Superman

Act like
an Icon

How to master your world by roleplaying your heroes

Find your super powers

Remember playing pretend as a child? When you dressed up as your favorite character and became bold, fearless, and powerful?  Imitating a role model and imagining what they would do are innate abilities we all possess, even as adults. And, in truth, most of us never stop pretending. 

But what if you could channel these innate abilities in order to adopt new perspectives, communicate more effectively, try new behaviors,  empathize more, and be a better version of yourself? 

We act like different versions of ourselves every day. Now it’s time to try acting like an icon. 

 

MORE ABOUT THE THEORY

How to use the Icons

01

Speaking Up

When the environment is not conducive to speaking freely, people can express concerns by asking “What would this person do?” to help people break their own frames of thinking.

02

Brainstorming

Generating ideas becomes much more productive, rich, and fun when you get in character and think the way geniuses think.

03

Dialogue

Because this method separates message from messenger, it allows uncomfortable conversations to occur in a detached and easy manner. As a result, people can speak freely without fear of being hurt or hurting others.

04

Team building

Use the profiles in all stages of team development to assess the personality types and working styles on the team and ascertain the team’s blind spots without the use of a proprietary instrument.

05

Skill building

Individuals simply choose which character exhibits the behavior they want to learn and then they imitate it. Coaching and feedback become easier because they focus on mastery of the character rather than personal strengths and weaknesses.

06

Breakthroughs

Have you ever wondered what you would be like if you could get out of your own head? Trying on another persona gives your permission to behave in unexpected ways.

See the icons for yourself!

01
Military

Ulysses S. Grant

Lesson: Use strategy, determination, and flexibility to achieve a difficult end goal.

02
CEO

Steve Jobs

Lesson: Use magical thinking, perfectionism, and obsessive behavior to create iconic products (or results)

03
activist

Mohandas Gandhi

Lesson: To achieve self-realization for yourself and others

04
Genius

Albert Einstein

Lesson: Think great thoughts by bucking convention, trusting your own beliefs, and being open to opportunities.

VIEW ALL ICONS

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©Act like an Icon 2025

Instructions

Here are some suggestions for using the icons. Click on the i icon to open this box again.

One-on-Conversations

The icons are useful when conducting any kind of port mortem or difficult conversations, like project, progress, or performance reviews. 

Each person chooses a card that reflects the perspective he wants the other to hear. One person shows the card, and, together, both brainstorm the feedback that the persona would give. Repeat using the second person’s chosen card. Both compare and contrast the feedback and agree on lessons going forward. If deadlocked or otherwise desired, they can choose a third card and perform the feedback again

Expectations Setting

Use the icons at the start of project or with a team to understand each person’s default behaviors and identify potential conflicts.  

Each person chooses three cards: one that best represents her, one that she would most like to work with on the project, and one she would least like to work with. Each discusses her picks and agrees to actions for working together.

Team building

The goals are to create awareness of missing skills and traits on the team, use the personalities to fill those gaps, and to improve team creativity by role-playing other perspectives.

Review the cards to determine which personas the team needs but is lacking. Conducting the expectations setting exercise first may help. Create virtual seats for these leaders and assign team members the responsibilities for representing these perspectives.

 

Brainstorming

During brainstorming, choose cards at random and generate ideas as the leader personas. Alternately, team members can act as the leaders during the meetings.

Meeting feedback

At the end of the meeting, each participant, including the meeting leader, chooses a card, either randomly or deliberately, and takes turns providing feedback in the manner of the personality. Alternately, the meeting leader can choose cards at random and ask participants for feedback in that leader’s perspective.

Personal Development (method acting)

1. Look through the profiles and read the summary sections with the lessons, goals, principles, traits, and values. Find one that “speaks” to you or that has a lesson you could use at the moment. Liking the person or sharing that person’s values is irrelevant, though it may require slightly more effort on your part.

2.  Keep in mind that you control the experience and can adopt as much or as little as you feel comfortable doing. Most of the changes you will be making will be internal, in your thought processes and resultant behaviors, and you are not expected to impersonate someone outwardly like you would for Halloween or a play.

3. Explanation of sections:

  • To get into character– This section describes clothing, speech, and eating habits to adopt. The purpose of this is to break out of your routine and ingrained patterns of behavior. If you start the day eating or dressing differently, you will be more likely to act differently. Use your judgment to determine the extent of the changes needed to change your habits without being disruptive.
  • Activities Alone – Conduct these activities first as they are meant to help you get into character and better understand that person’s values and motivation. They are also indicative of activities the character performs on a regular basis. Again, use your judgment regarding which activities make sense for you, but please make sure you do at least some.
  • Activities with Others – Again, choose which activities pertain most to your situation. These are an excellent opportunity to practice being your persona and solicit advice from others on “What would this person do?”
  • Behaviors – While activities are one-off or have a concrete start and end, the behaviors and questions should be ongoing when you are enacting the profile.

4. It should take you somewhere between 1-3 weeks to master the character. We recommend that you plan on two weeks, and continue if you need more time to fully internalize the persona. Thinking like the persona or exhibiting their behaviors without thinking are signs that you have internalized the skills. We encourage you to tell the people you are with what you are doing so that they can help you master the character and provide feedback. It’s perfectly acceptable to ask others what they think that person would do.

5. If you have trouble getting started or feel stuck, just ask yourself “What would this person do?

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