The Hero’s Journey (Monomyth): The Essential Role of Storytelling in Leadership and Business

 The Hero’s Journey (Monomyth): The Essential Role of Storytelling in Leadership and Business

Summary: Is leadership bred or born? What if, for many, it is neither? What if a large subset of great leaders, influencers, and change-makers throughout human history shared a singular, highly learnable skill: the ability to tell powerful stories? Below I will explore Joseph Campbell’s story archetype of the “Hero’s Journey” or “Monomyth" through the lens of business and leadership. In the process, I will show this construct’s roots in history and neuroscience. I will then share a 10-step process on how to architect business stories that lead to legendary outcomes. 

(Read time - 10 minutes)

I tell stories for a living. I get paid to travel the world, have adventures, and write and speak about it. But it was not always so…

Eight years ago, I gave my first TEDx talk. The event became a life-changing turn for me.  Just 18 months later - and dozens of repeat performances for my clients - I quit my job as a senior business consultant and began a new career as a “peripatetic raconteur” (traveling storyteller i.e., keynote speaker). Since then, I have delivered that same talk to more than 150,000 people all over the world - from Brazil to Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka to UAE - including the royal family of Dubai. What I didn’t realize at the time was that this talk followed a pattern of narrative that is found over and over again in most of the great stories throughout all of recorded history. Furthermore, it is highly likely that this storytelling archetype actually evolved tens of thousands of years prior to the advent of written language and was passed down via the oral tradition.

This realization came a few months after my talk when my boss shared with me that my TEDx talk mapped perfectly to the “Hero’s Journey” or “Monomyth” as popularized by Joseph Campbell in his 1949 book “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.” I was intrigued. I researched. I was astounded at what I found. Over and over again, the great stories, poems, books, and movies all share a specific pattern. And, over the years since this discovery, I have made a conscious effort to use this narrative pattern for all my other talks to great success.  

I have become more and more convinced that there is a powerful secret to impactful leadership hiding in plain sight. I think there is strong evidence that storytelling, along with the noble and consistent qualities of honesty, integrity, confidence, courage, and empathy, might very well be one of the most important capacities of effective leaders. While sometimes distilled to the less tangible characteristics of charisma or communication or passion I have become convinced that structuring stories according to the millennia’s-old structure of the monomyth might very well be the most important leadership trait when it comes to influencing, selling, change, and impact.

What if you could, in your day-to-day interactions, as well as those center-stage opportunities, construct narratives that were so memorable, so impactful, that your audience not only remembered most of what was shared but were inspired to act on it? What if you could tap into a set of neural pathways that could improve your communications by an order of magnitude or more? I am happy to share with you that this is a learnable skill that is predicated on a “cognitive template” that has likely been around for almost 50,000 years, and that the recipe is actually quite simple. That is the aim of this post. 

First, a very brief neuroscience lesson. The brain is a complex instrument that is only recently being unraveled. However, what we have learned is that the mechanism by which memories are created and stored. The hippocampus, in the anterior cortex, is your memory-writer. It is what takes the data from short term memories and shunts it to long term memory. Think of it as creating a Polaroid in a sweeping motion about every 2 seconds. These Polaroids are about 80% visual but they also store data from the other 4 senses as well as emotions and other data. However, a couple of things: the process is energy-intensive (the brain is only 2% of your mass but is 20% of your caloric burn) and the brain is lazy… (or efficient depending on how you look at it). So, it doesn’t write down everything. If you have ever found yourself in the parking lot after your morning commute with no memory of how you got there – well that is the brain being efficient. It decided that there was nothing new to write down, so it didn’t bother. That said, on the other hand, there are certain stimuli and activities that trigger the brain to not only be sure to write down what happens, but to write down more information, and perhaps most importantly, to shuffle the stack of Polaroids to move these memories “at the top of the stack” -  more accessible and retrievable.

One of the most obvious triggers for memory creation is anything unique, new, risky, or, exciting. The brain always prioritizes memories in two main categories: “never do that again” (car accident, losing) or “always do that again” (first kiss, winning). However, thanks to the neural pathways set by the millennia of oral tradition, there is one more mechanism that repeatedly and predictably increases recall by 22X or more: sharing information in the form of a structured story.

