Creating Magic

Walt Disney himself once said, "Why be a governor or senator when you can be king of Disneyland?" It seems like Lee Cockerell might agree with him. The former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World Resort enjoyed his tenure with the Mouse, and has written up the leadership methodology that he implemented in his new book Creating Magic.

As you may know, the Walt Disney Company is famous for their training program for Cast Members (i.e., employees). But that level of training apparently didn't extend to leadership skills. So Cockerell instituted a new leadership program. Can you imagine that?

You can check out Lee's website at www.leecockerell.com. To get a feel for his philosophy read his most popular blog post, "The Soft Stuff and The Hard Stuff." You can also buy Lee's book in our Graythorn Group Amazon Store.

Walt: The Man Behind the Myth

While we were at Walt Disney World a couple of weeks ago my husband decided to indulge my love of Walt by sneaking a copy of this documentary into our gift purchases. Now Walt and I go way back, at least in my mind, but this film gave me fresh information and perspectives.

One of the reasons that Walt is so fascinating to me is because of the scope of his dreams. And the fact that he was able to achieve so much, and inspire so much more. Granted, I think that in many ways Walt would be sad with what The Walt Disney Company has become. It is such a business. And EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) certainly didn't come out the way he had dreamed. And yet... every day thousands of people ask themselves "What would Walt do?" That is an amazing amount of impact.

If you are also a fan of Walt Disney, whether it is because of his business acumen, animation and filmmaking innovation, or the legacy of his dreams, then this documentary is a must-see.

sue@graythorn.com