Disney Creative Strategy

• The Dreamer is the idea generator. Dare to have a big and creative dream or vision
• The Realist is the implementer. Focus on how to implement the idea best
• The Critic is the evaluator. Focus the pros and cons, and sometimes he is the one more negative and conservative among the three.

All of us have a bit of the three and dominant character in one or two. As I understand better of these three characters, I learnt that I am more of a Realist. Most of the time, I focus on the HOW question; Usually focus on the feasibility, solution and implementation plan. The Critic Jason will come into the picture when I face challenges or uncertainties. I will calculate the risk, evaluate the pros and cons of the solution put on the table instead of taking a step back to think of other alternative solutions. That is the time where I will be stuck and holding myself from moving forward because of the negative outcome of the evaluation.

After understanding the key role of these 3 characters, I learnt that the Disney creative strategy could be applied while we are exploring our options for decision making, and it has to go with the sequence of the Dreamer, Realist and follow by the Critic.

A lot of times, we not allowing ourselves enough space to think and dream, but rush to design the action plan. It might cause us stuck and drop it halfway. The same applies to all our discussion. We must allow our team to explore all the possible options/solutions before moving to the next stage to discuss on possibilities of implementation for each of the solution/options that he/she came out. I learnt that as we go through the stage from Dreamer to Critic, we will be going through a process of elimination and shortlist the best option for the next step.

As I mentioned before, all of us has a dominant character in one or two of the three. This is where a coach/mentor/team comes into the picture to fill up the gap. If the dominant character is:

• The Dreamer — We could focus more on asking the “how” and “next step” question to help the coachee to think of what he/she could do to realise the dream
• The Realist — We could give him/her more space to think; Asking positive/ideal scenario questions to let him/her dare to explore various options before going to the next step
• The Critic — I learnt that the circle of influence is applicable for the Critic to make him/her aware that what he can control and influence. Challenging questions are important to challenge his/her assumptions to shift him/her to be more positive; dare to explore various options without jumping into conclusion.

People calculate too much and think too little. — Charlie Munger

It is interesting to realise that I always calculate a lot and think too little during decision making as I went through the flow of the Dreamer, Realist and Critic.