Growth – Disney Creativity and Innovation Keynote Speaker

Theory is easy

Theory is easy.

But theory alone is worthless.

Application is all that matters.

Note: Talk less. Say more. (a work in progress)

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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.

Criticism or coaching?

Damaged passenger door on a car — Cheryl found a former Disney leader who now owns a MAACO collision repair shop. This car damage repair shop also does all of Disney’s trash cans. That’s how good they are.

One person could see your intended helpfulness to be criticism.

One person could see your intended helpfulness to be coaching (development).

Same person. Same intent. Received two different ways by two different people.

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The need to grow, home

Three ski jump ramps in Lahti, Finland. — Never dreamed of being a Senior Olympian. Yet in 2009, here i was. Lahti, Finland. Representing Team USA at the 2009 Masters Track and Field World Championships.

two black frames with personal items — From the office wall where i blog most days, these two photos are a few feet away. Photo: My ‘racing bib’ from 2009 and a newspaper article photo from 1977.

My greatest “personal-life” growth opportunity surfaced while teaching Disney Institute (DI) business principles for 15 years.

Disney has, since 1955’s Disneyland opening, operated with four foundational Quality Standards.

They are, in alphabetical order:

Courtesy
Efficiency
Safety
Show

The key however is putting these in an operational priority order.

While teaching this nebulous business wisdom to outsiders, the time-tested DI curriculum never (literally never) rallied outsiders to work through the pain, and risk, that comes from committing to a ‘carved-in-stone’ holy-grail operational imperative.

To help solve this i created a heretofore undiscovered prioritization filter:

Non-negotiable
Famous-for
#1 Business-need

Watch how this becomes easy to put the four alphabetized quality standards into an operational-priority order.

Non-negotiable = Safety

Famous-for = Courtesy and Show (in that order)

#1 Business-need = Efficiency

This business wisdom is context neutral and can be applied in any domain. So, long ago i applied this (and still apply it) to create our family quality standards.

Note: Quality standards are simply a prioritized decision-making matrix. It’s applied by everyone, everywhere at Disney. Your work scope and department NEVER alters the order. Consistency is the hallmark of world-class organizations. This is how we do it at Disney. It’s also how i run my personal life. Safety, Service, Simplicity.

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Nobody but you

man in the mountains wearing a mask — Deep in the wilderness. Not another human around for miles. Wearing mask in this photo to timestamp 2020.

Push yourself softly, early and often. Allow the magic of compound interest to fuel your personal growth.

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Non-traditional home

warning sign — Vibrancy has no interest in neglect.

Non-traditional home.

Traditional, lots of stuff.

Non-traditional, lots of vibrancy.

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