The Lego Movie, which I saw this weekend, is an extremely-fine film for adults as well as kids. Besides its humor and awesome animation, critics have hailed the story’s clever satire of the Hollywood summer blockbuster, giving it a 95% Freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes (higher than Oscar locks such as American Hustle, Her and Captain Philips). We all write what we know, of course. For me, The Lego Movie also offers valuable lessons about collaboration in the 21st century.
(Warning: some mild spoilers ahead)
At first glance, the movie might appear to be simply anti-collaboration. The main character, Emmet, is a construction worker in a mindlessly-conformist Lego world. “Everything is awesome, everything is cool when you’re part of the team,” goes the peppy Eurodance tune that plays ubiquitously. Like everything else, it’s mandated by the bad guy, President Business, who controls Emmet’s world through a mixture of fear and brainwashing.
The bad guy, ‘Lord Business’ voiced by comedian Will Ferrell, isn’t so bad as misguided about collaboration. And he comes around in the end.
Credit: TheLegoMovie.com
To (literally) cement his already-absolute grip, President (actually, Lord) Business plans to “UNLEASH THE KRAGLE!” (actually, KRAzy GlUE) to lock every Lego mini-fig like Emmet into place, never to be taken apart, moved or rebuilt again. If you know anything about serious Lego culture today, you know that there’s a raging debate between those who build massive sets such as the Lego Taj Mahal (5,922 pieces) together by painstakingly following the instructions and then glue their sets together to preserve their hard work, and those who prefer to create structures and ships using pieces from many different sets.
It’s the war between conservatives and liberals, between architects who demolish and rebuild and the rehabber of old buildings, between tyrannical perfection and messy creativity, etc.
The Lego Movie doesn’t come down dogmatically on either side. While the good guys are the Lego characters fighting for the right to mix and match pieces, we also see that their overly-rugged individualism is why they’ve lost battle after battle to Lord Business. This is epitomized by the Batman Lego character, who admits in a speech that his go-it-alone ways have hurt the anti-Business rebels and alienated his girlfriend, the heroine WyldStyle (not a DJ).
At the same time, the hero Emmet shows how teamwork, conforming (somewhat) and sacrificing oneself for the greater team/cause, can lead to eventual victory. And that victory comes from convincing the bad guy, Lord Business, to basically chill out, and accept a little chaos and creativity into his world.
These are great lessons for most businesses today. Sure, letting your employees bring in their own mobile devices (BYOD) is awesome, but if not managed properly, it can create security risks and cost your company time and money. Sure, bureaucracy is a dirty word, but unless you’re a one-person startup, establishing processes, agreeing on tools, and ensuring different groups communicate and collaborate will actually be key to your success. Sure, we all idolize the creativity of the individual, but if it is in the wrong context, or unknown to the rest of the company, it’s useless or can even hurt an organization.
Anyway, I highly recommend the Lego Movie. It’ll entertain you and your kids and also reinforce some good business practices in a non-preachy way.
Read more: