What if I told you that a prestigious international competition that ended with a student's death and Voldemort's return could have been prevented with basic project management?

The Triwizard Tournament is one of the most spectacular project management failures in the Harry Potter series. It had everything: high stakes, international collaboration, media attention, a binding deadline and absolutely zero proper planning.

No risk assessment. No security protocols. No contingency plans. No communication strategy. Just vibes and hope.

In this deep-dive episode, I'm breaking down exactly what went wrong with the Triwizard Tournament and what it teaches us about managing complex projects in our businesses. Because if you've ever launched something without proper planning and watched it spiral into chaos, this episode is going to hit different.

In this episode:

• The 5 catastrophic project management failures of the Triwizard Tournament (and they're all preventable)
• Why Hogwarts brought back a deadly competition with no risk assessment and what happened because of it
• How a compromised selection process should have stopped the entire tournament (but didn't)
• The complete absence of a communication plan and how it damaged trust with all stakeholders
• What a proper project management approach would have looked like (and how Cedric might still be alive)
• How to apply crisis contingency planning to your own business launches and projects

Content note: This series uses Harry Potter as a case study for business operations failures. Familiarity with the Triwizard Tournament storyline enhances the experience but isn't required to get the business lessons.

What if I told you that one of the most brilliant wizards in literary history was actually a terrible operations manager? And that his mistakes are probably the same ones you're making in your business right now?

I'm kicking off a new series where we dissect the operational disasters at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and extract real business lessons you can actually use. No magic required.

In this inaugural episode, I'm breaking down why Albus Dumbledore, visionary leader, strategic genius, beloved headmaster, desperately needed an Online Business Manager. He was juggling four major leadership roles, keeping critical information siloed in his own head, and running an entire resistance movement with zero documentation. When he died? Organizational collapse.

In this episode:

• Why Dumbledore's death caused complete organizational chaos (and what that reveals about single points of failure in your business)
• The 4 core things an OBM would have done for Dumbledore and how they apply to your business operations
• How to identify if you're the Dumbledore of your business (spoiler: if nothing is documented and you can't take a vacation, you are)
• The difference between being a doer and being a leader and why you can't scale while doing everything yourself
• Real examples of Hogwarts operational disasters: the Triwizard Tournament, the Horcrux plan, and succession planning failures
• What strategic operations management actually looks like (hint: it's not just task management)

Content note: This series uses Harry Potter references and examples to illustrate business operations concepts. You don't need to be a superfan to get the lessons, but it definitely makes it more fun if you are.

Here's the tea: You can have all the ClickUp templates and automation workflows in the world, but if you don't understand WHY you operate the way you do, you're gonna keep hitting the same walls.

This episode is about the thing nobody wants to talk about in business: how the way you were raised shows up in how you run your company. The underpricing. The inability to delegate. The people-pleasing. The perfectionism that keeps you from launching. None of that is random. It has roots.

In this episode:

• The common childhood dynamics that shape how you do business (and why they're both strengths and limitations)
• How hypervigilance, conditional self-worth, and over-functioning show up in your pricing, boundaries, and client work
• Real examples of what these patterns look like in business situations
• Reflection questions to help you identify what you're repeating and what needs to change

A note: This episode discusses childhood emotional dynamics and may bring up feelings. Take care of yourself while listening.

Want to process this further? Send me a DM on Instagram @its.debbiej and let me know what landed. This work is vulnerable, and we need community around it.