Archetype extraction

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List of methods / Narrative methods

Archetype Extraction is the most common application of the method Social Construction of Emergent Properties. Archetype Extraction is a method of articulating and visualising common cultural understandings. It is an activity commonly run in parallel, or as part of a larger project. Specifically, Archetype Extraction helps to identify these shared views and re-create them in the form of Archetypal characters with the aid of an on-site cartoonist. The activity results in a set of Archetypes unique to the context of the participants. These Archetypes can then be used in various initiatives such as branding, communications or strategy. Archetypes that are extracted from the anecdotes told naturally in a community resonate: they have bite. Archetypes have a long and honourable tradition in story telling. The Greek and Norse Gods are all archetypes: they represent extreme aspects of human behaviour and stories about them collectively allow humans to reflect on their own condition.

Typical Uses

  • Aid in conflict resolution between different groups with opposing views
  • An effective way to induct new recruits into a community, team or organisation
  • Sensitise team for boundary transitions, to improve anticipatory awareness – tools which alert us to changing circumstances in our environment and organisations
  • Organising training materials around tacit knowledge and skills
  • An alternative approach to understanding customers and their needs (product design, user requirements)
  • To address unconscious bias or unspoken differences in assumptions/worldview

Preparation

Collect anecdotes from people through Anecdote Circles or other ways, pre-workshop or as the first stage of the workshop. Ideally all of those involved in the sharing of the narratives should be present in this Archetype Extraction workshop.

Things You'll Need

  • A collection of anecdotes
  • Per participant: hexie pads (at least 4 different colours) and a marker
  • A large surface (table or wall) where hexies can be clustered, and space for participants to move around

Workflow

Task Comment
FIRST STAGE: In a workshop environment, a representative sample of the target group is brought together. They take some time to familiarize themselves with the collected narratives, and are then split randomly into several sub-groups by the facilitator. If narratives have not yet been collected, now is the time to run anecdote circles to collect them. The facilitator should work out in advance how to maximize the diversity amongst the various sub-groups.

A recommended minimum number of participants would be 8, while a maximum would depend on the facilitator’s ability. Time Estimate: 2 hours (if anecdote circles need to be run first). 30 minutes if not

Each participant should be provided with a hexie pad and a marker.

Every participant is now asked to identify all the characters that they see in the narratives. Each character identified by a participant is to be:

  • Written as an adjective-noun combination (ie “bumbling goalkeeper”)
  • Placed as one item per piece of hexie
  • Have all the hexies placed on a surface (usually a wall, large whiteboard or a table).
 Ask participants to randomly mix their hexies on the surface. During this process of identification of characters, participants work individually within their sub-groups and do not see the results of the other sub-groups.

Time Estimate: 30 minutes

Have participants group all the hexies into clusters on a like-for-like basis (ie similar characters should be clustered together). Ensure that there are no less than 6 or more than 10 clusters.

Give participants a few more minutes if necessary, to ensure that the number of clusters are in the above range. Time Estimate: 30 minutes.

When the clusters of hexies have been finalized, have participants agree on a name that would be suitable for each cluster. As a facilitator, you may wish to suggest that an “adjective-noun” combination be used for the cluster names.

Time Estimate: 10-15 minutes. Allow a 10-15 minute bio break in between stages.

SECOND STAGE: Studying the clusters which have been created and named in the first part of the exercise, each participant now works to identify the positive and negative attributes of each cluster.

Each attribute is an adjective (at least one word, up to four or five is fine) and is written on a single hexie. This hexie should then be placed around its corresponding existing cluster. Each cluster should have a balance of positive and negative attributes.

If there had been sub-groups earlier, it is up to the facilitator to decide whether to mix the sub-groups or use the same sub-groups.

For a cluster of character items, the facilitator asks the participants to identify: “What would the character’s best friend say about this character?” and “What would the character’s worst enemy say about this character?” Facilitator needs to emphasize that digital photos can be taken at this point so that participants may be able to track back, if they want to. Time Estimate: 60 minutes

Now, remove the titles and original items from each cluster and place the removed items in separate stacks away from the board.

There will now only be the attributes left. Participants will completely randomize the attributes.

The original items are kept in separate stacks, so that the group may track the evolution of items toward the final output.

Time Estimate: 30 minutes

Have participants form clusters with the hexies again.

This time, each cluster should have a balance of positive and negative attributes.

Facilitator to ensure again that there are no less than 6, or more than 10, clusters of hexies.

