I recently marked the first anniversary of my decision to leave Walt Disney Imagineering to pursue my dream of helping organizations “imagine better tomorrows.” The decision to leave the comfort of a twenty-year career behind in search of a new adventure was an intimidating leap of faith. As it turns out one year later, I can say that life after Disney has been every bit the exhilarating journey I had hoped for.
I celebrated this milestone by delivering a keynote speech to a conference that took place at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, CA. Sharing my vision for how story can help us create better tomorrows in the midst of the world’s leading example of the power of storytelling was a perfect Circle of Life moment. At the risk of being overindulgent, I can’t help but pause and reflect on what I have learned beyond the gates of the Happiest Place on Earth during the past year.
We live in a time of great opportunity to create better tomorrows. Yes, I know the ice caps are melting, the economy seems to be on the edge of implosion, and the Middle East could cause the entire world to explode. Despite even the horrific events of recent days, we have never lived in a better time in human history. Advances in technology, broadening of social consciousness, and cultural advances, have helped to create a world where fewer people go hungry, less are killed by violence, and more have an opportunity to achieve their dreams. Against this background, the time has never been better for organizations, of all sizes and intentions, to create their own futures.
Despite this potential, many of the organizations I have worked with seem overcome by stress and anxiety. They often feel completely powerless to even anticipate the future, much less have an active role in directing its course. They are suffering from an advanced form of “Future Shock” that Alvin Toffler predicted 45 years ago. We have lived in an Age of Acceleration for so many decades now that we have almost given up hope of being able to even keep up much less get ahead of the opportunities and challenges that the future might bring. As a result, we simply hold on and hope to react before it is too late. This retreat in the face of great uncertainty is a natural reaction. But it is exactly in these moments of great flux that the opportunities to create significant change are most available. It will be the courageous, agile, and forward thinking organizations that will slip into the gaps and begin to build their futures. The biggest challenge is to find the right tools that can help them see clearly through the complexity and begin to visualize those opportunities for better tomorrows.
Story remains the most powerful tool to help organizations comprehend our fast changing world. Stories help us translate complex systems into understandable visions and actionable strategic plans. The more complicated the system the more valuable story and narrative become. It may seem ironic that in an age where we are literally drowning in data the one tool that can best help us make sense of all this new information is one of our oldest. But story is one of the few tools that can be designed to reach every audience- – from CEOs to front-line employees; shareholders to customers.
Creating effective stories remains exceptionally hard. Stories that can help us really begin to imagine better tomorrows and visualize how we might create them require an enormous commitment to the practice of critical imagination. These “strategic narratives” are built on rigorous research and analysis. Only when we take the time to develop a deep understanding of the forces at play in our fast changing world can we begin to anticipate the challenges and opportunities the future might offer.
Getting the right stories to the right audiences requires new tactics. We live in a digital age where everyone has, to a certain degree, equal access to the entire worldwide audience. With that explosion of opportunity has come an almost deafening escalation in noise across all communication channels. It is increasingly difficult to avoid becoming just another voice in the vast wasteland of opinion. We recognize that the age of mass media is over but have yet to fully understand how to scale up the power of tribes to spread new ways of thinking and building.
So what’s next? As I embark on the second year of my new adventure there remains much more to learn and do in my quest to help others create their better tomorrows. My first task is to continue to refine my own story. Honestly, I’m still working on the elevator pitch that captures everything I want to tell people in one quick soundbite. It’s particularly tough when you have a vision for a different way of thinking about the future at a time when so many people seem to have given up all hope on tomorrow. I’m often faced with the paradox of how to simultaneously be optimistic and critical without coming across as either a member of the happiness fringe or a disillusioned cynic. Finding that balance is the goal for the stories I will be creating this coming year.
At the same time, I will continue to work tirelessly to find the right audiences for those stories. I will continue to work hard to bring my strategic narrative approach to established corporations, nonprofits, and rising social entrepreneurs because I know that building better tomorrows will require all of these partners. I’ll also continue to explore the exciting new worlds of communication and connection that our digital age offers. While that part of the journey can often be terrifying, especially on those days when you feel like a lone voice lost in the web, it is also exciting that there exist more ways to build a tribe of like-minded change agents than ever before.
I wrapped up that keynote at Disneyland with reference to a well-worn quote from Walt Disney:
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Many people might dismiss this as just another cliched positive aphorism. I read it differently. I believe that the old story telling master really wanted to remind us that imagination precedes any effort to innovate. Story remains the vehicle by which we unleash the power of our imagination.