A “Small World” With Big Ideas

As a young boy excitedly gripping my mother’s hand, my entrance through the turnstile was a breathless exit from reality. Delightful smells and happy faces. The distant shrieks of pure joy. Families bustling this way and that. Not a spot of trash in sight as fantasized characters came to life. My tiny shoes squeaked as I dragged my already exhausted parents deep into the park. It was an early morning. The sun was shining. It was 1975, and this was my first trip to Disneyworld.

Although I’ve been back to their parks many times since, next week I journey down to Orlando with HR experts Michael Long, Mike VanDervort, Alicia Sanera and others for an entirely different experience – The Disney Institute.

The institute opened twenty-three years ago with the goal of providing immersive experiences which transfer the business lessons instantiated into their unique organization by Walt Disney himself. According to their literature, millions of attendees have benefited from these teachings across forty countries worldwide.

So why us, and why now?

Stacey Thompson of the Institute’s PR team is helping to lead the charge for a new generation of ideas and relationships. She proactively sought a small group of new media representatives to audit one of the Institute’s courses and I was fortunate enough to be included. In typical Disney style, they are generously providing for our flights, accommodations and course fees during our stay.

What they hope to accomplish is the following. Despite the Institute’s glowing reputation and success to date, they believe they can do more. So they’ve asked us to audit a course entitled, “Disney’s Approach to Business Excellence“. This is a five day program targeted primarily to those in leadership positions. In addition, we’ll peek “behind the mouse” and gain access to highly restricted areas of the parks. And although we can’t talk about everything we see, they hope we provide an honest assessment of their program’s applicability to the modern employer. Their seriousness is demonstrated by a private dinner we’ll attend with the Institute’s leadership team next Thursday evening.

I know, I know… you’re thinking, “Okay, this is some sort of boondoggle designed to help them generate PR”. That’s a reasonable conclusion, but I’m taking a different perspective. For an organization that only has a few weak Twitter accounts globally (and no official blog) to proactively bring new media players into the fold is a fairly risky move. Given recent announcements such as their collaboration with Harvard, I’m very interested to hear what the Institute’s future holds. Best of all, I can’t wait to take all of you along for the journey.

With that in mind, please be sure to monitor both my blog and Twitter accounts for updates and observations. I will be onsite next Wednesday to Saturday and you can follow all the action on Twitter via the hashtag “#disneyi“.

My final request is for you. If you have a burning question you’d like me to pose, drop a comment below and I’ll be certain to seek out an answer. In the meantime, enjoy your weekend and let’s keep the conversation going!