The Organizational Zoo: A survival guide to workplace behavior

By Arthur Shelley and John Szabo

The "OrgZoo" concept is a set of creative metaphor characters that help develop understanding of human interactions and relationships. The characters represent behaviours and are used to facilitate constructive conversations about social interactions and the value of diversity. Activities described enable exploration of behavioural awareness and

• Language: English
• Publisher: Intelligent Answers
• Release date: Sep 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9780648461616

Arthur Shelley

Dr Arthur Shelley is collaborative community builder, learning facilitator and creative education designer with over 30 years of professional experience across the international corporate, government and tertiary education sectors. He is the author of 4 books, has worked in 12 countries, is a mentor in several international communities, and has supervised PhD candidates in 5 countries. He has collaborated with organisations as diverse as NASA, Cirque Du Soleil, Local and National Governments, Universities, start-ups, SME's and multinational corporations. https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthurshelley/

Book preview

Pre-publication praise for The Organizational Zoo

This witty and thought provoking book makes ideal reading for students of the many courses available in management. The book outlines characters inhabiting what Shelley calls the organizational zoo. People are characterized as various animals moving from A to Z. He shows great insight and wit, and one of the valuable features of this book is that, through the animal metaphor, he makes it easier for us to recognize some of the motivations of our coworkers, clients, and those we depend upon. My own perspective on this book is colored by my project management experience. I can see how viewing project stakeholders, as well as the many team members we interact with, as various animal species helps make sense of organizational cultures and a given situation’s ethos. The book also has several appendices, one with a management game that can be both fun and instructive. I will be using this as a management text as well as recommending it as light reading.

Professor Derek Walker, Graduate School of Business,

RMIT University, Melbourne

A fresh approach to organizational culture development

Steve Denning, author, A Leader’s Guide To Storytelling,

former Program Director, Knowledge Management, World Bank"

This book has tremendous potential to be used in all types of organizations, large and small. Having a tool that people can use to identify themselves or others in a nonthreatening way helps to break down many barriers that exist around cultural and behavioral issues. Hey, let loose and have some fun with it!

Linda Page, Project Director, Knowledge Management,

Strategic Management Division,

Victorian Department of Treasury & Finance"

An excellent resource. In my 25 years consulting, I have been in many organizational zoos! Arthur’s fun approach to understanding the personalities in the workplace is unique and engaging. Beware the animals.

Rod Dilnut, Principle, William Bethwey and Associates

The Organizational Zoo is a refreshing and highly entertaining contribution to the sombre discipline of organizational behavior. For those wanting to enhance their self-awareness and find a humorous way to decipher the humanness around them, this book will provide the insight they are seeking. Having taught many of the creatures at a tertiary level, I now have validation that the truly successful ones were those who found their natural habitats.

Valerie Panayiotou, BAppSc, M.D.

Organizational Effectiveness Consulting Pty Ltd

Disarmingly simple; chillingly accurate;creates a compelling typology of business jungle inhabitants.

Dr. Kate Andrews, Partner, Intellectual Capital, BDO Kendalls

One of those thoroughly enjoyable books you can pick up at anytime, open anywhere and instantaneously relate to your working world.

Graeme Allan, Director, Seifen Consulting Pty. Ltd.

This book has something for everyone. For some it will be a lot of fun, while for others it will be a didactic window into the workings of organizations. Most of us at some time have played a private game of matching people we know with members of the animal kingdom. However, Arthur Shelley has very skillfully taken this game and applied it to an organizational setting. With this book, we can still play our little games, but the author has given us an excellent and expansive framework with which to play. From a bit of fun has come a very useful and insightful book for the workplace.

Dr. Hilton Deeth, University of Queensland

Read the book over the weekend and enjoyed it. Love those insects! And the difference between the Lion CEO and his Eagle counterpart. Also liked the way the book in the end was an exhortation for people to develop some selfknowledge. I suspect it will be a winner.

Leon Gettler, business writer, The Age newspaper, Melbourne

I can vividly imagine the whole thing coming together….how to successfully utilize each person’s strengths to get a productive outcome. You don’t try to change the natures of these beasts but rather accept them for who they’ve become or chosen to be, and then work within that paradigm.

David Hyde, Business Consultant

"Have you ever thought, ‘Man, this place is a zoo’? Well, you’re certainly not alone. The Organizational Zoo is a deliciously witty and entertaining read that guides you through the dark forests and life forms that make up the zoo where you work. This biological metaphor has a serious side too. If we better understand each other and communicate more effectively, we can make our workplace a lot more fun.

