The art of leading under pressure
What co-directing in Hollywood tells us about teamwork in any workplace.
Welcome to the Big Think Business newsletter, a thoughtfully curated collection of insightful business stories. Written by Mike Hodgkinson.
In a nutshell
“As a team, you can accomplish anything”
with Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, co-directors, Warfare
Problems and priorities // Garland: “Prioritization is perhaps the most important skill for a director to have, and it comes down to distinguishing tasks in order of importance […] Fortunately, Ray and I are both instinctive problem solvers.”
Dream team // Mendoza: “Often when you do things on your own, you doubt and question yourself. Am I doing this right? Will this work? Are people going to like it? Am I going to be criticized? Working as a team eliminates those questions.”
External monologue // Garland: “Normally, I always have an internal monologue on set. But this time, I didn’t, and that’s because I had a co-director. The internal monologue was externalized because Ray and I would discuss everything.”
Top stories you may have missed from the past week
CEO masterclass: 3 ways to burst the “positivity delusion”
Andreessen Horowitz cofounder Ben Horowitz thought that “blowing sunshine” was the right way to handle pressure — here’s how he corrected his mistake. Read more.
Romance at White Castle: How to do business the “evergreen” way
From “crave” packs to Valentine bookings, the world’s first fast-food hamburger chain values innovation from every level of the organization. Read more.
Team esteem: How to create “spirals of increasing cooperation”
Harness the power of “respectful engagement” to make sure everyone in your team feels like they matter. Read more.
The Scott Woody Interview: The pros and cons of being “memoryless”
The cofounder and CEO of red-hot billing platform Metronome unpacks his leadership journey. Read more.
What we’re reading and listening to
📚 LIKE: The Button That Changed The World by Martin Reeves and Bob Goodson
“Will platforms continue to offer the “like” button as an all-purpose tool, a kind of Swiss Army knife for holding up one’s end of a digital conversation, or will each of the button’s functions take its own different future path?”
🎧 Me, Myself, and AI: Feed Drop: How AI Will Change Your Job With MIT’s David Autor
“We’re very much in the “poking a stick at it and figuring out what happens” phase of this technology. AI is not a better, cheaper, faster version of any other technology. It’s actually not very good at many of the things that traditional computer software is good for."
Mike Hodgkinson is the commissioning editor at Big Think. He has worked as a writer and editor across a range of publications for more than three decades.
More Big Think content:
Big Think | Mini Philosophy | Starts with a Bang | Big Think Books