Lessons in teamwork from the Avengers

My family and I saw Avengers: End Game over the weekend (don't worry--no spoilers here!). Then over my Monday morning tea and week ahead planning, I got to thinking: What can the Avengers teach us about teamwork?

It turns out, a lot.

Being a part of a team can be tough, especially when you're used to being a solo act. The Avengers introduced the world to a bunch of superheroes. Each has their unique abilities, motivations, and sparkling personalities. And the most important lesson they have spread is how to get along and function as a team, where collective heroics are celebrated over individual exploits.

KNOW YOUR ROLE: Being good at something is not enough – knowing when, where, how your skills can benefit your team is the key. Each team member should be aware of each others strengths and weaknesses so that when the time comes, you should be prepared work as a team to complete the task. This is very much like the Avengers. Each member of the team serves a different purpose. At macro level, Iron Man is the brain, Hulk is all about anger management and muscle power, Captain America is the moral builder…everyone is known for their own set of skills and abilities.

TRUST ONE ANOTHER: The Avengers always have each other’s backs. Despite being super-skilled individuals, they can’t do everything alone. They don’t always have all eyes on everything that is happening on the battlefield all the time, so the only thing they can rely on is each other.

CONSULT THE TEAM BEFORE MAKING BIG DECISIONS: If you're familiar with the movies, you know how often a cohort of Avengers are huddled before embarking on a new task (they talk things through as a team!). Imagine this: If Tony Stark had just been like, “hey guys, what if I made a super advanced AI program to guard the world so we don’t have to?” then the rest of the Avengers would have gotten to talk it over and maybe Ultron wouldn’t have turned out to be such a jerk.

EVERYONE ON THE TEAM SHOULD HAVE A COMMON GOAL: The reason the Avengers story is such a fascinating one for business leaders is because it’s about a group of exceptional people using their extraordinary skills to achieve a common goal. Team leaders must paint a detailed scenario and give it a solid title or aim. In the heat of the battle it is easy for team members to easily begin to develop sub-agendas and having a focusing sentence and analogy keeps things on track.

REFLECT (AND CELEBRATE SMALL WINS): Many times in business we start the next big project before we reflect on the outcome of the one we just finished. One of the powerful ways to build culture is to have what the military calls an “after action review.” Capture the learning — what did we anticipate well? What surprised us? What process or tools would we change up for the next time. Who did a great job and deserves a timely reward? Who needs some more development work before the next battle?

The reason the Avengers story is such a fascinating one for business leaders is because it’s about a group of exceptional people using their extraordinary skills to achieve a common goal.

No doubt that I missed some angles here and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please comment below or share this article with a comment.