Chake De! and Management

The Indian women's team won the World Cup, and the movie became a runaway hit. Yes, we are talking about the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Chak De! India which is running to packed theatres across the country. I think I have figured out the reason why the halls are packed. One of the reasons, from what the press tells us, is the liking Corporate India has taken to the movie. There was an article about Mr. Narayana Murthy going to see the movie with Mrs. Murthy, and being impressed about the content of the movie.

The movie is a story about a Hockey coach who takes his team out of mediocrity, with each player identifying themselves with the state which they represented on the way to representing India at the World Cup (Melbourne, is what they showed in the movie, I think ...). There can be a number of parallels that can be drawn with the scenarios in the movie, and what can be found in offices. Apart from that, there are quite a few things to be learnt in Leadership from Kabir Khan. And, you would find that the point is driven home so well, that I found it much better than any leadership training program. More useful, more power packed, and more impact.

So how come two and a half hour in a theatre can deliver so much more about management common-sense than can be done in a day in a workshop? The way I see it, the answer is simple ... Story! Here, the concepts are not told at all. Only a story is told, which the audience can then match with their life-experiences, and develop a management parallel, or draw a management lesson from. The story brings out the emotional connection with the content, and at the same time, gets the audience to think about ideas that they can take away from the movie, rather than pushing prepackaged ideas, which they may not appreciate, or worse still, relate with, down their throats. This is a nice illustration of the power of story-telling in organizational learning.