The Long and The Short Of It

Episode 414 - Disney Map

Transcript:

Jen: Hello, Peter.

Pete: Hi, Jen.

Jen: The other day, I was thinking (what a shocker) about how to help some of my clients, who are focusing on building their careers, think about and visualize the life and career they're building. And then, I remembered this image I saw, once upon a time, that rocked me in a really good way. I'd like to share it with you. I'm not sure what people call it, so it might be the Disney Mind Map, or it might be the Disney Synergy Map, or just the Disney Map.

Pete: Yeah, I already know what you're talking about.

Jen: Yay. Okay, great.

Pete: I already know what you're talking about. This is The Long and The Short Of It.

Pete: So in my head, I'm a bit like...maybe you're thinking about this. I'm like, how do we describe this for an audio podcast?

Jen: Yep, that's exactly what I'm wondering. And I'm taking a risk. And we're going to try it.

Pete: And we can pop it in the Box O' Goodies. So if you haven't subscribed, head over to thelongandtheshortpodcast.com and check it out. There'll be a photo, an image, a link in the Box O' Goodies. So we'll just plug our newsletter, while we're here.

Jen: Yes. And you could also just Google any of the combinations of words that I said.

Pete: That works too.

Jen: But Pete, I'm going to share the image with you right now. And I thought you might be able to audio describe it to our listeners.

Pete: So the way around the challenge of how to describe it is to outsource that to me? I love it. That was very clever of you.

Jen: Correct.

Pete: Well done. Okay, listeners, the Disney Map. It's the exact one that I remember. I've done a version of this for my own business, so I'm so glad that this is happening. Essentially, what happened is they sketched out all the different things in the Disney world, and mapped them with lines, and talked within those lines about how they connect to one another. So in the top left, we have TV, for example. And then, from there, there's a bunch of lines. One of them goes to Music. One of them goes to Films. One of them goes to Commercials. One of them goes to Merchandise. And so, these are different aspects of the Disney world. Like, Merchandise being its own aspect, Music being its own, Films being its own, TV being its own. They're like different products or offerings that Disney have, but they're all related. And the lines...of which there are, it looks like at least thirty. There's lines everywhere. They show you the relationship they have with one another.

Jen: Yeah. It basically looks like a mind map.

Pete: Yeah. A mind map is a great way to describe it.

Jen: So, what I notice in this rendering...which is from 1957, like that is amazing.

Pete: Yeah. Like, Disneyland is down at the bottom. That is wild, how everything also seems to go to Disneyland. That's cool.

Jen: Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Pete: Like, every line ends up at Disneyland. Huh.

Jen: And Disney World didn't exist yet. So, this continues to expand. But in the center of the page is sort of like the hub of everything: the nucleus, the heart, the center, the big idea. And then, branching out from there are different nodes or dots or subsets. So you can sort of like imagine what an atom looks like and all of like the bubbles, when you're drawing an atom in your chemistry class. But then, the part that I find so fascinating are the lines. There are lines connecting things that go to each other. And at the end of each line is either an arrowhead or no arrowhead, showing which direction the value of each individual aspect of the company flows. Sometimes, there's an arrow on both ends. But sometimes, there's only an arrow on one end.

Pete: That's a great pickup. For some reason, I thought they're always double-sided arrows. But you're right. Some of them only feed one way. Interesting.

Jen: That's right. And then, on each line is an active way to describe what the connection is. For example, the line between TV and Disneyland says, "Disneyland provides show settings and promotes programs." So, the line is coming from Disneyland to TV. And there is a line from Music to Theatrical Films. And that arrow is pointing away from Music toward Theatrical Films and says, "Helps kick off films, new and reissues." Anyway, I'm obsessed with the lines because almost every single one of them contains active verbs. Like, it actually says what the thing is doing. The reason I wanted to bring this up is because when I presented this to a group of actors, I had no idea how it was going to go over. Because I was talking about, you know, building your life and career. They were like mind blown by this. And they were so excited to take this idea and try to map out their own life, their own career, all of the various things that they're working on, and how all those things do or don't feed each other. Anyway, I was excited to hear what you might think of this notion. And now, I'm even more excited to know that you've built one of these for your own business.

