch said that he spent more than 60 percent of his time on people and cultural issues.

Toward a Better Culture
While many grocery chains have been slashing prices to compete with Wal-Mart and Target, Whole Foods has not. In fact, it has one of the highest profit margins per square foot in the industry. John Mackey, the founder and CEO, believes that his goal was to create an organization based on love instead of fear and describes Whole Foods as a community working together to create value for other people. At Whole Foods, the basic unit isn’t the store, but small teams that manage departments, such as fresh produce, seafood, pastas, etc. Managers consult the teams on all store-level decisions and grant them decision-making autonomy, a rarity in the retailing industry. Teams decide what to stock and whom to hire. Bonuses are paid to teams, not to individuals, and team members have access to detailed financial data, including every worker’s compensation.

Mackey believes that huge salary differentials are detrimental to the ethos of the community; Whole Foods has set a salary cap that limits any executive’s compensation to 19 times the company average. A disproportionate emphasis on monetary rewards leads managers to discount the power of volunteerism and self-management. Therefore, Whole Foods differentiates itself by reinforcing its mission statement through  organizational  design and its employees’ reward system. Mackey and his top management team have developed a culture that blends libertarian politics, a commitment to selling healthy foods and ensuring compassionate treatment of animals, a willingness to share financial information and knowledge, and a desire for growth.

Storytelling’s Value
Throughout history, leaders have relied on storytelling to inspire followers. Listeners put themselves into a story by experiencing its emotional content. CEOs and others tell stories to illustrate their points, convey the corporate myth, celebrate acts of heroism, and retell classic epics that have confronted their organization. When people tell stories, they contribute to the sensemaking process because their interpretation of the myth creates reality for employees.  Storytelling is intrinsic to developing corporate mythology.

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, myths exponentially increase the power of the firm’s communications. They convey an understanding that is logical, intuitive, and emotional. This holds true for stories told both within and outside of the firm. For example, both Starbucks’ and Whole Foods’ mythologies are interwoven into their respective brand identities. The CEO should further reinforce the firm’s mission and values by establishing rituals that reflect the firm’s myths. The rituals used at Mary Kay provide a good example of this.

By implementing this leadership framework within a firm, a self-replicating culture is created that generates fabled stories of heroic acts by employees. For example, the story of the beach attendant at the Ritz-Carlton hotel who went beyond the call of duty is firmly entrenched in that firm’s folklore. As these stories get repeated and become well known, they reinforce the cultural fabric of the firm and further set the standards for employee behavior. Implementing the mythopoetic leadership framework depends upon the industry in which a firm competes, the firm’s business model, the values of its founders/managers, and the society in which it exists.

Both the Mayo Clinic and Toyota have attained and maintained mythopoetic leadership cultures. Founded in 1910, the Mayo Clinic, has stayed true to its founders’ mission of “developing medicine as a cooperative science.” The Clinic has identified competencies over time which pervades their hiring practices and complements their mission and values. Their results and reputation in patient care are a testament to their culture and approach. The Toyota Way, instilled by founder Kiichiro Toyoda, gives a higher purpose to all aspects of the firm’s life—as manufacturer, economic engine, and business partner. Continuous improvement  and respect for others perpetuate their culture’s mythology. These attained firms endure and perform largely because of an evolved culture.

The Mythopoetic Leader in Action
The authors identify seven behaviors that senior executives should heed to bring out the best in followers and for sustained high performance.
 
1) Employees must believe that they have an opportunity to make a difference.

2) A firm’s leaders must define the values that reinforce the firm’s mission and business plan.

3) Leaders must use storytelling and actions grounded in their firm’s mission and values to communicate with their employees and create their firm’s mythology.

4) Like the Mayo Clinic, leaders need to create a living book that records the stories employees tell. The living book is needed to breathe life into the firm’s mission statement and values.

5) Leaders need to create rituals that reinforce the firm’s mission and values.

6) Screen new hires for those who fit into the firm’s mission and values and have installation rituals to acculturate them. For example, CEO Art Levinson of Genentech screens out job applicants who ask too many questions about titles and benefits because he wants only people who are passionate about making drugs that fight cancer.

7) As one of the firm’s heroic values, leaders need to provide a human touch. At the end of the day, companies are driven by values and people.

“Creating Cultures Through Mythopoetic Leadership” is forthcoming in Organizational Dynamics.

Summary written by Jennifer Warren.