Issue No. 433 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights eight movies and videos—some eligible for your lifelong learning goals (i.e. watch during the day without guilt!). Be safe, please. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my recent review of The Advice Trap—on how to be more coach-like every day.
11½ Hours of Movies, Videos & YouTube
Welcome to the movie issue with my recommendations of eight titles (including comedy) that address leadership issues, insights, and ideas. Enjoy!
#1. HARRIET (2019)
PG-13 (2 hours, 5 minutes) - Amazon Prime
Memorable Line: “The hole in my head just made God’s voice more clear.”
You think your life is hard? Take a run in Harriett Tubman’s shoes. In my 2019 review of Leaders: Myth and Reality, by General Stanley McChrystal (US Army, Retired), I urged readers not to skip the chapter, “The Heroes: Zheng He and Harriet Tubman.” McChrystal writes, “She never intended to lead, and that turns out not to matter—she became a hero, and a leader, all the same.”
Then Harriett premiered on Nov. 1, 2019. You’ll want to watch it twice. I was stunned by Tubman’s attentive heart—always listening for divine direction. Don’t miss this jolt, 38 minutes into the movie—Harriett, age 13, with a fractured skull, observes, “The hole in my head just made God’s voice more clear.” The writing is powerful: stinks, stings, and stature. Heart-breaking: learn what gave landowners their stature. God’s voice: “…something like a sting, like a slap in the face.” The river crossing scene: courage defined.
#2. WE HAVE A POPE (2011)
Original title: “Habemus Papam” (Italian with English subtitles)
Unrated (1 hour, 44 minutes) - Amazon Prime
Read my review.
Memorable Line: “Not me, Lord! Not me!”
No spoiler alert is needed because I’ll just set the stage for you. The papal conclave is in session—and balloting has begun. The thunderous murmuring from dozens of cardinals needs no sub-titles: “Not me, Lord! Not me!”
No one wants the job.
Makes me wonder if, post COVID-19, there will be more or less applications for presidents, prime ministers, popes, governors, and mayors? Leaders needed. Yikes!
#3. THE SECRET OF SANTA VITTORIA (1969)
PG-13 (2 hours, 19 minutes) - Amazon Prime
I stumbled across this one last week when the WSJ recommended the novel by Robert Crichton (which I have not read). Set during WWII and directed by Stanley Kramer, and starring Anthony Quinn, a wine-producing Italian village must hide a million bottles of wine from the Germans.
The village clown becomes the mayor (has that ever happened before?)—and without reading a book, watching a TED Talk, or attending training sessions—Quinn masterminds an ingenious plan. Lots of laughs (and a bit rowdy for PG-13)—but the teamwork scene is incredible and memorable.
On one level—it’s the aspiration for every country, including Italy, during this COVID-19 crisis. (Not the wine—the teamwork!)
#4. TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH (1949)
Not Rated (2 hours, 12 minutes) - Amazon Prime
Read my review.
Memorable Lines: “And I want you to paint this name on the nose of your ship: ‘Leper Colony.’ Because in it you're gonna get every deadbeat in the outfit. Every man with a penchant for head colds. If there's a bombardier who can't hit his plate with his fork, you get him. If there's a navigator who can't find the men's room, you get him. Because you rate him.”
In the classic 1949 film, Twelve O’clock High, Gregory Peck plays an Air Force general tasked with rejuvenating an exhausted and demoralized bomber group in World War II. From 9,000 feet, the daytime air raids against Germany seemed hopeless and unending. The unspoken goal: fly 25 missions with all limbs intact and you’ve done your duty.
One mission arrested my attention in the middle of this remarkable movie. General Frank Savage (Peck) announces a strategic target: the ball bearing factory. Bomb just one factory (Germany’s sole ball bearing supplier) and you’ll disrupt assembly lines throughout the country. Brilliant!
So…what’s your strategic target?
The film is often used in MBA courses (google it). Constantino Salios taught a course at Biola University’s Masters of Arts in Organizational Leadership program in 2007 and invited me to join the class for this powerful film.
#5. IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON (2007)
PG (1 hour, 39 minutes) - Amazon
Read my review.
Memorable Line: “And of course at that time, the Atlas boosters were blowing up every other day down at Cape Canaveral. And it looked like a very, you know, a good way to have a short career.” (Jim Lovell)
This extraordinary documentary has teachable moments in almost every one of my 20 management buckets. The Results Bucket: check. The Strategy Bucket: bull’s-eye. The Systems Bucket: 15 astronauts owned 15 segments of the mission. The Crisis Bucket: “Houston, we have a problem.”
