Remember The Titans: Tuckman's Model Of Group Development

Remember the Titans is directed by Boaz Yakin and stars Denzel Washington as Coach Herman Boone, Will Patton as Bill Yoast, Ryan Hurst as Gerry Bertier, and Wood Harris as Julius Campbell. The movie takes place in 1971, at T.C Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia. The high school had recently integrated, where both Americans and African Americans conjoin to the same school. The main social issue in the movie was racism, because the Americans didn’t want to be a part of the same school as the African Americans, but they play on the same football team. They also didn’t want to be coached by Herman Boone, because he was a different race from them and Coach Yoast coached most of the white players. Remember the Titans teaches us we can put our differences aside and work together as a team to achieve a goal.

     Of course the coach is going to be the team leader but the kids also need a peer to step up and be a leader. In a not so informal role Gerry Bertier rises to the challenge and establishes himself as the team leader. He shows us this a few times in the movie. Once when he approaches one of the other players, Julius Campbell, and asks him why he is playing so selfish. Gerry then listens to his teammate’s opinion and acts accordingly to do what is best for the team, because that is what leaders do, even if it mean calling out his best friend and making him step it up. Gerry also represents the inspiration of the team because every time the team is down he picks them up and brings them together.

But there was a problem with the leadership in the film as the Titans were divided, into blacks and whites, so the captain of the team, Gerry, did not have the respect of the blacks because he was white. Gerry did not get along with the blacks at first especially Julius. At first, they would not acknowledge each other and they were considered enemies. Gerry was judgmental, racist and arrogant towards Julius, which made it hard for them to work together. Julius didn’t feel connected to the team because none of the white player were blocking for the black players. He stood his ground against Gerry and held him accountable for his 'lack' of

Remember the Titans is a classic football movie filled with many obstacles. These obstacles vary from racism to dealing with death. It’s based on a true story that took place in Alexandria, Virginia in 1971. What makes this movie classic is how the players and coaches were able to overcome the issue of segregation and build relationships to form a championship team.

In the begging of the film, Herman Boone which is Denzel Washington was brought in as an assistant coach to join the all-white coaching team. Couple days later, because of high school rule Coach Boone had to be a head coach. But at first he was unwilling to take the offer the head coaching job at first because same things had happened to him when a white coach was selected as head coach over him in South Carolina. In this scene you can tell Coach Boone respects everybody and not hating people. But soon He finally accepts the head coach when he sees that the black people lived in the town saw him as a symbol of pride and hope because he could be the one could overcome the racism in the town. When he talks with coach Yoast, coach Yoast was worried because his white kids won’t start the football team but Boone told him “I aint going to cut them and eat them. Best player will play color won’t matter”. In this sentence he doesn’t care black or white or not, he wants to best player to win the games

As with most sports teams, the Titans have an autocratic leadership style. Coach Boone is the one and only person who makes the decisions, he is the main man in charge. The style is productive, and the team wins games. Although he has assistant coaches, such as Bill Yoast who is the defensive coordinator, all the decisions must go through Coach Boone first. The democratic leadership style is not applicable on a football team because that’s why teams have coaches. The team does not make group decisions. Coach Boone also uses Job Enlargement in ‘Remember the

However, based on six main traits suggested by Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman & Fetter we can make a conclusion that Yoast wasn’t a transformational leader in the context of the movie. In this particular situation, where coach Boone was a head coach, and Yoast had to accept the rules of the game, he probably could not display his full potential being an assistant coach. So, the question “what if Yoast was a head coach...” is not relevant to the movie current context and will be discussed later.

The team went through a very challenging formation phase because there was a lot of resistance to integrate the school and football team. White players were concerned about loosing their starting positions and were upset that their Head Coach (Bill Yoast) was demoted to Assistant Coach, which almost caused them to quit the team. The black players were under a lot of pressure as well, being placed in a white school and knowing that they would be subject to a lot of hatred. Both the new Head Coach (Herman Boone) and Coach Yoast initially did not want to take on their new positions.

