Made to Stick- Analyzing 'Take the Lead'

In my Book Review of 'Made to Stick', I summarized the six principles of the authors' SUCCES model. Let's take a look at them at play. We'll begin with a movie that centres on one of the major hobbies of my life- dancing!

Introducing, Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas') big speech from the 2006 movie, 'Take the Lead'. While the movie as a whole suffers from a half-baked script, this scene in particular implies that screenwriter Dianne Houston was more than acquainted with the same SUCCES principles from 'Made to Stick'- Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotions and Story.

Behold how seemingly elite rich guy Dulaine convinces the parents of delinquent students in a crime-ridden neighborhood on why they should let him teach their kids Ballroom Dancing.

Some interesting pieces of dialogue from the video:

The Conflict:

Dulaine recognizes early in the interaction what the core conflict is. Fortunately, he is wise enough to call out the elephant in the room.

Pierre Dulaine: What I teach has value.

Ramos: Not where I live.

Then he tries to demonstrate empathy of their current situation. To show that he 'gets' it.

Pierre Dulaine: I get it- do something...anything...is hard. It's much easier to blame your father, your mother, the environment, the government, the lack of money, but even if you find a place to assign the blame, it doesn't make the problems go away. I'm trying something new. I'm trying it.

He's acknowledging the fact that dancing is new to these people, without talking down to them.

Vice Principal: Oh so you're going to come to our school, tell us about our problems, our kids and how to fix them with a box step?

Pierre Dulaine: No. I'm going to show you.

And let the dance of the SUCCES principle begin!

Principle 1: Simple:

You could argue that the simplicity is in fact in the language. No complex sentences with conjunctions or big words. Emphasis and pauses at the right time. He even makes the dance itself super simple.

Pierre Dulaine: Now we're going to move. Very simple. And now we're going to walk a little bit. You know how to walk, you know how to dance.

But the simplicity of his message hits strongest right at the end:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I do here. This school. I teach dance. And with it, a set of rules that will teach your kids - respect, teamwork and dignity

So that's the core proposition. Dance has rules. Rules teach respect. Entirely relatable. And simple.

Principle 2: Unexpected:

The parents had already showed up in the room with signed petitions. Notice their crossed arms and closed-off body language. Their expectation was probably based on a template of how people react when they're cornered. Backing off, or getting aggressive. Instead, Dulaine surprises all of them by whisking off the principal for a dance in the middle of a Parent Teacher meeting.

Principle 3: Concrete:

By dancing with the principal, he transforms his art from something mysterious and faraway into real and tangible. He shows immense respect for the principal by asking her to dance and then whirling her out gently.

"If she allows me to lead she's trusting me. But more than that, she's trusting herself. Now if your 16-year-old daughter is strong and trusts herself. How likely is she to let some idiot knock her up? And if your son can learn to touch a girl with respect, how will he treat women throughout his life?

On top of that, he refers to relatable aspects of daughters getting pregnant, or sons respecting women. No abstract principles here. But when he does eventually introduce the idea of respect and dignity, it's already been demonstrated enough through his own actions and with familiar vignettes.

Principle 4: Credible:

Dulaine's own credentials as a Ballroom and Latin dance champion prove would prove entirely moot here. He needs to demonstrate credibility via sources that mean something to his target audience- the parents.

Bringing the principal on board proved to be a master stroke. She is the ultimate authority in this setting. She also has personal stakes, since her car was destroyed. So when the principal gets won over- whether by his logic, manners, or smouldering Latino charm- he's won brownie points with the parents too. Her approval quite comically gets cemented in this line.

Vice Principal: "Augustine!?"

Augustine: "Joe, shut up. It's my body."

Principle 5: Emotional

He hits the emotions at different levels throughout the scene, and even the movie. For parents, he appeals to the need for safety and security, and to some extent of self-actualization (by speaking about the vision of a better life).

Then only a few scenes later he changes gears. He gets kids motivated through stuff at the bottom of the Pyramid- sex and looking cool (esteem). How? Through a sexy Argentine tango. This is something he hasn't taught till this point. And it certainly wouldn't build his case in front of the principal and parents.

As you learn later in the film, Banderas can't even stand up the stuck-up the lady he was dancing with. It's all an act. Designed to arouse. A little sneaky? Yes. Unethical? Not necessarily.

Principle 6: Story

Dulaine didn't leverage existing narratives as much as create new ones for future cohorts of students to look up to. The students in his detention class hail from a range of demographic backgrounds- there's the Latino lover, the White-boy pretending to be a black kid, black kid peddling drugs, black kid who's fat and we know nothing else about him, black kid who's jealous of Latino lover, token white girl, hot white girl to make Latino lover and jealous black kid fight. If all of them could come out victorious at the end, these stories are more than enough to inspire more of them to join.

So how do all these threads and strategies come to culmination? Banderas' super-flashy and sexualized Argentine Tango finds its way into the training montages. Eventually, it gets shoehorned into the Ballroom Tango in the climactic dance. As I mentioned, the script lacks a clear purpose. The dancers who execute the motley medley performance are half-baked characters at best. More importantly, the tension between classic dance styles and their 'step-up to the streets' approach is never developed as a core theme. So the tango- which could have powered the entire film- becomes a flashy and flimsy wrapping paper to a weak script.

That being said, Dulaine's SUCCES tactics hit the mark. The kids are sold, they compete, and dance classes become a permanent fixture at the school. So as much as I wish the writer had thought out the overarching themes more clearly, there's no denying that she nailed the STICK principles, and in this case, even principals. Well played!