The film is absolutely rich in memorable moments in the Team Bucket. Then there’s the People Bucket with often hilarious and poignant illustrations of the four social styles, including analyticals (Neil Armstrong) and expressives (James Lovell).
#6. Sesame Street: Ernie Puts Down the Duckie (2003)
G-rated – View on YouTube (5 min.) or Amazon Prime
Memorable Line: “Put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone.”
Add some hoopla! to your next Zoom meeting and screen this rousing sing-along video clip, “Put Down the Duckie.” Read the Book Bucket chapter in Mastering the Management Buckets—and learn why “You gotta put down the duckie…if you wanna play the saxophone.” Hoots the Owl is trying to teach Ernie a lesson in Learning 101. Hebrews 12:1 is also applicable for this principle: “Master the Management Buckets by Reading.”
This Sesame Street video (all ages will love it) features more than a dozen celebrities and musicians, including Paul Simon, John Candy, Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman, and my favorite, Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
#7. OUR DAILY BREAD (1934)
Not Rated: (1 hour, 13 minutes) – Amazon (sometimes on YouTube)
Read my review.
Memorable line: “Ya gonna follow me or quit like yellow dogs?”
The New York Times named Our Daily Bread, directed by King Vidor, “one of the 10 best films of 1934.” (Which may not mean anything.) But I titled my review, “The Cadence of Team Building”—and I urge you to skip the plot and just watch the last 12 minutes.
Let me net it out for you. Would you invest 12 minutes to enrich the team building culture in your organization? Of course you would.
So here’s the plan. Give your staff team (or department team) the movie synopsis—but just show them the last 12 minutes. In my opinion, it’s the best video clip on team building ever produced.
Our Daily Bread depicts the deep depression-era cultural discouragement of the time, but lands on an upbeat solution. No need to watch the entire 73-minute film—often termed as a propaganda piece for the idea of a socialistic community. (Any inferences to current left-leaning politicians are purely coincidental. Note that I’m not recommending the film’s message, so just use this closing scene as a powerful team building tool.)
#8. MAKE YOUR BED (2014)
Inspirational Talk – View on YouTube
Time: 19 minutes
Read my book review.
Memorable Line: “If you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.”
The best-selling book, Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…and Maybe the World, packs a punch at the fast clip of one big punch every 10 short pages. Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) delivered these 10 principles at a university commencement address. His speech on May 21, 2014, to the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin went viral—with over 10 million views!
Watch the 19-minute YouTube video here (and read a transcript of his speech in the back of his book). The big idea for Principle #1: “Start your day with a task completed.” Or, listen to the audio book (1 hour, 53 minutes) at Libro.fm
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Bonus Hymn (for crisis reflection)
“I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow” (5 minutes)
Read my notes.
The great hymn, “Amazing Grace,” penned by converted slave trader John Newton (1725-1807), is familiar to all. But…have you sung or read Newton’s other, more deeply convicting hymn? My opinion: at the heart of a person’s response to crisis looms a strong or inadequate theological foundation.
In Knowing God, by J.I. Packer, the esteemed author wraps up Chapter 21, “These Inward Trials,” with Newton’s remarkable lyrics: six convicting verses of “I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow.” I’ve listened to, sung, and meditated on the words for 18 months now. “Alexa, repeat!” Yet every repeat stings. (Read the lyrics here. Listen here.)
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) What’s the most insightful leadership lesson you’ve ever learned from a movie, video clip, TED Talk, or podcast?
2) “Give me any two pages of the Bible,” said Cecil B. DeMille, “and I'll give you a picture.” Aristotle said, “The soul never thinks without a picture.” Why do you think the right film, at the right time, for the right reason—can be so powerful?
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Never Worry Alone!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook
One of the big ideas in the Team Bucket is that a balanced life honors God and “thus we serve with more fulfillment and joy.” Is that possible during a crisis?
Authors Michael and Katherine Stallard recommend 12 must-do action steps during this COVID-19 crisis. Big Idea #11: “Never worry alone!” They note, “Whenever you feel anxious or stressed, call up a friend and talk it through. Doing this will move your brain activity from the amygdala where threats are processed to the cortex where we make rational decisions.” Click here to read the short article.
The authors help effective leaders boost human connection in cultures to improve performance. Check out my reviews of their books:
• Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy, and Understanding at Work, by Michael Lee Stallard, Jason Pankau, and Katharine P. Stallard. (Read my review.)
• Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity and Productivity, by Michael Lee Stallard, with Carolyn Dewing-Hommes and Jason Pankau. (Read my review.)
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. “The soul never thinks without a picture,” said Aristotle. Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video), including the new book by Jason Pearson and Doug Fields, This. Customizable Journal: 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love. (Read John’s review here.)
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