BRILLIANT VACATION – Disney

Brilliant Vacation, Disney of course.

I would like to take some time and tell you about our vacation to Disney.  I know, everyone talks about Disney, but if you go and pay attention to the little details, it makes a vacation even better for a young entrepreneur!

The best part about the trip was going with this hot lady!  My wife.  We love to travel together, and hope to travel all over the world. Our next stop, New York, LA, and then London.  My Wife is a Disney fanatic!  She has been many many times.  Me, not so much.  My idea of a vacation is a cruise, a nice cabin with friends.  Don’t get me wrong, I love going to Disney world, but for me, it is a trip of exercise, endurance, and appreciation for excellence.  So that is what I would love to talk about, excellence.

This week, I am going to talk about

• The Purpose
• Everyone Supports the Purpose
• Every Event Supports the Purpose
• Playful Ways to Meet Needs – The Little Things
• Point of Purchase Interaction (my personal favorite)

It is all about the purpose,

It is all about the purpose of Disney, that purpose is magic, the ability for everyone to be part of dreams coming true. From the moment you walk into Disney Land’s, Magic Kingdom, you embrace the purpose of Disney.  Of course the large castle pulls you into the park, but also the loving embrace from hundreds of employees welcoming you to share the experience.

Every detail is strategically thought out, challenged, and constantly improved.  For children, the results are magic, for adults, actually being part of a team who implements such business excellence is unheard of, this would be magic in my mind. The image above takes thousands of employees working together for the purpose.  It would be easy to sit back after this show and rejoice in accomplishments, but not Disney, directly after this event, the street vacuum cleaners, and concession stand employees rushed out to prepare for another amazing show, The Not So Scary Halloween Parade.   This is all for one purpose, to allow people to be part of dreams coming true.

One of the best moments while we were in the park, A little girl saw a man with a long white beard and asked, “did you move to Disney from the North Pole?”

Everything points to the purpose, so what is your purpose, and is it ingrained in every little detail of your company?  Is every detail strategically thought out, challenged, and constantly improved?  Can and do others interact with your purpose?

Lead Leaders

Those who Follow Leaders
Those who Lead Followers
Those who Lead Leaders

Lim Ding Wen, a 9 year old from Singapore has developed an application for the iPhone called Doodle Kids.  He started using a computer at the age of two and has created around 20 computer programs.

When you are in the position to lead leaders, you should provide more than advice or counsel, you should create an environment that makes people have the tools they need to be better leaders than ever before.  This is what apple did for Lim King Wen.  This will not be the last time we hear about Lim.  He will continue to contribute to the innovation of technology.  True leaders are more concerned with changing the world by providing the resources others need to change the world, not just doing it all themselves.

Chris Anderson, from TEDGlobal, discussed the phenomenon of online video, and how it exposes excellence around the world.  How leaders of innovation are found in all corners, have the ability to expose their excellence, and change the world.  Leaders developed the channel in which leaders can lead more leaders.

Me, Me, look at Me.

I see people try so hard to get the attention of those who are successful or famous.  It is as if they will take one look at you and say, your hired! Those around me have the same ability to produce success.  Sure having Seth Godin say, fly to New York, I got a job for you would be Utopian, but so would working with friends and colleagues on building something from the ground up.

We try so hard to get the attention of those who are not looking, we forget about those who are.  We all have a little bit of this in us, and I am not the poster child, but I try to use my skills and abilities to help people around me do something great.

So don’t wait for the perfect contact, celebrity, business person to come along and save the day, just go be great!  Assured after working hard for years, you just might get to meet the person you tried so hard to capture.

BOOKS I Make time for the unexpected

Make time for the unexpected

MANAGING YOUR CAREER
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PRESS

Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at the London Business School, explains how making time for the unexpected can be beneficial.  Her friend in the art school invited her to hang around the Royal College of Art’s campus. Lynda being a decision maker for the MBA program received great insight in observing the general practices of the Royal College of Art’s.

Lynda had to be invited to take part in an unfamiliar environment, which provided a new point of view.  According to Making Things Happen, Ideas are a collection of thoughts and observations that eventually form.  Putting these two understandings together can provide an incubator for idea creation.

Force yourself time and circumstances to see things in different environments and perspectives.  It may cause new ideas to form and improve existing ideas.

Challenge Ideas, Not Poeple

Challenge Ideas, Not People
Managing Your Career: Harvard Business School Press

John Stewart, Former Director at McKinsey and Company, explained how Challenging ideas and not people is very important.  We must carefully choose our words during these critical conversations to create a creative incubator.

When we are given positions of leadership, we typically want people to have ownership over their responsibility.  This allows people to feel part of or connected to their creation.

When an employee presents and idea, it is not just a presentation, the presenter may have worked on the pitch for weeks, even months. It could be a collection of life work.  The presenter may have told his or her family about the idea, when it was to be presented, and hopes for a positive outcome.  At this pivotal point in the presentation, the leadership not only responds to the idea, but the heart of the presenter.  This is when one must be extremely cautious in how they challenge ideas.  If the idea is shot down, the heart of the employee may also be shot down, and then you end up with someone on the team with minimal desire to contribute.

Now we can’t run around trying to appease people with every idea they have, let’s be honest, we all have bad ideas.  It is part of the process for ideas to be challenged, and they need to be challenged to become something great.  Few if any ideas are perfect while created.  Seth Godin talks about scrutinizing ideas before they are developed.  This makes the product or service easier to ship on time.

Maybe the best environment is a team of people who understand that ideas and contributions are meant to be challenged, but perfect teams are hard to find…. So until then, when approached by an idea from family, friends, or work, make the idea great, challenge it, and not the person.