Committed to Memory

Movies blaze a trail through the dark and the light. They let us look at the world around us as it was, is, and could be. Movies give us a high-definition glimpse into the best and worst parts of our culture and nature. They make us angry, sorry, guilty, sexy, happy, worthy. Yes, movies can be vile and cruel and hateful. They can inspire copycat acts of stupidity and violence, shake our faith and confound our sense of decency.

They also inspire countless acts of charity and humanity and love. Roger Ebert, the first critic to win the Pulitzer Prize, stated unequivocally that movies “make us better” (The Great Movies, 2003).

Just like trainers should.

It was at this point that 3:00am Sensibility Man gently informed me that I was full of crap. Grandiose, dramatic, overblown crap.

He kept reminding me that I was sitting up in bed in the middle of the night, 90 minutes away from my alarm clock’s first yelp, giving serious thought to the notion that a Star Wars movie – or any movie, for that matter – could actually help trainers do their jobs better. This was dumb, he said. Just fatigue talking. Your colleagues will think you’re crazy. Your industry will laugh you out of the room. Peers will dismiss you and business people will ignore you.

I believe the Training industry is broken. And I think Tinseltown can save it. How?

Rewind to Thursday, May 19, 2005. “Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” was set to hit theaters at midnight and I was beyond excited.

That night changed my whole perspective on my job.

This week, we learned Michael Douglas has throat cancer and will undergo 8 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy treatment. Doctors expect him to make a full recovery, although some news outlets have raised the possibility of his voice changing – or disappearing – permanently.

I pray that he heals quickly and hope he will deliver more incredible on-screen moments like the ultimate 5-minute verbal beat down from Aaron Sorkin’s masterful “The American President.” Enjoy the clip, and your weekend!

A little while back, Sprint ran a series of TV spots that wondered “What if [insert industry here] ran the world?” They were clever, hilarious, and irreverently mashed together two seemingly unrelated things to create a whole new way at looking at the ordinary world around us.

I’ve always wondered what would happen if we plugged Marketing and Training into this intriguing little question. It’s not that much of a stretch, given that the core function of both is to change the behavior of a defined group of clients/customers. Here are a few things that might spill out: