Organizational Values Drawn from the Film ‘Remember the Titans’

Overview

Remember the Titans  remain a masterpiece film because of exemplifications of organizational culture. In a general sense, the film takes place in a high school called T. C Williams in a racially charged neighbourhood of Alexandria, Virginia in the 1970s. The school is one of the most desegregated institutions bedevilled with profound push back from the white community. African Americans are regarded as second-class citizens even though the formal norm being “all men are created equal.” Noteworthy is the cat that in the informal quotas the people of colour are victims of separation, despise, murders, and incessant brutality. The police did very little to protect the black minorities from organized violence by certain groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. The school’s football team represents the seemingly impossible as it draws its membership from different races, which was unheard of at the time. The team had to combat prejudice from within its ranks and the community as well. Nevertheless, as time progressed, the team began to adopt certain values such as unity and teamwork that enabled them to work as a single comprehensive unit that led to the dynamism and even made them champions in the end.

Organizational Values Present in the Film

The first value is the teamwork. It is essential for individuals within an organization or the ones that make up an organization to put their differences aside and work as a single unit to attain the pre-set objectives. Working together by putting any notable or arising differences aside will undoubtedly help a team, or by extension, an organization succeed. No person, however gifted or talented, can carry the weight of the organization alone. The main goal of the team is to uplift individual members. It is imperative for team leaders, just as the coach did in the film, to use every individual and their unique talents, for the improvement of the organization. Noting that a common goal goes beyond an individual can help all the members of the team to reach their full potential. 

Team leaders and individuals that make up the team should not compromise but should stay true to their values, virtues, and character. As a team member, a specific strategy may not make sense, but the most important thing is to listen to the team leader or the coach and be ready to sacrifice self-interest for the good of the entire team. The focus should always be on the bigger picture. The coach should be staunch and never willing to compromise his or her values to please others without realistic and reasonable justification. The secret is to stay solid in one’s beliefs and the lessons that one has learnt as he grows up. Seeing other people’s perspectives is a good strategy, but making a decision based on facts is the most important virtue that will ensure the success of the team. It is worth noting that compromise does not mean that an individual should change certain aspects of their values to fit the majority; rather one should use their unique perspective to each meaningful change. Coach Boone (Denzel Washington), as the coach in the film under discussion, is the embodiment of what is possible when an individual is goal-driven and focused. 

One of the most important aspects of teamwork is a purpose-driven unity. Members of a team should find common ground to base their friendship and define their purpose and mode of operation. In the film, the members of the team and the community mainly focused on winning the trophy y working together regardless of the racial tension that existed at the time. Towards this end, friendship or a good relationship between team members may be of great significance. That should not be misconstrued to mean that there is no conflict within the team. Nevertheless, the conflict resolution mechanism within the organization should be such that it is swift and comprehensive to iron out any arising differences to create an atmosphere of agreement and purpose. Goal-oriented teams ensure that team members see the good in each other and tap into the talents found therein to improve the working environment and the subsequent team performance. 

Teams and team members should be ready to learn from the past to improve the future. In the film, when the team members were struggling to find common ground, Coach Boone advised them “to take a lesson from the dead.” In the past, racial discrimination had cause conflicts and resulted in the deaths of millions of people in America. Essentially, a team that intends to succeed should learn from the past and determine the reasons why other teams that performed a similar task either succeeded or failed. Such a team should then take up lessons from such teams and ensure that apply sound strategies that will enable it to succeed. Finally, an organization or a team should embrace change to reflect the prevailing time to succeed. The past teams that came before embraced racism. They did not succeed as that only caused serious conflict and even death. Nevertheless, the one led by Coach Boone was able to succeed because they did things differently by shunning racism. 

Conclusion

The film ‘ Remember the Titans’   has critical lessons that an organization or a team should apply to ensure success. The success of any organization or team depends on the culture and the values that the leadership and the employees embrace. For instance, having unified and goal-oriented has a higher probability of success compared to a team that has no road map. Furthermore, adapting to change is another notable virtue that leads to success. Closely related to that is that an organization should have a mechanism for ironing out conflicts to ensure unity of purpose.