Seeking Cherry Tree Lane

With last year's release of Mary Poppins Returns comes the simultaneous return of a curious question regarding the possible location of 17 Cherry Tree Lane.

The Orange County Register explored it back in 2013, just before the opening of Saving Mr. Banks. They ended up in the neighborhood of Primrose Hill, at the north end of Regent's Park. Lacking immediate access to London, I decided to pursue another, more scientific, route.

Skyline at 17 Cherry Tree Lane

Among the publicity photos released for Mary Poppins Returns is this image of Cherry Tree Lane. Off in the distance are two architectural landmarks which should be familiar; Elizabeth Tower and the Victoria Tower, which are the bookends to the Palace of Westminster.

Elizabeth Tower - commonly referred to as Big Ben - is 315 feet tall and occupies the northwest corner. It was originally called the Clock Tower and houses the Great Clock of Westminster, which was built by John Edward Dent, based on designs by amateur horologist Edmund Beckett Denison.

At the other end of the palace, 1000 feet away, is the 323 foot tall Victoria Tower, the grandest feature of Charles Barry's design for the New Palace of Westminster. When completed in 1858, the Victoria Tower was the tallest secular building in the world.

Looking at the image more closely and overlaying a full image of the Elizabeth tower begins to offer some clues.

Magnified and Enhanced Detail

Zooming in and enhancing the image reveals that our line of sight from Cherry Tree Lane to Westminster is to the South East, as Big Ben is on the left and Victoria Tower on the right. Further, we can clearly see both the North and West clock faces - although we are not exactly on the diagonal, as the apparent width of the both of the tower's north and west sides are unequal.

Now that we know the rough heading, the question which remains is the distance. For this we need to apply some geometry, while making some assumptions about the virtual lens the image might have been photographed thru. 

The full image is clearly wide angle - probably a Cinema lens, which would give the image an angle of view of 40 degrees laterally and 16.7 degrees vertically. 

Comparing the height of the tower with the height of the full image gives an angular measurement of 3.44717433 degrees, which would result in a distance of 5230 feet, placing us just short of a mile from the tower.

What was a mile northwest of Big Ben like in 1928?  For that we need a map of London; The blue line starts at Big Ben and the blue arc is one mile out. (On an interesting side note, this map has as it's origin Charing Cross, which has a tie-in to Marry Poppins Returns in the lyrics of A Cover is Not the Book.

1928 Bacon's Geographical Map of London

Traveling North-West from Big Ben for a mile today places us near Berkeley Square Gardens, with Saint James Gardens being a bit further to the North-East. Both are near Piccadilly Circus.

Berkeley Square Gardens

Saint James Square Gardens

Primrose Hill is about 3 1/4 miles North-Northwest of Westminster - probably too far out to qualify given the apparent size of the Big Ben tower at that distance.

If anyone cares to send a picture of the lovely London skyline towards Big Ben from any of these locations, we'll be happy to post it here and compare notes.

For reference, here's an image taken from Primrose Hill today;

Until then, keep looking up!

Airplane Crazy Walt

If you do a web search on Walt Disney's Airplane you are likely to find a series of stories about the Grumman G-159 Gulfstream, tail number N234MM, which ended up on the backstage tour at Walt Disney World. While that's part of a story of Walt's love of aviation, it's neither the beginning nor the end.

Vin Fiz Model EX

Walt’s interest in aviation started early.  Becky Cline, Director of the Walt Disney Archives was interviewed for an article in Aircraft International News and said that Walt was intrigued by aviation as early as age 10.  In 1911, he and his brother Roy ran two miles to see Calbraith Perry Rodgers land the Vin Fiz Wright Flyer EX in Swope Park in Kansas City during its first transcontinental flight.

Ed Ovalle, senior archivist at Walt Disney Archives, explained that several years later, “Walt was in Paris at the end of World War I and while touring the town, he spotted a French military airplane sitting in a field.  “He wanted to take a flight, but the officers told him it was only for French military personnel.”  Walt he related the story later on, he said, “But 50 francs I had saved up made a French aviation mechanic wink at the law, and I had my thirst to fly satisfied for the first time.”

Plane Crazy Mickey

You can't overlook the significance of Plane Crazy, which was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon which first screened on May 15, 1928 and was released with sound on March 17, 1929.

Walt's first house at Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs was a 125 mile drive from Holmby Hills, which in those days could take three hours. Walt loved his time there, taking Lilly on early morning horseback rides which ended with a ranch style breakfast in the desert where their neighbors - who called themselves "colonists" - would sit together at long picnic tables, enjoying pancakes and eggs in the fresh morning air.

