Movies have been used in professional development for a long time, so it’s not uncommon for people that first hear about REEL to assume that we must be showing movies and using them as illustrations to make points. And so it was with my friend, Lucas. Lucas is VP of Innovation at a major corporation, and he had a creative goal in mind for an upcoming development day with his team. He wanted to use movies to foster connection and community within his team. Because this is the primary reason most teams come to REEL, this seemed like a good fit. However, Lucas also had his own idea of how the day at REEL could play out. “What if we do a REEL experience where I show my team my favorite innovation clips from movies like APOLLO 13 and THE MARTIAN,” Lucas exclaimed, “I would lead them in breaking each clip down into principles I want to get across to my team.” His hope was that by using movies as his visual aids, it would lead to a shared experience that would bring unity, alignment and a greater sense of belonging on the team.
AN INNOVATION EXPERIMENT
I agreed with Lucas that both of his movie choices have great clips of innovation. “But you don’t need REEL for that. You just need some DVD’s and a screen,” I gently pushed back. And then I asked him a question that would majorly impact the future of REEL- “would you be open to being a pilot group to innovate a REEL experience on innovation – one that could bring even greater unity, alignment and belonging- by celebrating diversity?” The question made him curious, so I suggested this:
Step 1: Instead of using movies to make his talking points, how about we ask every team member to come to the table with their own favorite movies – their Top 10 movies?
Step 2: We could then ask each team member to select the best expression of innovation from within their top 10 movie list, individually.
Step 3: Rather than looking at only clips from 2 of his favorite movies, we would break down the clips each team member selected from their movies and find insights into the way they viewed innovation. In this way, they would have 12 (the number of people on his team) diverse expressions of each team member’s brand of innovation.
This bottom up approach gave a team member permission to express their individuality and diversity through their visual articulation of innovation. Because each team member would be finding what innovation looks like in their favorite movies, they would be drawing from a place that was more meaningful to them. Having Lucas show me APOLLO 13 (which is a movie that I personally don’t care for) and relaying innovation principles is quite different than me showing him what innovation looks like in MONEYBALL. In the latter, I am going to be much more invested, and the learning is going to be so much more lasting because I am connecting insights to images that I personally chose and love. My heart and my head is engaged. But more than that, my thumbprint/identity is engaged.
YOUR MOVIE THUMBPRINT
This is why before every REEL Experience begins, we always ask for the same thing – a participant’s Top 10 movies. Over the years, we have seen thousands of Top 10’s submitted to our web application, and to this day, we have never seen a list of 10 movies that is the same. Of course, we see overlap. But even if I have Forrest Gump on my favorite movie list and you have it, too, it will be for very different reasons. We love this, because it is a true expression of diversity. We do not seek to roll people nor insights up, but seek the specificity of why a movie moves an individual. We seek to find how that movie is connected to that individual’s worldview and personal story.
“We do not seek to roll people nor insights up, but seek the specificity of why a movie moves an individual.”
Now, it may seem like having each person express a different visual of innovation might just muddy the waters of meaning and definition of innovation. It might seem that expressing how each person is different in their view of innovation might lead to division, not unity or alignment, much less community. But something happens when you play my clip of MONEYBALL and allow me to explain to you how the main character and I share a similar approach to innovation. When you see a clip that I’ve chosen that shows what that character does in the movie to be innovative, you see a piece of me. And as I explain how you are seeing me and how what they did is innovative to me, I feel seen. I feel seen as me, a unique individual. I feel special and included. And, guess what? If I feel like you see me…I’m more likely to trust you. I’m also more likely to see you through your movies, which let’s you trust me. As we see each other, we begin to appreciate that innovation can come from as diverse places as THE DARK KNIGHT to OCEAN’S 11 to REMEMBER THE TITANS to PRETTY WOMAN. As we see each other and feel seen by each other, everyone feels included and community is forged.
And that is exactly what happened the day that Lucas brought his team in. As a team leader, he got the gift of seeing and including the diversity of perspectives of this big word- innovation. Instead of lumping everyone into his way of seeing innovation, he now has a roadmap of how to leverage each person’s brand of innovation moving forward to overcome obstacles. In fact, we were able to put that to the test before the team even left REEL Studios. Each team member had to stay in character and work together to solve a problem that we gave them. They had to innovate as their individual movie character but in community, as a team. What a beautiful picture- Coach Boone, Batman, Danny Ocean, Vivian, etc. all sitting around a table…all very colorful and diverse characters…all working together in unity to tackle a challenge.
THE GIFT OF UNITY THROUGH DIVERSITY
Lucas gave me a gift that day. The experiment we did with his team ended up solidifying a core value at REEL and an innovative strategy- by drawing out team members’ diversity, you actually foster greater. connection, community and alignment. When a person is seen by their team for how they are different, they actually are more likely to be one with their team. We take this strategy into any REEL experience that we are asked to do. No matter how big a team we serve and no matter if we look through the lens of innovation, respect, creativity, leadership, support…we always point people to the specificity of this value within their own personal top ten movie list. Ironically enough, this strategy circles back to MONEYBALL. You see, the main character of Billy Beane tried to innovate the game of baseball by using a methodology that allowed players who might be overlooked to be seen. So not only did we find an innovative strategy as we innovated a REEL experience on innovation. But I held true to my unique brand of innovation that both Billy Beane and I share- a methodology that allows people to be seen and valued. And that’s the power of my top 10 movies in action. One that neither APOLLO 13 nor THE MARTIAN would have ever illustrated.
