Page 197 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

178 The Disney Way

He also installed an active noise system that effectively tripled the perceived
distance between individual team members in terms of the privacy it created.
In the case of this Whirlpool global team, the illusion of greater distance was
particularly important because many of the team members had a difficult
time adjusting to the open-room style. In addition, the multiple languages
spoken by the participants made the system imperative. Since people tend
to listen when others speak a different language, it would have been virtually
impossible for group members to tune out one another’s conversations.
The effort involved in putting together the co-location space paid off for
the Whirlpool team, which put together and executed a project that ended
up surpassing everyone’s expectations. The ease of communication that both
planning centers and co-locating promote goes a long way toward keeping a
project on track and ensuring its ultimate success.

Taking the Holistic Approach

Thinking holistically is counterintuitive for those schooled in the principles
of corporate Darwinism, where only the so-called fittest survive and where
the law of the jungle guides most decision making. To overcome those blocks
and to help people accustom themselves to the concept of the holistic com-
pany—where everyone works for the common good of the organization—we
conduct an exercise called Broken Squares (See Scene 18 of The Disney Way
Fieldbook: How to Implement Walt Disney’s Vision of Dream, Believe, Dare,
Do in Your Own Company) in which clients sit in groups of five at separate
tables. We hand each person an envelope with pieces of a puzzle. The goal is
for all players to finish their puzzles; but to succeed, they have to trade pieces
without saying a word.
This is not a competition, but as the game progresses, invariably some
players begin to compete, hoard pieces, and strive to finish their own
puzzles—and their group’s—before anyone else does. After the experience,
the participants who have pitted themselves against one another begin to
understand that success comes from not hoarding pieces, either individu-
ally or within a group. The fastest way to win—for all players to finish their
puzzles—is for everyone to collaborate across “organizational” boundaries, in
other words, to think and to act holistically.
As you set about using the tools described in this chapter to design your
own planning procedures, we must add one word of caution. Don’t get so
involved with making plans that they become the be-all and end-all. Some