Leadership Lessons from "Room on the Broom" on Diversity and Inclusion

Last weekend my two daughters insisted on some TV time and BBCs "Room on the Broom" became their pick of the day. Many of you will be familiar with the plot, but I’ll summarise it for everyone‘s benefit:?

The story starts with a well-established team of a kind and forgiving witch and her grumpy cat, who is very set in its ways. Just returning from a failed project which literally blew up in their faces, are cruising on their broom. Over the course of their trip, the witch, who appears to be a bit clumsy, drops first her hat, then her hair-tie and finally her wand. Every time they zoom down to the ground to search for the lost item, they encounter a new character, helping to retrieve what was lost and keen to join their team. First a dog, a keen loyal team player, then a shrieky Green bird, outcast by its kind for being different and lastly a frog with OCD who looks down on his own kind for sitting in the mud eating bugs. The team has a hard time coming together, as their quirks keep testing each other’s tolerance levels. Despite struggling to even take flight with the growing entourage, the witch let’s one after the other join them on the broom with no conditions and no hesitation.

As the story arc nears its peak, a mighty dragon appears, just as the old broom snaps in half, separating the team of cat, dog, bird and frog from their leader. The dragon, determined to have “Witch ‘n Chips” for lunch, gives chase to the witch on her half broken broom and hunts her down. Pinned against a rock-face with nowhere to go, the witch faints as she realizes her inescapable fate.

Just as the dragon is about to take off with its prey, a scary, many-headed monster emerges from the swamp and scares the dragon off with gruesome growls, shrieks, hisses and croaks, rescuing the witch from becoming a dragon snack. Of course the swamp monster is none other than the fearless, stacked-up team of cat, dog, bird and frog, who had finally managed to set aside their differences and came together as a team using their different talents to pull of this last minute rescue.

This children’s story for me holds a lot of wisdom and lessons on leadership. Not only is the witch a great example of kind-hearted leader, but as readers we also learn a great lesson about diversity and it’s value for highly effective teams. Would the witch have given in to the cat’s push not to load more passengers on the broom, it might have been a more pleasant ride without bumps, noise quarrels and quirks - but whether the cat by herself could have turned around the dragon situation is highly questionable.

In the end of the story we find a lovely example what inclusion is about when the witch recreates her broken broom. She uses a personal ingredient from each of her team members to customise their new “workplace” and accommodate everyone’s unique needs and preferences: Armchairs for witch, cat and dog, a nest for the bird and a shower for the OCD frog, so that everyone has the environment they need to thrive.

?I would work for that witch any day, wouldn’t you?