One of my favorite past times is to watch a full-length, feature film and extract lessons in team dynamics, visioning, change management, diversity, decision-making, and other factors that make teams work.

   The latest movie is “Miracle,” the against-all-odds story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team winning the gold medal. The coach is determined to create a team that can rival the “fluid, creative” style of hockey of the Soviets, who dominated the sport for almost two decades. The coach uses a rather unorthodox, but effective approach (which borders on the sadistic) to turn a ragtag bunch of non-pro, college athletes into a world-class team.

    “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain” is a charming story of an entire town defending their hill – a prized local landmark – to be more than just a hill. They declare their hill is, in fact, a mountain to the out-of-town bureaucrat who must verify the fact. The problem is that the hill is not tall enough to be classified as a mountain! The townspeople rally around their “mountain” and enroll the out-of-towner bureaucrat in the process.

    If you like rhythm and blues (R&B) music, you’ll enjoy “The Commitments,” the story of a young promoter who cobbles together a local R&B band. His group of self-absorbed, backbiting, but extremely talented players begins to succeed, only to have petty jealousies threaten to tear the group apart.

   One of my favorite scenes on team problem solving is from the movie "Apollo 13". On the way to the moon, there is an explosion in the service module affecting the carbon dioxide scrubbers that chemically remove exhaled carbon dioxide from the enclosed capsule. Ground control is given the formidable task to jerry-rig a solution with only the materials onboard, or the astronauts will die. With just a few hours of breathable air left, ground control concocts a makeshift solution…and saves the day!

    Other films that showcase the team dynamic include Babe, The Big Chill, Blue Collar, The Breakfast Club, The Dirty Dozen, Erik the Viking, From Earth to the Moon, The Hunt for the Red October, Lean on Me, Lord of the Flies, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Mission Impossible, Norma Rae, Remember the Titans, Twelve Angry Men and Whale Rider.

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