Panis et circenses

The Hunger Games series has gained a broad span of fans: the cinema was full of women & men of all ages to see the 3 films in succession last Wednesday evening. Mockingjay part one did not disappoint although this film is more psychological and satirical than the previous two. The acting is top notch & the special effects seamless.

The film is dedicated to Phillip Seymour Hoffman who tragically committed suicide during filming. His contribution to the movie is immense. This film should be seen by all if only to make people question the media pap we are often fed. But also see it because this story will grip you as you wonder how it will all end. (You may be surprised - if they follow the book...)

There are many models of leadership on display in the film. I will focus on one: Haymitch. (Not who you were expecting?) He is a constant through out the films, always at Katniss' side: advising, goading, distracting, nudging...and drunk most of the time. But without him, the heroine would have died two films ago.

But what makes him a good leader? He is honest & straight in his feedback. He knows what help Katniss needs. When he is needed, he is there. He is setting strategy mindful of many factors. Despite many reasons to be cynical, he rises above that.

Do you have a Haymitch in your life?

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This is the sixty third of my 2014 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I am doing this. Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.

Imagine this: a computer that saved millions of lives

I loved the line in The Imitation Game, used more than once: “Sometimes it’s the very people no one can imagine doing anything who do things no one can imagine”. In our modern day, Alan Turing would be called a geek, perhaps told he had Asberger's... but he would not have been prosecuted for being homosexual and forced to receive hormonal 'treatment' (at least not in progressive countries).

While Ada Lovelace is the mother of computing (and perhaps a film needs to be made of her life too, one day), this is the story of the father of modern computing. Put simply, the work of Mr Turing and his team at Bletchley Park shortened the second world war by at least two years, possibly longer. I can rave about the acting (Benedict Cumberbatch is stupendous and Keira Knightley shows great depth) but I will also rave about the costumes and sets: both superbly done. This is an evocative and provocative film that you simply must go and see.

This film might have been sub titled: Secrets & Sacrifices. In common with most war films, this is a story of sacrifice, but not in the usual way. Part of the sacrifice was to give up, almost for ever, telling the truth. This might sit easily with the agent of MI6 (who adds more humour than I expected to the film), but it does not rest easily with the team of geeks who wrestle with playing God and almost literally rolling the dice.

And so it is for leaders too. Leaders cannot always tell the whole truth for a whole range of reasons. Secrets must sometimes be kept. We all keep secrets: arguably it is what defines being an adult. But leaders have to appear open and transparent even when they know they are not being so. This requires some considerable mental & moral juggling combined with a high degree of care in what is said publicly

As leaders, where do you learn how to do this?

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This is the sixty second of my 2014 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I am doing this. Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.

Magnificent will and lasting testament

I saw Tony Benn: Will and Testament at the Film Place in Buckingham. (It is not the kind of film that I would expect Cineworld to show, although I wish that they would.) As you might expect this is a biographical film about the late, great Tony Benn. Many people on the Left admire him as the one true socialist to ever obtain ministerial office in the UK. Many others (also on the Left) despise him as a loony that kept Labour from power during the dark days of Thatcherite rule. The Right have demonised him also, unsurprisingly.

What comes through in the movie is genial and wise old man who spent his life thinking about what were the right and wrong things to do. You may not always agree with his conclusions but, if you see the film, you cannot doubt his commitment to thinking deeply about the moral questions of our age. This is a reverential film about a historical figure who will one day have a statue in the halls of the Palace of Westminster.

Leaders cannot duck moral questions. We might think we can in the pursuit of better performance, higher efficiency and greater effectiveness but we would be deluding ourselves and those that we lead. Arguably, every leadership decision is a moral one: leaders are constantly juggling in whose interests certain decisions are made or not made.

In the film, Tony Benn talks about his lifelong commitment to fanning two flames: the flame of anger at the injustice in the world, and the flame of hope to make things better in the future. He said that he wanted his epitaph to be "he encouraged us". Shouldn't that a fitting epitaph for all leaders?

