Today was another awesome day out at the Disney Institute. One quick note, one member of the class is from Germany and as we were talking he was amazed people can go to church here in the States for FREE! He said in Germany everyone pays taxes for church and the government pays for the churches to run. I was in shock, needless to say I invited my new German friend to our FREE church this weekend. Siegfried, if you are reading this-you are the man! Praying for God's grace and peace to keep you and guide you, blessings!
Stories & Values: Disney will tell you they are in the story making business. Everything they do they are making a story, including every "cast member" (their term for a Disney employee). They phrased it like this, "every leader is telling a story about what he or she values". Meaning don't tell me the mission statement or the business card with your vision on it. I see what you value by your actions. I see what you care about and what drives the organization by what the employees/volunteers do not what they say they do. What is it we say is important by our actions? Another great quote of theirs is, "we judge ourselves by our intentions. Others judge us by our actions." Think of Simba from the Lion King, what does he value in the movie? Whatever your response it was because you watched his story which you determined what you thought he valued. He never came out with a written statement on what he valued, he told you by a story. We are all writing stories.
Funny Trade: Hilarious story was told about Al Michaels being traded to Universal for a original Disney Rabbit. Full story @ http://articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/10/business/fi-rabbit10
Fun Fact: In the original Disney movie Fantasia, Walt Disney wanted movie theater employees to spray water bottles during certain scenes and incense during other scenes to enhance the story. Talk about ahead of his time. Of course the movie theaters told him, "there is no way".
#1: The CEO of Walt Disney said, "I'd like for the Walt Disney Company to be universally recognized as the most admired company in the world." This statement set the tone for the day and for the leadership at Disney. A reoccurring theme we heard all day was how much they focused on their cast members not their customers. The whole business model is go above and beyond for your teams and your teams will do the same for the customers. Disney employees love working there. As a matter of fact the average tenure in their laundry department (which is the biggest in the world) is 23 years. That my friends is vision. When people don't want to stop doing laundry because they love it that much you have a successful leadership model.
Vision: They talked a lot about vision and the importance of clarifying your vision and communicating it often, passionately, and creativity. A cool story about Walt Disney, when he cast vision for the movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". They said Walt invited 40 employees out to his studio which only had one light bulb (they say to save $) bought everyone dinner and dessert then shared for three and a half hours the story of Snow White. One huge importance to notice was that Walt was willing to sacrifice (1 light bulb) so his employees were taken care of (as they ate a nice meal and dessert).
Make Time: Another theme I heard over the day was that Disney makes sure its employees have time to evaluate, reflect, take risk, do research/surveys, etc. to take their departments to the next level. Most business and ministries complain that there is no time to do all that, we need to tend to the clients/customers. Disney philosophy is you don't have time not to do it. In the church world I often see myself and others take way too much on without proper infrastructure in place to run with it. Thus I find myself with my head down focused on the day to day instead of the future and where we are going and how we are to get there. Make time to evaluate, to plan, to be creative, to celebrate victories, etc.
"The actions of one, multiplied by many, can change a culture."
Character of a leader: Was boiled down to 3 things. 1) Set the example for others to follow. (Christ didn't tell what to do, he gave us an example to follow; my interpretation.) 2) Create relationships for life, (I Thessalonians 1:18). 3) Spark excitement and enthusiasm in others.
Great exercise: Think about your role model, mentor, or someone who has had a positive influence in your life. What did they do to build you up? How did they teach you or care for you? What made them a credible leader? What values did they reflect? How did their influence your progress in life? Whatever your answers are those are same ideas, thoughts, and suggestions we should use to lead and influence those in our ministry/organizations.
If you have any thoughts or questions you'd like me to ask the instructors feel free to let me know and I'll post the answer.
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