There had to be a better way to get to Smoke Tree and Woolie Reitherman, one of Disney's Nine Old Men, literally had just the ticket.  He was a founding member of Sky Roamers Air Travel, a flying club located at Lockheed Air Terminal, now known as Bob Hope Airport.  Woolie suggested that Walt would save time if he flew to Smoke Tree Ranch and made arrangements for Chuck Malone - another flying club member - to be Walt's pilot.  Chuck's flying skills would prove very useful to Walt later in a number of ways, contributing to the development of both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.  Chuck eventually became Walt's chief pilot, flying him around the country, over central Florida and the El Morro fortress in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Walt remarked that it had the perfect look for Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Imagineer Bob Gurr recalled how Walt decided to get his own airplane. On one of Walt's trips to Palm Springs, Frank Sinatra's plane - probably his LearJet 50 - was parked on the tarmac. One of Walt's grandchildren asked why he didn't have one too.  Walt had Buzz Price look into the financials, which showed that it could be a sound business decision.  Roy Disney thought it was a bad idea, so in in typical fashion, Walt countered by saying: "Well, I've got a little money; I'll do it myself."  Walt ordered an eight­ passenger Beechcraft Queen Air Model 80. With a top speed of 247 mph, a list price of $135,000 and the tail number N123MM.  It became Walt's first airplane in February of 1963.

Beechcraft Queen Air Model 80, tail number N123MM

Nine months later, on November 22, 1963, the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination, Walt, Buzz Price, Joe Fowler, Donn Tatum, Jack Sayers and Card Walker were on a flying tour which took them to St. Louis, Niagara Falls, the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area and central Florida, not far from where Walt's family had once lived.  Their aircraft was N799G, a loaner Gulfstream from Pacific Airmotive in Burbank. 

They toured Ocala by car and saw the Citrus Tower in Clermont. It was while looking out the aircraft's windows at thousands of undeveloped acres near the intersection of the Florida Turnpike and Interstate 4 that Walt looked down and said; "That's it!"- selecting the location for the Florida Project. 

The Gulfstream is larger than a DC-3 and has a six foot high main cabin.  In the executive configuration it seats 8 in spacious comfort.  Walt ordered one, which had received the tail number N732G on September 4, 1963.

The Gulfstream was a significant step up from the Queen Air; cruising at 350 mph at up to 30,000 feet, the G-1 was well suited for carrying executives and staff working on the World's Fair project in New York.

Pacific Airmotive Postcard  ca. 1960's

Grumman had decided to re-enter the business aviation market a decade earlier, choosing a low wing design with twin turboprop engines supplied by Rolls Royce. The result was a sleek, fast, efficient aircraft on the leading edge of the current aviation technology.  Grumman had decades of experience designing and building some of the most rugged and reliable military aircraft in the world and applied that experience to the Gulfstream.  Even lacking today's modern flight control systems, it was a pleasure to fly.  Forty years later, it is still a head-turner with impressive performance. The ground breaking Dart 529 engines produce over 2000 horsepower each, 66% more than the most powerful engines on a DC-3 and four times that of the Queen Air.  The Dart was the first turboprop engine used in commercial air transport, also powering the Vickers Viscount and the even longer lived Fokker F-27.

Grumman would eventually build 200 of the G-159s.  Walt's airplane was serial number 121.  She was assigned the tail number N732G on September 4th, 1963.  Seven Three Two Golf was ready for final inspection on November 11th and received an airworthiness certification, registration and first bill of sale on December 6, 1963, the day after Walt's birthday. It remains a one-owner aircraft to this day.

Walt and Guests on board a "loaner" G-159

By March 1964 the special interior furnishings which Disney ordered were complete. In December, Grumman Service Change #175, added 1700 pounds to the fuel capacity. That increased the maximum range with reserves to 2540 miles, allowing direct flights from Burbank to Orlando with a 45 minute safety margin.

At one time N234MM was the most highly utilized Gulfstream I in the country, accumulating over 18,500 hours and 8500 landings by August of 1991. 

After twenty years of service, it had its final flight on October 8, 1992.  This is the plane you used to see on the backstage tour at Walt Disney World. It was moved backstage, to a site near the Walt Disney World waste treatment facility. In 2022 it was put on display at D23 and then moved to the Palm Springs Air Museum for restoration.

N234MM @ WDW Facilities

Gulfstream G-159 with Factory livery as N732G

N234MM with Mickey Roundel on the tail.

