Movie Review

Step 1: Viewing and analysis

View the film (Argo) at least twice. Make notes during the second viewing. Identify the adaptive challenge the character faced and analyse how they responded to it. Consider the characters capabilities of sensemaking, visioning, relating and inventing. Also consider the individual's change signature (how was change agitated, how was the tension maintained at a functional level) in relation to the technical or adaptive challenges encountered. Discuss your observations and analyses as a group. You will access the leadership capabilities (or lack thereof) of an individual in the movie.

What do you look for? By all means be entertained. If it is a movie you have not seen before, all the better. Note the portions of the movie that stand out or disturb you. In your second viewing, try to account for your reaction without the benefit of any theory or intellectualising. Once you feel you understand your reaction, try to look at the movie from the perspective of the unit. Some issues to look out for are outlined below:

· What was the adaptive challenge (Activist, Development, Transition, Maintenance, Creative and/or Crisis)? How was it identified? Or was it identified at all?

· Apply the four capabilities: sensemaking, relating, inventing and visioning. Did you see this happening? When, where, by whom? Or why not? Was it distributed? How do organisational substitutes allow for this?

· What was the context, the culture like? Assess the urgency?

· How was the change managed? Ancona calls it catalysing action; Heifetz calls it mobilising adaptive work (formal authority) or modulating the provocation (informal authority).

· What change signatures can you identify? Characterise them and assess them. Is any mention made of a particular transforming experience (leadership crucible - see Bennis)?

· Did the organisation/characters possess leadership capability? Why/Why not?

· Relate the material above to the concepts of Argyris and Schon (single and double loop learning, theories in use and espoused action).

· What lessons for leadership are evident from your analysis?

Other things to look for:

· Treating an adaptive challenge as a technical challenge

· Faulty (or good) sensemaking

· Faulty (or good) relating, in terms of inquiry, advocacy and connectivity

· Defensive reasoning

· Climbing up the ladder of inference

· Staying on the dance floor

· The nature of the holding environment

· Messy allocation of responsibility

To accomplish all the above, you'll probably have to look at the movie a third or fourth time.

Step 2: Review Essay

The objective of the review essay is to share your analysis and learning with the rest of the class. Use the movie to show key points/incidents, substantiate your viewpoint/analysis.

It is important that you are able to communicate the context that makes your analysis comprehensible and relevant. Bear in mind, you will need to have a theme to your movie review: your review is an argument about something. You are presenting your opinion and using your analysis to substantiate your point of view.