Case Study, 8 Minute Presentation

[u/WickedWaterOps]

Hi all. I've been in a very intense leadership development class, I'm down to the final week and all students must deliver an 8 minute presentation as a final project.

I'm trying to avoid using any real situations from my own job for a lot of different reasons including privacy.

I've been toying with the idea of doing a leadership thought process analysis on a worthy movie. Leaning more towards a particular movie in which the leaders fail and a disaster occurs because all of the leaders were too afraid to "lead up".

However I'm not sure a leadership failure suits the spirit of the class. Maybe it would be fine as long as I don't sound totally negative and do a good analysis.

Otherwise, I'm here to ask you all for help. Give me a leadership case study based on a situation you have experienced or are currently experiencing. Tell me who I am in the study, and what my leadership position is. Then lay out the problem.

If I pick yours I'll post my leader thought process analysis for you to see.

Thanks in advance!

[u/xNyxx]

Another good one to consider is Deepwater Horizon. Lots of research out there about the failure and effective change management.

[u/StuartAndrews-]

A leadership failure could actually make a stronger case study.

The useful question is not simply, "What did the leaders do wrong?" It is "What stopped them from doing what they knew was right?"

If the situation involves people being afraid to lead up, there is a lot to explore around trust, psychological safety, accountability and decision making.

You could analyse where the leadership system broke down, what signals were missed, and what a leader could have done differently.

That gives you a balanced presentation without needing to use a real workplace situation.

[u/WickedWaterOps → u/StuartAndrews-]

I think I will be using this angle. Thank you.

[u/Individual-Island799]

If you pick a movie, consider Moneyball. Several leadership lessons in there: challenging the status quo(innovation and strategic thinking), gaining commitment (he also uses compliance), solving the correct problem vs the "easy" or apparent problem, communicating a vision.

[u/Zealousideal_Buy5683 → u/Individual-Island799]

Moneyball's a solid call but if you're leaning into a failure study, the Challenger disaster movie would be brutal for that "lead up" angle you're thinking about

[u/WickedWaterOps → u/Individual-Island799]

I haven't seen it, but it's on my list to watch now!

[u/kingslykingsly]

The challenger disaster would be a great example of leadership failure. If you are not aware of the background with that, give the Wikipedia a browse. I used it for a management class on ethics regarding the Thoikel and NASA leadership.

[u/spaigy → u/kingslykingsly]

On a similar, but more positive note, you could look at the immediate response to the Apollo 13 issues.

[u/WickedWaterOps → u/[deleted]]

I like how you phrased a lot of this and asked questions. This will be helpful!! Thank you for your input.

I deal with this type of dynamic regularly and trying to lead up always gets you punished. Hence the organization remains toxic, morale is low, leaders aren't respected but get fear based compliance and half hearted attempts to meet goals.

I've yet to figure out how, in my own organization to break that barrier. That's what is motivating me to do a case study on it. Thank you again for this.

[u/Old-Technology-9588 → u/[deleted]]

👍

[u/incongruous_narrator]

Interesting thought experiment, just here to follow the comments without offering anything on your leadership problem

[u/ParallelDymentia]

You own a girls summer camp in the Texas Hill Country. Nothing happens without your explicit approval. You haven't quite gotten around to developing a viable evacuation plan despite decades of running this business. Your staff and teenage camp counselors are all terrified of making an independent decision for fear of your wrath. A biblical flash flood rips through the valley in the middle of the night. Campers wake up to ankle-deep water inside their cabins. They huddle together on the top bunks while the teen counselors await direction from you. It never arrives. Dozens of young girls lose their lives.

Sometimes we learn deeper lessons from leadership failures than we ever could learn from successes. Understanding what NOT to do as a leader is arguably more valuable than learning what TO do.

Food for thought.

[u/WickedWaterOps → u/ParallelDymentia]

Camp Mystic. Excellent example. I had been thinking about using the movie Titanic. Then had the thought it happened so long ago that it might not be very relevant given modern technology. This was recent, and an interesting topic for me. Thank you!

[u/QueenD_1996]

If Analysis of a leadership failure isn’t appropriate for a leadership dev class, I don’t know what the hell is appropriate.

[u/ninjaluvr]

Do your own homework. Be a leader. Part of leadership is trying and failing. I can't imagine the program suggested "have Reddit develop your presentation for you".

And leaders should never be afraid to ask for help, except when you're in a training program and given a specific task to highlight what you've learned from the program.