Quit or Be Quiet: Examining Employee Behavior Using DiCaprio's "The Beach"...
July 19, 2018
We all know that any company isn't a match for everyone. What's always been interesting to me is the power of the flock - your employees - being the best stewards of who fits and who doesn't. When someone isn't a match for what's going on (across all factors) at your company, the most talented opt out and gone. They come in, check it out and say, "this is not for me." Then they get another job. Simple as that. No harm, no foul, they say a couple of things about having a great opportunity they couldn't pass up and everyone moves on.
It's the people who aren't a fit without many options that are often the bigger issue. Because they fall lower on the talent spectrum, they have fewer options, and don't leave as quickly. And if others around them are happy, they can serve initially to be a bit of a cancer but before long, the teammates around them just kind of get sick of their BS. It's what happens next that is the key.
I was reminded of this dynamic in Shea Serrono's description of "The Beach" (starring Leonardo DiCaprio) as he relayed the feelings of San Antonio Spurs fans related to the Kawhi Leonard trade demands and ultimate trade this week. More from the Ringer:
"Have you seen the movie The Beach? It came out in 2000. It starred Leonardo DiCaprio. He played a character named Richard, a young American kid out exploring culture in Bangkok. One day, he hears a tale of some pristine beach on some pristine island and so, using a rough map given to him by someone who says he’s been there, he heads out after it, eventually finding not only the beach but also a colony of people living there as a mostly self-sufficient community of beach bums.
The movie ends up being something like 85 percent fun and 15 percent terrible. (It was one of those movies where it felt like they got to where the end was supposed to be and just went, “Umm … what the f**k do we do now?”) But there’s this part in it that serves as a good analogy for this whole Spurs-Kawhi debacle.
While spearfishing one day, two people get attacked by a shark. The shark bites a large chunk out of one of the guys’ thighs and also bites him across his torso, killing him. The second guy lives but is severely wounded (he was bitten on his shin). And so now he’s there at the beach, screaming and miserable and in an unfathomable amount of pain. And he refuses to leave by boat to get medical help because he’s too afraid of the water now, but the leader of the beach community (a woman named Sal) (played by Tilda Swinton) won’t allow for anybody to come to the beach to help him for fear of the beach eventually getting turned into a tourist trap. So the guy, that poor bastard, suffers through it for a few days, just lying there with his leg bitten too far open to ever heal. And after a bit, everyone else on the island gets fed up with him, and the sadness they felt for him turns to frustration and anger.
Leo, narrating the scene, explains the setting, saying, “You see, in a shark attack — or any other major tragedy, I guess — the important thing is to get eaten and die, in which case there’s a funeral and somebody makes a speech and everybody says what a good guy you were. Or get better, in which case everybody can forget about it.”
Then the scene cuts away and we see a group of the people carrying the guy on a gurney into the forest.
“Get better or die,” says Leo, narrating again. “It’s the hanging around in between that really pisses people off.”
Then we see them set the gurney down on the ground, and the guy has a blanket and a tent they’ve set up for him, plus a few supplies. Then they turn around and leave him there to die. The camera cuts away again and we see everyone on the beach playing volleyball and smiling and laughing and having a very good time, same as they were before the shark attack.
The Beach is your normally functioning company - not perfect, but not bad either. They guy who died immediately from the shark bite is the employee who decides they're not a fit and gets out. The guy with bad wounds that's impacting everyone else is the person that's not happy but won't leave.
The people around person #2 is your relatively happy employee base.
“Get better or die,” says Leo, narrating again. “It’s the hanging around in between that really pisses people off.”
Your employee base can't carry person #2 into the forest. That part is up to you.
It's knowing when it's time and having the guts to make a call that's the hard part, right?
I know you're familiar Bill Simmons, so I have to believe you also know who Shea Serrano is; is this post a coincidence? Last week, Shea compared Kawhi Leonard saga to The Beach. Two references within a couple days?!
Posted by: Bryan | July 23, 2018 at 09:16 AM
I fail at reading comprehension! Tip to myself: don't read multiple articles at once, because the answer is in the article.
Posted by: Bryan | July 23, 2018 at 02:40 PM