Thursday 28 May 2015

Perfectly pitched

Pitch Perfect 2 is a swell movie! You will swell with the glorious music on show: some really excellent 'a cappella' arrangements (indeed, I am probably about to purchase the soundtrack). You will swell with laughter: there are some peach lines, especially those delivered by the two commentators ("See, that is what happens when you allow girls to go to college!") And you will swell with joy as you watch how the Barden Bellas rediscover their mojo & harmony.

This is a second movie that is better than the first in my view. The comedic timing is terrific, cinematography exceptional and whilst the narrative is predictable, there are (just) enough twists and turns to keep you keen. Who run the world? Currently (as said elsewhere), it is the Barden Bellas! Go see this.


Movies should be 'feel good' in my opinion. Of course, there are great movies that remind you bitterly of what a terrible world this can be. But I enjoy movies like Pitch Perfect because they are crafted to make you believe that the world is often and could be far more a beautiful & harmonious place.

Leadership is about not only making people believe things can be better, but also shaping efforts to make it a reality. Unlike a movie, leadership goes on well beyond two hours. The art of leadership is in focusing upon the details and the broader, longer picture in order to bring about change.

As a leader, how are you choreographic and music production skills? Do you lead a choir or a cacophony?

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This is the ninety third 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.

Monday 25 May 2015

Just imagine

Tomorrowland is a wonderfully magical, positive and uplifting film that I urge you to go and see. OK, from a purist scifi perspective, the narrative does not quite hold together (which I cannot unpack without spoiling the movie) but that doesn't really matter. Just climb aboard the jet-pack to the future and imagine a better world.

Hugh Laurie has some of the best lines in the film, so listen out for those. George Clooney is fabulous of course and balanced well by Britt Robertson. But the real star who blew me away was Raffey Cassidy: she has such presence for a young girl. Delivering some of the lines she has to say next to George Clooney took amazing skill. For no other reason, go and see this movie just for her acting alone! This is Disney at their best: enchanting but with a powerful deep message of which we should all take heed.


Near the beginning of the film, there is a discussion about how the shape of lives is determined by which inner wolf we feed: the wolf of darkness & despair or the wolf of light and hope. This is probably the most critical challenge for any leader: how to temper optimism with realism without plummeting into pessimism. It is a fine line to tread. A very fine line...

The way in which leaders dream is often via the medium of mission statements. And the best one I know of, and which is very germane to this film, is JFK's "we will put a man on the moon in ten years". This statement was understandable, believable, communicable and usable while being inspiring all at the same time! Perhaps a good example of dreaming with reality in mind...

As a leader, how do you express your dreams?

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This is the ninety second 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.

Monday 18 May 2015

Rock Paper Scissors

I am not sure if I managed to miss Top Five when it first came out or it has only just hit Milton Keynes. Whatever is the case: this is a transcendentally honest and raw movie with some of the most moving dialogue I have heard in a long while. In my view, ignore any other reviews to the contrary: go and see this movie!

Chris Rock plays a man in search of himself while being interviewed by a journalist also in search of herself. I would compare this film to Birdman (in its loose autobiographical narrative) but in the way I found that film almost pretentious, Top Five is authentic to its heart. It felt more real, more urgent, more compelling. And it is comedic and funny in a way that Birdman was awkward and uncomfortable.


This is a film that is rigorously honest in its depiction of the seedier and more cynical sides of celebritydom including "a kiss isn't real unless it's on camera". As the internet & digital TV expands to encompass the growing legion of celebrities, how many would have the confidence to be quite so precise in their self-dissection as Chris Rock has been in this movie. How many leaders would be prepared to be so disclosing?

The first rule of leadership is be honest with yourself: what kind of leader are you and what do you aspire to be? What are you talents and what are your deficits? How will you build on and tackle them respectively? How will you keep yourself honest, even when those around you are (maybe) not telling you the whole truth. Remember, leadership cannot exist in a vacuum: leadership without interaction and impact is nothing.

Honestly... how are you doing?

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This is the ninety first 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.

Sunday 17 May 2015

Truly, madly, deeply

I am somewhat bemused that Mad Max: Fury Road has been criticised for being feminist propaganda...(!) nonetheless (or perhaps because!) this is a film that you must go and see. It has sublime cinematography, a transcendent score, special effects that will take your breath away and a narrative that has integrity. This is a story that holds together well, despite the anarchic dystopian future is depicts.

It would have been so easy to just do a simple remake of the original but instead we are treated to a feast of new characters and subtle acting that will draw you into the Namibian desert. Of course, this movie will not be to everyone's taste, but if you like to be transported to bizarre futures which test what it means to be human, this is a film for you!

  
There are many films that depict leadership despots who manage to control large numbers people through fear and restricting access to scarce resources. This film is no exception and the character concerned is treated as a deity by many: a deity who can do no wrong and who is seen as invulnerable. I won't tell you what happens of course...

But what happens to such leaders in real life? The sad fact is that there are many leaders who do use fear to control and who do deploy resources in ways that are more about rewarding disciples rather than making business investments. Such leadership might work for a while, even several years, but in the end creativity and commitment are crushed out of the organisation. And, as a consequence, so is overall performance. The challenge is spotting this early on before it becomes too late to save the organisation.

As a leader, how much fear do you inspire... (even without necessarily wishing to)?

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This is the ninetieth 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.

Tuesday 12 May 2015

Not spooky enough

Spooks: The Greater Good was a disappointment. I loved the TV series and this was... just like another episode from the TV series... I expected something more. Bigger twists, bigger explosions, bigger locations, bigger... just something more than another episode. And the fact that I understood it almost all the way through, suggested to me a plot line that could have been more sophisticated.

You won't be bored: it rolls along at a fair crack. The acting is competent, believable and compelling. But, they didn't have much to work with. Sorry. It is not often I slate a film quite as much as this. Maybe if I didn't know the TV series so well, I would be more upbeat. This could have been so much better.


In this age of big data, evidence based practice and more management & leadership qualifications than you can shake a stick at, it is intriguing just how much we still rely on our gut feel, our nous, our hunches, our intuition... to guide us. I have always said, that if emotions were logical, we wouldn't call them emotions. And thus it is with the narrative of this film: it is based on ethics multiplied by emotion & intuition multiplied by wizened experience multiplied by fear.

Leadership needs all those qualities too. And in large quantities. And the sum total is called judgement. And often this judgement needs to be made in rapid time.

How is your faculty for judgement these days?

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This is the eighty ninth 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.

Still here, still changing

The Age of Adaline is in a similar genre as the The Time Traveller's Wife: scifi lite with a good dose of romanticism. I know that makes me sound cynical but I enjoyed this film. However, despite the excellent acting by the lead player (playing both a young and old woman in the same body) and a stellar cast - this is only a good (not great) film. As a romantic film, it didn't quite tear at my heart strings and as a scifi movie is was a bit clunky & unimaginative.

As a package, it just about works... but there are films like this that work better. I loved Frequency for example. A bit more romantic back story was needed, and bit more scfi magic would have added an extra (and needed) something to this movie. But you will enjoy it.


Good leadership delivers a sense of stability and well as hunger for change. No leader can stand still and not age: leadership is about being here now. And the now can throw all manner of challenges, some expected, some come in completely from the left field. The art of leadership is finding the 'always' in the things that are always changing, and finding the energy for change within the always.

In this respect, modern leaders are discovering what Mao Zedong talked about in his approach to continuous revolution: The idea of continuous revolution implied that the function of the Communist Party was ...to enable and guarantee a process of development which gave a Marxist form to popular aspirations and to supervise a continuous process of change. If the world should know anything, it is to never underestimate the Chinese. Never forget that they were talking about handling change long before the rest of the world.

How Chinese is your leadership?

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This is the eighty eighth 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.

Green & pleasant idyll?

Far from the Madding Crowd is an evocative pastoral fantasy that will make you yearn for days gone by, when the harvest fields were filled with men in smocks and women in flowing dresses. When children played amongst the haystacks in the setting sunlight. When landed gentry would sit down with farmworkers over a flagon of cider and some fresh bread...