Why is this? Well, let’s look at the timeline of behaviorally modern humans. While we have had complex verbal language for more than 50,000 years, we only evolved written language and the ability to share information posthumously starting about 5,000 years ago (see the two red circles in the diagram).

Source - Wait But Why by Tim Urban

So, for a vast majority of human history, we had to rely on the oral tradition to pass down information. And what is striking is that the very earliest written histories passed down from the oral tradition were consistently formulated in what came to be known, 4,000 years later, as the monomyth. The Epic of Gilgamesh, written about 4000 years ago, chronicles the hero’s journey of Gilgamesh, as passed down through the oral tradition at least 800 years old. The Illiad and The Odyssey were first documented in the 8th century BC – and also follow the monomyth and were passed via the oral tradition long before being captured in written language. As further evidence, some of these ancient legends pass down natural events like volcanic eruptions that had taken place 40,000+ years earlier.

And so it goes. Is it a stretch to conceive that the human brain evolved in a certain way to store stories that follow a set pattern? Modern research suggests that sharing facts and data in the form of a story are at least 22X more memorable than just sharing the facts and data alone. What if there is a story archetype that can increase recall well beyond even that? When it comes to business, what is the importance of being the most memorable, the highest recall, or the first call? Here’s just a few examples over the millennia that follow the pattern:

·       The Epic of Gilgamesh: 2000 BC

·       The Illiad, The Odyssey, Jason and the Golden Fleece: 8th century BC

·       The New Testament / life of Jesus Christ: first century AD

·       King Arthur: 5th century AD

·       Beowulf: 6th century AD

·       Arabian Nights: 8th century AD

·       William Wallace (Braveheart): 12th century AD

·       Don Quixote: 17th century AD

·       Moby Dick: 19th century AD

·       The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Matrix: 20th century AD

·       Harry Potter, Avatar, Mad Max: 21st Century AD

So, what is this magical structure repeated over the millennia that makes some information vastly more memorable and recallable than others? Here is a simplified structure (10 steps here vs. 17 steps) of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth or Hero’s Journey: 

1.     The Status Quo

2.     The Call to Adventure

3.     Refusal of the Call

4.     Meeting With a Mentor

5.     Crossing the Threshold

6.     Trials, Allies, and Enemies

7.     Approach

8.     The Abyss (Death/Rebirth)

9.     Reward

10.  The Return

Rather than plot the rather less well-known Epic of Gilgamesh or other ancient texts against this pattern, let’s examine four relatively recent movies that most will remember against this plot structure: Star Wars (1977), The Matrix (1999), The Lord of the Rings (2001 - 2003), and Harry Potter (2001 – 2011)

1. The Status Quo:

·       Harry Potter: living under the staircase

·       Luke Skywalker: farming the desert with his aunt and uncle

·       Thomas Anderson (Neo): working in a cubicle

·       Frodo Baggins: living in the Shire

2. The Call to Adventure:

•       Harry gets a mysterious letter from Hogwarts

•       Luke receives a message from R2D2

•       Neo receives a cryptic phone call

•       Frodo is visited by Gandalf

3. Refusal of the Call:

•       Harry Potter: “I’m not a real wizard”

