Key Learnings from the ASTD International Conference "Disney Institute" session

The First session I attended was “Inspiring Creativity, Disney Style” presented by Joanne Recek and Lisa Spahn from the Disney Institute. Overall, they provided a lot of really interesting information about how the Disney Corporation encourages Disney cast members (employees) to use creativity to solve problems. Here is a snap shot of what I learned.

Disney’s Chain of Excellence
1) Leadership Excellence
2) Cast Excellence
3) Guest Satisfaction
4) Financial Results/Repeat Business

How they Do This
1) A committed, responsible, inspiring leader
2) Develops a creative culture of people
3) Who create innovative products and services
4) To provide towards the organization’s bottom line while creating a unique organizational identity.

One method they highly recommended for fostering creativity is the “Yes, and…” approach.

In essence, the “Yes, and…” approach is based on the idea that we shouldn’t discount ideas, but rather expand on them.

To help illustrate this point, the presenters had us pretend like we were going to create a store that was going to sell rocks. Here are two expansions on this idea:

1) Yes, and we’re going to specialize in high-end rocks that people think are valuable.
2) Yes, and we’re going to find rocks that can match peoples’ decor in their homes.

The presenters are also recommended that people Think Inside the Box:
1) Vision - To Be
2) Mission - To Do
3) Customer - For Whom
4) Essence - To Feel

Next they talked about expanding one’s organizational identity by 1) brand name recognition, 2) Products and/or services, and 3) Customer/market segment.

Lastly, they discussed the Disney method for Continuous Improvement:

1) Listen and Learn
2) Measure
3) Act
4) Re-Measure
5) Recognize and Celebrate
6) Share

To illustrate this process, they talked about how they took the character Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean Franchise and turned him into a figure at all of their theme parks and their private Island (where Disney cruise lines dock). In essence, people were riding the original Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was one of the first rides at Disney land, after the movie came out and were not seeing Captain Jack. Disney decided to determine if everyone wanted to see Captain Jack in the ride, and the results were overwhelming positive, so Jack has now become a mainstay in the Pirates ride at both Disney World and Disney Land.

**Written by Jason S. Wrench, reposted with permission