The Boss

"The Mouse" Arrives at WDW, October 8th, 1992

In July of 1965, Walt traded the Queen Air in for a Beechcraft King Air Model 90, (S.N. LJ-57) which flew from 1965­ to 1967;

King Air Model C90 N234MM, Walt and Family at Pacific Airmotive in Burbank

Beechcraft sales photo and King Air Model from Walt's Office

The King Air could carrying 10 passengers, including a flight crew of two. It was also a step up from the Queen Air, being powered by a pair of Pratt and Whitney PT-6 Turboprop engines and capable of cruising at 270 mph at 23,000 feet. Fully equipped, its list price was $320,000.

This is the way Bob Gurr remembered the progression; 

The Queen Air was traded in on a new tan and brown turboprop Beechcraft King Air Model 90 using the N234MM tail number from the Queen Air.  The King Air was fast and quiet, but we found that the Gulfstream could get in and out of smaller airports just as easy as the King Air.  So Disney did not keep the King Air for long.  Thus, the Gulfstream eventually ended up with the N234MM tail number.

(Note; FAA records indicate that the King Air was sold and Gulfstream N732G became N234MM on September 20, 1967.)

Bob Gurr said the Disney pilots originally used "two three four Metro Metro" as their radio call sign. Then they started trying 'two three four Mickey Mouse' - which was not a standard ICAO Aircraft call.  Soon the FAA enroute controllers were also calling it "Mickey Mouse."  Bob thinks other corporate pilots were probably jealous of the special treatment.

Regarding the love of flying, Chuck Malone recalled that Walt wanted to fly very much. Evidence of that comes from a special project Walt gave to Bob Gurr; the design of a folding jump seat that could be placed in the cabin center aisle, just behind the cockpit, so Walt could sit there and watch during take-offs.  

Walt had his own personal seat in the back, with an altimeter and air speed indicator on the wall and a telephone direct to the pilot.  Walt contributed to the plane's interior design and his wife, Lillian, assisted in selecting the fabrics and colors.

Gulfstream N234MM Cabin Interior looking aft

Cabin Altitude, Clock and Airspeed indicators on Walt's office desk.

Although Walt never got a pilot's license, he frequently sat in the co-pilot's seat. Chuck Malone felt confident that if he had been incapacitated, Walt could have gotten the plane back on the ground. One problem was that Walt always liked to fly as low as possible, to study the landscape.  That caused some consternation with Disney's insurance company. When challenged about it, Walt protested; "The co­pilot's seat is the best seat in the airplane... if they don't like it, I'll get myself another insurance company!"

Walt was finally able to convince Roy that a plane was a useful tool for the company and not just an executive perk.  In typical fashion, Walt planned a trip to Northern California, then on to Sun Valley for Roy and his wife Edna, Lilly and himself.  Midway thru the flight Walt talked Roy into taking over the role of navigator. Having served as a navigator in the Navy in World War I, Roy responded with enthusiasm and by the end of the flight Roy had been converted.

In the book, Walt Disney: An American Original, Bob Thomas wrote:

"Walt took delight in planning each trip, plotting the itinerary on maps in his office over his evening Scotch. When passengers arrived at the plane's home base at Lockheed Airport, he loaded their luggage aboard. During the flight, he served the drinks and supervised the galley. For years, Walt had yearned to pilot a plane, and on occasion, the company pilot, Chuck Malone, allowed Walt to take over the controls. Walt insisted that Ron Miller and Bob Brown learn how to land the plane in case of emergency when they were flying with their families. After Chuck Malone became ill while piloting the plane alone, Walt established the rule that two pilots would be required during all flights."

Regarding Walt's interest in aviation, Lillian commented;

"We used to go to the airport and stand and watch planes land. Our first plane was a little one. We had one pilot. Walt said he wanted all his sons­-in­-law and everybody to learn to fly that plane. But after he had been up in it two or three times, he said, 'I don't want you to touch it. That's a business all its own. Keep away from it. We'll get pilots to fly that plane."

Lillian hesitated to take any risks and disapproved strongly of Walt's desire to fly.  One time, Walt was in the cockpit and pilot Jim Stevenson let him have the microphone. Walt announced: "This is your captain speaking." Lillian left her seat and was heading towards the cabin when Walt boomed over the mic: "No, not the captain. This is the commander in chief of the whole damned outfit!"

As the Disney Company grew, so did the need for long distance executive travel. It established an in-house fight department named Earth Star Incorporated which has operated Gulfstream G650's, a G550 and a Bombardier CL-600 with tail numbers N100ES, N200ES, N400ES and N900ES.

