Professional development in the workplace can come from all kinds of different places. 

If you’re like us, it’s fun to think about lessons from a completely unrelated activity and pull out the “best practices” that are transferable to the workplace and professional development. 

So, with that in mind, we hope you enjoy our first article in our “Strange Workplace Lessons” series:

Strange Workplace Lessons #1: A Bank Heist - Is your team working as effectively as bank robbers? 

Here are 5 lessons from bank robbers that may be helpful for your teamwork and development at work:

1. Experimenting Time vs. Execution Time: A bank heist team puts 95% of their time into running experiments and scenarios and 5% of their time into the actual execution. The team maps out all the different scenarios, test various things that could go wrong, builds their decision trees, and plans for the unexpected...even thinking years out after the day of the job! For your next project at work, can you spend 95% of the time experimenting and thinking about the long term consequences so that your execution is flawless?

2. Get Close and Observe the Problem: A heist team spends a ton of time observing, scouting out the joint, and getting close to the “problem” they are trying to crack. You can’t jump right into a heist...you need to observe all the patterns - the habits of the guards, the traffic patterns for the escape route. Before you solve a problem at work, spend time getting close to the problem and observe your customer in action. What are your users doing? How can you help them and does observing their behavior put you in a better position to assist them?

3. Everyone on the Team Matters: If the getaway driver doesn't get to the pickup point, everything crumbles. If the lock picker forgets the combinations, everything crumbles. In the workplace, individuals cannot hit team based goals. Everyone needs to know their role and contribute to hit the group narrative. Get each other’s back.

4. Stay Cool: If the leader of the heist shows nerves the day of the job or gets frazzled once the team enters the bank, the rest of the team feels that same nervousness. As a leader in the workplace, your emotions are contagious. Be aware of your emotions and understand how impactful they are to the rest of your team.

5. Take the Risk! How many times have you not tried something because of the fear of failure? OK, we probably should put out this disclaimer - please don’t try to rob a bank :)  ...but you have to admit, the people who have tried, they weren’t afraid to fail! They took a chance and they went for it. Whatever new bold idea you have at work, share it! Tell people about it and take the risk of pursuing it as a team.

So, are you and your team working as effectively as bank robbers? :)

Professional development in the workplace can come from all kinds of different places. 

If you’re like us, it’s fun to think about lessons from a completely unrelated activity and pull out the “best practices” that are transferable to the workplace and professional development. 

So, with that in mind, we hope you enjoy our first article in our “Strange Workplace Lessons” series:

Strange Workplace Lessons #1: A Bank Heist - Is your team working as effectively as bank robbers? 

Here are 5 lessons from bank robbers that may be helpful for your teamwork and development at work:

1. Experimenting Time vs. Execution Time: A bank heist team puts 95% of their time into running experiments and scenarios and 5% of their time into the actual execution. The team maps out all the different scenarios, test various things that could go wrong, builds their decision trees, and plans for the unexpected...even thinking years out after the day of the job! For your next project at work, can you spend 95% of the time experimenting and thinking about the long term consequences so that your execution is flawless?

2. Get Close and Observe the Problem: A heist team spends a ton of time observing, scouting out the joint, and getting close to the “problem” they are trying to crack. You can’t jump right into a heist...you need to observe all the patterns - the habits of the guards, the traffic patterns for the escape route. Before you solve a problem at work, spend time getting close to the problem and observe your customer in action. What are your users doing? How can you help them and does observing their behavior put you in a better position to assist them?

3. Everyone on the Team Matters: If the getaway driver doesn't get to the pickup point, everything crumbles. If the lock picker forgets the combinations, everything crumbles. In the workplace, individuals cannot hit team based goals. Everyone needs to know their role and contribute to hit the group narrative. Get each other’s back.

4. Stay Cool: If the leader of the heist shows nerves the day of the job or gets frazzled once the team enters the bank, the rest of the team feels that same nervousness. As a leader in the workplace, your emotions are contagious. Be aware of your emotions and understand how impactful they are to the rest of your team.

5. Take the Risk! How many times have you not tried something because of the fear of failure? OK, we probably should put out this disclaimer - please don’t try to rob a bank :)  ...but you have to admit, the people who have tried, they weren’t afraid to fail! They took a chance and they went for it. Whatever new bold idea you have at work, share it! Tell people about it and take the risk of pursuing it as a team.

So, are you and your team working as effectively as bank robbers? :)


Here are five (5) lessons employees can take from a bank heist and learn about the ways robbers work together that can be transferred to any workplace.

Strange Workplace Lessons...from a Bank Heist?

Wed Sep 29 2021

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