avocado8

From B-Movie to B-School

Al and I started watching the third season of Project Greenlight tonight. I know Matt Damon is mad about having to make a shit movie, but I'd like to say to Matt and everyone else: This show isn't about making a good movie. It's about interoffice politics, decisionmaking, communicating, resolving conflicts. You could do a whole B-school class around this show. In fact, I think someone *should* do a whole B-school class around this show.

I know I learned a ton about how to communicate more effectively in meetings and how I'm perceived by my colleagues at work from last season's Project Greenlight. It was absolutely brilliant—and incredibly educational—to both show the project participants in meetings and to interview them one-on-one about what they thought they said or planned to say. It was shocking how many times someone said, "Yeah, I think everybody understood that what I wanted was X" and couldn't have been more wrong.

I can already see that this season is likely to be just as educational. Whoever's doing the camerawork or the directing on this show is brilliant; he or she managed to capture every relevant facial expression in the room during the writer and director interviews. And, as ever, every person involved with the project has different interests (and therefore different motives for behaving the way they do). It's iimportant in business to understand that even people who have a common goal have different priorities, and that one's background and area of expertise influence what skills and resources one values most. That principle is on display in abundance on a project like this one, which involves studio executives, writers, producers, casting directors, actors, and others—each with a different vested interest.

It's fascinating stuff. Survivor and The Apprentice can teach you a lot about working together as a group and managing interpersonal relationships, but you can't beat Project Greenlight as a case study in business communication. Even though I'm not working full-time right now, I'll be taking notes.