Every few months a new book or philosophy becomes popular among teams.  “Traits of dysfunctional Teams”, “Speed of Trust” just to name a few.  There is one timeless resource that has been used over and over to provoke conversations about teams and leadership – 12 O’Clock High.  Originally a movie starring Gregory Peck, it was eventually made into a TV series.  Released in 1949, this movie has all the hallmarks of why we continue to be drawn to post World War II movies.  Filmed in black and white, the movie relies on tension with events as well as tension between the characters, the story and movie timeless, due to it’s reliance on the basic elements of a story.  Erik Bork (https://www.flyingwrestler.com/) discusses these concepts in his book, “The Idea”, (https://www.flyingwrestler.com/my-book-the-idea/, and is in the same category of classic movies released during the same era, Advise & Consent and  Fail Safe. The movie begins in England during the darkest days of early World War 2.  Britain stands virtually alone against the Nazi invasion of Europe.  The United States, brought into the war with Pearl Harbor, have just begun to change to a war footing and contribute to the war effort in Europe.  Key to this support are the squadrons of the 8th Air Force.  While the British bomb targets at night, the “Mighty 8th”  relies on daylight bombing as part of their precision bombing strategy.  This strategy is designed to reduce industrial support for the Nazi war machine. As you can imagine, the human cost of this daylight bombing strategy was extremely high.  The characteristics that made it more effective for bombing also made the bombers more vulnerable to attack from the air as well as anti-air artillery. So, on several levels, then tension starts to build, within the squadron among flight crews, and with the groups commanders who struggle to make sure they can commit as many aircraft to each bombing sortie. With this building tension, we can identify how different members of the squadron react to this pressure.  Most important is the type of leaders who emerge.  Although you would expect leadership to arise from the ranks inherent in the Army Air Corps, what you begin to observe instead is the different types of leaders that become visible.  In addition, examples of followship throughout the movie demonstrate the need in organizations to sometimes lead and sometimes follow.  These contrasting components have made this movie part of leadership training in the military as well as required viewing in the US military academies. I was able to introduce the Customer Connect Center – Americas to this movie during our very first in-person training held in San Luis Potosi, MX.  it is a thought provoking, inspirational movie to share with a team.

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