Are HR managers learning from movies?
When the irrepressible
Rancho mocks at his professor in the movie 3 Idiots with his definition of a
book: “Instruments that record, analyse, summarise... and explain information
which are illustrative, non-illustrative , hardbound, paperback..., ” someone
was taking notes.
After driving home the point:
‘Dejargonise insurance products while selling to common policy holders’ through
3 Idiots, Madhusudan is back to his neighbourhood movie rental store, sifting
through piles of DVDs. This time he picks up ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ . The
Will Smith-starrer is based on the story of a struggling salesman, and
Madhusudan sees lessons in motivation for his team.
Hollywood blockbuster ‘King Arthur’ , featuring
the Anglo-Saxon war, is a regular part of his training sessions. In the movie,
the weakened army of the king repeatedly hits at weak spots on a frozen lake to
crack the ice and drown enemies. Mr Madhusudan explains why he uses the movie
to motivate his staff: “We need to remember that insurance is emotional selling
. One needs to touch the weak nerve of the customer while doing so.” Rocket
Singh might not have worked at the box office. But the film is still being
shown for innovative methods of selling. S o m e t i m e s , just watching a
good film, with or without a message, is a good experience and cheers up the
team.
“A lot of companies have now begun to use the film
model to talk about HR issues like team-building ,” says E Balaji, ED Ma Foi
Management Consultants.
Explaining how his HR team incorporated the cream
of cinema — and that includes lesser-known movies — into their “training
modules” , Mr Sharma says, “Ek Ruka Hua Faisla was a favourite when it came to
talking about leadership and the importance of logic and rationality to
employees at the middle-management level.” Similarly, Ek Doctor ki Maut,
starring Pankaj Kapoor, talks about how the lack of organisation , time
management and self-management could turn an advantage into a disadvantage, he
says. If films like Lakshya and Goal are for a target-driven sales team,
corporates also dig into the library of Hollywood films to source motivational
films like Happyness, Eight Below, Black Hawk Down, Troy and Gladiator that
talk about similar issues.
|
|
