A powerful speech can have a great impact on change

A good communication strategy is at the heart of any successful change management effort

Let’s have a look at a speech by Al Pacino in the movie, Any Given Sunday. The premise for the the speech is pretty simple: Pacino is the coach of a once-great football team that is now riddled with injuries and internal dissension, and is struggling to make the playoffs.

Prior to the big game, Pacino has to give a speech to his players that will motivate them to put aside their differences and work together as a team.

It’s a powerful crafted speech and delivered perfectly by Pacino:

I don’t know what to say really.

Three minutes,
to the biggest battle of our professional lives,
all comes down to today.

Now either,
we heal as a team,
or we’re gonna crumble.

Inch by inch,
play by play,
till we’re finished.

We’re in hell right now, gentlemen.
Believe me.

And,
we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us.
Or,
we can fight our way back … into the light.

We can climb out of hell.

One inch, at a time.

Now, I can’t do it for you.
I’m too old.

I look around, I see these young faces and I think,
I made every wrong choice a middle age man can make.

I pissed away all my money, believe it or not.
I chased off anyone who’s ever loved me.
And lately, I can’t even stand the face I see in the mirror.

You know, when you get old in life,
things get taken from you.
That’s part of life.
But, you only learn that when you start losing stuff.

You find out life’s this game of inches.
So is football.
Because in either game,
life or football,
the margin for error is so small.

I mean,
One half step too late or too early,
and you don’t quite make it.
One half second too slow, too fast,
you don’t quite catch it.

The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They’re in ever break of the game.
Every minute, every second.

On this team, we fight for that inch.
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch.
We claw with our finger nails for that inch!

Because we know,
when we add up all those inches,
that’s gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing!

Between living and dying!

I’ll tell you this:
In any fight,
it’s the guy who’s willing to die
who’s gonna win that inch.

And I know,
if I’m gonna have any life anymore,
it’s because, I’m still willing to fight and die for that inch
Because that’s what living is!
The six inches in front of your face!

Now I can’t make you do it!
You gotta look at the guy next to you.
Look into his eyes!

Now I think
you’re gonna see a guy  who will go that inch with you.
You’re gonna see a guy  who will sacrifice himself for this team
because he knows when it comes down to it,
you’re gonna do the same for him.

That’s a team, gentlemen.

And, either we heal – now! – as a team!
Or we will die as individuals.

That’s football guys.
That’s all it is.

Now, what are you gonna do?