We know what we are,
but know not
what we may be.
— Hamlet
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
— Hamlet
what we do We Transform Organisations
To tailor a programme that truly meets your organisational development needs, we begin by opening our minds to the issues that keep you awake at night.
These are the problems we want to solve.
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We talk, listen, question and clarify. Once we understand where your organisation and people are, the challenges they face, and where they need to go, we define the Development Objectives — and then we move into creation mode.
The result is a programme unlike anything else, combining mythic stories, archetypal psychology, OD wisdom tools and transformational facilitation and coaching techniques. Your people will think and feel differently. They will see their roles and responsibilities with fresh clarity.
Our collaboration leads to practical outcomes that shift behaviour and support your cultural and strategic objectives.
Your Organisational Development Partner
We delight in collaborating with HR and Business Leaders to drive cultural transformation in line with strategic growth. From bespoke programmes to our AI Archetypal Coach, we support scalable yet deeply personal enrichment.
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We develop:
Leaders who make better choices in messy moments
Dynamic teams with safe “constructive abrasion” resulting in better business decisions
Unique climates in which people want to be their most effective.
ABOUT usWho We Are
Richard Olivier formed Mythodrama in 1997 while directing Henry V for the opening season of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. He was declared Thought Leader 2013 by the Best Practice Institute.
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by Richard Olivier
I came to appreciate Shakespeare’s genius relatively late. Growing up as the son of the actor Laurence Olivier brought many advantages, but a desire to work professionally with Shakespeare was not initially one of them. Instead, I devoted much of my energy to the fields of psychology, mythology, personal and professional development.
In 1997, while directing Henry V for the opening season of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, we ran a workshop for public sector leaders to explore what I intuited could be deep leadership lessons within the story of Henry’s journey.
At the end of the workshop, participants said they had learnt more from Henry’s journey than from every other course they had attended the previous ten years. The intuition was a good one - and so Mythodrama was born.
Since then, Mythodrama has evolved into an international organisational development consultancy, designing bespoke programmes that address cultural and strategic challenges and transform individuals, leaders, teams and organisations.
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by Richard Olivier
We are facing a crisis of leadership.
The challenges organisations face today can no longer be understood through the same models, language and analysis that served leaders in the past. The rational leader helped build the modern organisation — but rationality alone will not take it where it now needs to go.
The leaders of tomorrow will be ordinary human beings with extraordinary capacities. They will be both inspired and inspiring. They will hold a compelling vision while enabling others to share and shape it. And they will act with integrity.
They will navigate chaos and complexity while creating enough stability for daily operations to function effectively. They will shift direction quickly when circumstances demand it — without losing the trust of teams, partners, clients and stakeholders.
And they will manage creatively the emotional impact of uncertainty, disruption and constant change.
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It’s in a rich territory of myth, narrative and archetype that Olivier Mythodrama operates, with a delivery system that our clients worldwide describe as “beyond world class”.
‘Myth’ derives from the archetypal, Jungian school of storytelling as explored by Joseph Campbell and others; ‘Drama’ refers to theatre techniques that combine communication strategy and humanistic psychology.
We connect with who you are, with what you do, and the way you do it. We design a tailored experiential learning process supported by unique breakthrough coaching methodology. Typically, we will use an archetypal diagnosis and a case study of a great story to engage all the senses in a visceral way.
This intervention serves as the beginning of a tailored experiential learning journey. We offer structured challenges, catalysing valuable insights into transformative directions, supported by our unique breakthrough coaching methodology. You won’t have experienced anything like this before.
The leaders we work with are transformed by what they go through, ready to face whatever challenges are ahead. Leaders first see themselves and their challenges more clearly, then envisage their future potential, and are then guided and coached to live into it, both as an individual and as a role model for the desired future leadership culture.
What is the city
but the people?
— Coriolanus
A story… must captivate the ear strangely
— The Tempest
Wisdom StoriesStories Shape Leadership
Mythodrama combines great stories with psychological and philosophical insight through powerful developmental experiences.
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Since the earliest human cultures, myths have inspired and guided us. They are maps of the psyche — gateways into understanding ourselves and our relationship to the world. We explore Shakespeare and other classic stories because they reveal universal human patterns that remain profoundly relevant today.
Through these stories we illuminate the archetypal forces shaping the characters’ choices and destinies — and help participants recognise and activate the same leadership capacities within themselves.
This is what makes the experience mythodramatic: the meeting of story, psychology and embodied leadership practice.
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
— All's Well That Ends Well
Archetypal wisdomUnderstanding Human Patterns
Archetypes At Work™
Bringing archetypal leadership to your life and work
Archetypes are timeless patterns of human energy that shape how we think, act and relate to others. They influence our behaviours, relationships, decisions and results, often unconsciously.
They quietly determine how we organise our lives and work, how we engage with others, how we initiate the new, how we manage transitions and how we get things done.
This is not about labels or boxes. It is about awareness, choice and agility. When you understand your current archetypal pattern (your most and least preferred archetypes), you recognise the root of both your natural gifts and your habitual blind spots.