Pete: Yeah, I'm turning around to look at an old notepad. Remember, once upon a time, we did some episodes on like Pete's solo offsite?

Jen: Yes.

Pete: Where, I would take myself...I did it for two years in a row. I didn't do it this year. I took a pause this year because life happened. So I took myself away for like two days, a couple of times. And the intention of that was to spend some time working on the business, noodling on the business, thinking about my business and the services I offer, the products I produce, the coaching I do, and like trying to think more intentionally about my business. And in one of the offsites, I literally drew a version of this for myself. So I had like Human Periscope in the center, being the name of my business. And then, I essentially sketched what are the different offerings I have. So it could be like, you have group leadership development programs, as one node. In another node, you have keynotes. In another node, you have one-on-one coaching. In another node, you have a podcast. In another node, you have a blog. And if you look at them initially, you go, "Oh, these are seemingly disparate things that don't necessarily relate to each other. The only thing they have in common is Pete, Human Periscope." But then, you start to go, "Wait a minute. When I run a really good leadership development workshop, often what happens is someone then asks you to come back and do a keynote for another part of the business. So, that relates to that. And if you do a good keynote, someone in the audience might come up and say, 'Do you do one-on-one coaching?' And so, clearly that relates to that. And when we do a podcast episode, you know, that might link to something that we've talked about in our blog. So like, there's relationships between those." I found it useful to help me see which things I do create the biggest impact or have the potential to create the biggest impact. So for me, I found it interesting to go, I guess in the context of the lines, "Which one has the most lines with the arrow moving away from it? Like if I do this one thing, if I do a really great keynote, does that have seven different possible lines pointing at different things?" And for me, that was really clarifying, to essentially go, "Where is it worth spending more energy than others?" So for example, spending all of your energy on one-on-one coaching in a business like mine is hard to do if you want to create impact for teams and big audiences, because you're dealing with one person at a time and they only talk to one other person. Not to say I won't ever do one-on-one coaching, because I do. But it's more like, where do you spend your energy? I guess that was where I found it super insightful. So if I look at this map for Disney, for example, clearly they've got the Theatrical Films in the middle, at the time when they created this. That was the one that they identified, in my reading of this, as being the highest leverage point. So, I like this as a way to go oh, by the way, if there's something that you sketch (because this happened to me) and you can't really draw any lines to and from it, you go, "Huh. That's perhaps not serving me and my business, and is something that I spend time on. So how do I let go of that? Or how do I create a way to link it into other things I'm doing?" So that's how I've used it in the past, to clarify what I'm doing. Firstly, to get clear on where they link. And then, which of them has the most high leverage, to link to the most other parts of my business.

Jen: Yep. It is such a useful tool. Now, what we're talking about right now is like the 30,000 foot view of the business. But what you could do is zoom in on one of these nodes, and put that at the center of its own map, and look at all of the subsets that would emerge. Because they're not part of the 30,000 foot view, but they're part of the sea level view.

Pete: Yeah.

Jen: And then, I started thinking about all the other ways one could use this. For example, you could take yourself, put yourself at the center of the page, and look at all of your professional network in this way, and have to not only draw lines of connection but also draw the arrowheads of value. Which way is the value flowing in this relationship? And if what you find is that all of the arrows are pointing at you, that maybe is like a reality check that we need to take a more giving and generous posture.

Pete: Yeah, add some more value. I love that. Yeah.

Jen: Yeah. How is the value traveling along these lines?

Pete: I also like that specific example, to go, how can you be the person that connects two nodes that don't necessarily know each other yet? So, you go, "I know Jen and I know a hypothetical person called Kylie. And they don't know each other but I actually think they're both doing interesting work, that they would benefit from connecting. Can I be the person that connects them? And that is a way that I add value to both their lives, without me having to necessarily be involved or do anything but connect them."

