The editors of the book introduce Peter Wollmann who is now acting as a senior mentor, sparring partner, trusted advisor and catalyst for leaders in new roles and responsibilities and for organizations. Previously, he had diverse senior positions over nearly 40 years in the Finance Industry, with last years as programme director for global transformations within Zurich Insurance Company (ZIC). He is the author and publisher of a range of books and articles on strategy, leadership and project and project portfolio management.
Introduction and Link to the Three Pillar Model
Organizations—and here especially leaders, managers and other key players—can significantly benefit from different perspectives coming from other walks of life such as, among other things, the arts and culture as well as through reframing in alien contexts or analogies. Reframing in fresh and/or alien contexts is in general a profound concept to create new insights by framing things in significantly different contexts like, e.g., from art.
In our case, films about travelling or with significant travelling aspects help to emotionally adapt to a travelling mindset and to change normal, more inflexible, thinking, at least for the 2 h in front of the screen. The combination of stimulated senses—visual and auditory—combined with the imagination being stimulated by identifying with actors and/or situations touches you emotionally and takes the audience—at least temporarily—to another world. Road movies in particular have some strong magic and stimulate the yearning to get away and be somebody else in a new world.
Especially, this magic and the associated curiosity to explore something new, combined with the decision to set off, is crucial for moving from the ‘old business world’, which is going to die, to a new one which cannot yet be described in detail but which will be completely different in terms of hierarchy, top-down decisions, Taylorism, silos, micromanagement, analogue processes, short-term thinking, focus on career, ways of working and cooperation, etc.
We stressed at the beginning of the book that the new business world—if it were ideal—would be designed according to the trio of pillars which, interestingly, can be very well connected with travelling in films.
Sustainable Purpose
The sustainable purpose of travelling in films is usually to explore and experience something new and unknown, different from, and more attractive than, one’s normal life. Very often—especially in road movies—the journey is the aim, not a special destination, as the potential destination is unknown, and so no decisions can be made. Taking the journey as the purpose also means the conscious decision to consistently leave something behind and to rely on the faith that something better will be found at the end of the road.
Travelling Organization
It is obvious that the people in a road movie or a film with at least a strong travelling context have to have the appropriate mindset (otherwise, the film would not make sense). In general, there are special personalities described who start their trips for various but often strong emotional reasons (e.g. searching for a better life or love, escaping, visiting partners or friends, despair, revenge). There might be defined targets for the journey or a random mindset—in many cases, targets are often re-calibrated or re-defined on the road. And the mindset is to be on the move, with a portion of curiosity and openness and often also fortitude thrown in to the mix as well. Usually, a lot happens in these films, and the characters guess that they will be different at the end of their journey (of the film). This atmosphere—amplified by the sound track—is standard for these films. Incidentally, the number of characters is not relevant for our analogy with business, but normally, these are smaller groups of individuals—which helps the audience to identify emotionally with them.
Connecting Resources
It is also obvious that the touchpoints and interfaces of the travellers with world surrounding them are key; the way they cope with this is a central theme of the film and a significant factor for the whole story. In hostile environments, travellers might fail (see Easy Rider) or at least have to overcome considerable challenges; in positive environments they achieve their ‘transition’. The art of managing connectivity is, in any case, crucial.
First General Insights
The category of road movies—or films with significant travelling aspects—seems to apply the three pillar model comprehensively, as shown in the initial thoughts described above. And these films have the advantage of creating strong—positive—emotions, so this means that they fit very well for analogies, stimulation and also reframing in alien contexts if needed.
Following on from this thought, it might be a good idea to design workshops with the transition programme team and its stakeholders accordingly, which means, for example, developing a screenplay for the film about the transition journey. In this case, strong narratives and pictures are needed.
Conversely, it may be interesting to look at road movies in the transition team and the wider community, to capture the personally stimulating aspects and to discuss how these can be transferred to the (context of the) organization. In this case, multiple mechanisms of reframing in alien contexts, stimulation and creative framing would be used.
Last but not least, let’s have a closer look at the very successful road movie 303 and take it as an example.
The Road Movie 303 and Its Perception
Description based partly on https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/303_(Film)
303 is a ‘dialogue film’, a combination of road movie, philosophy and love story. The director was an assistant to Richard Linklater (whose famous dialogue films ‘Before Sunrise’, ‘Before Sunset’ and ‘Before Midnight’ were, however, static from a travelling aspect).
Purpose, travelling and connectivity from different perceptions as individuals or team, as acting people or from a distant observer’s view (figure: Frank Kühn)
Soon a new dispute unfolds, this time concerning the theory of evolution, capitalism and key questions of manhood, e.g. what naturally best develops manhood—competition (Jan) or cooperation (Jule)? They continue the fundamental discussion during a long walk through a forest and their first meal together. In Cologne, Jule asks Jan to accompany her for another 500 km and Jan gladly accepts. Arriving in France, they only drive on country roads and decelerate further, always continuing their conversations on ethical questions, the necessity of worldwide cooperation, the role of biological conditioning for people’s preferences, etc. They journey through picturesque landscapes and enjoy quiet places and hidden resting places, as well as they enjoy everything, which arises around the food intake at a common routine. Their conversations become more and more personal and concrete but not less controversial. After the great questions of humanity, they now turn to the relationship between men and women—including what is crucial for these relationships to form and survive, the role of drugs to escape one’s inner voice reflecting and commenting on all activities.
