Remember The Titans, 2000

Set in Virginia, 1971, Remember the Titans is about a football team that has to learn, for the first time how to deal with racial diversity, not only in their school, but on the field.  The football players are not the only ones that have to overcome their prejudices and work together, the coaches are also subject to conflict when long time coach Bill Yoast is forced to step down as head coach in favor of Herman Boone.  The team learns to accept each other and work together, but the rest of the school and the town are not as quick to accept the new found brotherhood on the football field.  This film demonstrates the ability of a town to overcome extreme prejudice and work together as a team.

Lessons Learned

Tuckman’s Developmental sequence for small groups¹

1.  Task activity development (Forming) -orientation to the task
* seen in the movie where Coach Boone gives a speech about his expectations of the “perfect season”

2.  Intragroup conflict (Storming)–hostile toward each other to express individuality and resist the forming of group structure
* this can most clearly be seen at the beginning of the teams training
Julius: “I’m supposed to wear myself out for the team, what team?”
Gary:  “That’s the worst attitude I have ever heard of”
Julius:  “Attitude reflects leadership”

3.  Development of group cohesion (Norming) –accept group and idiosyncrasies of members
* “left side/strong side” at a middle of the night practice, at training camp, the team begins to come together with Julius and Gary at the center of it

4.  Functional role relatedness (Performing) –now a unit can become a problem solving instrument
* this can be seen when the team starts working together to win games and starts to change the attitudes of the community members through their good example


Lewin’s Change Model²

1. Unfreezing- breaking apart old habits for change to take place
* in the movie, this is shown at tryouts and before the players went away to camp

2. Movement- changing behaviors and learning new habits
* this is demonstrated best when the players are at camp and forced to interact with each other and begin to look at themselves as one team

3. Refreezing- when the new behaviors and habits become as common and normal as the old behaviors were
* this begins after the team pulls together on their own, without the coaches, and creates their own “flavor” to their warm up


Effective Change Management²

1. Motivating change -creating a readiness for change and overcoming resistance to change
* when the coaches take the players away to camp and forced the players to sit with, room with, and get to know the players of a different race

2. Creating a vision - describing the core ideology and constructing the envisioned future
* this is best seen when Coach Boone shows that the team belongs to him, not Coach Yoast or the town and when he gives the team the speech where he demands perfection from them

3. Developing Political support -assessing change agent’s power, identifying key stakeholders, influencing stakeholders
* the team itself does this by showing everyone that they can work together and by being an example of how black and white can be on the same team

4. Managing the transition - activity planning, commitment planning, managing structures
* the coaches and players continually reinforcing that team that they are doing the right thing, and reminding each other of their goal of perfection

5. Sustaining momentum -providing resources for change, building a support system for change agents, developing new competencies and skills, reinforcing new behaviors, staying the course
* the teammates were each others’ support system; when things got rough at school or in the game, they were their for each other; held their own meeting as things started to fall apart right after they got back from camp


Elements Crucial to Group Success³

1. Directioning –understanding what it is expected to accomplish

2. Organizing –agreeing on an approach to using the group’s resources to complete a task

3. Exploring –exploring options and alternatives to perform the work

4. Converging –deciding on the best approach or solution

5. Executing –satisfactory completing the work or implementing the solution

* throughout the movie, the coaches, Julius and Gary exhibit these behaviors to keep the team together and moving forward


Ethical behavior in leadership

* Coach Boone did not want to take Coach Yoast’s job, but it was out of his hands, and he had to act professionally

* Gary cuts a player (his best friend) when he knows that player was purposefully not blocking and hurting the team

* Coach Yoast jeopardizing his own admittance to the Hall of Fame to make sure the game is called fairly

* They “taught the city to trust the soul of a man, not the color of him”

Competencies Addressed

Leading Others (all core competencies)
Social Responsibility (all core competencies)
Self Management (self insight)
Task Management (solving problems and enhancing performance)
Innovation (integrating perspectives and managing change)


References

¹  Tuckman, B. W. (1965).  Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin 63(6), 384-399.

²  Cummings, T. G. & Worley, C. G. (2005).  Organizational Development and Change (8^th edition).  Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing.

³  Woodman, R. W. & Pasmore, W. A. (2002).  The heart of it all: Group- and team-based interventions in organizational development.  In J. Waclawski and A. H. Church (Eds).  Organizational Development: A data-driven approach to organizing change.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.