The Approach

The Aesthetic Archetypes™ Workshop
A facilitated Artful Method session focused on shared attention and meaning-making

Rather than starting with roles, personalities, or performance frameworks, we began with something simpler — and more revealing:

Looking together.

The group was invited into a guided conversation around a single image. No preparation. No expertise required. No right answers.

Using open prompts such as:

• What’s going on here?

• What do you see that makes you say that?

• What more can we find?

Participants slowed down and described what they noticed, how they interpreted it, and how their understanding shifted as they listened to others.

Throughout the session, the facilitator paraphrased each contribution neutrally, creating a shared space where meaning could build collectively rather than competitively.

The Framework: The Aesthetic Archetypes™

Behind the scenes, the conversation was later reviewed using The Aesthetic Archetypes™ — a framework that reveals how people use attention to make meaning.

The Archetypes are not personality types or fixed traits.
They are five learnable, flexible ways of seeing and thinking that everyone moves between:

• Ways of noticing

• Ways of interpreting

• Ways of connecting

• Ways of feeling into meaning

• Ways of integrating insight

By observing how these modes showed up in language and interaction, we were able to see how the group thought together — where attention flowed, where it narrowed, and where new insight became possible.

What Became Visible

What emerged wasn’t a hierarchy of thinkers — but a map of attention.

Some participants naturally grounded the group by carefully describing what they saw.
Others moved quickly into interpretation and meaning.
Some connected ideas across culture, history, and context.
Others felt into emotion, atmosphere, and human experience.
At moments, these ways of seeing converged — creating genuinely new insight.

For the first time, the team could see:

• The range of perceptual strengths already present

• Why certain conversations felt energizing — and others frustrating

• How differences in attention were shaping collaboration

The problem wasn’t disagreement.
There was an unnoticed difference in how meaning was being made.

The Shift - once you understand the range of thinking styles available to you

Before

• Fast movement from observation to opinion

• Assumptions shaping interpretation

• Familiar voices setting direction

• Quiet insights staying unspoken

After

• Slower, more deliberate looking

• Curiosity before judgment

• Greater respect for different ways of seeing

• More even participation

• Increased comfort staying with ambiguity

The group didn’t try to align around a single perspective. They learned how to hold multiple perspectives and ways of thinking at once.

Participant Reflection

“I realized we weren’t talking past each other because we disagreed — we were starting from completely different ways of seeing.”

Another participant shared:

“Once I understood how others were paying attention, collaboration felt easier. I could see where my own habits were narrowing the conversation.”

Why This Matters Now

In a world shaped by speed, information, and AI, the challenge is no longer access to answers — it’s how meaning is made.

When teams move too quickly from perception to decision, they mistake speed for insight and risk narrowing their thinking.

The Aesthetic Archetypes™ slow that moment down.

By learning to see before deciding, teams develop:

• Greater clarity

• Deeper listening

• Stronger alignment

• More thoughtful judgment

These skills extend far beyond the image — into meetings, decisions, relationships, and everyday work.

wHAT TO EXPECT

The Outcome

The workshop gave the leadership team:

• A shared language for how they think and see

• Greater appreciation for difference without judgment

• Practical insight into how to structure better conversations

• A foundation for more flexible, inclusive collaboration

What began as a conversation about an image became something larger:
a shift in how the leadership team pays attention — together.

The Takeaway

This work isn’t about better answers.
It’s about better thinking.

When teams learn to look together with deeper awareness, they begin to think together differently.

The Aesthetic Archetypes™ help leaders move beyond silos by making attention, perception, and meaning visible — creating space for insight, connection, and collective intelligence to grow.

FEEDBACK

“Unlocked and refreshed,” Tina, IN O.