COACHING i n t e r n a t i o n a l

NUGGET

Empowering you to Empower Others!

DISNEY THINKING
Learning Objectives
The genius of Disney was to never let the voice of the critic interfere with the voice of inspiration and vision. Colleen-Joy

? Understand the

Disney Thinking coaching process

Walt Disney said: Somehow I can't believe there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C's. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably." If there was ever a role model for coaching (and there are many) Disney and his legacy take the cake. Inspiring millions for several decades, here truly is the power of one man's vision and one organisations faithful translation of that vision into reality. Robert Dilts studied Disney and focusing especially on his methods of guaranteeing maximum creativity with solid reality created what is commonly called today the Disney Strategy. Coaches the world over, now use the Disney Strategy for coaching individuals and teams during strategy, visioning and big dream planning sessions. How did Disney do things differently? During the planning stages of the full length cartoons that made Disney famous Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi and Fantasia, he used a ground breaking approach. He moved ideas to solve and plan between three rooms, each room had a different focus and function: Room 1 VISIONING: here dreams were dreamed, ideas were spun, with no restrictions, and no limits. THE CRITIC OR REALIST WAS NOT ALLOWED! So during this phase the sky was not even the limit, and every idea no matter how outrageous and creative was freely developed. Room 2 PLANNING: Here the dreams and visions from Room 1 were given grounding by being co-ordinated and a story board created. (The story board was a Disney invention). Room 3 CRITIC: Sometimes called the "sweat box" was a cramped room where the entire crew would analytically and critically review the plans and project. This worked well because it was the project under scrutiny and not an individual. Solutions would be found but the dream was left pure and free. Then the idea would be returned to Room 1 to continue again. o The cycle always involved the three rooms. The outcome was that either an idea did not survive Room 3 and was abandoned, or it met with silence in Room 3, which indicated it was ready for production. Keith V. Trickey The genius of Disney here is: 1) Never letting the CRITIC interact directly with the VISIONING (keeping the visioning free and unlimited) and 2) Finding solutions to the CRITIC through thorough and exact planning.

Copyright 2011, Colleen-Joy Page. www.innerlifeskills.com

COACHING i n t e r n a t i o n a l

NUGGET

Empowering you to Empower Others!

DISNEY THINKING pg 2
Learning Objectives
"Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work it until it's done and done right." Walt Disney

? Be able to

implement the process for individuals and groups

Offer the exercise and then explain the 3 stages so that the coachee or team understand the rules of the exercise. This exercise is best for BIG dreams and BIG goals. Here is an outline script of an Disney style coaching strategy exercise: STEP 1 VISIONING (use inspiring tone and free approach) Allow yourself to dream, to think big without any limitations Use your imagination completely If the (GOAL) were more successful than you ever dreamed possible, what might that look like? Think as big as Disney or any of the other great visionaries, and take your dream even further now. Expand your dream even further now; what else could your dream become? If this idea went global and grew to reach past the limits of your imagination, what might that look like? *If the critic voice emerges, gently remind them that they will have ample opportunity to bring reality to this in step 3. STEP 2 PLANNING (you can use ILS 7 Step Dream Builder questions or any good planning questions) Now it's time to put on your planning hats Let's plan your vision now; what do you want to start with first? How do you want to plan this now? How do you like to plan projects? (Get ideas and use them.) Or do backwards planning, which is from the end dream result, ask: What was completed just before the final success happened? What was accomplished just before that? Etc. and work backwards from the future to the present. STEP 3 CRITIC (it is best to let the critic come up with only ONE objection at a time and then to immediately work on solutions, with a planning attitude until they are all done.) Now it's time to let the critic in, to do what Disney called the sweat box stage and find objections to work with What could go wrong? And how can you prevent/resolve that? What are the biggest obstacles to this success of this? And How could you overcome these obstacles? Name 1 possible objection to the dream/goal. And What do you need to be in place to overcome that objection? Once you have thoroughly gone through the 3 Disney steps and even gone back to Vision if you need to at any stage, you can consolidate and finish with a good step 3. This exercise can take 30 minutes, at best 1 hour, or even an entire day (especially with a group).

Copyright 2011, Colleen-Joy Page. www.innerlifeskills.com