See a photo of Cindy, her bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.
Q&A with Cindy Atlee, Question 2:
Q: You completed Dr. Carol S. Pearson’s postgraduate program in Transformational Leadership, and I know archetypes are the centerpiece of her work. To what extent have you integrated archetypes into your branding work?
A: Yes, you could certainly say that archetypes are the centerpiece of my
work as well. After I finished my studies at Georgetown with Dr. Pearson back in 2003, I converted all my core processes to an archetypal framework. I also significantly changed how I thought about branding itself. Before discovering archetypes, I pretty much bought into conventional wisdom about branding (that it was most inherently about figuring out what a target audience wanted and shaping an image in response to that). Now, I use a totally different inside-out approach — I start with an organization’s internal culture, conduct a discovery process to find out what kinds of storylines shape group purpose and passion, and then see how that could align with target audience motivation.
Whenever possible, I use the Kenexa Cultural Insight Survey as a foundational tool in my work. It’s a typological tool Dr. Pearson developed that provides a quantitative snapshot of the storylines that live inside an organization, and shape its beliefs and its behaviors. People are sometimes surprised when I tell them that the presence of storylines can be measured, but they can. The survey includes questions about strengths and values (the same type of strengths and values that the characters in great stories use to accomplish their goals or fulfill their promises). It’s a unique and interesting way to measure group character, capacity and style.
It’s fair to say that my work is actually more about story typing than story telling. I help individuals and organizations discover which character in one of the great mythic stories they relate to most, and how their lives and businesses are shaped by that characters’ inherent story arc — the main quest, the central conflict, and the happy ending. This gives my clients a context for defining a brand identity, and also for understanding what kind of stories they should be telling to live out their brands.
I’m always kind of amazed by how helpful this framework is for my clients, and how well it works in defining what’s really going inside their organizations. It works especially well for people in organizations who are a little intimidated by the idea of actual storytelling. When I first started doing this work, I was surprised to find that a lot of people are pretty uncomfortable about telling stories themselves. Even though most of what they talk about to friends and colleagues turns out to be stories, they can feel really put on the spot when asked to share a story about their organizations. Often, they’re not even sure where to begin. Knowing what their story type is offers a context that can really stimulate their thinking and engagement around story itself.
[Image is from this part of Cindy’s The Storybranding group site.]