Gulfstream G650 tail number N100ES

Bombardier CL-600 tail number N400ES

If you long to fly for Disney, job postings for pilots still come up from time to time.

If you have at least 5 years experience as a Jet Captain with an FAR Part 91 or 135 Operator, are current and qualified as a Pilot-in-Command in a multi-engine business jet aircraft, with at least 4000 hours total flying time with 2000 hours in multi-engine turbojets, hold current FAA Airline Transport Pilot and First Class Medical Certificates with at least one type rating in a business jet, you might just have the right stuff.

On the other hand, you might consider polishing up your Corellian YT-1300 piloting skills...

Traits of Walt's Imagineers

The Artistic Engineer with Mouse Ears

In my previous post I outlined the steps of Design Thinking, in the context of Imagineering:

• Identify specific customer needs with Storytelling
• Generate ideas with Blue Sky Brainstorming
• Test and Learn about ideas with Rapid Prototyping
• Pay attention to the details
• Plus it up to exceed customer expectation

In this post I'm going to reveal a way for almost anyone to develop the traits of an Imagineer or at least figure out how many of them you may already have.

----------------------------------------------------

If you do a web search on "How do I become an Imagineer?" Google will currently return about 5400 results, some of which are actually written by former Imagineers, like Bob Gurr, who said;

"You have to have an inherent internal drive within you that has always encompassed a range of characteristics that I think most successful Imagineers were born with. Characteristics that one might not be able to purchase in college."

Bob then went on to say that the Imagineers he has known have had three things in common;

1) Permanent curiosity about everything
2) Fearless creativity
3) The ability to clearly express themselves in words and drawings.

Let's look at each of these and one way to learn them;

Permanent Curiosity about Everything

"The most important characteristic is to be permanently curious about everything, especially about stuff you don’t know, and stuff that does not seem relevant at the time."

Bob's advice to be permanently curious about everything is significant. This is one of the core principles of deep creativity. The more raw material (ideas) there are to work with, the greater the number of possible combinations. In addition, the hidden links between seemingly unrelated things (the ambiguities and unknowns) often contain the seeds of break-thru creative solutions.

One example of this is IDEO's Deep Dive Process.  Developing deep relevant knowledge is also the first step towards what Bloom's Taxonomy calls the Creating phase, where information can be put together in innovative ways. Walt Disney exhibited this sort of behavior constantly. It is also a fundamental trait of babies and children.  That is why DT recommends adopting the mindset of a novice.

Fearless Creativity

"Not being afraid to show others a dumb idea. Maybe it will lead to something practical."

Dozens of authors have written about the importance of overcoming fear. In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review David Kelley commented:

"Students often come to Stanford University’s “d.school” to develop their creativity. Clients work with IDEO, our design and innovation consultancy, for the same reason. But along the way, we’ve learned that our job isn’t to teach them creativity. It’s to help them rediscover their creative confidence—the natural ability to come up with new ideas and the courage to try them out. We do this by giving them strategies to get past four fears that hold most of us back: 

1) Fear of the messy unknown

2) Fear of being judged

3) Fear of the first step

4) Fear of losing control.

Express ideas in both words and drawings

"Imagineers have the ability to clearly express themselves in words and drawings."

Visual Thinking - the ability to conceptualize in both images and words - is a key aspect of creativity. Artists and engineers both use their abilities to create images. It is the merging of these two skills which creates the Storyteller, who uses words and images to connect on a deep emotional level with the audience. This is something Disney has excelled at for decades and is also key element of Design Thinking.

Focus on the Guest (customer) in every phase

This one is so powerful it should probably have been stated first. Great Design, which seems like magic to the customer, comes from responding in a deep, empathic way, to guests' unexpressed needs. Its what enables the "How did they know I needed that?" moment of delight. This focus is often targeted at the end user, but the truth is the process starts with the very next person in your value chain - the person you deliver your work product to. Skip them - or anyone else - along the way and the quality of the end product will be reduced because someone's needs were overlooked or ignored.

So, how can you buff up your creativity toolbox and at least act like an Imagineer? Simple! Use the same methods to enhance your creative process. Fortunately, there are sources you can turn to for lots of free high quality guidance, provided you are willing to call the toolkit by a different name;

Human Centered Design Toolkit - (IDEO) 154 pages 34.4 MB pdf download

Use our Methods - (d.school) - "a collection of methods for folks new to design thinking."

Creative Confidence - The book by David Kelley.

Rapid Viz - A classic introduction to rapid drawing techniques.

