
Apollo 13 Shoulder Patch
Courtesy NASA.
People who work together in teams face challenges that go beyond the problem to be solved, and even beyond the technologies employed to solve that problem. They must work together under conditions ranging from calm to crisis. But because people have been working together as long as there have been people, we can learn how to work on projects from almost any story of people.
- Treasure of the Sierra Madre
- A study of scope creep and team dynamics. Humphrey Bogart's "Dobbs" gives us insight into one particular source of scope creep — ambition. The team dynamics that develop as a consequence of Dobbs's greed are often mirrored in project teams. Director: John Huston. Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston. 1948. DVD: 126 min. Order from Amazon.com.
- Apollo 13
- Watch and learn how Ed Harris's Gene Kranz, flight director, makes the right decisions to lead the team back from the brink of disaster. We also see team dynamics under extreme stress, both in the capsule and on the ground, and good examples of CYA and state-of-the-art group problem solving. Director: Ron Howard. Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon. 1995. DVD: 140 min. Order from Amazon.com.
- NOVA: Super Bridge
- A documentary by US Public Television's Nova that follows the construction of a suspension bridge over the Mississippi just above St. Louis. Follow the designers and constructors through a bewildering tangle of delays, technological problems, floods, and biting cold as they deal with all obstacles to make the bridge a reality. Narrator: Hal Holbrook. 1997. VHS: 120 min. Order from Amazon.com.
- Mutiny on the Bounty
- Make your project For learning about
project management,
film is probably
the best thing next
to actual experienceplan carefully, and don't bet on things working the way you want them to. Captain Bligh went for the gold, and ended up losing — he had to backtrack from Cape Horn, lost a year, and then tried to make up the schedule on the backs of the crew. A study in managing by force vs. leadership. Director: Frank Lloyd. Charles Laughton, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone. 1935. DVD: 132 min. Order from Amazon.com. - Defending Your Life
- An example of how not to run a project retrospective. Director: Albert Brooks. Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep. 1991. DVD: 112 min. Order from Amazon.com.
- The Last Place on Earth
- Originally produced for US Public Television's Masterpiece Theater, this story of the race to the South Pole between two expeditions led by Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen is based on the masterwork of the same name by Roland Huntford. When viewed as a case study in project management, it explores the issues of focus, risk management, conventional wisdom, science, and innovation. Dir. Ferdinand Fairfax. Martin Shaw, Sverre Anker Ousdal. 1984. DVD: 396 min. Order from Amazon.com. Or read the book.
- The African Queen
- At the beginning of World War I, in September 1914, Rose Sayer, a Methodist missionary, and Charlie Allnut, a Canadian boat captain, find themselves on a desperate journey using Allnut's boat — the African Queen — to escape internment and possible execution by German military in German East Africa. Temperamentally and culturally at odds with each other, Charlie and Rose gradually form an alliance to attack the German patrol boat Luise. How Rose convinces Charlie to undertake this daunting task is a study in team development and the tools of influence. Rose is played by Katharine Hepburn, and Charlie by Humphrey Bogart in his only Oscar-winning role (best actor). Order from Amazon.com
If you look at just one of these per month, you'll be busy for half a year. Do you have favorites of your own? Send them along! Next issue in this series
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Related articles
More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:
What Haven't I Told You?
- When a project team hits a speed bump, it often learns that it had all the information it needed to
avoid the problem, sometimes months in advance of uncovering it. Here's a technique for discovering
this kind of knowledge more systematically.
Games for Meetings: I
- We spend a lot of time and emotional energy in meetings, much of it engaged in any of dozens of ritualized
games. Here's Part I of a little catalog of some of our favorites, and what we can do about them.
Emailstorming
- Most of us get too much email. Some is spam, but even if we figured out how to eliminate spam, most
would still agree that we get too much email. What's happening? And what can we do about it?
The Good, the Bad, and the Complicated
- In fiction and movies, the world is often simple. There's a protagonist, a goal, and a series of obstacles.
The protagonists and goals are good, and the obstacles are bad. Real life is more complicated.
The Retrospective Funding Problem
- If your organization regularly conducts project retrospectives, you're among the very fortunate. Many
organizations don't. But even among those that do, retrospectives are often underfunded, conducted by
amateurs, or too short. Often, key people "couldn't make it." We can do better than this.
What's stopping us?
See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
Coming August 13: Leaving High-Touch Jobs: How
- High-touch jobs require that we work closely with colleagues, teammates, clients, or suppliers. Because choosing to leave such a job affects all these people, and the person departing, we would do well find a path that respects all involved. Here are some suggestions. Available here and by RSS on August 13.
And on August 20: Earned Value and Goodhart's Law
- Earned Value Management, widely used approach to project management, is most useful in contexts in which estimators are familiar with the Tasks, the Technologies, and the Teams. But even then, it is vulnerable to the tactics of those who game the metrics. Available here and by RSS on August 20.
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