Baking cakes in the future

Cake is an uncompromising and raw look at pain and grief. So it is not your happiest kind of film and it certainly isn't a date movie.

It features Jennifer Aniston as you have probably never seen before: in anguish, saggy clothes and no make-up for most of the film. It was rumoured that she was in line for an Oscar nomination but was pipped by someone else. I am not sure her performance was of Oscar standard, but she acts it extraordinarily well. One day, one day, she will shake of the ghost of Rachel.

But go see this movie for its authenticity, narrative & humour which are woven together into a moving mix. It works well and certainly a key ingredient in the mix is the long suffering but deeply loyal & compassionate maid, Sylvana.

This film is a lesson in how difficult it is to 'move on' as the vernacular dictates that we should. Some things (and we eventually learn what it is in this movie) are just so extraordinarily hard to move on from...

Sometimes leaders imagine that people can easily let go of the past and embrace the the future that the leader wants to take them towards. But it isn't so easy. It also about people letting go of the future they thought they were going to have as well as habits and feelings of the past... Great leaders recognise this and build it into their change management plans.

How can you help people let go of hoped for futures?

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This is the seventy seventh of my 2014/2015 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I began doing this (with an update at the end of 2014). Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.

Jupiter rising

Jupiter Ascending is a schlock scifi film with plenty of derring-do, knife edge, cliff edge stunts (that are probably all blue screen these days - I pity the stunt people who I guess are now resting on their broken bones). The story moves at fast pace but with predictable results. One day, they will make a film where the baddies win, as they sadly often do in real life.

The life of an actor must be a curious thing. One day you are being lauded for a superlative performance as a renowned physicist and the next you are being roundly punished for being the baddest baddy in another universe. I wonder which job paid more? This is an enjoyable film for a wet Wednesday afternoon, but not much more.

One of the more surreal episodes in the film centres on the main character having to patiently wait in line for some labyrinthine bureaucratic process to proceed. It is like a scene out of Brazil (Terry Gilliam's wondrous anarchic epic). But what does this have to say about leadership?

I think it shows that the mundane, the tedious, and the excruciatingly picky aspects of life can still inflict themselves upon leaders. And the only thing a leader can do is wait patiently. Rage may be felt, but bureaucracy will always beat rage. Without patience, leaders cannot operate. And whilst impatience is also necessary, patience is an essential attribute of any great leader.

What are you waiting for right now?

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This is the seventy sixth of my 2014/2015 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I began doing this (with an update at the end of 2014). Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.

From King's Speech to Kingsman?

I was not planning on going to see Kingsman: The Secret Service until someone told me she thought it was very funny. I thought that perhaps I had not given this film a chance (based on browsing a few reviews) so I duly toddled along to see it. I wish I hadn't.

This mix of Man from Uncle, Carry on Spying and Men in Black just didn't work for me. It is so 'shock full' of gratuitous violence, cringing stereotypes & jarring mockney accents that I almost walked out. What an earth the stellar cast were thinking of, I fail to understand. Perhaps I am missing something, or just not in the right demographic, I don't know. Maybe if you are a bored teenager in half term it is the go to movie... but there are much better movies around...

This film pivots on paying off debts of honour: never forgetting who helped you to be who you are. Sometimes these debts just happen (as in the film), and sometimes people make a point of creating them. And sometimes we just do things for each other because we want to, with no sense that one day we will want to cash in that favour. That is the basis of altruism.

In my view, excellent leadership is ultimately all about altruism: doing things for others because they are the right things to do. It is never about creating 'debts' that will someday be called in...

As a leader, what was your last truly altruistic act?

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This is the seventy fifth of my 2014/2015 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I began doing this (with an update at the end of 2014). Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.

Big leadership

Big Hero 6 is a fun movie with some excellent animation and some good twists and turns in the story. You know it is going to have a happy ending but the movie goer is left wondering quite how that will come about.

It is a successful blend of buddy movie and scifi which will charm you and make you laugh. It had moments of pathos as well to let you pretend you are not just seeing it for the gags. For an animation of this kind, the narrative is strong enough (just) to maintain interest while delivering some chortles along the way. It is a big marshmallow of a film.

For me the leadership theme is this movie is all about finding the hidden (and not hidden, as well) talents in people: no matter how 'geeky' or weird or whatever they might appear. Good leaders know that everyone has that 'something' that with the right application, desire, sometimes technology and encouragement can be unleashed.

This is a film about how 'ordinary' people are enabled, persuaded and supported to become extraordinary. We all have a superhero inside us. The mark of a great leader is someone who can help people believe in that. Leadership is not about 'me', it is always about 'you'...

How do you approach the challenge of helping someone discover their 'superhero' inside?
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This is the seventy fourth of my 2014/2015 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I began doing this (with an update at the end of 2014). Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.

Procurement blogs: A handy list of past ones

I thought it would be helpful to have a list of my past blogs on procurement and commissioning in one handy place:

• humorous rant about the excesses of procurement
• ideas on reducing costs in local government
• the need for better commercial leadership
• the importance of evidence based procurement
• the beginnings of the SME panel
• why PQQs are never the answer
• smarter procurement
• whole system procurement
• creating SME friendly procurement
• challenging the assumptions of procurement
• accessing the SME friendly tool

And there is also my article in the Guardian on commissioning