Harry Potter & The Sorting of PY

by Sav Gibbs

Part 1 of 2

More than half of my childhood memories go hand in hand with my childhood obsession with Harry Potter. (Let’s be real– it still hasn’t ended, otherwise, I wouldn’t be writing this.) So when the opportunity arose to get my coworkers to take the Sorting Hat quiz, I jumped at it. For the official tally, we currently have three Gryffindors, three Hufflepuffs, and two Ravenclaws.

In J.K. Rowling’s fictional world, Hogwarts is a magical boarding school for young witches and wizards. At the beginning of each school year, first year students take turns putting on the Sorting Hat. The Hat talks to them telepathically and then announces to the whole room which one of the four Houses within Hogwarts they belong to.

By giving my co-workers this test and observing the outcomes, we can see how we work one-on-one with each other but also how we as a team come together to share values. (But also it’s very fun to think about my coworkers in matching pajamas studying potions in their common room.) And even though we all have different Hogwarts’ house mottos to live by, we try to maintain our own PY motto of “focused, fresh, and fierce.”

Our Ravenclaws, known for their intelligence, creativity, cleverness, and thirst for knowledge, live by the “do what is wise” motto. Our account team members keep us focused while bringing creative, clever ideas to our clients’ social media strategy, copywriting, and overall communications, always with deep thought backing them up. They stay focused.

They are balanced with the Hufflepuffs and their “do what is nice” attitude, who value hard work, dedication, fair play, patience, and loyalty. Our creative team is dedicated to producing thoughtful concepts—even those that require extra patience. Creative work requires a level of trust due to the amount of critiques we give each other, which results in a team built on loyalty and integrity as well as amazingly fresh ideas for our clients.

Our Gryffindors, with their “do what is right” motto, bring bravery, loyalty, courage, adventure, and chivalry to the table. They are the one’s keeping us fierce. Founding a business takes a lot of courage, but Kelly also knows how to be chivalrous when dealing with a client that has an idea outside of their brand standards. We have an unending loyalty to our clients, and they often take us on many unforeseen adventures.

Our workspace ends up quite balanced, and the results show we feel strongly about loyalty, hard work, and creativity.

You may notice that we’re missing the house of Slytherin, known for their arrogance and pridefulness. We’d rather accomplish our tasks intelligently, correctly, and kindly rather than using Slytherin’s “any means necessary” approach to get there, hence, our “no assholes” policy.

Magical or not, honesty, courage, determination, and preparation are all good skills to have at the ready. Who knew that my long-term obsession over the wizarding world would prepare me for how to maximize my relationships with my co-workers.