The Organizational Zoo: A survival guide to workplace behavior

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 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.

Part 1 contains an alphabetical list of characters that each represent recognisable behaviours in humans. Using the characters in gamified ways enables workshop participants to engage in inclusive, safe and constructive conversation about behaviours and their impacts on relationships. The greater awareness of behavioural choices generated through these interactions stimulates experiential learning outcomes including:

- Understanding peers, bosses and other associates

- How to use creative metaphor to build stronger trust and relationships and reduce conflict

- Improve the atmosphere of your environment

- Build teams with a productive mix of behaviours

- Influence others more effectively

- Escape the ill-meaning predators in the ecosystem

- Assess the benefits of diversity in your environment

- Develop positive strategies to address disagreements

- Have more fun with work colleagues and friends