I suspect the 'olden days' were not quite as idyllic as this film depicts, but we can believe and dream that one day this will return. And we can also have faith that true love will eventually find its path. The script and acting are contemporary (one can almost imagine Gabriel Oak texting Bathesheba Everdene: "had enough of your ways, am off. lol.") But this doesn't detract from a beautiful enchanting film that will stay with you for a very long time.


Miss Everdene, like her contemporary sister, Katniss portrays a tough, unforgiving and steely leadership but with compassion, understanding and love (and what looks to be the same leather jacket). This is the kind of leadership that wins people's loyalty and respect. It is also she, who jumps into the sheep dip to show her determination to be asking only that we she is prepared to do herself.

As the United Kingdom wakes up after a bruising, tribal and polarising general election, a lot of Everdene type leadership is going to be needed. Otherwise rifts will widen into chasms, and frustration may well turn into anger. Both head and heart leadership will need to be evident: and the public will judge the capability and authenticity of their leaders without favour.

How well do you balance the head and heart of your leadership?

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This is the eighty 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.

Tuesday 5 May 2015

Golden film

Woman in Gold is a miraculous & iridescent film that will delight and fascinate you. It tells the true story of Jewish woman who fled Austria just before the outbreak of WW2 and her quest to have her paintings restored to her. One of the paintings is one of the most famous in the world: Woman in Gold / Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Justav Klimt. This film is as layered as the painting with superb acting (as always) from Helen Mirren and the rest of the crew.

It features flashbacks to the time of the Anschluss in a seamless way, that could so easily have been very clunky. I didn't know the end of the story, although I assume many who see this film will. But whichever way, I don't think that matters since there is still much to intrigue and explain about the history of the painting and the subsequent litigation. A beautiful film.


Films often feature stories of 'little' people who persist, against the odds, to achieve something against 'big' corporations - or in this case - whole countries! It is an old theme of leadership dating back to Robbie the Bruce & the spider: keep trying and you will succeed etc. But of course what these stories fail to report are all the cases where persistence did not pay off! I have no idea what is the ratio of success to failure is for people who persist with some campaign or plan or something....

But the art of persistence in leadership terms is about knowing when to carry on and when to quit. This is the real trick and essentially it is a gamble because if you do choose to quit, you will never really know whether that was the right decision or not.

How do you know when to quit or when to persist?

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This is the eighty 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.

Westerns don't date

Back in April, I saw two films back to back: The Salvation and John Wick. Although separated by 150 years, they both tell similar stories of revenge for evil acts done. Whilst the body count in John Wick is significantly higher than in The Salvation, both feature almost relentless violence and murderous strategy. Although in true western tradition, the amount of bloody schlock is kept to a minimum as they both play out as (almost) 20 year old computer games. (I understand the modern day ones are far worse!)

A slightly gentler film, The Salvation is set in the 1870s where two of the main characters are former Danish soldiers. There is even some dialogue in Danish! (John Wayne must be turning in his grave!) The plot simmers & sparks like a fuse on a stick of dynamite and successfully deploys some narrative twists to keep the watcher alert. But as you would expect, there is an explosive conclusion. Similarly John Wick deploys a moody Keanu Reeves tracking down the bad guys in an ever escalating spiral of payback. Although set in modern days, its western parable form is easily recognisable.

These are not date movies but the tension, the photography and the acting make them both very watchable.



These two films got me thinking about whether leaders should ever feel vengeful. There are many more films than these two where the 'good guys' are involved in delivering a rather personal form of justice to those that have wronged them - aka revenge. Straw Dogs comes to mind for example. But in real life, should leaders ever seek to wreak revenge?

In one way, and this answer may surprise you, the answer is yes. By this I mean that if an organisation has been damaged by some external agent and people have suffered: then it seems only fitting that the leader of that organisation should seek restoration. I am not advocating violence of course. But I am suggesting that leadership includes robustly defending the integrity of the organisation you lead. It is then a question of judgement and ethics, just how far you go!

When did you last defend the integrity of your organisation?

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This is the eighty fourth and 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.