Goals, Will, Fear and Overthrowing Hitler

I just watched the movie Valkyrie with Tom Cruise about Claus von Stauffenberg’s plot to kill Hitler. It provided a stunning look at the factors of will and fear in leading change.

Stauffenberg led a coup d'état. He is extremely motivated to change the government so that he can restore Germany to its proud past before Hitler began rounding up and killing millions of people.

Yet he fails. Why? He had the traits of a change leader: passion for the change initiative and a vision that people would buy into – to get rid of Hitler. He also had other senior ranking and influential people on his side and a reasonable strategy. Plus he had “good” on his side. It boils down to lack of will and fear.

Just because you have a “good” goal does not mean you have the “Will” of leaders

One reason he seemed to fail was misreading the will of the key leadership. It was a good goal – to topple Hitler. But that was not enough. Enough people were not committed to – they were not willing to risk their lives for it.

The same is true for any “good” goal – like losing weight or quitting smoking . People fail all the time at achieving these “good” goals. Is it because they don’t have the tools to achieve these goals? No - diets, pills, exercise plans and self help books abound. Is it because the tools are too hard to use? No - how much easier can putting a patch on your arm and chewing gum be to quit smoking? It is as simple as their will to change is weak - their desire to change is not bigger than the obstacles in the way. Whether the obstacles are poor self image, self hatred, or other psychological factor, their will to change is less. The same is true in this movie.

The will of leadership was not stronger than the opposition. There was some will to topple hilter, but not enough. Hitler supporters were willing to kill to keep Hitler in power. The change agents were not all willing to die to win.

The “Will” must overcome the level of fear

Even if you have the will to change, that is not enough. One has to overcome the fear of looking stupid, being ostracized, or in this case being killed if you fail.

The top leaders had a few hours to decide if they were willing to follow the coup. There were a few hours where it was unclear if Hitler was dead, during which a thousands of troops led by Stauffenberg’ began taking control of Berlin. As this began, many leaders supported the coup. But when they heard Hitler may be alive, many leaders were so scared, they stopped their support for fear of death by Hitler. If they had charged onward, they could have succeeded in their change. The had momentum and thousands of troops on their side. Yet, their fear of Hitler and dying was so great, they gave up. Despite knoing how morally reprehensible Hitler was, they did not have the will to win.