The Disney Method
“Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age and dreams are forever.”
Walt Disney was born on the 5th of December 1901 in Hermosa, Chicago.
He overcame enormous challenges, both personal and professional, to realise his grand ambitions and build the Disney empire.
Today, many consider him as one of the greatest creative minds ever to have lived.
Even more than 50 years after his death, his legacy lives on in the joy that children all over the world experience watching his movies.
As all great creative minds inherently understand, their work is a series of problems to solve.
When Disney confronted a creative challenge, he would adopt three different perspectives to help him work through the problem.
He called them ‘The Dreamer’, ‘The Realist’, and ‘The Spoiler’.
The Dreamer
Let your imagination run wild without thinking about practical considerations.
Encourage yourself to come up with the biggest and boldest ideas you possibly can.
Set no limits on where your imagination takes you.
‘The Dreamer’ outlook enabled Disney to set his creative mind completely free.
The Realist
This approach is the counterpoint to the above mindset.
Creative people have wild imaginations, and often their visions outpace what is currently possible.
They frequently overlook practical realities like cost and time, which all businesses need to take into account.
‘The Realist’ was a point of view that encouraged Disney to bring his fantasies back down to earth by thinking about how he might make them a reality.
The Spoiler
Pose questions and attempt to pick holes in your idea to uncover its weak points.
What isn’t working so well? What could be improved? How could the idea be made even better?
‘The Spoiler’ mindset enabled Disney to find the holes in his ideas and refine them by listening to the feedback and improving things step-by-step.
The three different ‘characters’ described above helped Disney to look at ideas from different perspectives.
We look at the world through our own eyes and, as a consequence, overlook what may be better alternatives.
It’s a similar method as Edward de Bono’s famous ‘Six Thinking Hats’ exercise.
These two great creative minds understood this type of thinking to be an invaluable exercise.
As Alan Kay said, “A shift in perspective is worth 80 IQ points.”
