Disney’s Secrets to a Creative and Innovative Association Culture

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 by Deirdre Reid

Have you participated in one of the Innovation Talks happening this week in the association community? It’s not too late. Yet while we talk, Disney continues to churn out innovation.

Everyone’s creative.
 
At Disney the prevailing philosophy is “everyone’s creative.” Disney believes their competitive advantage is the ability to tap into that creativity. According to Gert Garman, Global Creative Development Director for Disney, some of their best ideas come from Cast Members, employees on the frontlines. From their first day at work Cast Members learn that Disney welcomes and values their ideas on improving the Disney guest experience.

How can associations create a similar culture? Your frontline employees talk to members every day. They’re a source of valuable, and often overlooked, insight into your membership. Ask them to capture their ideas and convene regular idea generation sessions.

Collaboration breaks down silos.

Disney employees feel confident, not competitive, sharing and debating ideas across departmental lines. This behavior is encouraged by the members of Garman’s team who act as connectors between departments. She stresses the importance of internal communication – finding out what other departments are doing, sharing what you learn and being willing to listen and give suggestions for solutions.

When you have a vexing issue, how often do you ask colleagues in other departments for their input? Associations are full of different experiences and perspectives – advocacy, finance, IT, human resources, membership, education and more. How often do we really think outside the departmental box?

Break down barriers to creativity and innovation.

Create areas where idea generation is encouraged — an idea lounge, a huge whiteboard or a wall covered with IdeaPaint (ASAE staff are doing it!). Post a question and ask for feedback. Write down an idea and ask others to build upon it.

However, you’ll end up with a blank whiteboard if your staff barely has time to eat, never mind think. Ask your staff what would help release their creativity. Make that the topic of your first idea generation session.

I know I would have appreciated time set aside to read and think — time to unjumble my mind and let it flow. How can you build white space into schedules?

Schedule flexibility helps too. Motivated staff are more likely to use their creative powers for good. Autonomy, according to Daniel Pink’s Drive, is a key motivator. How much freedom does your staff have to work when and where it’s most productive for them?

Start-up companies know that exercise and games get creative minds clicking. How can you build that into your culture?

Brainstorming with Disney

Before Garman begins facilitating a brainstorming session, she has them do an energizing exercise. I inwardly groaned, but it was fun. We split into groups of three, each of us choosing a letter: A, B or C. Just before each segment began, she assigned a job to one of the letters. The other two interviewed that person about their job: A was a centipede shoe salesperson, B a honey bee sex therapist and C an elephant skydiving coach.

After the exercise came the debriefing. What did it take to play that game? The attributes we yelled out, like imagination, bravery, openness, freedom of speech, creativity, brain power, collaboration and spontaneity, became the guidelines and expected behavior for the brainstorming session.

Here are some of the rules her team uses during these sessions.

• It’s all good: Buts are not allowed during brainstorming. Instead reply with Yes And, just like an improv exercise.
• 10/10: For every 10 minutes we spend on why we can’t do something, we could have 10 ideas instead, so budget, legal or HR considerations are not allowed during the session.
• Vegas: What happens in the room stays in the room. It’s a safe and confidential environment.
• Doctor and bullet: Capture all ideas. You never know which one will be the seed of brilliance. Write them legibly, not like a doctor’s prescription, in a bullet format of noun + verb + 3 more words, so you’ll understand later what it signifies.
• Share and hook: Encourage everyone to share, but they can only interrupt to latch onto and build upon an idea. Again, just like improv.
• Date an idea, don’t marry it: Let an idea sit and stew in everyone’s mind before rushing it into implementation.

Other Disney tips:

• Get rid of low hanging fruit. Quickly deal with the easy-to-fix issues that come up first so you can spend time on the more disruptive important questions.
• What’s UP (Underlying Principle)? Share three ideas that would get you fired. We never get to be naughty at work so this exercise releases some doozies. What’s the underlying principle of the naughty idea that makes it so sexy? How do you twist it to make it work?
• Risk-averse leaders without a taste for innovation? Gerson’s had success sparking their interest and passion by asking questions that leverage their nostalgia or childhood memories.
• Can’t afford a facilitator? Do it yourself with the help of brainstorming books and the resources on ASAE’s Innovation Talks page. Or, contact your local improv theater to see if they facilitate affordable brainstorming sessions.

Organizational cultures that nourish and nurture their employees’ creativity will find innovative ways to solve problems and meet challenges. Gather a few colleagues and brainstorm ways you can bring more creativity to your workplace.

Your turn: Think about a 30-day innovation commitment you can make. Send it to me at deirdre.reid.nc at gmail.com and next week I’ll share what I receive so we can inspire and get inspired.


Deirdre Reid, CAE is a freelance writer who just bought an oldie but goodie, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, to spark her creative juices.

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