Chelsea is a bright faced, highly motivated, young team leader. Before her REEL Experience, we sat down and looked at the goals that she had for each one of her team members. One of those team members, Sam, had been with the organization for years, but was new on Chelsea’s team. He was older than the rest of the team. Chelsea explained how he had so much wisdom to offer the millennials on the team, but he had a block that kept him from seeing his experience as valuable to the team. Chelsea just knew that there was a mentor in him, but she didn’t know how to help him move past this block. So Chelsea’s team came to our REEL Storyboard experience, and the hope was that Sam could, at the very least, connect with his new team through his movies.
MONEYBALL AND MY BAD GUYS
In a REEL Storyboard experience, team members submit their 10 favorite movies and then walk through a fun day of exploring their movies through the story lenses of character, desire, antagonism and change. Probably the most interesting and challenging story lens is that of antagonism. It’s understandable, as most people do not like to dwell on conflict and bad guys. And, at REEL, we go a little bit deeper by exploring the movie low moment, where the main character has lost everything. At this moment, the character is usually faced with an internal lie that if they believe that lie, it could destroy them. For me, this moment in my top 10 movies is in the movie MONEYBALL. It’s the scene where Billy Beane has implemented an innovative methodology to get his team all the way to playoffs. Unfortunately, when the teams fails to get to the World Series, the baseball announcers proudly proclaim that Billy’s experiment has failed and that “you can’t change baseball.” For me, the lie that could destroy Billy at this point is that he has wasted all his time and efforts on an a failed experiment that will not have an impact on a system that is too stuck in its ways to change. As his former lead scout warns him early in the film, he will probably end up working at Dick’s sporting good. This lie is especially potent to me, as I’m betting a major season of my career on implementing an innovative methodology (REEL), an experiment that is extremely hard for a majority of people to get their heads around- the idea that your favorite movies could actually be a treasure trove of insights for and about your life. I always think that my crazy plans will end up with me working at a fast food restaurant….or Dick’s sporting goods.
IT’S ALL LIES, RON BURGUNDY!
And so when it was Sam’s turn to look through the lens of antagonism, the lie that came out of one his favorite movies was equally resonate. “You are an embarrassment. You are behind the times, part of the past. You are no longer a part of the in-crowd/cool kids.” These were the lies. The most excellent part of Sam’s story is that these incredibly poignant lies came from the movie, ANCHORMAN. And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. The main character, Ron Burgundy, hits a low moment when, as this beloved, tenured anchorman of San Diego’s news station, he begins losing his ratings to a bright young female newscaster. He feels that he is behind the times, an embarrassment. Television, as well as his friends are marching forward without him.
I AM RON BURGUNDY…RON BURGUNDY IS ME?
Sam, like many participants who go through REEL, only had Ron Burgundy on his mind when he jokingly spouted out Ron’s lies. But there’s always a wonderful part of our REEL Storyboard experience that we call “transference.” This is the moment where you suddenly realize that all the things you were talking about with regard to your movie characters can be transferred to your story. The lie, especially, is a lot easier to talk about your movie character. It’s much harder to say that this is a lie that I struggle with deep down, especially to your co-workers. But because the movie provides that safe buffer, I have witnessed one courageous moment after another from team members who open up and share how their lie is something that they feel. And so, with great bravery and vulnerability, Sam shared that he felt like Ron Burgundy on his team. With his team being so young, he felt like he was behind the times, part of the past and no longer a part of the in-crowd. To me, I found it interesting that Chelsea was this bright young woman, who was taking over as a team leader. I can only speculate whether Sam felt like his ratings were dropping and that his time as the beloved, tenured anchorman in the organization was over. From the tone in his voice, as he shared his lie to his team, it appeared so.
For REEL participants it is often the very act of exposing a lie, especially to your team, that immediately destroys the power that lie has over you. And that’s what happen in the moment for Sam. The very act of admitting that he felt intimidated and a relic of the past to his young team members was that gift of freedom he needed to no longer be that. And it was the invitation that his team member’s needed to ensure that he would no longer feel that way.
WHO’S THE ANCHORMAN NOW?
Chelsea emailed me a few days later after the team’s REEL Storyboard experience. She had to share what happen. Sam had some into her office and shared how powerful his REEL Experience was to him and how big of a defining moment it was for him to share the insights he uncovered, to his team. For Chelsea, Sam’s vulnerability was the catalyst and a bar set for the rest of his team that would build the type of connectivity and collaboration that most team leaders long to have for their teams. But, looking back at her goals for Sam to be a mentor on the team and to leverage all of his years of experience, it was ANCHORMAN’s Ron Burgundy that was the key to unblock what was keeping Sam from stepping into that role. It was one of Sam’s favorite movies that turned the tide from Sam being semi-engaged to being the anchor (man…sorry) of his team.
