Lessons from my favourite movies about working in Change Management

I love working in Organisational Change Management and I also love movies so I thought why not combine the two and share some of the great lessons that you can learn about Change Management from my absolute favourite films? Let’s go!

#1 - While You Were Sleeping

Perhaps my favourite movie of all time, I love me a little Sandy B and Bill Pullman, not to mention a very young and dapper Peter Gallagher (who admittedly spends the movie “sleeping” in a coma). If you don’t know the film, spoiler alert: Sandra Bullock plays Lucy, a lonely family-less train station attendant who fantasises over a well-dressed professional guy she sees daily. She saves him when he’s accidentally pushed on the train tracks, gets mistaken for his fiancee at the hospital, and is welcomed into his family over the Christmas and New Year holidays, falling in love with the coma man’s brother, Jack (played by Bill Pullman).

The lesson for Change Management:

Be wary of the shiny object! Lucy is attracted to Peter because he’s sharp and shiny, but she’s never even had a conversation with the guy. It’s a total fantasy and it turns out he’s super shallow. But when she starts to get to know his down-to-earth, working-with-his-hands charming brother Jack, she finds much more in common and much more substance with this brother. In so many digital transformations and AI implementations, the technology solution selected is Peter - sharp and shiny and shallow. The vendor has invested more in their Sales team than their development or implementation team and the solution is left very wanting. The cracks only begin to show after contracts are signed, build has begun, and everything starts to unravel because the time wasn’t taken to get to know the sometimes more salt-of-the-earth solution that’s actually got the goods in reality, not fantasy.

#2 - The Prestige

Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, and of course Michael Caine (what Christopher Nolan movie is complete without him?), The Prestige is about two rival turn-of-the-century magicians who destroy everything dear to them through their fierce life-long competition. It plays on the element of magic, but also time, mystery, commitment, sacrifice. 

The lesson for Change Management:

I think as Change Managers we often feel like the wo/man behind the curtain, the magicians weaving magic to make things work at go live and implementation. Usually people don’t know our tricks (though admittedly my Leading Successful Change program is designed to get change tools, templates, and techniques in the hands of as many people as possible), but when you deliver change well it feels seamless and magic to your stakeholders, be it leaders, teams, or customers. It can also sometimes feel like Change Management and Project Management are rivals - we’re serving the same audience to get the same result, but we approach it from different angles. If we can put that competitiveness on the shelf, it means we are less likely to burn out and burn bridges in the fast-paced, exciting world of Change Management.

#3 - Interstellar

Another Christopher Nolan fave and I have a major girl crush on the divine Jessica Chastain (always had a thing for redheads), Interstellar is an EPIC movie and given its length, can feel like multiple films in one. Lots of Hollywood hard-hitters including Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, Timothee Chalamet, and of course Michael Caine, the film is about the end of Earth and a secret mission to use a wormhole to travel through time and space to explore 3 options and find a new habitable planet for humans to live. Christopher Nolan loves playing with the concept of time.

The lesson for Change Management:

OMG there’s so many concepts in Interstellar to choose from and the scientific premises can be hard to comprehend. Super simply, when there’s more gravity, time moves faster and years can elapse in minutes. How this relates to Change Management? I have often found that with a small, high-performing project team, we can deliver an astounding volume in a short amount of time. Intensity, like gravity, is high, but with the right crew and decisions, you can absolutely reach the point of successful singularity (go live!). 

#4 - Practical Magic

In case you haven’t noticed, I adore Sandra Bullock (I felt like The Net was on TV every second Friday when I was a kid and come on Miss Congeniality amiright!?), but I also love anything witchy, magical, alchemical, occult and mystical. Add in our girl Nicole Kidman (another redhead, just saying) and yes I am here for it. Practical Magic is a film about two sisters who are witches and desperately try to fit into their small island community without practicing their craft. They cast spells for love and death, having to deal with the consequences of misusing their powers.

The lesson for Change Management:

As Changies, we can often feel like outsiders. People don’t trust us, they think what we’re doing is voodoo and it can make us doubt our value, approaches, and worth. But we always have to remember that, with what we know and can do, we are extremely powerful and we have to use our powers wisely. Usually the people icing us out (a.k.a. resistance) actually want our help and are curious about what we do. So engage widely and invite generously, and you’ll pull together a coven that helps you protect and bring the community together. Plus: find your soul sisters!  

I’ll be sharing the practical magic (see what I did there!) of leading change delivery in my upcoming in-person Leading Successful Change Live course in Sydney next week on 10-11 March. This face-to-face training is an absolute game-changer when it comes to learning about and leading change, as I show you behind the razzle dazzle, glitz and glamour of Organisational Change Management to the bare bones of what makes a well-run change. 

In particular, there will be a focus on bringing Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Coaching tools and techniques into your change leadership and crafting engaging and vibrant communications through Canva to make change memorable and magical. 

Final enrolments for LSC Live in Sydney close tomorrow Wednesday 4 March at 8.00pm AEDT (Sydney time). Registration is $2,997 AUD per person and group registration is possible.

Register here ASAP for my Leading Successful Change Live training next week in Sydney before the enrolment deadline

Lata xx