Superhero Lessons in Analytics — Ep. X

Team Building and Mentoring— Lessons from the X-men

Many readers have noticed X-men in the coming soon area at the end of these articles for a few months. With our 10th installment — Episode X — it was time to quit stalling. There are now at least six X-men movies, depending where you want to lump Wolverine Origins and Deadpool. This provides a rich amount of content to draw from, but let’s stick to the two most obvious. We can always reboot, recast, or time travel in another episode.

Team Building

No franchise says team quite so much as Marvel’s X-men, except when they focus too much on Wolverine. X-men is an ensemble story. So much so, that in collecting images for this article, I kept thinking “oh yeah, that actor played so-and-so”. The comics are even worse, with over 50 years in publication, there are entire databases devoted to the number of issues and giant wikipedia pages dedicated to tracking the number of members and former members. The infographic on the left seems to do a fairly good job of visualizing the history and extent of the team.

Having been around the hallways of corporate analytics for a few decades myself, I could build a similar infographic. Corporate analytic teams are constantly in flux. Although no one has ever offered matching spandex suits…

X-men are mutants. Analysts are bastards. The X-men had a school and a mentor, more on that soon. Analysts are still waiting for their school to arrive.

X-men story lines were often about being outcasts, teen angst, or discrimination. BUT they were always about team building. Teamwork made them super. With some exception, they were a team of role players. So it was only through cooperation and teamwork that they were able to overcome fierce villains like Marketing Department… I mean Magneto.

Mentoring

The X-men were named for their teacher and mentor. The aptly named Professor X, Charles Xavier. Xavier himself was a role player. Perhaps one of the more powerful, but very light in terms of physical prowess and power. With his powerful intellect and commanding bald head (huh?), he was a natural fit as a leader of a rag-tag group of analyst (oops, mutant) misfits.

Professor X has an intriguing role as headmaster of the school and leader of the X-men. His abilities and his students are not the same. Not remotely. Second, he is often relegated to being more of a coach than a leader. Much of his storyline has him confined to a wheelchair and unable to take the field. To me and for this article, that casts him as a mentor more than anything else.

Xavier teaches patience, control, decision making, teamwork, and strong moral obligations. His guidance is often rejected by many of his more difficult students. He also focuses a great deal of attention on his would-be team leaders. If X-men is team first, it is mentor second. Even in those story lines where Professor X has been removed, sidelined, or even killed. Inevitably a new experienced leader rises to take his place.

But whether they are led by X or Magneto, Stewart or McAvoy — the X-men are always at their best with strong mentoring and guidance. Without their mentors, they often lose even a semblance of team. Team work is tossed out entirely. While the comics have occasionally indulged those terrible in-between times, thus far, the movies have avoided that mess.

Analysts should learn from the X-men. Analytic teams are often an ensemble of gifted professionals. These teams require team building and strong mentoring to be successful. The X-men is more than 50 years of fictional modeling. Perhaps not a guide book but certainly inspirational. Thanks for reading and be sure to check out the rest of the series.

The X-men Will Return But Probably Not In Episode XI…

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