How do you encourage people?

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This is the sixty first of my 2014 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I am doing this. Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.

We can all have bad days but...

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is jolly romping slapstick of a movie that I really enjoyed. There are no Oscar winning acting performances (although watch out for the lead boy when he grows older, I think he is gong to be very good), but it is not that kind of film. What is delightful is that it has some unexpected twists and turns, including a cameo performance from the legendary Dick Van Dyke.

Basic plotline: cuckoo in the nest pubescent boy who seems to always have bad days while the rest of his family have perfect ones, wishes his family they could experience a little of what happens to him. And they do... big time! Cue silly moments involving a disastrous driving exam, a drunk Peter Pan & a green marker pen that may to may not be poisonous... It's fun.

The lesson of this film is a very, very simple one: we can all have bad days but it is what you do with them that matters. All (well, almost all perhaps) bad days can be turned into good ones by a combination of grit, team work & loyalty, and a sense of abandon (in for a penny... etc) And the magical "when it's over, it's over... but not until then".

Leaders (and in the case of this film, there are three) have a critical role to play in this creating the environment in which such learning (or what to do with bad days) can occur. Leaders must show their capacity to do this and praise others for doing it too. Leaders also have the responsibility to make it OK for people to make mistakes and have a bad day, sometimes. It is a critical!

When was the last bad day that you had... what did you do with it? And what/who helped you to do that?

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This is the sixtieth of my 2014 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I am doing this. Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.

Zig zagging through love and life

Say When (or Laggies as it is known in the US) wasn't quite the film I was expecting... For a start, I didn't know that it was set in Seattle and Kiera Knightly has an American accent. I spent a good portion of the film wondering where it was going, but maybe that was the point..?

This romcom breaks quite a few rules. For example it mixes 20 something romantic dilemmas with teen something ones in a way I have not met before. It is a cute film, it will keep you guessing, and it will challenge you to wonder about relationships as all good romcoms do. So, I am not very wild about the movie but if you're a Kiera fan (as I am), you will enjoy this.

This is a film about someone finding herself after she realises that she is suddenly out of kilter with the world she inhabits. So she goes to inhabit another world for a short while, to give her a fresh perspective. Although, that is not quite what happens, as the main character's experience is not linear in the narrative. It jumps around.

And I was left feeling that isn't that what life is like anyway? Leaders may like to pretend that improvement and change are linear and progressive but actually it is usually a question of 3 steps forward and 2 steps back in a different direction. So good leaders are flexible and light on their feet, while being patient enough to know that change zig zags around. The general direction is what is important not the specific steps.

When did you last zig zag?
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This is the fifty ninth of my 2014 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I am doing this. Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.

Somewhere, over the horizon...

I went to see InterStellar expecting to be impressed and delighted with a well made film. I was a little anxious about the 169 minute length. I didn't expect to be blown away by the scale, depth and sheer bloomin' humanity of this movie. I cannot praise it highly enough. You must, must, must see this film!! This is a movie I will be telling my grandchildren to watch (when I have some and they have reached a suitable age!)

From one perspective, this is a very straightforward film with a very simple story. From another angle, it is as rich, satisfying and complex as Midsummer Night's Dream, 2001, Mary Poppins, and Dr Zhivago all rolled into one. An unforgettable epic which will change you.

Leaders often talk about a going on a journey as a metaphor for change or transformation. Indeed, I cut my organisational development teeth using the book written by my then boss called "The Journey to Excellence". It is an evocative and practical metaphor.

But as in this film, leadership is not really a journey around the stars, or from A to B. It is in fact, no journey at all because leadership happens inside us. Like the spaceship in the film, leadership is about spinning: turning ourselves around, weaving new perspectives and going deeper... if we allow ourselves to do so.

What is spinning inside you right now?

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This is the fifty eighth of my 2014 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I am doing this. Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.