Remember the Titans directed by Boaz Yakin, is an inspirational feature film that retells the true story of a high school football team that overcame racism to win the football championship. Set in Virginia during the forced integration of high school districts in the American south, the film explores the idea of racism, friendship and communication in sports through the use of camera shots and angles, props, body language and juxtaposition. Yakin suggests that racist attitudes are the product of ignorance, but can be overcome by communication and friendship through the representation of Gary’s girlfriend, Emma’s change of attitude toward Julius. Yakin’s representation of Coach Boone

As a leader you must be real with yourself and others for fake will not fix or implement change. In his position Herman Boone was real in a sense that he was genuinely honest and upfront in every encounter with others, he does not sugar coat things or beat around the bush, and instead of telling you what you want to hear, he tells you what you need to know. At times though it seems that Boone’s raw emotions such as his attitude, assertiveness and arrogance are a bit too real, we are able to see that they are key components in how he establishes his sense of urgency throughout the organization. At the start of the movie, the sense of urgency created by Boone’s attitude almost lead the team in the wrong direction, as the players did not respect or understand the way he went about doing things. For example, before the players leave for camp Boone is approached by Bertier about positions on the team, in the midst of the conversation Boone says “You take a look at her. Cause once you step on that bus you aint got your mama no more. You got your brothers on the team and you got your daddy. You know who your daddy is, doncha? Gary, if you want to play on this football team, you answer me when I ask you who is your daddy?” Statements such as these do not usually sit well with others, many including myself would find this very disrespectful. On the other hand Coach Boone’s ability to be real with himself as well as others allows him to express raw emotion and concern that explains his reasoning behind his actions, As shown in the scene after the first game when Yoates challenges Coach Boone’s public criticism in regards to Petey, he replies “you think you’re doing these boys a favor, by taking them aside every time I come down on them…I may be a mean cuss but I’m the same mean cuss with everyone on that football field the world does not give a damn how sensitive these kids are…you are crippling them” the tough love shown by Coach Boone towards his players expresses a real

• Coach Herman Boone, newly appointed head coach at a predominately white school, recently integrated. He is married and has two young daughters in a nuclear family.

As the movie progressed and Coach Boone’s vision came together, Coach Yoast slowly but surely began to show more support. Coach Boone’s consistent preaching, that he did not view the team as black and white players, but instead, simply as football players who must form cohesion and take actions not for self, but for team, eventually rubbed off on Coach Yoast. This is where the culture in the coaching staff began to form. Trust also began to build and the three coaches, now more cohesive themselves were able to accomplish much more in order to coach their players much more constructively. By the time the Titans had made it to the championship, all three coaches had put their differences aside, bought in to the vision and culture, and were able to coach their players to victory.

Its takes courage, experience and resolve to change roles because of situations, especially if the role is a demotion to a lesser position. In my opinion, the most important part of leadership is interpreting leader-follower-situation and responding efficiently and effectively for the overall good. Coach Yoast was excellent at interpreting situations. His actions and observation skills also facilitated the success of the team racial merger when Gary and Julius came together at football camp. His hesitation to interfere when Gary and Julius initially united on the field, in what initially appeared to be a confrontation, brought the team together. Since Julius and Gary are team leaders informally and formally respectfully, Coach Yoast ability to interoperate the situation and allow them to celebrate brought the team together.

I still remember the time I was chosen to lead the public relations team at one of the student activities back when I was in college, an experience that shaped a lot of the person I am today. I had to establish and maintain good relations with all stakeholders and media, prepare newsfeed updates for all social media platforms, and above all manage a team of 20 members. I spent a lot of time thinking that I am now donning the shoes of my seniors and becoming the person that freshers would look up to. Being an influential leader is not easy, I was sure, and it is more than just telling others what to do. In the following few lines, I employ Tuckman's stages of group development: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing to outline my journey

The Avengers went through 5 stages of group development that was theorized by Bruce Tuckman. The first stage is forming, wherein the Avengers gathered at the end of the first class. Each member collected information from each other such as the individual member’s name, contact number and email address. As the professor gave a task, the members felt the tension as to who will become the leader to obtain the information needed by the professor and write in the sheet of paper. There was minimal interaction between members and everyone just focused on the questions given. M5 stood out as a leader in this group activity as he voiced out that he would write in the sheet of paper and submit it online on Moodle. The initiative to complete this task