Page 38 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Make Everyone’s Dreams Come True 19

early 1950s of a creative group called “Imagineering.” Organized during the
building of Disneyland, the group’s purpose is to carry on the Disney tradition
by dreaming up new creative venues, such as the theme park attractions.
Today, there are approximately 2,000 Imagineers at the five Disney theme
parks. They are the inspiration for an event that we call a “Dream Retreat.” As
we tell our clients when we explain the Dream Retreat methodology, “If you
can Dream it, you can Do it.” Having employed this technique for many years,
we know from experience that even seemingly frivolous, blue-sky notions can
lead to realistic, yet innovative, outcomes.
When The Walt Disney Company set out to build an additional water
park at Walt Disney World, for example, a small team met in the office of the
team leader, a senior vice president, to get the project under way. The office
was decorated with all manner of personal memorabilia, including those little
glass snow domes that, when shaken, produce a flurry of swirling snowflakes.
Picking up a dome and shaking it, the vice president commented, “Too
bad we can’t make a park out of one of these.” After a general pause, a team
member asked, “Why not?” From that simple question, the team took off on
the apparently impossible notion of building a ski resort in the sunshine of
central Florida.
One artist sketched a picture of an alligator wearing earmuffs and careen-
ing down a slope on skis. Another drew a fanciful rendition of a winter resort
enclosed in a snow dome. Not suitable for Florida, everyone agreed, but
loath to discard the idea, they turned instead to the well established Disney
storytelling method and devised a tale based on a blizzard.
Here’s how it developed: A capricious winter storm brought a heavy load
of snow to Florida. An entrepreneur came along and built a ski resort. He did
well until the weather returned to normal, melting the snow and turning the
ski runs into rushing waterfalls. But the waterfalls were then turned into . . .
what else? water rides for adventurous athletes.
Using this fantasy story as their inspiration, Disney engineers and archi-
tects built the new water park and gave it the name Blizzard Beach.
Another example of this tried-and-true approach was when the Imagineers
actually constructed a story to enhance the romance of Pleasure Island. To
set the stage for the envisioned experience, they wove an entirely fictitious
tale about the history of the location, to wit: The land originally belonged to
a seafaring adventurer, Merryweather Pleasure, who settled there to build a
successful canvas and sail-making company. Pleasure built a thriving indus-
trial complex. As the years passed and Merryweather Pleasure listened to the