Designing Like Imagineers

Trying to Believe

Matt O'Keefe wrote an article for Theme Park Tourist in which he listed 8 Key Principles That Disney Imagineers Use to Develop New Attractions;

Storytelling

Brainstorming

Details

Kinetics

Don't Give Up

Fill Specific Needs

Blue Sky Speculation

Plus It Up

I liked where Matt is going and wanted to take it a little further. In order to do that I'm going to compare Matt's list with the principles of Design Thinking, as taught at the Hasso Plattner Institutes of Design, also known as the d.school.  Design Thinking and Imagineering are both associated with extreme innovation, so we might expect to see some parallels.

Design Thinking follows a consistent, repeatable, process which was described by Herbert Simon as;

Define - Research - Generate - Prototype - Choose - Implement - Learn

Each phase of the process has methods and set of principles associated with it. Basically they address the questions of What, How and Why to do something in the context of problem solving.

I'm going to start by moving Matt's list of Imagineering principles around a little bit;

We start with Identifying a problem, or need(s) to fill.  This phase is what Simon calls Define and Matt calls Fill Specific Needs. The output of Imagineering's need identification is a document called the Scope of Needs, which is a list of what all the attraction "stakeholders" want, beginning with the Guests, including operations, maintenance, finance, etc. That's the WHAT part.  

How to identify a problem is addressed by Design Thinking's very well developed Interview with Empathy methods, which basically involve talking with real users in the real world about their experience and desires. This has a parallel in Disney's Storytelling, as successful empathic interviews typically trigger the customer telling a story that involves how they felt about a problem.

Why identify a problem or fill a need?  Filling needs creates happy customers. Put another way, it creates value. This is also where Plus It Up starts to come into play because exceeding customer expectations results in delighted customers. Plus It Up also relates to paying deep Attention to the Details.

Disney Imagineering's emphasis on the Guest Experience has a parallel in Apple's focus on look and feel (and WDI's "kinetics") which have to do with the emotional content and presence of their products.

How to generate ideas a.k.a Brainstorming is the most direct parallel, as both Design Thinking and Imagineering use the same term. That is done extensively in Disney's Blue Sky phase, where judgement is suspended and anything and everything goes.

Design Thinking also dives deep into explaining how to execute on developing and proving new ideas with Rapid Prototyping. Disney does lots of this during the Concept and Feasibility phases of their process.

Combined and rearranged the lists look like this:

• Identify specific customer needs with Storytelling
• Generate ideas with Blue Sky Brainstorming
• Test and Learn about the ideas with Rapid Prototyping
• Pay attention to the details
• Plus it up to exceed customer expectations

Along the way, it helps to be curious, optimistic and persistent.

Follow this method and you'll be well on your way to creating solutions that suspend your customer's disbelief and making some magic.

Design Like Walt Disney

Much of what is called Design Thinking has its roots in work done by John Arnold, Herbert Simon, Robert McKim and Rolf Faste, starting in the late 1950's. Today, Design Thinking is closely associated with methods taught in Stanford's Product Design Program, Joint Program in Design, at the d.school, and applied by IBM, IDEO, SAP, GE, GE Healthcare and Procter and Gamble. Other schools, colleges and universities are also offering theoretical and practical courses in Design Thinking.

Alcoa first described its method of blending of imagination and engineering, asImagineering in the 1940's. Union Carbide's Richard F. Sailer wrote an article called BRAINSTORMING IS IMAGINation engINEERing in 1957. Disney filed for a copyright on the term in 1967, claiming first use in 1962. Walt Described it this way, possibly as early as 1952;

"We keep moving forward - opening new doors and doing new things - because we're curious. And curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. We're always exploring and experimenting... we call it Imagineering - this blending of creative imagination and technical know-how."

Both processes are multi-phasic and include brainstorming and storytelling. They both utilize in-depth investigation and broad-scope information gathering (ie; IDEO's "Deep Dive") to thoroughly understand all aspects of the situation. Both processes are also highly collaborative and focus on the emotional and cognitive experience of the user.

What are the differences and similarities between the methods taught at Stanford, used by IDEO and Walt Disney Imagineering? Are there common traits between one organization famed for its feel-good family entertainment and another known for solving "wicked" problems?

First, a review of what the d.school says are the key phases of Design Thinking:

Empathize - Define - Ideate - Prototype - Test

Brainstorming, Storytelling, Rapid Prototyping, Testing and Interviewing for Empathy stand out as key activities associated with the phases. These methods also create artifacts associated with each phase, like storyboards and models.

My approach was to gather as much information as I could from both on-line and print sources where persons with first hand knowledge of Imagineering and Design Thinking explained the key elements of their design processes. Next, I looked for any significant correlations and parallels between them, both in terms of vocabulary and method; I also relied on my own experience applying the principles of Design Thinking over the past 30 years.

