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Arne Stjernholm  Danish Initiative for Creativity & Innovation 

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The concept of consciousness has nailed our thinking for thousands of years. It is doomed to stay a Mystery; - on one hand consciousness seems so close, it is right inside each of us, or perhaps we are inside of it, like in our own little kingdom of thoughts and fantasies - and on the other hand it is as unreachable as the gold at the end of the rainbow - we can never catch it, since we only have consciousness itself to catch it with.

In spite of these conditions I have studied the concept of consciousness for years and I have applied the findings in a draft theory of organizational consciousness - a theory, that I here can only present in a brief summary.

Understanding consciousness
One can understand consciousness as a psychic model of the world. We are able to rethink previous behavior or to “try out” future actions in this model world of thoughts, figuring out more adequate behavior without having to try everything out for real. This model world is based on metaphors: images or words representing elements of the real world. At a time in human evolution this model world evolved a language referring to its own metaphors - a model world containing itself: Self-consciousness. Thus humans are not only able to understand the physical world and manipulate it, we are also able to understand and influence the inner worlds of other individuals and of ourselves.
In short, we can say that consciousness is like a map of the world; a psychic map we use to “find our ways” in the real world.

Encircling a conception of organizational consciousness
When human psyche is compared to the level of organizations, the obvious comparison is the management process; both psyche and management correspond in between the outer and the inner world of the organism/organization. Since consciousness could be understood as a psychic model of the world, organizational consciousness can be understood as a management model of the world. Organizational consciousness is like a map of the world, based on a management language, used in the management process to “find the way” through the problems of the market. The management language consists of models and metaphors that correspond to issues of the real business world.

The evolution of organizational consciousness
The management language in the early phases was mostly instrumental, i.e. concerned with "how to do" questions. This operational oriented stage I call "simple management" - not that efficiency will ever lose importance, but it does only represent the basics of organizational consciousness.
Later, with the evolution of strategic theory, management language evolved to a level of "what to do" questions, and also "to whom" and "where". E.g.: The classical strategic matrix of Igor Ansoff relates activities on the one side to customers or markets on the other. This new consciousness of strategic management made it possible for organizations to become proactive, to create their future in stead of reacting to changing market conditions.
Today, we are facing the development of a new stage of organizational consciousness, which I call "organizational self-consciousness", since it in many ways is similar to personal self-consciousness. Because of self-consciousness we are able to see the inner worlds of other persons and to see our own responsibility for the wellbeing of others. The new organizational consciousness puts "why" questions: What is the Meaning of these activities, what is the impact on the value creation of our customers and on the life quality of their customers, does it make sense in a larger perspective, do we contribute to the wellbeing of the society, why should we do this at all?

Practical implication
The description above may sound purely theoretical, but as an overall framework it gives a good guideline for working within fields as business development, innovation management and strategic innovation. I know this from personal experiences, and I will be happy to tell you more both of my theory and of my experiences.

If you would like to read a more deep and abstract description of my theory of organizational consciousness, it is here: Semiotic theory of consciousness.

Please also read: Strategic Innovation, Innovation Management, Management Metaphors and Creative Workshops.
Another place, where you can find information about working with organizational consciousness, is at Richard Barrett's homepage www.corptools.com