The Walt Disney Circle - Refining Personal and Corporate Goals
(adapted from: R. Dilts)
Walt Disney has been known as one of the most outstanding and most successful business leaders of the 20th century. Like Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, he has not only influenced our way of processing information he has also changed the way we perceive reality. The secret of his nearly unlimited creativity - unconscious to him - has been moulded into a model that can be applied to any personal and organizational planning operation.
The Circle of Creativity was developed by R. Dilts based on the successful strategies of Walt Disney. The approach was developed through individual interviews with friends and colleagues of Disney. It is a model for effective and creative development of personal and professional plans. It helps you to transfer an idea into the input for a plan.
The model is based on the idea that we can separate any planning process into three stages - the DREAMER, the REALIST and the CRITIC. The dreamer is the part in any person or the person in any planning team that is able to creatively develop new ideas, no matter whether they are realistic or not. Without the dreamer, there would be no innovation. The realist is the actual planner, or the technocrat. He knows all procedures and is able to make a detailed plan out of a dream. The critic looks for what could go wrong with the plan and cares about risks. He provides input for new dreams.
What we usually do is to mix all three stages once we start planning. That means, we often prevent the creativity of the dreamer to develop by immediately engaging the critic. Or, we never come to grips with the risks of the project by staying in the dreamer phase.
Figure 1: The Walt-Disney-Circle
The exercise can be used for refining personal as well as for corporate goals. The questions remain the same, only the focus shifts.
This model of Walt Disney's unconscious creativity processes has been described by Robert Dilts in his book "Strategies of Genius - Part I" He tells the story of a business leader who was able to step into different states according to the needs of the moment. In the DREAMER state he was able to develop his visions, in the REALIST state, he translated his visions into realistic steps ("story-board"). And as a CRITIC, he was able to identify constraints and limits to his (and his staff's) plans.
Phase 1: Dreamer ("What Do I/We Want To Do?")
The attitude of the dreamer is: "Anything is possible". In this phase of the planning, it is not necessary to look for the realizibility of the goal, neither do we need to look for constraints.
Questions:
What do you want to do?
The goal is to
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Why do you want to do it?
The purpose is to
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What are the benefits?
The beneficial effects of this will be
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How will you know that you have achieved the benefits?
Evidence of the benefits will be
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When can you expect to get them?
The benefits can be expected when
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Where do you want this idea to get you in the future?
This idea will lead to
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Phase 2: Realist ("How Do I/We Want To Do It?")
The attitude of the realist is: "As if the dream was realizable". In this phase of the planning, it is not allowed to look for constraints.
Questions:
When will the overall goal be completed?
The overall time frame for reaching the goal is
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Who will be involved (assign responsibility and secure commitment from people who will carry out the plan.)?
The chief actors include
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How specifically will the idea be implemented?
What will be the first step?
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What will be the second step?
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What will be the third step?
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What will be your ongoing feedback that you are moving toward or away from the goal?
An effective ongoing feedback will be
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How will you know that the goal is achieved?
I/We will know that the goal has been reached when
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Phase 3: Critic ("What Could Go Wrong?")
The attitude of the critic is to consider: "What, if problems occur?".
Questions:
Whom will this new idea affect and who will make or break the effectiveness of the idea?
The people most affected by this plan are
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What are their needs?
Their needs are
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Why might someone object to this plan or idea?
Someone might object to this plan if
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What positive gains are there in the present way(s) of doing things?
The present way of doing things has the following positive effects
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How can you keep those things when you implement the new idea?
These positive gains will be preserved by
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When and where would you NOT want to implement the new idea?
I/We would not want to implement this plan if
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What is currently needed or missing from the plan?
What is currently needed or missing from the plan is
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Phase 4: Going the Circle Again
What is a 'How' question you could ask in relation to what is needed or missing?
How
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For example, the critic may have formulated:
"I/We have not enough information to know whether the achievement of the plan is realistic". Then, a how question would be: "How can I/We get more information on the background conditions of my/our plan?"
Dreamer
How could you take care of what is needed or missing in the plan?
A possible solution would be
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Realist
How specifically could this be implemented?
This can be implemented by
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Critic
What else is currently needed or missing from the plan?
What is currently needed or missing from the plan is
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You might go the circle several times, until you are satisfied with the results. Usually, by doing several rounds, the original goal gets broken down into realizable steps. As Robert Dilts put it, if your strongest critics say "Go for it!", then you know that your plan has a real chance.
