Book – Disney Creativity and Innovation Keynote Speaker

Wilderness Lodge Self-Propelled Linen Cart Patent

What you are about to read was written years ago. It is part of my Disney Creativity and Innovation Insights book. It is randomly being shared today…

Disney Lodgekeepers (housekeepers at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge) had an idea shortly after Disney’s Wilderness Lodge opened in 1994.

To maximize daily efficiency with the fewest number of linen-room trips for supplies, Lodgekeepers packed as much onto their linen carts as possible.

A heavy linen cart on a carpeted floor is hard to push.

In the mid-1990’s Walt Disney World was unveiling Performance Excellence – an unprecedented management reorganization.

The primary goal was to tap into the knowledge “library” and experience base of the front line Cast Members.

The secret leadership ingredient that went missing from all previous “empowerment” initiatives was leadership involvement and approval.

Performance Excellence was designed to provide the missing link.

When the Cast said they wanted a self-propelled linen cart (like a self-propelled lawn-mower), leadership checked with our linen-cart vendor and you can just imagine their response.

Cool idea, but no.

Such a thing didn’t exist.

Anywhere.

So Disney leadership relayed the message to the Cast and the Cast responded, “But you said this time we promise.”

Long story longer – guess who co-owns the patent for the first ever self-propelled linen cart?

Additional backstory:

Disney’s Central Shops (where we build the Magic) and the linen-cart vendor partnered to invent the cart and receive the patent.

A Disneyland Merchandise Executive was visiting Walt Disney World – specifically, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge – and noticed the self-propelled linen cart in her hallway.

She took an existing idea and made it work for the food and beverage carts at Disneyland.

Can you imagine how heavy a beverage cart is that’s full of cases of bottled and canned drinks?

Creativity, for Disneyland Merchandise, didn’t mean invention, it meant adaptation.

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This website is about our HOME. This is the fifth of five daily, differently-themed blog posts about: (1) mind, (2) body, (3) spirit, (4) work, (5) home. To return to Mid Life Celebration, the site about MIND, click here.

Don’t fear the reaper

screen shot of blog post — Thousands upon thousands of hours. Repetition is the mother of all learning. Habits are what you think and do without thinking.

Be consistent.

Have prioritized priorities.

Have fun.

Reap what you sow.

Note: Counting down to 2022’s first Glacier trip. T-minus three days.

• • • • •

i have a dream

i have a dream…

A dream so lofty, it’s impossible.

And that is why i want to do it.

Note: Love is the key driver. From father to son.

• • • • •

Before We Begin, Are You Satisfied With Your Organizational Vibrancy?

Before we begin, let’s ask, “Are you satisfied with your Organizational Vibrancy?”

And by the way, you have anonymity, right now, with your answer – so relax, be real, and lean into discomfort just enough for your truth to be set free.

So let’s ask again…

Take a deep breath…

Exhale.

Another slow, deep breath as you hear this again…

Are you satisfied?

You.

Your Organizational Vibrancy reputation and your results.

Are you satisfied?

Your answer?

Anyone’s answer?

An educated guess says our answers match.

That’s why you’re reading this book and that’s why this Disney Organizational Vibrancy book needed to be written.

• • •

Summary:

Everyone wants to improve.

There are exceptions to every rule, but there aren’t many.

We are not the exceptions.

Opportunity:

Dissatisfaction can and should be used as a tactic (tool) to gain a competitive advantage.

• • • • •

Looking Back, Now Will Have Been A Bargain

The cost for adding business excellence enhancements always seems expensive at the time.

The price you pay for all those years living without the enhancements is literally impossible to recoup.

This so-called price you pay takes the form of lost growth and revenue, unrealized organizational vibrancy, turnover costs, unintentional transfer of intellectual property to your competitors, and the slow and steady erosion of an already unstable foundation.

What would it take for you to see – and act on this reality – that it’s such a bargain to begin transforming now.

Now.

As in there’s no time to wait.

One small step forward.

Right now.

Awareness is the first step to recovery.

Simply admit, right now and unequivocally, your business excellence culture is unhealthy and needs a doctor.

The cost for an architect to draw a new set of blueprints is exponentially less costly now than what it will cost you in the future.

You cannot build from a plan you can’t see on paper.

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