It is not infrequent to find a film that teaches lessons about leadership. As a student at London Business School in the 1990s, professors of leadership and strategy occasionally weaved film into coursework, with the most memorable being Gregory Peck’s war classic, “Twelve O’Clock High”, where Peck turns around a flailing bomber squadron and leads it to a pivotal role in the Allies daytime precision bombing raids over the Third Reich.
Good films that teach strategic communication lessons are much rarer. But Invictus, Clint Eastwood’s bio-pic of Nelson Mandela’s efforts to create a workable degree of national unity the wake of decades of apartheid, focuses on some of the key opportunities—and pitfalls—involved in the communication of major change.
The film pivots around Mandela’s relationship with South Africa’s Springbok national rugby team, and its hosting of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. While the Springboks had once been a fearsome power on the global rugby scene—and remained core to White culture through the years when international condemnation of Apartheid kept them out of international play—their identification with the excesses of White rule made them a whipping boy for much of the Black majority, to the point that Blacks attending Springbok matches in South Africa would routinely and visibly support whomever was visiting.
Newly installed in office, and with the World Cup approaching, Mandela soberly assesses the multiple problems facing his domain—a falling currency, rampant poverty, escalating unemployment, and international goodwill insufficiently backed with access to markets or financial resources—along with the desire of many Black South Africans for payback and White skepticism about a shift to majority rule, and of the majority’s fitness to rule.
In any major organizational change (and considering change within a nation to be an internal communication challenge—if one on a ‘meta’ level) two key determinants of success are the determination of what things are retained and what are jettisoned as part of the change, and how those who see themselves disproportionately on the receiving end of the change are accommodated.
Invictus portrays the pressure on Mandela to “stick it to Whitey” as intense on all levels. He also recognized that he needed to take some concrete steps to reassure the White population (which maintained its economic if not political power) that South Africa wouldn’t go the same direction as Zimbabwe and other African states in terms of racial violence and the confiscatory redistribution of wealth.
Mandela saw the question of South Africa’s rugby future—hated symbol for Blacks and cherished symbol for Whites—as fundamental to the viability of the transition to a multiracial democracy. In visibly opposing the Black leadership on the question of eliminating the Springbok name and colors which they saw as enduring symbols of apartheid,
Mandela saw a greater power in allowing those symbols to be recognized and integrated into a new South Africa in which Whites would still have a home. Further, in making South Africa’s success in the 1995 Rugby World Cup a personal project and cause despite considerable derision from within his government, Mandela was able to demonstrate his commitment to South Africa’s multiraciality far more than mere words or isolated actions.
Having been involved in change communication—changes of leadership, technology changes, merger and acquisition, shifts in priorities, outsourcings—the natural inclination of leaders and communicators is to focus on what gets changed. Invictus sends a powerful message about looking at, cherishing and celebrating what stays the same as change moves on. For those who are embarking on change—a couple of hours spent watching Invictus could provide some useful perspectives.
Mike Klein is a Brussels-based communications pro, and long-time member of IABC boards at the country and regional level, and can be reached athttp://intersectionblog.wordpress.com.
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