The movie industry and other industries seems worlds apart, but they are using the same technique’s in order to deliver successful projects in shape of a movie and achieve greatness.
If you are a Project Manager and not watching movies, you are missing something very important and if you are a movies fan and not yet a great Project Manager, you are missing the catch.
Have you ever noticed, why some movies break all previous records in terms of popularity, money and other metrics the industry sets ?.
Normally, the man/woman behind delivering every success movie project leads to a Director accompanied by a great producer, a prolific writer, an insane actor and other helping staff.
In the above sentence, you must have noticed there is no single guy. It’s a team effort but led by a producer and as a project manager, you already know that the project failure and success is on your shoulder’s and no one wants to embarrass the stakeholders.
Below are some points, that we can learn from a movie director:
- Put Yourself in Team’s Shoes
- Combine the Dream Team and Leave them Alone
- Love your Project and bring it Successful
- Don’t be shy of trying new things
Put Yourself in Team’s Shoes:
You are not alone in a project, there is a whole team behind it and everyone in the team has certain roles and responsibilities with a diverse background, knowledge and experience.
You, as a project manager should understand everyone’s role and articulate the right person to the right job. An actor cannot be a good light-man and vice versa and hence cannot be each other replacement. If you watch a movie, every person is doing his/her job and doing it better and everyone knows, how to do it. A director places every team member in his/her exact specific place and not test some one role beyond his abilities and experience.
Combine the Dream Team and Leave them Alone:
If you hire the right people for the right job (most of the times, hiring is done by other departments HR etc). If you cannot hire at least you can combine the best folks in your organization for your project.
Once that done, trust them and rely on their feedback, highly effective teams are already motivated, so do not make yourself as a hurdle in their way, get out of their way and just solve all problems, hurdles, challenges they come across.
Love your Project and bring it Successful:
Show passion and enthusiasm for your project and transfer the same to your team. You should establish a culture in your project where every team member becomes an evangelist for the project and success is the only thing in their mind.
Ever heard of the famous singer Eminem words:
Success is the only ***** option, Failure not.
Don’t be shy of trying new things:
Most of the movie directors are never afraid of using latest technology, techniques and best standards used in industry. As a project manager, you should also be open and embrace yourself and encourage your team to do so.
What do you think, what else can me learn from movies and who is your favorite director and what’s best about him/her.
