In the Harry Potter series, Vernon Dursley, Harry Potter’s abusive uncle, was the director of Grunnings, an organization that manufactured and sold drills.

We don’t learn much about Vernon’s managerial style. In the first book of the series, J.K. Rowling wrote that he shouted at people and made many important telephone calls. At the beginning of the series’ second book, she recounted how Mr. Dursley coached his wife and son about how to flatter a business client while bullying his nephew.

Based on this scant evidence and the way he treated his wife, son, and nephew, Vernon Dursley micromanaged with a vengeance, played favorites, and was impatient with ambiguity. Most consultants would predict that his bullying behavior would force Grunnings out of business within five years. Employee morale would be ground down, the good people would leave, and lousy customer service would drive business away.

But Grunnings was in business for at least seventeen years. Moreover, the company was profitable enough so the Dursleys could live in a wealthy neighborhood, entertain lavishly, buy their son way too many expensive gifts while sending him to a yuppy boarding school. How could we consultants be so wrong?

We’re not totally wrong. Bad bosses can contribute to bringing about bad behavior amongst those they lead. Organizations with sound diversity, inclusion, and equity practices outperform those that don’t. Yet Grunnings-type organizations grind along quite successfully.

One of my mentors often said that those supporting others to get better at what they do should identify key strengths that can be built upon to change things for the better. So what were the strengths of Grunnings and its director?

Everyone knew why Grunnings was in business: drills, baby, drills. A mission around which everyone can rally makes it easier for employees to adjust to the bad stuff that goes on in every organization. Vernon Dursley might have harnessed the skills he used to create prisons from which Harry Potter could not escape without help from a half-giant, a flying car, a hovering aunt-balloon, and an exploding fireplace to build a product that was much better than that of his competitors. Vernon understood how to cultivate a client and close a sale — valuable skills that he could drill into Grunnings’s salesmen. (I can’t imagine him hiring any women.)

So Grunnings-type organizations are often quite successful — good news since there is more than a little bit of Grunningsness in every organization.

More good news: Vernon Dursleys of the world can change. At the beginning of the series, Vernon was hostile towards everything magical, but he, his wife, and son left their predictable, comfortable lives to live with a wizard and a witch towards the end of the series in order to hide from the evil Lord Voldemort.

I wonder how Vernon’s leadership style changed as a result of this experience.

And how we might learn from changes swirling around us while supporting others to do the same.