By now, if you are human and on a continent you should at least have heard of the Hunger Games.
Let’s face it. The marketing and social media behind this has been nothing short of amazing.
However, in case any animals or dead people are reading my blog here’s the official trailer.
I’m not here to go into the movie. I do recommend you see it though. But first, do yourself a favor & READ THE BOOK. One, reading is good for you. Two, it makes the movie, this movie in particular, all the better.
Now that we got that out of the way, here’s some basic management lessons I learned from the Hunger Games.
1. In the absence of leadership or in the presence of bad leadership, people will rise up. With bad leadership, this is a given. In the Hunger Games, almost all the leadership is bad.
But, what was interesting to me and the twist is, people are capable of more than you are probably giving them. The most unlikely person (Peeta) has immense potential when motivated.
2. People are inherently good. And more importantly, they want to be good. Do good. Help. Etc. The movie is called the Hunger Games. It’s about cold blooded killing. Yet, the heroine, Katniss never kills the innocent unless its a must. And she helps out the less fortunate (Rue, her sister, even her hated cat) whenever she can. Give people the ability to do good and they usually will. Doing what’s right is infectious if you set the environment.
3. People react differently to different leaders. Katniss, only opened up to a few people. Cinna was one. I remember when I first realized everyone was not wired like me. People are motivated in different ways. Figure out what motivates someone individually and the whole team will perform better. Haymitch is an excellent example of this in the movie.
4. “The only thing more motivating than fear is hope”. this is an actual quote from the movie. And it happens to be my favorite quote. We all know leaders who are fear based motivators. Unfortunately, this often works to get results. However, it’s best to use “hope”. Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves. And hope will win every time.
5. Love really can conquer all. Watch Katniss and her sacrifice for her sister and you know. Love is the single biggest motivator in the Hunger Games. I know it’s weird to talk about “love” in relation the work place. I don’t expect my employees to love me. But, I do hope they like me enough that they want to do a good job. And I hope that together we do meaningful work they can be proud of and even, love.
