From Words to Actions: The Role of Consistency in Successful Leadership

Films are cultural touchstones, and big business. The cat and mouse of when to a release a film has lots to do with game theory.

Release a good film at the same time as a juggernaut of a film is released and your film might be cast into rubbish bin of history, loved by the few that saw it but not returning a profit, and so you don’t get to make another one.

Or you release it at the right time with no competition and your film gets a huge tail wind and is propelled to profitability and acclaim. So you get to make more films.

The Blockbuster Strikes Back

The summer of 1977, A small independent film from a slightly unknown director was about to be released to the public. The director was a film school nerd and had used different story ideas from pulp comics to Japanese samurai films for inspiration. He had also borrowed some ideas from a book in the sci fi genre but by no means was the book a well known mainstream book.

The film was Star Wars, and it was one of the film that coined the term blockbuster. This film was the first in the Star Wars franchise. It has become a global brand in its own right. The Star Wars universe has generated more than US$10 Billion dollars globally, and that doesn’t’ appear to be stopping any time soon.

Story of Star Wars – is about a Young Boy who learns from a mystical person about the prophecy of a chosen one. A person who can bring about balance and peace to the universe.

The book that was also inspiration for Star Wars was Dune, a 1965 science fiction book from Frank Herbert

The story of Dune might sound a little similar, it is about a Young Boy who learns from a mystical person about the prophecy of a chosen one. A person who can bring about balance and peace to the universe.

Dune has not had the mainstream success of Star Wars. In 1984, following the success of Star Wars, a film studio hired David Lynch to try to film this dense nearly unfilmable book. It did not make its budget back.

A tv mini series in 2000 was created and it also didnt create much public awareness.

So to catch up, Star Wars = huge global brand. Dune = relatively obscure work of science fiction.

Now, Star Wars has a new film coming out in 2026 and so given all we know, no one in their right mind would put any film to be released at the same time as this.

When Star Wars picks a date obviously everyone else runs away because they are a behemoth of a franchise and have such a huge fan base.

So why is it that Dune has picked to release on the same date as the new star wars film and it looks like Star Wars might blink first and move its release date?

Where Are We Going?

in 2012, Lucas Films was purchased by Disney for over US$4 billions dollars. Since then Disney has created lots of Star Wars media to mixed reviews at Best.

The sequel trilogy made a lot of money but wasn’t liked by the hard core fans or the general public.

Disney has made many shows, with the first one, The Mandalorian getting some good praise but the subesquent series and other shows getting worse and worse feedback.

The latest show, The Acolyte, has been getting killed.

The one bright spot was Andor, which was critically enjoyed, however it was not a typical star wars show and didn’t break into the mainstream zeitgeist.

On the other hand, Dune has had two films made recently. Director Denis Villenuve wanted to make the films back to back but the studio didn’t have faith and so made the first Dune in 2021 to critical reviews.

They greenlit Dune 2 and Dune 3 after that with Dune 2 being released in 2024 and making back over 3 times its budget.

So now the massive yet struggling franchise of Star Wars is going to have to make a decision of what to do over the small but growing Dune movies.

So what does this mean for you as a leader?

Consistency, Quality, Confidence

The supporters of Star Wars have lost faith in its direction.

Yes there are crazy fans with strange ideas, but the stories have not be resonating with the general fan base or the causal fan.

So the every day film goer wants to spend their time, energy, and attention on something they think will be enjoyable. The consistency of Dune, and of Villenuve’s work gives people confidence the quality will be there.

The lack of consistency is the recent projects gives star wars fans and causal fans a fear that they will be wasting their time if they choose this film.

Your team goes through these same feelings.

Do you do what you say you are going to do? Do you live up to values to tell your team to live by?

Your team, your clients, and all the people you interact with will lose confidence in you if you aren’t consistent with your words and actions, as well as if the quality of your words and actions don’t meet up.

Everyone makes mistakes and one issue doesn’t end your career, it is the consistent issues that affect the quality of your interactions that erode the confidence of your team in you.