Hello!
There’s an old meme that’s out of rotation at the moment that I was thinking about:
“The most important thing in life is to always be yourself. Unless you can be Batman, in which case, always be Batman."
#art
You’ll have seen it in Instagram posts, Facebook, Twitter and now LinkedIn as it slowly slides from professional network to smug hellscape. It’s inoffensive and funny in a warm eyeroll way, kind of the antithesis of Minions telling us about the Second Amendment or Minions talking about race. I loathe the obsession with Minions, it’s like millennials who talk about Harry Potter like it’s real. If you unironically tweet about ‘not getting your letter to Hogwarts’ let me know so I can block you.
Cultural STD there.
Anyway - why do people want to be like Batman? Then, what can we learn about the Batman and what he does which we can apply to our everyday lives. You know, apart from brooding, punching low level criminals and being a billionaire with an impressive chin. What does Batman do that we can also do, to help us in building excellent products and services?
To the cave!
Ask for help
Starting with perhaps the most important lesson from the Batman we go to the first time a young and vengeful Bruce Wayne ventured out. In Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One we see Bruce get his ass well and truly handed to him, retreating back to the manor he’s faced with a choice, abandon his calling, venture alone or ask for help. He rings the bell to summon his faithful butler Alfred to help dress his wounds and assist in the cause. At the very start, Batman asked a trusted friend for help.
If the Batman can do that, we should be able to do that too. We need to abandon the idea of being lone wolves, individuals wholly focused on doing everything for themselves. We need to engage and speak with those that we trust, experts, friends, family, team members. At each point we should be able to ask for help where we need it. If not, we may not be doomed to failure, but we will certainly find the cause unnecessarily harder just because we’re being stubborn.
If Batman can do it, so can you.
Be the detective
One aspect of the character that’s often forgotten is that Batman is the world’s greatest detective, he doesn’t have superpowers per-se, just wits, cunning, deduction and a net worth larger than most countries. In stories like The Long Halloween and Dark Victory we see the deductive powers and investigatory prowess of the Dark Knight.
When we take on new problems we should gather all the evidence that we can before making informed decisions. Using an informed approach with a methodology that fits the situation makes all the difference.
Lay out all the clues, be it stakeholders, services, competitors, user needs or motivations. Before going ahead with action, define your plan of informed action.
Batman does this, you know you can too.
Surround yourself with a good team
The Dark Knight has one of the best rogues galleries in comics with enemies like Joker, Riddler, Two-Face and Ra’s Al Ghul, but he also surrounds himself with a large cast of associates. The Bat-Family is quite large considering the secret identity of the whole thing. There have been multiple Robins, Batgirl, Batwoman, assorted technical assistants and animals including Bat-Cow, and that’s just in the Batcave.
Each member fulfils a role with Batman at the helm each with a specialism or approach, getting better and growing in their own ways. The team is stronger together.
Together they achieve more, working on projects and cases individually or together wholly depending on the situation. Of course not everyone gets free access to the team, they must fit, prove their worth by adding value, match culturally and be dedicated to the cause.
Of course Batman is also part of other teams including the Justice League where is a member, not a leader. An important difference which needs to be appreciated. Batman isn’t always in charge and will often defer to those with more knowledge or better suited skills to the problem.
Theatrics
Would Batman be a cultural icon if he was a plain old crime fighter? Likely not. What makes him different from law enforcement apart from his unconventional approach? Theatre and presentation.
With a task in mind, Batman understands the stakeholders and the people he interacts with.
Criminals are a terror. Hearts of the night. I must disguise my terror. Criminals are cowardly. A superstitious terrible omen. A cowardly lot. My disguise must strike terror. I must be black. Terrible. Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot. I must be a creature. I must be a creature of the night. - Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
As he understands the stakeholders and actors he becomes stronger and more effective. We can transplant this into our work. Creating resources that are engaging and effective to those we want to convince and influence is paramount. Whilst criminals are superstitious and cowardly, some executives have an eye for fancy charts and moonshots, analysts are detail focused.
What’s the best way to show what’s possible, or what’s the best service? Engage your audience play into what they want to see, but to make yourself truly standout, add some creativity, present data in new ways, walk team members through roleplay, make resources different with pop-culture references. Find the thing that works for you and the problem to hand.
Grit
You have to be pretty determined to dress up in armor with rodent like characteristics and jump off buildings to meet your cause. Whilst I’m not asking you to do that, I want you to be determined and dedicated to what you do.
Find a problem and solve it.
Set a goal and devise a way to reach it.
Grit is passion and sustained persistence applied toward long-term achievement, with no particular concern for rewards or recognition along the way. It combines resilience, ambition, and self-control in the pursuit of goals that take months, years, or even decades. Angela Duckworth’s book on the subject is a must read.
Batman has grit. You have grit too.
What have we learned? Batman would be a fantastic product manager as he supports:
Asking for help
Approach problems methodically
Builds strong teams
Adapts presentation and approach depending on audiences (Batman hates Powerpoint, Bruce probably likes it)
Grit and determination
Following my MA I thought I’d move on to do a Politics PhD understanding the role of the hero mythos in the Western world and get my PhD in Batman - there’s still time.
So this is where we find ourselves, at the end of a blogpost and a lesson - always be yourself, we can all be Batman.
Not as catchy or cringey as Live Laugh Love, but you know, far better than an anti-vaxxing Minion.
See you soon, same bat-blog, same bat-website