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
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