Stories Reveal Systems: Using Harry Potter as a pathway to understand The Ideal Team Player

A few months ago, I read Patrick Lencioni’s The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues.  He uses a narrative to present what he believes to be the most important qualities for an ideal team player: Hungry (motivated or driven); Humble (not greedy, concerned with status or selfish) and Smart (in interacting with other people, empathetic and plays well with others).  These three virtues/skills can be learned and cultivated in everyone’s life.  The ideal team player is strong in all three of these behaviors and can be found where the three circles overlap. 

For a summary of Lencioni’s book and definitions for labels on the diagram, click here (link).

The Ideal Team Player material is fascinating and I thought it would be interesting to share with the older kids on our mission team (6^th-9^th grade).  I was pretty sure they would enjoy it, but I didn’t want to present it in a way that was merely theoretical or based on stories from my own experience.  I wondered if it would be possible to use a case study to lead them through a journey of discovery and wanted them to apply these ideas by exploring it from the angle of characters and stories they are all familiar with (I'm a big believer in leadership case studies and the power of fiction - see here, here and here).  After considered asking for examples from Star Wars or Ninjago or books they’ve read, it hit me that J.K. Rowling’s materials were a treasure trove of developed characters to choose from that all of us were familiar with.  It ended up being an even richer experience than I imagined!

I began by presenting Lencioni’s ideas, definitions, and his Venn diagram to them and then we tried to place different characters from the Harry Potter stories in their proper locations.  Check out what we came up with:

Some of the characters were easier for us to place than others.  Gilderoy Lockhart is obviously a “Charmer.” And Professor Umbridge occupies the position that Lencioni believes to be the most dangerous spot on the board: “Skillful Politician.”  But other characters were harder to place.  For example, we realized that Neville begins in the category of “Pawn” but learns to assert himself and moves towards the intersection of all three virtues (this led to a discussion on how people can grow and change for the better). Harry is in the center of the map, but was often tempted to move out of that space (here we recognized that it takes vigilance to remain an ideal team player).  The kids had fun noting similarities in the origin stories of Voldemort and Dumbledore and the differences in their life choices (we noticed that having good parents or a loving community could put someone in a position to succeed and move towards the center of the diagram). We even had fun guessing where the Hogwarts’ sorting houses would be located on the diagram (our guesses… Slytherin-Hungry; Hufflepuff-Humble; Ravenclaw-Smart; and, of course, Gryffindor-Ideal).

Using the Harry Potter story to reveal and better understand Lencioni’s system helped us then move into the practical questions of how the kids themselves would define what it means to be hungry, humble, and (people) smart in their own school setting?  The Harry Potter story helped us bridge the gap from Lencioni’s theory to practice – what it would look like to make use of these principles in a company, on a mission team, a group of interns, students working on a project together.  It led to reflection on how this knowledge not only helps us to be better team players but also helps us identify the kind of team players that we want to work with. 

After using the Harry Potter story, I gave everyone time to reflect individually on their own story:  Where are you on this chart?  Where are your strengths and weaknesses?  What circle has the strongest gravitational pull for you (Hungry, Humble or (People) Smart)?  How can you improve and move towards becoming an Ideal team player?  How can we respond to the challenge to cultivate these virtues?

I really like the way Lencioni’s book (which also, we should remember, uses a narrative to present these concepts!) ends with a reflection on the story of Jesus and how Christ’s story also reveals the truth in his system.  The Ideal Team Player ends with a final thought that points to Jesus as the embodiment of all of these virtues – especially the key virtue of humility.

“The most compelling example of humility in the history of mankind can be found in Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.  He attracted people of all kinds when he walked the earth, and continues to do so today, providing an example of humility that is as powerful as it is countercultural.  And so, it is my hope that readers of this book will take something else away with them and apply it in their lives: an appreciation for the true gift that it is to be humble and the divine origins of that virtue.” (215)

From start to finish, Lencioni uses stories to reveal his system, and Abby, Ellie, Maggie, Luke, Andrew and I found that the Harry Potter story was a helpful and enjoyable way to explore this material together. 

Grace and Peace,

Alan

P.S. Special thanks to Ellie Howell for the drawings of these diagrams!