Storytelling - Tim Brown (IDEO)

"Though its not always necessary to make your audience cry, a good story, well told should deliver a powerful emotional punch."

"...a new idea will have to tell a meaningful story in a compelling way if it is to make itself heard."

"...storytelling needs to be in the toolkit of the design thinker."

Storytelling - Walt Disney

"The story man must see clearly in his own mind how every piece of business in a story will be put."

"He should feel every expression, every reaction."

"He should get far enough away from his story to take a second look at it... to see whether there is any dead phase...to see whether the personalities are going to be interesting and appealing to the audience."

"The thing that makes us different is... Giving it "heart"... We developed a psychological approach to everything we do here. We seem to know how to "tap the heart." Others have hit the intellect. We can hit them in an emotional way. Those who appeal to the intellect only appeal to a very limited group."

Brainstorming - IDEO

IDEO is so big on brainstorming they've got their own seven rules on their web site;

1. Defer judgment
2. Encourage wild ideas
3. Build on the ideas of others
4. Stay focused on the topic
5. One conversation at a time
6. Be visual
7. Go for quantity

Brainstorming - Marty Sklar

"Everyone starts with a blank sheet of paper..." "Here, what if actually means why not?"

"No one's going to stomp on you because you came up with a strange, weird idea..."

"These ideas are then shared with a handful of Imagineers who gather to bounce them around. We call this brainstorming." Usually, when a session begins, there are no certainties. To us, that simply means anything is possible."

"A brainstorming may last hours, days, even weeks." "The only rule during this time: there are no rules." "Every aspect is questioned, admired, debated, and turned upside down and inside out until that first sketch can take a daring leap off the napkin and grow into larger, more refined drawings and paintings. The brainstorming subsides when the basic idea is defined, understood and agreed upon by all group members. It belongs to all of us, keeping a rich heritage left to us by Walt Disney. Teamwork is truly the heart of Imagineering.

Storyboarding - IDEO

A central way that IDEO fleshes out the details of a design is to develop detailed storyboards or scenarios of a person using the new device.

Storyboading - Marty Sklar

"Our next step involves a little more imagination - and a lot more blank paper - as we define the details of the idea, and determine how it can best emerge to tell its story in a three dimensional world. Sketches are pinned onto large storyboards. Dozens of them are added, taken away, switched around, re-drawn, crumpled up and tossed out, then fetched from the trash can, un-crumpled, and put back up."

Modeling - (Prototyping) d.school @ Stanford
The d.school is so committed to modeling and prototyping they have an entire class (MS&E 488) and Lab devoted to it. It's a key step in every iteration of the process.

Modeling - Marty Sklar

Clay is molded, foam is carved, and cardboard and plaster are cut and glued together to bring the idea into three dimensions. Several generations of study models are built and rebuilt. First draft scripts undergo second and third revisions.

Persistence - Walt Disney

"Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it and work at it until it's done, and done right."

“When we consider a new project, we really study it - not just the surface idea, but everything about it. And when we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right. And we work hard to do the best possible job.”
"New ideas are continuously nourished as long as they have a shot at reality. If the spark of an idea is strong, it will never fade away. Even if it travels only far enough to appear on that first piece of paper, there it will patiently remain until the time is right for it to re-ignite."

Persistence - IDEO

In The Little Book of IDEO, the very first slide which appears is "Be Optimistic," close behind is Take Ownership.

Some Preliminary Conclusions

I typically allow the reader to draw their own conclusions regarding my blog postings, but in this case, I'm going to say that I found a significant level of correlation between the two methods.

Some may say the similarities are co-incidental. That may be true, but if it is, I suspect it's because at their cores Design Thinking and Imagineering are both about the same thing; Creativity that connects with the user/guest at a deep emotional level.

In my blog posting Making Walt Cry, I quote Walt on this point.

Project Management Lessons from Disney

Lesson One: Pay fantastic attention to detail

“When we consider a project, we really study it…not just the surface idea, but everything about it. And when we go into that new project, we believe in it all the way. We have confidence in our ability to do it right…and we work hard to do the best possible job.”

Any project can and should not be managed as a whole. Projects are the sum of many small details across many distinct process groups. Keeping track of these details makes the difference between a well and poorly managed project. Tracking the details, anticipating issues, responding to risk, and keeping watch over a other seemingly non-connected tasks are what keeps your project moving forward. Don’t get bogged down with your team. Your main role is to keep one eye on the end goal and keep the project moving in that direction. Always know where your project is, where its going and what challenges your team is facing, so you can effortlessly communicate these facts to key stakeholders.

