di Francesca Ranieri

Communicating is among the most spontaneous and instinctive activities that a human being can perform. Indeed, as the communication theorist Paul Watzlawick says, one cannot not communicate. We constantly convey messages and meanings not only with words, but also through gestures, movements, looks, attitudes, lifestyles and many more… Communication can take various forms: there are circumstances in which communicating is pleasant and enjoyable, such as having lunch with our friends or a walk at the park with our loved ones. There are scenarios characterized by more organized and formal communication such as business meetings or public speaking at an important convention. However, there are also certain contexts in which communicating is not as smooth or effortless as in the previous examples. Indeed, sometimes we stumble across feared and unpredictable critical situations, in which case communication turns into the only winning weapon that can make us succeed in achieving an optimal, reasonable solution. Negotiating an agreement, delivering bad news, persuading with powerful arguments and changing someone else’s mind (or even deciding to change our own mind) are all critical situations that inevitably require effective communication to find a (possibly win-win) solution. Since most of the time the path to the final agreement is arduous and tortuous, he/she who is determined to succeed in this task (whom I call the effective communicator) will necessarily need some helpers.

These useful helpers are nothing more than strategic tools that the effective communicator adopts to facilitate, strengthen or improve communication with his/her counterpart. Hence, the aim of this thesis is to demonstrate how a proper use of these nine strategic tools gives an extra gear to manage critical situations successfully. To demonstrate so, we will take a closer look at realistic critical situations represented on the silver screen. The first chapter is dedicated to a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the nine tools that make up the effective communicator’s toolbox. The tools are classified into three categories (basic, advanced and sensitive) according to their features and employment. The second chapter focuses on the implementation of the toolbox in specific clips chosen from well-known movies. Analyzing and understanding how the protagonists face different critical situations (sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing) gives us a wider overview on how to handle every single tool properly and precious crisis management tips that can turn out useful in day-to-day situations as well.

After introducing the nine tools and dwelling on specific examples concerning their implementation, the last chapter is fully dedicated to a masterpiece of the movie industry, a movie that embodies the critical situation per excellence: 12 Angry Men.

There are several valuable lessons that we can learn from the fascinating and intriguing world of the movie industry; indeed, the challenging situations that the characters face in this alternative reality are not so different and far away from the complex and seemingly overwhelming scenarios that we face every day: a discussion with our boss, bad news that a manager has to deliver to his/her employees, an argument among colleagues in a work team, misunderstandings with friends, a debate that involves opposite points of view are all critical situations that can be (most of the time) easily and successfully overcome with a well-thought and well-executed use of the effective communicator’s toolbox.

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