The mythical organisation

Good PR is all about creating myths that advance a particular cause (which is what makes it propaganda). As part of the process of building a myth to surround the launch of his new book - The Mythical Organisation – we asked author Graham Galer to write a little about myth. Here’s his thought-provoking piece (with a little amplification of his point about Serbia, which I’ve added because the subject has fascinated me since I went on a trip to the country to try and start a business importing raspberries and pullovers).

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Myths have enormous practical importance in the modern world, but that they are often unrecognised. Myths are stories that we tell ourselves to explain who we are and where we came from. They may or may not be factually ‘true’, but they represent a kind of emotional or psychological truth, which underlies our perception of ‘reality’. If myths were more clearly recognised, we would understand better how we got to where we are, and consequently we would take better decisions about the future.

I stumbled into this subject through studying the myths that still haunt us from the memory of the First World War. There are many other myths of history, which, if we saw them clearly as ‘myths’, would allow us to challenge received opinion and perhaps perceive ourselves differently. To appreciate the power of national myths to affect the lives of millions of people, just ponder the recent history of Russia, Zimbabwe or, for that matter, the USA. A particularly telling example is that of Serbia (much of whose national identity is based on the Battle of Kosovo Field, fought on St Vitus’ Day 1389). In his 1989 speech, Slobodan Milosevic said as much:

"By the force of social circumstances this great 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo is taking place in a year in which Serbia, after many years, after many decades, has regained its state, national, and spiritual integrity… Through the play of history and life, it seems as if Serbia has, precisely in this year, in 1989, regained its state and its dignity and thus has celebrated an event of the distant past which has a great historical and symbolic significance for its future.

Today, it is difficult to say what is the historical truth about the Battle of Kosovo and what is legend. Today this is no longer important. Oppressed by pain and filled with hope, the people used to remember and to forget, as, after all, all people in the world do, and it was ashamed of treachery and glorified heroism. Therefore it is difficult to say today whether the Battle of Kosovo was a defeat or a victory for the Serbian people, whether thanks to it we fell into slavery or we survived in this slavery. The answers to those questions will be constantly sought by science and the people. What has been certain through all the centuries until our time today is that disharmony struck Kosovo 600 years ago."

We need myths if we are to take coherent action, and this applies to organisations of all kinds. It is the powerful and enduring myth of the British National Health Service that helps to keep it going. Companies need good myths, and they need to be able to distinguish between their own internal myths and the external myths that others tell of them.

One reason why concerted action on climate change is so difficult to achieve is because there is no myth, widely shared among the public as well as scientists, which accounts for how things came to be as they are. Indeed, there is a potent counter-myth, which goes like this -

The atmosphere isn’t warming; and if it is, then it’s due to natural variation; and even if it’s not due to natural variation, then the amount of warming is insignificant; and if it becomes significant, then the benefits will outweigh the problems; and even if they don’t, technology will come to the rescue; and even if it doesn’t, we shouldn’t wreck the economy to fix the problem when many parts of the science are uncertain.

The ‘emotional truth’ behind this story is clear enough: we all want to keep the life-style we have. Which raises the vital question: where do the myths come from, how are they perpetuated and how could they change? My hope is that my book will provoke some useful thought and debate on a topic that has practical consequences for us all.