Lesson Two: Challenge the status quo

“I happen to be an inquisitive guy and when I see things I don’t like, I start thinking, ‘Why do they have to be like this and how can I improve them?’”

How a project manager responds to issues and risk makes the difference between an “out of control” project and a project “within control limits.” One of the major steps of the project management maturity model is recognizing and avoiding past mistakes. When we ignore our project success and failure history, we are doomed to repeat it. Leading change within a project is occasionally necessary to correct inconsistencies, errors, omissions, and/or responses to new issues. Project management methods aren't “one size fits all” and existing business processes may not mesh with what your project is expected to deliver. You’ll need to determine exceptions to both project management protocol and normal business operations. Challenging the status quo and pushing the boundaries of accepted norms are occasionally required of a Project Manager to get the job done.

Lesson Three: Don’t forget about the quality
“I want a guest to walk into a five million dollar restaurant to buy a five cent hamburger.”

Project quality is embodied by a successful deliverable. Walt Disney was trying to set the scene for a quality and enjoyable experience within his Disneyland theme park. You may not want to set this lofty of a quality goal, unless you work for Disney, but as a Project Manager, you must ensure that every project deliverable meets the quality goals and customer expectations. The Project Manager walks a very narrow tightrope. Exceeding expectations can bring claims of gold-plating, while cutting quality to meet budget, schedule or scope constraints can lead to very unhappy stakeholders.

Lesson Four: People expect you to fail…prove them wrong

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

Based on the oft-quoted Standish CHAOS report of project success rates it is easy to see how some people, including your own project team members and stakeholders, can be skeptical of your ability to successfully deliver a project within budget, time and scope parameters. Fair or not, the Project Manager is expected to re-direct accolades of project success back toward the team, while on the flip side, accept full accountability when the project fails to deliver on its promises. How you manage the effort, including the team you are given, the communications you provide, the expectations you set and/or manage and the direct guidance you provide as you lead through issues, risks, milestone checkpoints and delivery acceptance are under your control. Make informed decisions and direct rather react.

Lesson Five: Team members make the project a success, not the project manager

“You can design and create and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it takes people to make the dream a reality.”

Building a top-notch project team is an essential ingredient to the success of a project. Teams of technical or subject matter geniuses don’t always play well together. Ensuring a proper blend of subject matter expertise and a good team dynamic can turn a sluggish project into a streamlined project. By planning the team structure carefully, before the project is launched, future risk is reduced. Publicizing reward and recognition programs to promote “above and beyond” effort before the project even begins promotes positive attitudes and fair leadership right from the start. Equally important, having a plan already in place for correcting and/or negating the impact on the project of poor work or a discouraged and stressed out team saves valuable risk response time for other issues that may arise later during the project.

Lesson Six: Make meetings more productive

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

Project planning meetings, project status meetings, informal project discussions, and the dreaded elevator meeting. For all of these forms of project communication, preparation and planning are key. When project team members are sitting in a status meeting, they are not working on tasks needed to reach the next milestone. Keep this in mind when you prepare your meeting agendas and participant lists. Does the project team really need to sit through a recap of the tasks closed in the last thirty days? Probably not, since they are the one’s who closed them! An effective use of project resource time however, is a half-day workshop early in the project to define key project milestones, streams of work, tasks and time estimates. Always ask yourself why a meeting is better than other forms of communication.

Lesson Seven: Promote and champion change

“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.”

As a project manager, you are an instrument of change. Projects are usually created to fix or improve something and they have stakeholders who are positively or negatively affected by the result of the project you are managing. Simply starting a project can shake up the status quo and make people uncomfortable. Change requires clear and effective communication about why the project improves the organization. Change also requires a strategy for dealing with challenges to the project.

Lesson Eight: Plan to defend your project

“I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.”

One of the main responsibilities of a project manager is to defend the integrity of the key project control parameters…scope, schedule and budget. That isn’t to say that the three tenets of the “project iron triangle” can never be changed. With proper change management protocol in place, project leadership decisions, and the necessities of project execution, can dictate changes to the original plan. However, one must always remain vigilant to the negative effects of scope and feature creep, gold plating and risk, regardless of the source. How many times have you been approached by a project sponsor or stakeholder who demands that you change the project without going through the bother of running the request through the integrated change control system? If you’ve succumbed to this peer pressure and the project gets derailed, you’ll be the one left without a chair when the music stops!