But they cannot escape reality forever; on one of her occasional phone calls to Alex, Jule tells him about her pregnancy—and is deeply disappointed by his restrained reaction. Jan tries to console her with an exquisite sweet, a tarte aux pommes and a first, yet very timid, tender touch in order to alleviate her stress.
It becomes clear that both are about to fall in love—but very slowly and very decently.
Before they can confess their love for one another, they have reached Jan’s destination in northern Spain. In Jule’s presence, he sees his biological father from a distance, but cannot bring himself to approach him, and continues with Jule on her way to Portugal. After a hike in the Picos de Europa, from which both return completely soaked and cold, they finally give in to their feelings. In the morning, Jule confesses to Jan that she is pregnant and, a little later, that she has decided to have the child. He picks up both messages. In Porto, she starts bleeding, consults a gynaecologist and discovers that she has lost the baby. She ends up dropping Jan in the middle of the village in Portugal, before she drives on to Alex—with a completely uncertain outcome. Jan is waiting. Firstly, he falls asleep in the café and then on the steps of the market place. In the middle of the night, Jule returns in her 303; both hug and kiss each other passionately.
Perception and Comments
The general perception of the film was very positive. It was stressed that the film—despite being over 140 min long and focusing on dialogues—was never boring but exciting and moving.
A key comment is that it is an ‘anti-Tinder film’ giving broad time for relations and persons to develop in fast-moving times. It is deceleration pure. And it is a real road movie, in which the director is said to define new standards, understanding that travelling is a form of existence that opens the heart and consciousness.
The dialogues between Jule and Jan are so vivid because the screenplay was developed from around 200 recent video interviews with young people.
303 was, according to one critic, the unexpected summer adventure of 2018. ‘A film like the second before the kiss, just auspiciously spread out over 145 min. A film in which one has the feeling that all the supposedly aimless talk about the world, about people, about society could lead somewhere. A film in which one feels compelled to shout out: Just get on with it and kiss each other, for goodness sake!’
So, it is a film about a journey in various dimensions—3000 km through great landscapes in Europe, through fundamental questions of manhood and what has to be changed, through personal crises and the self-perception of the protagonists, through the slow development of a relationship and through the development of a new view of one’s potential personal future. And this journey is underlaid by sublime landscapes, the steady feeling of travelling, a great soundtrack—pure emotion but embedded in intellectual and fundamental reflection. After watching the film, you are ready to have new experiences. What could better support the mindset of a travelling organization!
Learning Items for Organization and Transformation
From history: what do we learn from the history of organizations for the future?
From alternative approaches: what do we learn for organizations from alternative and alienated approaches such as watching a film or creating a film about the concrete organization?
In this article, we will obviously concentrate on the latter approach.
The learning items for organizations, and especially the transformation of organizations, might be formulated like this:
Transformation of an organization—especially if it is significant and leads to the unknown—needs a significant mass of energy which has to come from the convincing purpose (NB: energy based only on ‘economic necessities’ is not enough), and this reflects that, in road movies, the energy mirrored in the images of consistent motion is based on the purpose for the journey. This is complemented by the energy that comes from the deep and growing connectivity between the humans who are travelling.
It is always obvious from the films that starting the journey and moving to a new constellation or condition needs the right timing and also a lot of fortunate coincidences (one has to accept that not everything can be planned and steered in detail) and determination (people who are deep down strong and resilient). In general, the concept of resilience has to be reflected on different levels, personal ones (are there enough resilient actors in the transformation team?) and organizational ones (mirrored in the mindset of the current organization).
It has to be clear that—as in the film—everyone brings their personal history (or baggage) and sensibilities that have to be accepted and respected and that it makes sense to have personal conversations that touch precisely on this. Long journeys especially need trust, and trust grows from personal exchange, which might also mean touching on sore points and controversial fundamental beliefs. If it is possible to open up to others with very intimate biographic details, strong confessions, fears, etc. and if this always handled in a fair way, trust for the shared journey will be established. When it comes to organization transformation, road movies can teach us that a suitable true exchange has to be started—which happens by itself in the film but needs a vehicle in the organizational transformation. It is one of the most important tasks for transformation leaders to create opportunities for trustful exchange of opinions and mindsets, experiences and expectations going far beyond the ‘limited’ transformation targets.
And last but not least, one gets from the films that connectivity doesn’t imply equality from the beginning but openness to interact, exchange and synchronize on an equal footing.
Summary of Learnings
You can learn a lot from a good road movie about the three pillars of organization design and especially about the necessary mindset for travelling organizations.
It is obvious that reframing in alien contexts, or better still analogies from arts and culture, is very helpful to understand organizational needs.
These reflections are helpful for interventions with transformation programme teams and stakeholders concerning direction and motivation.
The feeling of being on the move does not need speed but continuity.