Ten Films to illustrate the essential elements of a high performance organisational culture (Part Three)

Part three of the series of ten, using films to illustrate the feelings organisations should seek to evoke in employees in order to create a high performance culture. As before, I'd be interested in any comments.....

Number 3 - Commitment

I started with a feeling of 'passion' for day three. Organisations that are successful are full of people who are passionate about what they do and about the contribution they make to their business. But the more I thought about it the more I felt that actually passion is a staging post on the way to what you really want employees to feel - commitment. If passion is a compelling emotion towards something, commitment involves them pledging themselves to and in support of the it. Being committed to the organisation means really being involved in it and earnestly investing effort to ensure its success i.e. the delivery of its purpose and the outcomes which arise from its purpose. Employee engagement without commitment is well.......pointless!

I have avoided the temptation today of using two films to illustrate the feeling. But I am using a scene from my chosen film to illustrate both passion and commitment. In 'Any Given Sunday' the main character is the head coach of the Miami Sharks American Football team, a team who were very successful a few years previously. But the new team owner has little knowledge or enthusiasm for the game and is concerned only with results and the bottom line. When the established quarterback for the Sharks is injured the coach brings in a rookie quarterback and he immediately becomes a big star. But fame and money goes to his head and despite some good results the spirit of the team is destroyed.

Actually I don't think the film is very good, in parts it's hard to know whether it's actually a parody of the sport but I do really like the scene before the play-off final because of the impassioned speech by the coach (Al Pacino) and how it reunites the team and results in them collectively committing to fight their way back "one inch at a time". I like how he describes life, like football as a game of inches - because the margin for error is small, a matter of inches and that those who win fight for every inch.....

Just an ok film, but a great scene. See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSDhhZtRwFU

Part 4 tomorrow!

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