What does a movie about a team of superheroes — scientists, soldiers, magicians, monsters, androids, and aliens — who collaborate to try to stop the destruction of half of all life in the universe have to do with business? I didn’t expect to see a connection, but when I watched Avengers: Infinity War, I found it was like watching a dramatized version of my daily working life. My colleagues and I help teams of committed leaders — businesspeople, politicians, civil servants, trade unionists, journalists, activists, academics, and artists — collaborate to address their most important and difficult challenges. The movie helped me see more clearly some of the central dynamics in such efforts.
For example, our work with the Mexico Education Lab has several crucial parallels to the movie. Mexico needs to improve its education system to meet the needs of its diverse population and its developing economy. High school graduation rates and test scores are low, and conflict among education authorities, teachers unions, and civil society organizations is high. Successive governments have attempted ambitious reforms, but these reforms have often been reversed when new administrations have come to power.
The Education Lab is an effort to address these complex challenges in a new way. Fifty leaders from across the system — including federal and state ministers of education and other government officials, teachers union and parents association leaders, politicians, principals, teachers, entrepreneurs, academics, and activists — have been working together for a year. Their objective is not just to meet and talk but to act together to transform the system.
Thinking about the challenging work we’ve been doing in the Education Lab, here are some lessons I believe the Avengers movie offers. Be warned: There are spoilers.
A superteam to the rescue
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Spring 2020 من strategy+business.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Spring 2020 من strategy+business.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Transforming information into insight
Focus on six organizational elements to build a world-class data and insights capability.
THE URGENT NEED FOR SOPHISTICATED LEADERSHIP
The pandemic has highlighted a series of paradoxes inherent to the work of leaders. What comes next will depend on how well leaders face up to them.
The road to successful change is lined with trade-offs
Rather than trying to convince people your change initiative is the right one, invite them to talk openly about what it might take to implement it: the good, the bad, and the frustrating.
Sustaining productivity virtually
Maintaining productivity levels among remote employees is an enduring challenge. Here are five ways to help businesses and employees thrive while people work at home.
FORWARD TO normal
Entertainment and media companies are building business models that are resilient to the enduring changes in consumer behavior ushered in by COVID-19.
How leaders can promote racial justice in the workplace
Embrace four principles to turn today’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives into sustained progress.
CREATING THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE
In a remodeled world, it is vital for companies to reinvent ways of working.
Consumer companies must take leaps, not steps
As shoppers show how quickly they can adapt to external shocks, retailers will need to radically reconfigure their business models.
Businesses can fast-track innovation to help during a crisis
“Unrealistic” timelines can actually work. Here’s how.
Agility and experience management work better together
Many companies achieve early wins with separate transformational efforts, then stall. But if combined and enhanced using “return on experience,” or ROX, measures, these two programs can unlock each other’s potential.