Lesson Nine: Innovation can come from inside the project team, not just from the stakeholders
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we are curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Allow your team members to be an integral part of creative problem solving for the project. By soliciting creative thought from your team members, you foster and atmosphere of innovation, stream-lined solutions, and increased team morale. Early on in the project life cycle, challenge your team to think creatively about developing solutions to the problem being addressed by the project. Be accepting to changing plans, approaches and solution ideas. Run some “proof-of-concept” sessions or trial runs to validate the ideas. Once the project team has landed on a particular approach however, that is the time to start bringing more control and managed change to the initiative. Locking in on the tasks needed to deliver a specific approach ensures execution on the idea. Allowing blue-sky thinking to continue without end causes uncontrollable work effort or worse, “analysis paralysis.”

Lesson Ten: Know when to manage, and when to lead

“You know, one day when a little boy asked, ‘Do you draw Mickey Mouse?’ I had to admit I do not draw anymore. ‘Well, then you think up all the jokes and ideas,’ he said. ‘No,’ I said, ‘I don’t do that anymore either.’ Finally he looked at me and said, ‘Mr. Disney, just what do you do?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘sometimes I think of myself as a little bee. I go from one area of the studio to another, and gather pollen, and sort of stimulate everybody.’ I guess that’s the job I do.”

An effective project manager must know when in the project life cycle to manage, and when to lead. Typically, management activities occur during the initiating and planning phases of the project. The project manager must, by proper protocol, maintain a more “hands-on” approach to guiding the project through the initiating and planning processes. Defining the project scope, building a charter, developing cost estimates to include with funding requests, preparing stage gate presentations and generating a work breakdown structure with the project team are all direct management activities for the Project Manager.

 On the other hand, during the executing and controlling phases, the Project Manager should take a step away from the day-to-day operations of the project and transition into more of a leadership role. By using a “management by walking around” approach, the Project Manager can allow the team to focus on executing the plan (completing the work) while he/she communicates updates on progress, provides steering/coaching where needed and deals with issues and/or risks that may be experienced.


So in a nutshell, what are the ten things Walt Disney taught me about project management? 

1. Believe in the project one hundred percent. 
2. Balance the constraints of time, quality and budget very carefully. 
3. Set a positive environment for the project from the very beginning. 
4. Pay extraordinary attention to detail.  
5. Walk the project path before ever taking a step. 
6. Assemble the best possible project team and plan for both achievement and challenge. 
7. Maintain clear and consistent communications throughout the project and be aggressively proactive in communications with the team and the stakeholders. 
8. Listen to and understand the unasked question. 
9. Be certain of project completion criteria. 
10. Learn from both successes and failures.

Buzz Price and the Power of Yes, if...

Valerie J. Nelson's article in the August 17, 2010 Los Angeles Times,  paid tribute to Harrison "Buzz" Price of the Stanford Research Institute, who had passed away two days earlier. As you can see from the plaque above, Buzz was a Disney Legend.

Nelson referred to Buzz as "an engineer turned theme-park strategist whose research led Walt Disney to place Magic Kingdoms in Anaheim and Orlando..." The article also quoted Michael Eisner that Price "was as much responsible for the success of the Walt Disney Co. as anybody except Walt Disney himself..." 

What was it that enabled Price to have such a significant influence on Disney's success?

Price was frequently called on to evaluate the viability of Disney projects.  He developed a research method that suited Walt and Roy’s needs perfectly. The method took a “Yes if...”line of approach. 

Of this approach Price said; 

“Yes if..." is the approach of a deal maker.  It points to what needs to be done to make the possible plausible. "No because..." is the language of a deal killer.  Creative people thrive on ‘Yes if...” 

Buzz added; “Walt liked this language.” It blended well with Walt's constantly urging his Imagineers to "plus it."

There is a direct parallel to "Yes if..." in Design Thinking; asking "What if?" and using "Yes, and..." rather than "Yes, but..." when brainstorming.

Fred Gleeck and Avish Parashar have a YouTube video that demonstrates the difference.

Improv Game - "Yes And" and "Yes But"

Before I viewed this video I had no idea that "Yes, if..." could be the basis for standup comedy. Gleeck and Avish's routine show how much more "Yes, but..." feels like an argument. An argument is probably not what you want to have during a brainstorm - or possibly any other time.

Placed on a continuum from No to Yes, it looks like this;

To end on a bit of a whacky note; this reminder from Monte Python of how much fun it is to have a really good argument!

Just remember, the next time a problem solving opportunity comes your way, work to get to the "Yes if..."side of things. It will go a long way towards developing a creative solution.

It worked for Walt.