The Three Musketeers has been made and remade into endless films, some with a Kung Fu twist, some more traditional, like the 1970’s Richard Lester versions starring Richard Chamberlain, Oliver Reed and Michael York. All share the central feature that is loyalty to your friends even when mired in the most difficult situations. Here are the lessons you can draw from the Three Musketeers.
New Staff
D’Artagnan comes to Paris from the sticks to join the musketeers armed only with his father’s sword and a lot of aggression. He purposely picks fights with a number of musketeers, Aramis, Porthos and Athos, to prove he is strong, daring and worthy to join them. This works itself out. The team grows to include D’Artagnan because they all unite against a common competitor, Cardinal Richelieu’s guards.
Team Bonding
The team go to a tavern to get to know each other. There’s nothing that brings a team together more than eating together. People are more themselves when eating, and you find out a lot about co-workers through their eating preferences. With the musketeers, lunch is a little more eventful. They teach D’Artagnan some pretty slick skills as they systematically steal their lunch from a suspicious landlord.
Team Decisions
Milady de Winter is a very troublesome adversity for the musketeers, so much so that they have to make the difficult decision to judge her and have her beheaded in an informal court of law presided over by Athos. Liken this to a team having to make the decision to fire a colleague or contractor. It only works when the team makes the decision together and no one dissents.
In the Face of Adversity
The four musketeers later cement their loyalty to each other, and prove their courage, by eating their breakfast on the front line of the siege of La Rochelle amidst a hail of bullets. While it is their support staff, in the form of D’Artagnan’s servant Planchet, who does all the legwork, the friends look out for each other when under fire and deflect any serious assaults.
Keeping Focus
D’Artagnan gets side-tracked by the beautiful wife of his landlord, Monsieur de Bonancieux. This happens just as the team has to undertake an important project – to recover the Queen of France’s jewels from her lover the English Duke of Buckingham. The reputation of France is at stake and D’Artagnan is dallying with a married woman. His colleagues point out his responsibilities and arrange for Madame Bonancieux to be put out of reach.
One for All and All for One
In the end, each of the musketeers is completely devoted to the working of their little team. Each takes a slightly different role and works hard at it. They also work together to further the aims of the whole team. On the way to England each musketeer gets waylaid by one of Cardinal Richelieu’s agents and each stays behind to ensure the ultimate success of the project, D’Artagnan retrieves the jewels and takes them back to the Queen for her to wear at an important function.
Alayne Valentine leads all team building activities for SEOMAP the experts on keyword strategy.
Photo Credit: MMCBCapes