The Hero’s Journey – A structure to our stories

The Hero’s Journey

It appears to be the case that many of the great stories, myths and legends that we have share a common structure, known as the “Hero’s Journey” or “Monomyth” This structure is said to capture a universal human experience of growth, challenge and transformation. The structure has three main sections to it, and a total of 12 stages.

At the highest level, what happens is that the hero is leading their normal life in the ordinary world when something changes and, as a result, they must enter a magical world of change and challenge in which they grow and transform before returning to the ordinary world as their new and improved selves.

The list of stories that follow broadly this journey are nearly endless, but some “heros” throughout history who follow this journey include Odysseus, Gilgamesh, Beowolf, King Arthur, Frodo Baggins, Harry Potter and (famously) Luke Skywalker. The lives of many important religious individuals also mirror the hero’s journey, including the Buddha and Moses.

A high level summary of the sections and stages follows. It might be worth reflecting on a story you know well while reading through them to see if it fits. You might be surprised about how many ultimately do.

Stage 1: Departure (The Ordinary World)

Step 1 – “The Ordinary World”

At the very start of the story we get a flavour of the hero’s normal (perhaps mundane) world. Things are typically benign and sedate. This sets the hero’s everyday life into context and gives us a flavour of their environment and existence.

Step 2 – “The Call to Adventure”

Shortly after our story starts, the hero is then experiences a change of circumstances that disrupts the hero’s ordinary world and presents them with a challenge or quest.

Step 3 – “Refusal of the Call”

In some stories the hero might not heed the call of the quest right away. They might be fearful or inscure or otherwise unready to embark on the significant challenge, change and need for growth associated with the quest. Sometimes the hero skips this step and leaps straight into action.

Step 4 – “Meeting the Mentor”

As the hero is preparing to set off on their quest they usually encouter a mentor who appears in their life and who is able to provide them with the wisdom, guidance, and sometimes even magical tools they will need in order to succeed on their journey.

Step 5 – “Crossing the First Threshold”

Having accepted the call of the adventure, met a mentor and done everything else they need to do in advance of setting off from their ordinary world, our hero now takes their first steps on their real journey. In doing so they step out of the safety of their ordinary world and enter a magical world where the rules are different, where new perspetives are born and in which they can grow and change as individuals. 

Stage 2: Initiation (The Magical World)

Step 6 – “Tests, Allies, and Enemies“

Upon entering the magical world, the hero quickly faces various challenges, makes allies, and confronts enemies. All of these events help the hero make sense of the magical world and their place within it, and help them discover the new ways of seeing the world and new ways of doing things that they’ll need to adopt in order to survive in this world.

Step 7 – “Approach to the Inmost Cave“

As the hero grows into what and who they need to be to survive in this new and magical world, they typically recognize that they need to go through a process of overcoming something significant, typically a personal fear, internal conflict or other perspectival limitation that preventts them fulfilling their potential in this new and magical world.

Step 8 – “The Ordeal”

Having identified their greatest challenge in this magical world, the hero faces their greatest fear or enemy (or enemy’s mother in the case of Beowolf). In this ordeal the hero may find inner strengths that they didn’t know that they had that enable them to succeed in this moment of crisis. It is through this deep trial that the hero becomes truly transformed, realising fully their new capabilities and ways of doing and being, their new perspectives and powers.

Step 9 – “The Reward (Seizing the Sword)“

Obviously, having been through all of that arduous work, the hero is entitled to a reward. This reward can take a wide range of forms depending on the developmental arch our hero has taken. Rewards could include a special object (like a magic sword), special insights, knowledge or even reconciliation with a loved one.

Stage 3: Return (The Ordinary World)

Step 10 – “The Road Back“

Having overcome the ordeal and received their just rewards, the hero next needs to return to their ordinary world, the place from which they set off. Sometimes this transition back can involved more challenges and perils.

Step 11 – “The Resurrection”

Often, having returned to the ordinary world, the hero faces one final test, which may take many forms. This test of challenges is the hero’s chance to really show that they have transformed and have become someone new. By overcoming this test they show that everything they learned in the magical world has stayed within them upon their return to the ordinary world. They have changed. Their their journey they have been reborn as a better version of themselves.

Step 12 – “Return with the Elixir“

Many stories then typically end with the hero managing to share the great spoils of their adventure with their community in the ordinary world. This giving back of treasures emphasises the hero’s achievements and the positive changes brought about by their journey, as well as their changed position in the ordinary world.

Why should we care in the world of work?

Storys matter in all walks of life, including in the workplace. 

As individuals in the workplace we benefit from sense making activities and telling the stories of our growth and development in ways that make sense to us and which feel intuitive, and the hero’s journey can help with this. The structures helps us associate positive growth with strain and challenge, which is also very useful in those moments of challenge. And the model can be used in our projections of what the future holds.

From a leadership or management perspective, we also often find the stories of great founders and leaders, as well as actual organizations, to follow the hero’s journey too. This might just happen, but as communicators we can also use the hero’s journey as a framework around which to craft the stories of our organizations. If we do this well, we can better take our teams and colleagues with us.

We haven’t covered stories and storytelling too much, though we do think it is a very interesting and helpful subject.

We have written a small article on career narratives that might be of interest, as well as a few things . And separately, we also quite liked a simple book on screenwriting called “Save the Cat“, which also explores some of the art of strory telling and which has spawned many tools for storytelling.

As mentioned above, the hero’s journey captures the developmental arch of a hero and, interestingly, this process of growth and development is somewhat mirrored in several theories of personal change including Bridges model and Theory U. 

You can listen to our podcast that touches on storytelling below:

The underlying patterns of the hero’s journey really do speak to people. The underlying narrative is deeply resonant and universally appealing. The steps have been baked ourc collective cultural subconscious. Many of us sort of expect our own lives to follow these steps and we use this broad narrative in our sense-making activities without even being aware of it.

Given this, having an awareness of the structure is really helpful. This knowledge can help us when we are making sense of our own lives and exploring our own character development arcs, and the steps can give us the building blocks to shape and create promising futures for ourselves in our personal and work lives.

Interestingly, we find that the arch of the hero’s journey, which involves descending from the ordinary world into the magical world before returning transformed, is mirrored in several models of personal change.

Overall we think the hero’s journey is a great framework to be aware of and a great wire-frame to help us build compelling stories for ourselves and for others.

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton University Press, 1949.

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