Mikael Hatzis, Managing Director, Integratos (and an Eagle)

How often do we fail to take into account the highly variable human element when we seek to interact? The Organizational Zoo offers a fun way to do this, and to understand the way we interact by using metaphors from the animal kingdom that shed new light on our behaviors and styles in a short space of time. With simplicity, engagement and effect, I believe this book has enormous potential wherever the effective interaction of people is paramount.

Frank Connolly, Victorian Public Service

Continuous Improvement Coordinator, State Services Authority

The Organizational Zoo

A Survival Guide to

Work Place Behavior

by

Dr. Arthur Shelley

Illustrations by John Szabo

Second edition

Published by Intelligent Answers

Melbourne, Australia

Intelligent Answers

Melbourne, Australia

www.intelligentanswers.com.au

A catalogue record is available for this book from the National Library of Australia

ISBN 978-0-6484616-1-6 (Intelligent Answers, ebook)

ISBN 978-0-6484616-2-3 (Intelligent Answers, paperback)

Summary provided by the publisher: "The Organizational Zoo concept is a set of creative metaphor characters that help develop understanding of human interactions and relationships. The OrgZoo characters represent behaviours and are used to facilitate constructive conversations about social interactions and the value of diversity.Activities described enable exploration of behavioural awareness and how our behavioural choices assist to engage more productively with each other. The Organizational Zoo book and character cards are most often used as a support resource for personal and professional development and for mentoring coaching and self-development. It is a foundational companion book for Becoming Adaptable, a later book that adds more advanced activities and context around the application of the concepts. "

Copyright © 2007, 2021, Arthur Shelley.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from Intelligent Answers, Melbourne, Australia with the exception of short excerpts used with acknowledgment of publisher and author.

Editing by Marcia Yudkin

Book design by Dianne Schilling

Cover design by Miggs Burroughs

Original illustrations by John Szabo

Second edition design by Dr Mark Boyes and Margaret L Ruwoldt

Published in Melbourne, Australia

To all who have been preyed upon and survived:

May your experiences continue to make you stronger, wiser and better at reading the behaviors of those above you in the food chain.

and …

To those about to begin your career safari: Prepare well! Invest time with positive creatures and ensure conflicts happen in your territory on your terms.

Foreword to the 2nd edition

The idea for the Organizational Zoo was born out of a complex challenge (as most good insights are). I was leading a difficult merger project in Poland. We needed to create a new shared purpose and common identity for two companies who had been competing vigorously for several years. The Poland company was the local market leader with an established national brand. The other company was the world’s largest in the sector with an internationally recognised brand portfolio and an aggressive growth by acquisition strategy. Each side thought they were the best to lead the new entity. Both were mistaken! As is often the case when people behave as if they know better than everyone else.

The language barrier and cultural differences were the least of our troubles. The key to success was aligning people’s behaviour and bringing former competing warriors to see the benefits of collaboration. This required a mindset shift to enable them to see their new uncertain world from a different perspective. How could we harness the strengths of both sides to mitigate the limitations each had? Initially, there were a range of culture-clash stimulating behaviours including backroom political antics, undermining of each other, jostling for positions in the new organization, as is usual in these situations. I had to create a way to influence the team to come together to collaborate and quickly cocreate a new sense of identity and belonging.

Creative metaphor offered an alternative and oblique way to look at the situation. The literal perspective was too raw and far from neutral. Most of the team members on both sides were task oriented and competitive (as many in business are). The use of creative stories, imagining, visioning and visualisation, enabled us to deliver a working harmonious business in less than 6 months. Remarkably (for the time), the new entity operated on a common global business model, supported by technological solutions that were located outside the country. This was quite an achievement, especially delivered ahead of time and under budget. The success of this co-creative approach stimulated my thinking as to how far this could be extended through the addition of cartoons and games to characterise behaviour and focus on enabling behavioural adaptability rather than control: This formed the foundations of The Organizational Zoo.

Over the 20 years since, this concept has been evolving into a diverse array of activities to engage people in constructive conversation about behavioural adaptability. Org Zoo as it is affectionately known, has been successfully applied to enhance performance in a wide variety of contexts. Org Zoo workshops have been facilitated with organisations including NASA, World Bank, national and state governments, educational institutions, research centres, HR and training organisations, political