Episode 551: What Movies Teach Project Managers

And now on to our first question here.

Movies as project management case studies.

We want to explore why movies resonate so strongly with project managers, and how storytelling can reveal practical lessons about leadership, teamwork, risk, decision-making, you name it.

Jerry, the first question goes to you.

What does make movies such effective case studies for understanding real-world project leadership and decision-making? What would you say? What is it?

Well, I th- first of all, movies are life exaggerated, uh, the way I think of it.

So where we, we naturally see ourselves in these characters that the, uh, the w- writers bring to life.

Uh, so to me, they're the ultimate case studies.

Uh, and also the other thing is stories stick better than facts.

People remember stories, uh, since the beginning of time.

Uh, and, you know, most of these stories show human resourcefulness under pressure.

And, uh, and last, it's, it's just a fun way to learn.

Yeah.

And if I remember correctly, the new edition of the PMBOK Guide actually has storytelling specifically mentioned as a good way of getting points across, but I don't think they meant [laughs] storytelling in the sense of, "Oh, make a movie about it and tell a story." No, it's more about, you know, "Oh, let me tell you what happened on my project there." So yeah.