10 Things Every Manager Should Learn from "LOST"

An island full of plane-crash survivors and mystery might not strike you as the best place to learn management lessons, but the fact is that "LOST" has much to teach about leadership. A great deal of the story focuses on the struggle between leaders and their groups, and how the choices they make impact the entire island. Read on to find out what you can learn from "LOST," and how you can apply these lessons to your own management skills.

Make alliances. The survivors of "LOST" have found much help from outside sources by forming alliances. Sayid's relationship with Rousseau has been particularly helpful, as she's been the group's native guide to the island in many episodes. Even Michael, in a bloody and roundabout way, has worked with Ben to help protect the people on the island.

These sort of relationships can be translated into a management setting in the form of knowledge-sharing between departments, such as cross training. The bonds created by forming alliances between groups can prove useful when your team needs help.

Find success as a team. Throughout "LOST," Jack has constantly reminded the survivors that on the island, you "live together, die alone." In the days immediately following the crash, characters worked as individuals, fending for themselves unsuccessfully. But when they started to collaborate, their lives began to flourish. In a larger group as well as in small teams, the survivors have worked to find resources, overcome personal difficulties, protect themselves and solve some of the mysteries of the island.

As a manager, you should encourage your team to band together in this way so that they can achieve something greater than they'd be able to on their own.

Follow your instincts. On the island as well as in business, it's not always easy to see the truth behind the matter, so it's important that you trust your instincts. When Ben infiltrated the survivors under the guise of his own tragedy, many were easily swayed, but Sayid knew that Ben was not to be trusted. Without Sayid's good judgement, Ben could have caused much more harm than he actually did.

As a manager, it's important that you trust your gut when making decisions for your team. If something doesn't feel right to you, take a closer look.

Expect the unexpected. Perhaps one of the most common themes on "LOST" is that anything can happen. After all, who would expect a polar bear to appear on a tropical island? With all of its revelations, explosions, deaths and attacks, the show embodies the unexpected.

The business world can be filled with just as many ups and downs and unplanned events. One of your main suppliers could suddenly go out of business, or you could come into an office that's been flooded by a broken water main. Whatever happens, learn to stay calm and roll with the punches. Managers who can adapt to extreme and ridiculous situations will be the most successful in the long run.

Never assume you know everything. As a leader, it's easy to feel like you're aware of all the happenings in your workplace, but the fact is that a lot goes on behind your back. Juliet planned for Jack to kill Ben in surgery, stealthily communicating with Jack right under Ben's nose, and Locke and Boone had almost made it into the hatch before Jack found out what was going on. These are situations that Ben and Jack really should have known about, but didn't.

When working as a leader, you have to be ready and able to deal with secrets that come out, such as an unhappy co-worker or unknown inter-office romances.

Use available resources. The people on the island could not have continued to survive without taking advantage of the resources made available to them. Sawyer constructed glasses out of lost pairs found in the wreckage, and Sun found plants with medicinal uses. Everything from the fresh water stream to the Black Rock dynamite has contributed to the survivors' existence. Making use of these resources provided survivors with a healthier, safer life.

In business, it's important that you do the same and make use of every resource you can. Always be on the lookout for something that you can make useful, whether it's extra room in the budget for a new team member or a spare office.

Take advantage of employees' skills. On "LOST," viewers learn that nearly everyone has a skill from their past that makes them useful on the island. For example, Jack is a doctor, Kate can track and Sayid is an interrogator.

It's your job to identify and make use of your team members' skills. Few thought that Charlie was very helpful, but he was able to use his musical ability to break the keypad code in the looking-glass station. Hurley was turned away many times because of his size, but he saved the day on the beach with the Volkswagen van he fixed with his mechanical skills. Make it a priority to allow your team members to contribute, and you just might be surprised about what they bring to the table.

Stay organized. Crash landing on an island in the middle of nowhere is certainly a chaotic situation. One way the survivors helped get things under control was through organization. They searched through the wreckage to find supplies, took inventory of food stores they found in the hatch and used the on-board passenger list to root out the Others.

Your office environment can be just as chaotic if you don't take steps to get yourself organized and pulled together. Whether you're leading meetings or trying to get resources together for a project, organization skills are essential to be an effective and respected manager.

Be trustworthy. Currently, Jack's status as the leader among the survivors has faltered because of his involvement with the Others, as well as his relationship with Juliet. As a result, the survivors have been split, with many opting to follow Locke instead of Jack. It still remains to be seen which group will be the safest, but the implication of Jack's loss of leadership remains.

Learn from his mistake and be careful about your actions and with whom you associate. It's vitally important that your team has faith in your ability to reason and manage them effectively. If they see you making what they perceive to be a mistake, your status as a strong leader will suffer.

Learn from the past. Many characters on "LOST" have troubled pasts, like Kate who killed her stepfather and was being transported in handcuffs back home, or Sawyer who has spent his life as a professional con man, or Locke who was paralyzed by his father prior to the crash. Even Jack has struggled with his demons, going through a divorce, dealing with the death of his alcoholic father and struggling to find happiness. The flashbacks on the show help viewers understand the backgrounds of each character and give reasons for their actions on the island. Some of these characters learn to grow and learn from their pasts, while others are nearly destroyed by them.

As a manager, you are in a unique position to let the past shape how you choose to deal with business in the future. The history of any business is riddled with mistakes, and while they may not be as sad as getting scammed out of your kidney by your deadbeat father like Locke, they can still weigh heavily on your team. Remember to learn from the mistakes that have been made instead of dwelling on them in the future.

While you may never find yourself stranded on an island in the Pacific, you can use the lessons from "LOST" to survive your own office jungle. Follow the characters' example and learn from mistakes as you make use of the people on your team and navigate the world of business. And no matter what you're doing, realize that it's still easier than trying to survive on a dangerous island.

Source: HR World