Egreg-ORGS: Egregores or Entelechy
“No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.” — Napoleon Hill
The Greek myths tell how Zeus asked Prometheus to fashion humans from Clay. Prometheus pondered the idea and asked Zeus, “Would we engage with them, speak to them, move about with them?”.
The King of the Gods replies, “That would be exactly the point. To have an intelligent — well, semi-intelligent — species to praise, worship, play with, and amuse us. A subservient, adoring race of little miniatures.”
A common theme throughout the Myths is that the Gods created humankind to worship the Gods. Worship and devotion are forms of energy, so the Gods received energy from humans and grew even more potent, but eventually, humans grew tired of that worship. When some humans dared to disregard the sacrifices demanded by the Gods or chose to walk away from worship, the Gods punished them severely with disease, drought and death.
Have you ever spoken truth to power and received some form of punishment? Perhaps it was ostracization or being overlooked for a promotion? Worse still, you could be sentenced to menial tasks or dead-end projects, and sometimes the organisation will find a reason to fire you. The organisation, like the Greek Gods, does not appreciate your insolence. You will obey, you will play by the rules, and you will not rock the boat.
An organisation, like any entity that receives energy from a group of people, is an egregore. Hence the title of this Thursday Thought, Egreg-ORGS.
Egregores
An egregore is a concept from occultism and mysticism that refers to a “thought entity” formed by a group of people’s shared beliefs, emotions, worship and intentions. It is believed that when a group of people come together with a shared purpose, they can create a powerful energy field that takes on a life of its own.
For this reason, I opened this article with Napoleon Hill’s quote, “No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.” Napoleon Hill believed that when as few as two people came together and focussed on a common purpose, a separate energy multiplied their presence. This idea is also known as a “master mind alliance” or “mastermind group,” but the underlying principles remain the same.
Egregores are created by the collective consciousness of a group and can be positive or negative, depending on the intentions and emotions of the group that created it. Examples of egregores include religious deities (The Greek Gods), spiritual entities (Angels), national identities (Irishness), cultural archetypes (Santa Clause), and even corporate brands (Googlers).
I remember seeing a Christmas movie where Santa lost power because fewer children believed in him. Santa as an egregore is sustained by the collective beliefs and practices of people who celebrate Christmas. Kids offer energy through their beliefs. They write Santa letters and leave out cookies and milk on Christmas Eve. The energy generated by such beliefs and rituals sustains the “Santa egregore”.
Egreg-ORGS
Organisations are egregores or egreg-ORGS. Organisations feed on the energy of their employees, suppliers and customers. Organisations reach their goals through the energetic alignment of their collectives. The thoughts and emotions of employees emit energy that is harnessed to create a collective entity greater than the sum of its parts. Egregores are not always harmful but have led to genocide, slavery and war. For this article, I want to highlight the idea of an organisation sapping the energy of its people and ostracising those who go against the grain.
For anyone who has left an organisation to pursue a fresh challenge elsewhere or because they are no longer growing, you know that the organisation is rarely pleased with your decision. In many cases, your colleagues will wish you well but quietly say to each other, “Ah, she was past it anyway.”. The message must be that you are the problem, not the organisation. This is particularly acute in toxic organisations where people suffer a form of Stockholm syndrome. Why is this? The collective entity does not want anyone else to get bright ideas about leaving the egreg-ORG. Leaving the egreg-ORG weakens its hold over other adherents (employees).
For those who have left an organisation and realised how they were blinkered to the bigger picture, you know what I mean. When you worked there, you thought it was the most important job in the world. You thought other people knew of your company, saw your advertising, and consumed your products. Once you leave, you realise very few people even care.
Using You Up
I once worked for an entrepreneur who disliked that I ran the Innovation Show and wrote this weekly blog. I could never understand why, but now I know it makes sense. He even told me once, “I want all your energy to focus on the business”. In my mind, doing the show and synthesising my learning in a blog made me a better consultant, but for him, he saw it as a lack of focus. I left shortly afterwards.
In the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder describes the heroics of developing a new computer. He describes how the project leader based his human resource strategy on hiring only young, newly graduated engineers with high achievement needs. Many companies do the same thing. To feed the egreg-ORG, hire people who need to achieve, prove themselves, and maybe even gaslight them into believing they are the chosen few. The harder it is to get the job, the harder you will work to keep it. These go-getters take on extraordinarily challenging jobs with outrageous deadlines, giving all their energy to the egreg-ORG. Once burned out, hire the next batch, use ’em up, rinse, repeat.
As anyone who has spoken up amidst a room of adherents to an egregore knows, it does not bode well. You can feel the energy in the room as if it follows you. The more powerful the egregore, the less likely you will win. Whistleblowing is such a selfless act. It is a tremendous sacrifice. Thank you to those whistleblowers out there.
So what do we do?
Walk away. I am a huge believer in getting out when you feel that change in energy. While it took me a while to realise this, not only do you walk away, but you never moan or complain about it. You still give away your precious life force if you moan and complain. Instead, use it elsewhere to create, to live life to the fullest.
If you cannot leave an egreg-ORG, the trick is to give some of your energy to an organisation. You may have to incorporate into an egregore in exchange for payment but remain conscious that you are doing so. You don’t have to give it all away. You may be doing so at the expense of family, friends, and your health. I certainly did that in the past. It can be challenging to break an organisational egregore’s hold over you. This is where Entelechy comes in.
Entelechy
Aristotle coined the term entelechy. It means the realisation or actualisation of potential. According to Aristotle, entelechy is the state of being in which a thing has fulfilled its purpose or achieved its end. In biology, entelechy has been used to refer to the idea that living organisms have an internal drive or telos (purpose) that directs their growth and development. For organisations, it could refer to the achievement of a corporate mission. For individuals, it is whatever makes your soul sing. If you give all your internal drive or telos (purpose) to an egreg-ORG, what happens when you leave, if you are made redundant when you retire?
The purpose of the Thursday Thought is to provoke thought. This thought is worth devoting some energy towards.
THANKS FOR READING
Watch the 2-part episode on How To Measure Your Life with Karen Dillon for further inspiration on achieving entelechy.
Another 2-part series on competing against luck is now live. Part one is with Taddy Hall, and part two is with Bob Moesta.
Originally published at https://thethursdaythought.substack.com on March 22, 2023.
