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April 2024
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CREATIVITY BLOCKS1/8/2023 I was binge-watching The Offer this week and I can't imagine that when they're making The Godfather film in the 70s, the executives have a way different vision for it. It was proposed that it will be set in the 70s not a period film, shot in Kansas or St. Louis, or with a young and cheap director (which they did), actors that can work for cheap or for free, and more. The Godfather as we now know is one of the best American films ever produced and highest grossing film of all time.
There was the Mafia disturbance and interference, sabotage inside the production units, difficult actors and crew members, logistical issues, budget pressures, and other millions of minutiae problems but the logical business mindset clash against the creatives is a major highlight for me. It wouldn't be the Godfather that we know or at least the shadow of that success if it not for the creatives standing up for the authenticity and integrity of the film. It will not be a success if the executives had their way about the logo, the budget, their preferred actors, the locations, and even how it will be marketed and distributed. The dalliance with the Mafia is a film of its own and the way it was handled was, unfortunately the best possible course of action, albeit Machiavellian. The business context set the stage for how these films were supposed to make money that will save Paramount from being sold off to a bargain and leave more for the future viability of its corporate owner. There are many management lessons here for which this page won't be enough. How ironic it is that film businesses are creative businesses; they are meant to marry the business logic of efficiency and financial performance using the creative breakthrough ideas of their time as a distinct competitive advantage. While these sounds easy to do, the Offer allows to understand that it boils down to how they see themselves as partners of the venture that either had to sink or swim together or get out of the way for the other's success. While in the film the business guys weren't one-dimensional and turned the other leaf, in reality, so many of the films of the past and the present are produced on ruthless business criteria as a hedge for failure. As the audience, we just don't know the costs of these wars inside these organizations. But we know that we have yet to see another Godfather or another film with both smashing commercial success and unparalleled artistry in decades.
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ADDRESS THE FEAR1/17/2022 My quiet January became dramatic because I let fear in. When you're trying to bring about change and everything is going nicely, fear would creep in and induce a lot of paranoia that's unnecessary. This comes in the form of self-doubt, overthinking and defensiveness. A working relationship became mired with hypotheticals and what-ifs. Why good changes do not stick? Aside from resistance to change because of confusion, misunderstanding, lack of buy-in, addressing the emotional issues from the change dynamic is key. Fear is the number emotion that will hold organizations and leaders back from their planned approach. Courage and the absence of it, will make or break a change prospects. If you let in fear for only a short time, you let paralysis in and overthinking which will derail you. If you let in fear for a long time, you will renege on your commitments and undervalue your own worth. If you let in fear intervene in your progress, you're undermining your achievements. Address issues as they arise and not pre-empt them in a way that will sabotage your progress. Trust me, once I realized it's all about fear, it' easy to manage the rest.
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SCARED THINKING IS ALWAYS SMALL THINKING11/1/2021 If leaders are scared, they make stupid decisions. I'm talking about cost-cutting measures in time of pandemic. If you cut everything that costs money, then you don't know what your financial (and organizational too!) values are. Stewardship is not about being stingy and operating on costs, it's about operating on value. Anything that involves increasing resilience and building lasting effects on your customers and constituencies should be nurtured and developed, even in climate of distress and uncertainty. Values-based organization do not operate on fear-based calculations, much less allow values creep. The best leaders in organizations retain and protect their strongest assets, which are inimitable and very hard to reconstruct. In times of stress, these assets work like magic. They provide the rest and bounce factors for staff and customers to thrive and not just survive. Cut everything that moves and you're cutting your oxygen source. |