There is a business message hidden in the Marvel Avengers film Black Widow. Quite often we hear that companies have employees that are treated like “family,” but not always are the employees actually blood-related. What does it mean to treat your employees like family?
From beginning to end, the movie Black Widow emphasized the importance of family and explored what defines a family. I suppose that family could be defined as a close-knit group of people who support one another no matter what.
The movie begins with a normal-looking family in Ohio with two little girls playing in their suburban backyard, and then the family sitting down for dinner, when the father suddenly announces it is time to go on an adventure. This cute little family then narrowly escapes being gunned down by the police and authorities as their private airplane takes off on the family adventure, where the family is separated physically and emotionally for a couple of decades.
In a healthy family, your unconditional support of family members is tested often, no matter what one does, even when members make bad choices, even when sisters are trying to kill each other, even when you find out none of your family members are blood-related, and even when you feel like throwing your father out of the helicopter.
So, whether you are in a normal family unit, a band of Avengers, a hodgepodge unit bent on the impossible task of saving the world from dictatorship, a workgroup of freed female assassins, or citizens of the free world, you could be in a “family.” Protecting your family members could then become your purpose, even more important than life itself. Family gives meaning to life.
When your company says it treats its employees like family, does that mean that your company will support and protect all the family members, no matter what?
Wrapped in the power of family has given this Avengers movie Black Widow meaning to me. Enjoy the movie. Enjoy your family.