Miracle Paper

The Miracle of Management

The movie Miracle is Disney’s depiction of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” when the United States won the gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. Today we will take a different approach to the movie by analyzing it from a management and leadership perspective.

A) To achieve this goal of a gold medal in the Olympics the US being less talented than its counterparts had to concentrate on becoming a team. According to Annie McKee the definition of team is, “a small group whose members share a common purpose hold themselves individually and collectively responsible for goals and have complementary skills and agree-on processes for working together (McKee 341).” As we witness through the movie there are many steps to becoming a successful team. In the movie the team beginnings as a group of young hockey players who have been picked to represent their country, through their fighting and struggles they eventually come to realize the vision that coach Herb Brooks has set froth and come to together to reach that goal (McKee 341).

B) During the course of the movie we experience two different styles of leadership. The autocratic leader, a leader who tends to make decisions without input from others, Brooks has a very clear vision of what he wants to accomplish and he knows who will fit into that system. Because Brooks has a clear idea in his head, he does most of his scouting by watching film and asking their current coaches about the types of players they are. With so much preparation, Brooks, in the movie, only watches one day of tryouts before he makes his decision. This was decision was made to the astonishment of his assistant coach, Craig Patrick. Patrick is more of a democratic leader. He was the one players could talk to about their problems with the team, the heavy workouts or the problems with players (Lewin 342).

C) When forming a team one must aspect the changes they’re going to experience, as they become a team. Using...