•       Luke: refuses Obi Wan Kenobi, wants to stay home

•       Neo: throws the phone out the window and runs

•       Frodo: wants to stay in the Shire

4. Meeting with a Mentor:

•       Harry meets Hagrid and escapes

•       Luke goes with Kenobi to Alderaan

•       Neo meets Morpheus

•       Frodo meets Strider and Gandalf

5. Crossing the Threshold:

•       Harry leaves for Hogwarts via platform 9¾

•       Luke goes to Alderaan in the Millennium Falcon

•       Neo takes the red pill and enters the Matrix

•       Frodo leaves with the fellowship for Mt. Doom

6. Trials, Allies and Enemies:

•       Harry: Snape’s class, Hermione, Voldemort

•       Luke: trash compactor, Han/Leia, Darth Vader

•       Neo: matrix, Trinity/Morpheus, agent Smith

•       Frodo: swamps, Sam, Sauron

7. The Approach:

•       Harry: the trapdoor, the chess game

•       Luke: flies to the Death Star

•       Neo: re-enters the Matrix

•       Frodo: heads toward Mt. Doom

8. The Abyss (Death/Rebirth):

•       Harry: loses his friends, must Voldemort alone

•       Luke: wingman dies, loses ship visuals, must face the Death Star alone

•       Neo: Morpheus is dead, re-enters the Matrix, dies himself

•       Frodo: refuses to destroy ring, Gollum takes it and dies

9. The Reward:

•       Harry: defeats Voldemort – rewarded by Dumbledore

•       Luke: destroys Death Star – rewarded in royal ceremony

•       Neo: takes down the Matrix – rewarded with superpowers

•       Frodo: destroys the ring – rewarded at the White City

10. The Return:

•       Harry: returns to class but viewed suspiciously

•       Luke: can’t return home as it is destroyed

•       Neo: is now in the Matrix, no return

•       Frodo: returns home changed – later departs the Shire

In the visual arc we can see that the protagonists start in the “ordinary world” (but where something is wrong) in stages one through four, enter the extraordinary world during stages 5 through 9, and then re-enter the ordinary world - fundamentally changed -  in stage 10.

 OK, so we have the scaffolding – the structure by which the most impactful stories for tens of thousands of years have been carried forward. How, you might ask, is that important to you? I would argue that if your job is to be a leader, to enable change, have an impact, sell an idea or product, or influence others, then this structure needs to be at the core of how you structure key communications. The old adage is true: “facts tell, but stories sell.” I will share two stories to illuminate. First, one from business. Second (my next post) will be one of the stories I share in my talks.

A number of years ago I was called upon by the CEO of a Fortune 500 mobile telecom to lead a major strategic and cultural shift. The company was planning to re-position, change their value proposition, and in the process, impact the day-to-day processes of nearly every single one of their 9000 employees. It was, without question, a daunting undertaking.

As we conducted focus groups, panels, and other interactions with the mid-level leaders throughout the company that would actually have to carry out the changes, the clear question emerging was “why???!” “Why do we have to change our compensation structure?” “Why do we have to alter our business processes?”  “How am I going to explain this to my team?” Sitting underneath of this, was that natural skepticism – “is this just another flavor of the month?” “What if I just do nothing? Maybe it’ll just go away” or “Is this just another way for the company to scrape more money from our paychecks?”. Fair questions with, sadly, somewhat complex answers.

I knew we couldn’t adequately share the dozens of research panels and quantitative studies that were behind the seismic shift required to stay competitive in the industry. I knew that most employees within the company had only experienced long steady growth – more than 20 years of revenue and customer growth and that the very notion that things could change in short order would be potentially met with contempt. I knew that my opinion, the opinion of the CEO or the CFO – none of those would matter. No… the only hero in this narrative that might have the impact had to be the voice of the customer herself.

I needed a hero. I dug deep into the customer data. It was hard to parse through it all at first. In my company, and many others, the “tyranny of the anecdote” was often a huge problem – where something bad that had happened once or twice led to major efforts to fix a relatively minor issue that then precluded the ability to make more significant strategic shifts. But eventually, patterns emerged through observation.

I parsed through thousands of customer complaints. We fielded quantitative studies, focus groups and psycho-cultural studies. A picture began to emerge… and then, a story. A mythical story based on real quantitative and qualitative data. In the end, it became the story of “Bob Jensen” – who did not exist at all but was an amalgamation of many customer stories and represented the quantitative data as well. In the fall of 2010, Bob took on life in the form of a monomyth. A month before launch, the company brought in every single leader in the company – nearly 5000 people – in waves of 1000 people each day to the Hyatt Regency hotel in Rosemont, IL to launch the changes and hear his hero’s journey: 

1.     Status Quo: Bob was a customer - a regular guy… father, husband, 2 kids, a job as a contractor, no criminal record, living in Iowa

2.     Call to Adventure: Bob has a couple of houses being built a good distance out of town that he is called upon to inspect after a rainstorm

3.     Refusal of the Call: Bob doesn’t want to go as he has several important family activities that evening and is worried about being back in time to pick up his kids. His boss insists.

