Stop assigning people “jobs” and start recognizing patterns. Here’s how teams really work together.

Nobody shows up to work and says, “I’m a Scrum Master” or “I’m a Product Owner.” with anything other than fear and imposter syndrome. Strict roles just aren’t how work actually works. They are a convenient fiction. False certainty. Self-defeating.

Sure, you can give people those titles. You can write job descriptions. You can put org chart boxes around names. But on any given day, hell, in any given hour, you’re playing five or six different roles simultaneously, not because someone told you to, but because the work demands it.

Or because you’re inspired. Or because you notice something nobody else sees. Or because that’s just how you showed up today.

It’s easier for organization to call these roles. They’re archetypes. They’re patterns. They’re mindsets that create the ability for teams to operate together. When you make one person a role and only that role can provide a function, that person is an instant bottleneck.

And when you start seeing patterns of professional action instead of enforcing rigid job descriptions, you get fluidity. People step up when they’re needed, step back when they’re not, and the team moves like water instead of grinding like gears.

Flow requires fluidity…go figure.

So, 8 Archetypes then…Fêter le Vague

Here are 8 archetypes. They are rough, they are useful, they are incomplete. They are … necessary to get us out of the ruts in which we find ourselves, waiting … waiting … for permission, for information, for action. These are 8 archetypes for obeya, for kanban, for waterfall, for doing anything that people do. These are traits people have, no person is one archetype, all people are mixtures at different times.

1. The Host: Reading the Room

The Obeya Association calls this the “Obeya Host”. his is the person who tends to facilitate meetings, maintain psychological safety, and handle group dynamics.

Mindset: “How is everyone actually doing right now?”Interaction: Notices who’s speaking and who’s silent, addresses tension before it festersFocus: Social dynamics and psychological safetyBehaviors: Adjusts meeting formats when they get stale, checks in with quiet voices, names uncomfortable truths

The Builder: Curating the Space

Also from the Obeya Association. This is the person curating content and curating space.

Mindset: “What information do we need visible right now?”Interaction: Designs spaces so the right visualizations reach the right people at the right timeFocus: Information architecture and visual systemsBehaviors: Updates boards, creates new visual controls, rearranges physical/digital spaces to improve flow

The Sensemaker: Navigating Complexity

This is the person who notices when things get complex, and then helps guide the team through that complexity.

Mindset: “This is actually complex. We need to experiment.”Interaction: Helps teams recognize when they’re facing genuine complexity versus merely complicated problemsFocus: Structured thinking about messy situationsBehaviors: Proposes experiments, designs small tests, helps teams learn from ambiguity without premature conclusions

The Weaver: Connecting the Threads

We talk all the time about how teams need to understand corporate strategy, project direction, and interrelationships with other teams. The Weaver naturally does this.

Mindset: “How does this connect to everything else?”Interaction: Links daily decisions back to strategic direction and other teams’ workFocus: Context and alignment across boundariesBehaviors: References the X Matrix or strategic goals, talks to other teams, connects dots others miss

The Processor: Doing the Deep Work

The Processor is about deep thinking and having direct impact on how we visualize our work.

Mindset: “Let me think this through completely.”Interaction: Takes complex information and transforms it into clear, actionable visualsFocus: Cognitive heavy lifting that makes collaboration possibleBehaviors: Builds detailed visual systems, works independently on complex analysis, creates clarity from chaos

The Witness: The Long Payoff

This one’s subtle, and we get it wrong constantly. The Witness is quiet, reflective, but sees patterns nobody else notices.

Mindset: “I’m watching everything, processing deeply.”Interaction: Mostly observes, but speaks up at critical moments with pattern observationsFocus: Long-term pattern recognition across timeBehaviors: Sits quietly in meetings, does work alongside others, occasionally delivers devastating insights that shift everything

We tend to undervalue these people because they don’t participate “enough.” We have a bias toward action, so we focus on the people talking all the time and discount the people who are helpful yet quiet.

But the Witness is the long payoff, high return investment.

The Guardian: Noticing the Invisible

The Guardian notices when people are running out of energy. When someone’s getting uncomfortable. When something in the environment needs adjustment.

Mindset: “Is everyone really okay?”Interaction: Watches for burnout, discomfort, and environmental issues that affect team healthFocus: The human side of work between the meetingsBehaviors: Checks in privately with struggling team members, suggests breaks, notices subtle morale shifts, adjusts environment before problems escalate

The Navigator: Holding Course

The Navigator is always connecting plans to actions and actions to consequences.

Mindset: “Where are we, and where did we say we were going?”Interaction: Keeps team honest about commitments while clear-eyed about when circumstances demand course correctionFocus: Operational awareness and stakeholder communicationBehaviors: Tracks what was planned versus what’s happening, notices when things change, communicates shifts to stakeholders

Fluidity Over Rigidity

When you have all eight of these archetypes present, they aren’t assigned roles they’re just how people naturally respond to information, work, and change. When people get that their diversity is a strength for the team you get fluidity….you get them acting in needed and appropriate ways at appropriate times.

Nobody has to be locked into a single role. Everyone can step up and embody what the team needs in that moment.

The work demands a host? Someone hosts. The work demands sensemaking? Someone makes sense. The work demands someone to notice patterns? The Witness speaks up.

You can be a Guardian and a Host and a Witness and a Processor all at the same time, depending on what the moment demands.

After watching teams for decades now, I’ve seen a million project managers and maybe 100,000 of them had that title. People just did what was needed, or, if they couldn’t the team suffered. This is how successful teams actually operate. Through dynamic pattern recognition and fluid response (This is a fancy way of saying the see things that need to be done and they do them without fear or hesitation).

These eight archetypes give teams the ability to act with confidence because everyone knows: these patterns exist, these needs emerge, and collectively we can meet them.

Not because someone’s job description says so.

Because the work demands it, and we’re paying attention.

Want to dive deeper into Obeya and visual management? Check out our Modus Institute calendar for upcoming workshops on building teams that adapt instead of fracture.

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