Lagaan-Movie-Leadership-Tutorial

Special message from: incharge kalwa saraswatbank
Original rendering by Porus P. Munshi
HOW TO GUIDE BOOK FOR PROJECT LEADER
MOVIE LAGAAN
Date: Nov 1, 2007 1:37 PM
Subject: A TEACHER CALLED LAGAAN

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|                                               A TEACHER CALLED LAGAAN           |
|                                 Porus P. Munshi 
The film Lagaan is about many things —leadership, negotiation, team building, courage and, above all, project     |
|                   management by a first-time project leader.                    |
|                                                                                 |
|                                                                                 |
|                         A still from the film, Lagaan.                          |
|                                                                                 |
|The film Lagaan is about many things — leadership, negotiation, team building and|
|courage to name a few. But it's above all about project management by a          |
|first-time project leader.

A project is something with a definite beginning and a definite end, with a clear|
|objective to achieve with a limited number of resources. In the film, the project|
|is to beat the English cricket team in three months, using whatever resources    |
|(including human) that are locally available.                                    |
|                                                                                 |
|The project leader (PL), Aamir Khan, has a lot riding on this. His reputation,   |
|the survival of the region (or company), future growth and prosperity are all    |
|dependent on this crucial short-term project. The project comes to them when the |
|villagers go to protest a doubled tax rate imposed on them. They're given a      |
|choice: either pay the tax or agree to a cricket match. If they win the match,   |
|they don't pay tax for three whole years. If they lose, they pay a triple tax    |
|instead of the current double tax.                                               |
|                                                                                 |
|The challenge is posed directly to Aamir. The rest of the villagers want him to  |
|refuse the challenge. But he accepts. It's a major crisis. They have trouble     |
|paying twice the tax, how on earth will they pay three times the tax? But Aamir, |
|like most good leaders, recognises that a crisis is an opportunity. Whenever a   |
|crisis pops up, it's an opportunity for someone or everyone to shine and benefit.|
|                                                                                 |
|In a project, when crises occur, often the junior-most team members benefit      |
|first. When a project is running smoothly, these junior members are normally kept|
|on the sidelines and given minor tasks. But when a crisis erupts they suddenly   |
|become invaluable and are roped in directly to help out with the crisis. The     |
|crisis is an opportunity for them. If they do well — and most people do rise to  |
|challenges, they will no longer be considered as `junior' or `weak'. They become |
|full-fledged, respected members of the team.                                     |
|                                                                                 |
|For the PL, successfully handling a crisis increases not only his confidence and |
|his knowledge base, but also his status among team members and senior management.|
|He's seen as a capable leader ready for larger projects.                         |
|When Aamir begins his project, he does a detailed requirements gathering. He     |
|checks out the specifications, the dependencies and inter-dependencies, and how  |
|the parts make up the whole. He does this by observing the English practising at |
|their cricket, and also ropes in an attractive English lady to help him out. This|
|is what all effective PLs do. Carefully gather requirements — with or without    |
|attractive English ladies.                                                       |
|                                                                                 |
|In the beginning of a project, there's a lot of uncertainty and it's only        |
|compounded if improper specifications are gathered leading to work proceeding on |
|the wrong track. The rework necessary can easily throw a project way out of      |
|schedule. For instance in Lagaan, initially the bowlers do not bowl over arm but |
|instead chuck the ball. The English lady shows them how to bowl properly. Imagine|
|if they'd gone to the match after practising chucking for three months and found |
|out there that they were required to bowl over arm after all? Gathering          |
|requirements early in the project in as much detail as possible is vital to its  |
|success.                                                                         |
|                                                                                 |
|Project Leads play different roles depending on the situation. Some roles that   |
|Aamir played as a PL in Lagaan are: information provider, ideas and opinions     |
|shaper, tapper and developer of potential, provider of emotional, physical and   |
|social support.                                                                  |
|                                                                                 |
| Information provider: As information provider, Aamir ensures he shares with the|
|team all his ideas, skills, and feelings. He also ropes in an expert (the English|
|lady) to help out with knowledge transfer. Information leads to motivation.      |
|People feel good at being kept in the loop.                                      |
|                                                                                 |
| Ideas and opinion shaper: Aamir faces resistance when he wants to include a    |
|social outcast in the team. But he sticks to his guns as the man is a natural    |
|spinner. He insists that the project is of paramount importance. He              |
|                                                                                 |
|paints the larger picture and then speaks to individuals in the group addressing |
|their inner views, drives and fears. This is a wonderful example of how          |
|successful PLs handle resistance. They paint the larger picture and then address |
|individuals in the group and appeal to them directly. Don't give up when faced   |
|with resistance. Shape opinions to move the project forward.                     |
|                                                                                 |
| Developer of potential: A PL's role is also to identify and develop talent.    |
|Developing talent is done by structuring tasks around the individual's talent and|
|finding roles and situations where the talent can be used to great effect. For   |
|Aamir, a chicken farmer used to chasing and catching chickens is a natural       |
|fielder. A polio-stricken man with erratic control over his arm is a natural     |
|spinner. A woodcutter with hardened hands is a natural to field and stop hard    |
|hits. PLs constantly identify talent in their people and find areas where they   |
|can use it effectively.                                                          |
|                                                                                 |
| Support provider — emotional, physical and social: As a PL, Aamir knows that   |
|emotions are contagious. He therefore constantly exhibits optimism and           |
|enthusiasm. When things go wrong, people are naturally low and demotivated. The  |
|PL's role in providing emotional support either individually or to the group as a|
|whole becomes paramount. Throughout the project implementation stage (the actual |
|match), Aamir is everywhere - consoling someone who does poorly, motivating      |
|someone who is facing a block, soothing another who is heckled.                  |
|Physical support is again an important part of project leadership. While a PL is |
|not expected to do actual work like writing code, if he can sit in at critical   |
|junctures and provide the help required by doing the physical part of the work,  |
|his effectiveness can only grow. Physical support is like an extra hand given at |
|the steering wheel. The hand is not kept there. Support is given at a crucial    |
|juncture and then withdrawn.                                                     |
|                                                                                 |
|In Lagaan, a traitor is found out in the team and the rest are baying for his    |
|blood. But Aamir recognises that this man can be a valuable contributor and gives|
|him another chance. He provides the man with social support till the rest of the |
|team accepts him. Some members, especially after a failure can be shut out of the|
|team. The effective PL provides him the support necessary to sustain him till the|
|others accept him again. 

Conclusion                                                       |
|To conclude, Lagaan is a wonderful example of project management in action.      |
|Aamir, the PL, does a wonderful job of building the team, motivating it and      |
|guiding it to success, all the while managing the project too. A long time ago in|
|India ... we had PLs too.;
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