Myths, Narratives and Stories

Sensemaking has an incredibly effective tool: the stories that are told: Sense is created collectively (Peter Senge writes: in teams) and through stories. If I want sensemaking in organizations to become effective, you need to think about stories and story telling.

When I started my research, I noticed something that I hadn’t conciously noted before: there are quite different meanings, techniques and mechanisms at work in storytelling.

I found some variants of storytelling that emerge in different environments, from organic, emergent narratives to structured hero-driven tales. I found also failed and toxic storytelling, including manipulative narratives designed to deceive, heroic storytelling that over-glorifies individuals while erasing collective effort, and tame storytelling, which sanitizes complexity and avoids necessary conflict.

Today I start with myths, the wild side of story telling.

Emergent narratives

I want to introduce with my hero Claude Lévi-Strauss, pioneering anthropologist and structuralist, who extensively analyzed myths and stories in human societies. His work focused on the deep structures underlying myths across cultures, arguing that myths serve as a form of universal human expression structured by binary oppositions (e.g., life vs. death, nature vs. culture, raw vs. cooked).

He viewed myths as a kind of “language” shared by all human societies. He argued that despite their diverse content, myths across cultures follow similar structures, revealing fundamental human thought patterns.

Bridging Myth and Science
Levi-Strauss compares myth to music, noting how both operate through recurring patterns and themes. For him, myths are not just tales but serve as a collective way for societies to make sense of contradictions and maintain cohesion.

Example: The Myth of the Trickster
One of the most analyzed myths in his work is the trickster figure, found across cultures (e.g., Coyote in Native American myths, Loki in Norse mythology). The trickster often embodies contradictions—both creator and destroyer, hero and villain—showing how myths help societies navigate ambiguity.

Business Storytelling

This structuralist view to mythology and storytelling provides insights into how businesses craft and use narratives, to understand the deep structures underlying their stories.

Myths as Structural Foundations for Business Culture

Lévi-Strauss argued that myths serve as frameworks through which societies organize meaning. Businesses, like societies, rely on foundational stories to define their identity, values, and purpose.

Example: some companies have origin myths around a visionary founder, e.g., Steve Jobs and Apple. These narratives structure how the company’s mission is perceived.
Insight: Internal myths shape decision-making and employee engagement. Going with the flow of emerging stories has a much stronger impace than reinforcing outdated narratives and supports redefining identity in times of transformation.

Binary Oppositions in Business Narratives

A core idea in Lévi-Strauss’ theory is that myths are structured through binary oppositions—concepts that appear in tension but help make sense of the world. Examples are nature versus technology or chaos versus order. Businesses analogues of such contrasts could be tradition versus oinnovation or startup versus corporate.

Example: The “disruptor vs. incumbent” (e.g., Tesla vs. legacy automakers), is a classic business story that mirrors the myths of trickster figures challenging the established order.
Insight: Using these patterns allows an organization to craft narratives that strategically position themselves, e.g., as the bold innovator overturning an old system.

Resolving Contradictions

Lévi-Strauss believed that myths serve to mediate contradictions in human thought. Similarly, business storytelling often functions to reconcile tensions between competing priorities.

This is an especially important aspect, as it takes into account that reality is usually too complex for simple solutions or binary decisions. It allows you to leave things in limbo, understand complexity, and more easily find non-binary answers.

Example: The tension between profit vs. purpose. Sustainable brands (e.g., Patagonia) use storytelling to bridge this contradiction, portraying profitability and environmental responsibility as complementary forces rather than opposing goals.
Insight: Be mindful of the contradictions your audiences perceive and use storytelling to reframe these tensions in a way that enables alignment rather than conflict.

Levi-Strauss’ Four-Volume Mythologiques Series
His most famous work, Mythologiques, consists of four volumes where he analyzes myths across the Americas to uncover their deep structures:
The Raw and the Cooked (1964) – Examines myths about food preparation, revealing symbolic oppositions between nature (raw) and culture (cooked).
From Honey to Ashes (1966) – Explores myths related to sweetness, bitterness, and food taboos.
The Origin of Table Manners (1968) – Studies the socialization of eating and its symbolic meaning in myths.
The Naked Man* (1971) – Concludes the series by connecting mythology with human perception and experience.