Personal development | Leadership | Self

Back to the Future: the calm leadership of Doc Emmett Brown

What Doc can teach all of us

Attention, please!!! Spoiler alert!!!

I found “Back to the future” a movie that gives hope in science, progress, and personal development.

I bumped into “Back to the future” too late in my life. I started to see it at my 25, and even if I think I could have a boost in my imagination if I saw it in my childhood, I also think that I appreciated some unexpected shadows of these movies.

I have been always fascinated by co-stars. As an example, I loved Disney’s Iago, who strives to help Jafar and does not want those unpleasant biscuits that the Sultan tries to put in his mouth. I think that it is a sort of a second engine for the movie. However, this is only an example; there are many supporting characters that are impressive.

I found “Back to the future” a movie that gives hope in science, progress, and personal development. All these things in just three movies? Yes. The idea to travel in time is not new and it has captured the imagination of many people during history. Having the possibility to live other periods of history would be an opportunity to better understand the present and forecast the future.

“I would trade all my technology for an afternoon with Socrates”, once Steve Jobs said.

Just to give an idea of how important could be the idea below this movie. It is also a manifesto of how important scientific research is and what the risks are. Doc himself during the movies suggests how dangerous the travel machine can be. He also proposed to destroy it.

The movie can be seen from a personal development perspective. Marty McFly and Doc are both involved in their own dreams. Marty falls in love with Jennifer and he wants to live a long and happy life with her. This is not the only dream that Marty has in a sense we can say that he has a sequence of “sub-dreams” during the trilogy. From seeing the success of his own father to help his parents to date. Doc lives with the dream of traveling in time, aiming to create something to gain the respect of the scientific field.

The two friends are going through many difficulties. Each difficulty has not only a different spatial context but also a temporal context. They have to face different versions of themselves at different times and they have to pay attention to do not alter the time flow.

“Wait A Minute, Doc. Are You Telling Me You Built A Time Machine…Out Of A DeLorean?”

The figure that captured me the most is “Doc” Emmett Brown. His calm leadership fascinated me. In each situation, he tried to stay calm, trying to find the possibility that would have come out of the problem. Of course, he is worried (in some parts of the trilogy Marty and Doc have the destiny of the whole world in their hands!) and he screams asking questions about an old Edison’s picture. However, even when Marty makes relevant and evitable mistakes, he tries to reassure his young friend, thinking about how to fix the problem.

This is the leader that we need. A leader that is proactive and not negative.

This is the leader that we need. A leader that is proactive and not negative. A leader that shows the path towards the solution, a leader that does not need to underline guilty parties and that does not want to waste time being mad with someone. Doc is the figure of a calm leader who understands the impulsiveness of his younger friend and tries to highlight Marty’s potential, not to stress his errors. In the whole trilogy, Doc gave me the sensation of feeling safe, there was no physical law that was too hard or dangerous, there was no external condition that could have hurt the process of building a better (way back to the) future.

Doc can be a model for an aspiring leader. He uses the potential of his younger colleague, focusing on what Marty could have done, and not focusing on what wrong Marty did. This is a relevant difference. Marty was encouraged by the enthusiasm and the vision of Doc. Marty was involved in Doc’s dream and thanks to Doc’s attitude, he understood the seriousness of the situation to fix the past to do not lose the present and the future. Doc was able to understand Marty and to offer his experience and his wisdom to Marty. He gave a chance to Marty.

This is only a trilogy and Doc does not exist in real life. However, many times we hear of leaders that are not engaging or distant. Leaders that are too focused on problems do not see the problem-solving path, occupied in reprimanding colleagues (or even relatives and friends), without having the calm to say “Ok, there has been a mistake. Let’s fix it all together. This is what I know and what I have learned.” There will be time for analyses, trying to improve inappropriate behaviors in a way that the next time the process will be better. However, facing an unexpected difficulty with a calm leader can be a good start for solving a tough situation.

A good way to build a better (back to the) future!

“Roads? Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads.”