Meet the Realms and their Archetypes
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How you organise your life and business
Sovereign
Creates order through vision and purpose, setting direction and being comfortable at the centre of responsibility
Strategist
Creates order through structure and mastery, often working behind the scenes to analyse, plan and build the road ahead
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How you engage with others
Nurturer
Builds relationship through care and empathy, supporting the growth and development of others
Lover
Values connection and equality, appreciating beauty and focusing on what people truly care about
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How you initiate the new
Dreamer
Generates ideas through imagination and inspiration, comfortable with uncertainty and possibility
Storyteller
Synthesises diverse threads and weaves them into a coherent narrative others can understand and follow
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How you navigate transition
Renegade
Catalyses change through disruption and invention, challenging existing assumptions so the future can emerge
Transformer
Guides deeper processes of renewal, enabling the necessary endings and beginnings that accompany real change
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How you get things done
Warrior
Acts decisively and assertively, pursuing clear goals and challenging obstacles directly
Explorer
Seeks truth and discovery, venturing into new territory in search of insight and opportunity
A Dynamic Performance Methodology
Accessing the ten archetypes – and choosing to activate the most situationally appropriate – is the foundation of archetypal leadership. Some archetypes feel natural; others require more conscious effort.
Deepening Archetypal Awareness
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Our scientifically validated Archetypal Preference Report (APR) deepens awareness of archetypal patterns, gifts and possible derailers. It equips you with personalised information to become a more complete leader and it enables you to:
Widen your archetypal lens
Capitalise on your identified leadership strengths
Address your shadows of too much and too little
Recognise archetypal behaviours in others and flex your style and approach
Adapt your leadership to the situation
Learn a language which depersonalises feedback
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Give your people their own “coach in a pocket” to bring their archetypes to life and work. Our AI Archetypal Coach combines timeless wisdoms with modern technology:
“I am your AI Archetypal Leadership Coach, and I exist to help you see the inner patterns that shape how you think, feel, decide, and lead – often without you realising it. Archetypes are those patterns. With me you’ll explore and discover how archetypes operate in leadership, decision-making, influence, conflict, creativity, and resilience – at work and in life. You’ll see how leading yourself differently changes how you lead others, and how inner alignment drives outer impact in teams, culture, and business. Let’s explore how you can bring your archetypes to life…”
Designed with security as priority (compliant with Microsoft Cloud security benchmark)
Scalable and suitable for large groups as part of a broad cultural transformation
Includes Archetypal Preference Report (APR) and personalised coaching
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Archetypal Audit
Identify the Archetypal Development Needs for your important team(s) or culture with an Archetypal Audit.
Strategic Team Development
In alignment with your strategy, enhance a particular archetypal mix to increase team effectiveness, e.g. More Strategist-Sovereign-Warrior to produce a leadership team with edge. Archetypal Team Development workshop includes individual and team Archetypal Preference Reports (APRs).
Build Archetypal Cultures
Partner with us to upskill your HR and Leadership Teams, lead the transformation of your organisational culture and drive strategic objectives. We’ll develop Business Partners, L&D Specialists, People Partners and Business Leaders into Archetypal Facilitators and Coaches and together we’ll transform your organisation with:
Wisdom Stories to set the tone, e.g. Henry V: Inspirational Leadership – Leading with Purpose
‘Introducing the Archetypes’ workshops (F2F and Virtual)
Archetypal Preference Reports and 1:1 debriefs
Archetypal Development Plans
Blended ongoing Archetypal Leadership Coaching (human + AI coaching)
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown
— Henry IV
Wisdom ToolsHelping leaders navigate today’s challenges.
Our range of organisational development techniques – Wisdom Tools – develop cultures capable of withstanding the complex issues faced today.
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There is a well-known observation from Edgar H. Schein, one of the most influential thinkers on organisational culture and leadership:
“There is nothing so practical as a good theory.”
At OMA, this idea sits at the heart of how we approach leadership development.
For decades, our work has focused on what is often the hardest part of leadership transformation: shifting hearts and minds. Through story, archetype and powerful shared experiences, we help leaders see themselves — and the role of leadership — in new ways. That shift opens the door to new perspectives, new possibilities and a deeper sense of responsibility for the impact they have as leaders.
But insight alone is not enough. Once leaders begin to see differently, the natural question becomes: “What do I now need to do differently?” This is where practical theory matters.
Across the field of leadership and organisational thinking there are powerful frameworks, models and tools that help leaders navigate the real challenges of their day-to-day work. At OMA, we deliberately draw on the best of this thinking and combine it with our distinctive expertise in story and archetype.
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The tools we bring into our programmes are designed to answer the practical “how to” questions leaders face every day, including how to:
Lead effectively in conditions of complexity and ambiguity
Communicate with power and purpose to mobilise others and achieve results
Act as the convenor of the system, designing and leading meetings that genuinely move complex work forward
The result is leadership development that works on two levels:
A fundamental shift in how leaders see themselves, and
The practical tools to translate that insight into action.
Olivier Mythodrama has been delivering innovative and thought-provoking development for over 25 years.
Our doubts are
traitors.
— Measure for Measure
LET’S BUILD SOMETHING TOGETHERReady to talk?
The people and organisations we partner with describe our work as life changing. We agree. We already collaborate with some of the world’s leading businesses. Are you ready to join them?