The Walt Disney strategy is a simple and wonderful exercise to dream big, put your dreams in action, and evaluate their readiness. It is an NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) exercise develop by Robert Dilts who has done a modelling project on Walt Disney.
While it might be a case study from the animation industry And the process can be applied for any project, whether it is a seminar, a book, a career choice, or a new venture of all sorts.
According to one of Walt Disney's animators there where three different identities modes: the Dreamer, the Realist, and the Spoiler (Critic).
The Dreamer is the one who just thinks big – dreaming a story, a movie, a themepark. The Realist is the one who takes action: the storyboarder, the animators who draw these hundreds of images needed for a short cartoon sequence, the editors. The Critic is the one who evaluates the plan and contributes constructive “how” or “what if” questions; such as “how to get this into a 90 minute movie?”, “how can every family member enjoy this”, “how to make it inclusive”? I like to see the critic as a quality control function or as one who adapts to a certain audience.
Based on this three positions Robert Dilts arranged an NLP exercise. First the explorer of this exercise thinks and feels into this position (steps into, accesses the body language, and connect to an event he / she / they have fully experienced it).
Then a key part is to separate these three positions separated. So that the Dreamer just dreams, the Realist just implements and takes action, and the critic contributes constructive questions and may criticizes the plan but never the Dreamer or Realist itself.
One thing I discovered in various workshops I lead about this technique as well as in coaching is that it is easier said than done. Sometimes people have difficulties to access their dreamer to its fullest, add too much work to the realist and want to go into critic mode before even there, or make their critic so strong that the process starts to dampen.
During a practice session last week I added something new which is often included in modern NLP processes in order to help overcome the just mentioned limitations: the opposites.
- The opposite of the Dreamer might be the Destroyer or Anarchist.
- The opposite of the Realist might be the Linger or Procrastinator.
- The opposite of the Critic might be the Cynic.
But why? If we access the shadows we may get a more holistic understanding what may comes up as well. Once we discovered these we can see them as 'old friends' – acknowledging and loving them for who they are but no longer let them define or interfere with our plans.
With this opposites included walking through the Dreamer, Realist, and Critic, and feeding back to the Dreamer into the next round an authentic but big dreaming circling through the process got achieved and it is something I will take on for my work on this process.
I am delighted having this creative work from Robert Dilts and its origins by Walt Disney available for the application of NLP. It is something I do incorporate in my coaching. Interested? Book a session now; I do offer a first free session, book it on my website www.georgwanek.com