4.     Meeting with a Mentor: Bob talks to his wife on the mobile phone who encourages him to hurry but go – she can pick up the kids from their games if he’s delayed, “just call.”

5.     Crossing the Threshold: Bob drives 90 minutes out of town to inspect the two partially built houses that are saturated with the recent rains. He is anxious and moving swiftly.

6.     Trials, Enemies, and Allies: While inspecting the first house, Bob, in his haste drops his phone in a bucket of rainwater. It is dead. He can’t function without it. He thinks about the fact he’s been a loyal customer for 10+ years. He imagines his conversation to get a new phone with a likely unhelpful store associate. He prepares for battle and zooms back to town to get a new phone

7.     The Approach: Bob’s tension builds during the 90-minute drive back to the store. He arrives ready for battle. Once in the store, Bob talks to the store associate who explains that, since he is still in contract, he will have to pay full price for a new phone ($800) or pay a $750 Early Termination Fee (ETF) for each of the 3 phones on his account ($2250) if he wants to go get a free phone with a competitor. He is trapped.

8.     The Abyss: Bob’s frustration grows and after arguing about his loyalty, the thousands of dollars he has spent, at some point he loses his temper, winds up, and throws his phone directly at the employee. It explodes through the drywall behind the cash wrap, joining 2 other phones also launched (true story) at employees of that location in that week alone.

9.     The (punitive) Reward. 911 is called, Bob is handcuffed and taken to jail. While he was eventually released, his wife, boss, clients, and kids heard nothing from him all day and well into the evening. The kids are not picked up and are scared, the clients are confused, his boss is frustrated, his wife is furious, stress levels escalate all around.

10.  The Return: In the speech, at this point, I then shared our new value proposition – to remove contracts and early termination fees and replace them with a rewards program – replacing the “stick” in the “carrot and stick model of the universe” with a carrot. Instead of penalizing customers for leaving (stick) – we would instead reward them with the carrot of rewards for staying longer and/or paying more. I then re-shared a new ending to Bob’s mythical story but this time, he returns to the store, uses his hard-earned rewards to get a new phone for free (reward), completes his work for the day, picks his kids up from basketball, is home in time for dinner (return), and no one is arrested.

For all these launch sessions, I could have taken the straightforward route and shared all the customer research – and for sure it was all there (I once commissioned a quantitative study with the following question, “I would rather A) go to my wireless company or B) go to the dentist” The dentist won 52% of the votes.) I could have talked endlessly of declining customer satisfaction and NPS (Net Promotor Score), of consumer ratings even below that of cable TV and utilities, of declining growth and increasing consolidation and competition. Had I done so, I could have and would have become Charlie Brown’s mom to the room – an endless mumble of facts and data.

Instead, each day I told Bob’s monomyth – an amalgamation of all that customer data shared in the format of the hero’s journey - and it worked. We launched this huge change into the marketplace with no significant outages, no turnover, tons of energy and support, and in the process changed an entire industry. If you enjoy a phone now on a relatively affordable plan without a contract…? Well… you’re welcome. T-Mobile copied us and then Verizon and AT&T launched similar programs but ignored the reward element, instead of amortizing the phone costs alongside the monthly fees.

To conclude: here is the biggest piece of advice I can give you if you work for an enterprise. When it comes to leveraging influence, of attempting to institute change, people can and will argue with your opinions, they can and will argue with strategy, they can and will argue with policy, but it is nearly impossible to argue with properly structured customer research. If you can share statistically significant quantitative customer research with some legitimate qualitative color (videos, interviews, etc.) that explains it coherently – well, then no-one – from the CEO to the front line can really argue against it. The customer is the hero, and If you can shape the voice of the customer into a hero’s journey, well, you just might change an industry.  

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PS: If you are interested in having me come speak to your team or your company, below are the key outcomes and takeaways from this talk/workshop:

• A clear understanding of the 10 steps of the hero’s journey and vibrant examples of each

• Insight into the history of storytelling in the “oral tradition” and the neuroscience tying story-making to memory-making

• The correlation between great stories, recall, relationships, and influence

• Tools and tips to construct compelling, memorable, recallable stories to increase leadership capacity and impact

Reach out to us HERE to learn more or contact Monica my manager directly at monica@johnkcoyle.com

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