Time Estimate: 30 minutes

Once again, have participants give each cluster a name. Once again, facilitator to suggest that an “adjective-noun” combination may be most effective.

Time Estimate: 10-15 minutes

CARTOONIST : Now, the cartoonist will start drawing visual representations of the various Archetypes which have been extracted. As they are drawing, the participants should actively participate in giving their opinions on various components of what the Archetype should look like – ie from gender, attire, environment to facial expression. It is important to use a cartoonist who draws a faithful representation of the Archetypes described. The cartoonist should not impose any artistic/other notions of what an Archetype should look like.

Time Estimate: 60-120 minutes depending on the number of groups. If each group has its own cartoonist, the time estimate would be reduced drastically.

Situational archetypes

The above process describes the creation of persona archetypes. Situational archetypes follow a similar process but with some key differences. In the situational archetype variation, the process provides a series of abstract representations of situations (rather than personalities) to create a multi-perspective lens through which to view a current situation.

This process takes a set of historical, counterfactual or future descriptions of situations and breaks them down into underlying attributes and modulators. These attributes and modulators are then reassembled into archetype clusters that each offer a lens through which people can describe a current situation. It uses the principle of breaking things down to the lowest level of coherent granularity to allow a new perspective to be taken, breaking entrained patterns of thinking.

The situational archetype variation is oused for conflict resolution as a sidecasting technique, that also creates a set of lenses to support strategy, planning and decision-making in complexity.

  • For example: "The project we had been running was on how did you get people from radically different political backgrounds to have a rational discussion about a current policy initiative? The final critical workshop was the one that concluded successfully on the 10th of November 2001. We had a team of historians from very different backgrounds and went through the whole of US history and created situational archetypes from those actual events. Archetypes are a key method in the Cynefin pantheon as they represent a filtering device that allows for different conversations to take place. Our participants went from downright hostility to rational discussion and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. As I left we agreed to set up a call in a couple of days to put in a bid to get to stage two." from BLOG: https://thecynefin.co/20-years-on/
  • "It was an experiment in sense-making during the early days of my DARPA work, which post 9/11 became a key part of Genoa II. We had taken a group of people from very different backgrounds through a process of abstraction, emergence and convergence based on a range of events in US history and had produced a series of archetypal historical lens. This is rather like the work we do in creating individual archetypes but with a different focus. It had been a great success, in that having gone through the process people were able to talk through current political situations, despite their radically different backgrounds from the perspective of each archetype. A conflict resolution method, but also one designed to increase the number of perspectives that would be taken into account in a foreign policy. It had not been easy, people had started with a negative and cynical approach but they had engaged, become interested then enraptured (well thats a bit strong but it was good). Above all they had seen the world through new lens and from a different perspective." from BLOG: https://thecynefin.co/9-11/

Do's and Dont's

  • Why is there a minimum and maximum number of groups? To keep participants focused and the exercise useful and manageable. From experience, 6-10 people seem to work best considering we usually have approximately 100-200 narratives to work with for each exercise
  • How do I manage someone who seems to be dominating the discussion? Rotate the person through a different group, so that they do not have too much of an influence on the formation of a group of items or attributes.
  • How long will this method take? Depending on the size of the group and the number of narratives, it may run from an hour to several hours. With a group of 30 people handling 120 narratives, the method takes an hour.
  • Tell me more about names for the groups. Don't let people give names to archetypes that refer to real people. Use animal names that connote metaphorical characteristics (badger, lemming), or pop-culture names (superman, queen), or generic role names (recluse, he-man). If they insist on naming a real person, ask what it is about that person that makes them unique, then ask them to rename it to that. Explain the differences between archetypes and stereotypes, but only do this when the people are doing final clustering and naming, and only if they are ending up with stereotypical names.

Method card material

This material will be extracted for the method cards

Possible symbols or illustrations

Front page description

Archetype Extraction is the most common application of Social Construction of Emergent Properties, a way of articulating and visualising common cultural understandings.

Back of card summary

Archetype Extraction is usually run in parallel to another process or as part of a larger project. Archetype Extraction facilitates groups to help to identify and (re-)create common cultural understandings in the form of archetypal characters, with the aid of an on-site cartoonist. The activity results in a set of Archetypes unique to the context of the participants, which can then be used in reflection, branding, communications or strategy processes. Archetypes extracted from community anecdotes naturally resonate, represent aspects of the system and allow for reflection in a safe space.

How can it be used?

for diagnosis

for analysis/understanding

for intervention

Method Properties - Ratings

Represented by symbols - interpretation/voting scales are:

References

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