Jen: Exactly.

Pete: Mmm-hmm.

Jen: And then, another zoom in to one area idea came to me today. My daughter has this Instagram post that is performing bizarrely well. And we don't really understand it. But all these people keep sharing it, sharing it, sharing it. And it's exponentially getting more and more traffic. I don't know if it qualifies as viral yet. But it's mini viral. In any case, I was like, "Oh, wow, that's really interesting." Because if you zoomed in on the node of her Instagram account and you were like, "Okay, what is feeding what? That post is feeding people to become viewers or followers. That one post is bringing more people to her music." So, it's really interesting to look at everything through this lens of: Where are the connection points? What is the actual relationship? What is the action? And how does the value flow?

Pete: Yeah. I think "interesting" is one word. "Confronting" could be another, if you did this well.

Jen: Yeah.

Pete: What you might discover is the thing you thought was most useful to your life or business, or the thing you're spending most energy on, isn't actually the place that has proven to create the most value or the most connections. I mean, my business is in a very specific industry. But I think a lot about this as it relates to my business, where I imagine in a parallel universe, I could have created an Instagram account for Human Periscope and spent hours upon hours upon hours trying to create Instagram posts about leadership development that (my assertion) wouldn't create that much value to a corporate audience. And that would be confronting to realize. As opposed to focusing on building, you know, trusted strategic senior-level connections with people that are human, that are one-on-one, that a value add as opposed to these like beautifully designed Instagram posts. And that's just, I mean, that's one of the reasons I have (and I also just hate it) chosen not to have a business presence at all on social media, is because...I mean, Seth Godin helped me teach this. If you spend time on those platforms, you're taking away the time that you could spend elsewhere. And where is the most value that you can create? For me, I think that's elsewhere.

Jen: Well, what's interesting about your Instagram...listeners, go check it out. There's nothing there. It's a blank page, which I think actually does drive traffic somewhere else in your business.

Pete: Maybe, yeah.

Jen: It's probably over to your website, because people aren't going to find anything on your Instagram.

Pete: I mean, it's also a specific business, a specific target audience. Like, the "who's it for" is very specific. Right? Like, I would be better placed...not that I do. But one would be better placed, I think, in my industry, spending time on LinkedIn. I don't really do that either. But like, that's just the nature of my work. If I was a photographer, you know, or an artist, in the context of like your daughter, then yeah, Instagram probably makes a whole lot of sense.

Jen: Yes, because the point is to get the music to go as far as it can possibly reach, at least at this point. But for you, the shroud of mystery is actually very useful for your business. And people aren't stumbling across the Pete Shepherd leadership advice on the internet. They hear about you from someone who experienced you. And then, they go in search of you. So, it depends also how people are finding you. In any case, not to make this all about social media, but it's just interesting to like look at where things are feeding and are not feeding.

Pete: Yeah, exactly. And what assets do you have that maybe have gone dormant, that actually could feed? I think about this as it relates to both of our respective blogs, really. But if I use my blog, as an example...which, you know, we've joked about both of us having such a great writing practice for such a long time and then choosing to take a pause. And in my case, threatening to come back but still being on pause. And so, if I'm starting a map from scratch, this happened when I did it a couple of years ago, I was like, "Yeah, my blog. You know, it's there. I haven't written it for a while. But it's a thing that's there." But then, if you look at it more and more, you go, "Yeah, but it is an asset that still has value, even if you're not writing a new post. Because the posts, some of them, most of them, hopefully are timeless. There's a framework relating to difficult conversations, for example, that is still relevant, even though you wrote it three years ago." And so, there's lines that go away from the blog into leadership development, for example. Because after I run a workshop, I can send them a post on the thing we just talked about. And so, it's like the assets that you have become really obvious when you do this activity. And I feel like a lot of us forget the assets that we have.

Jen: Now, you could also make one of these maps for things that are not professionally related. Like you could do one for your family, and like see how different parts of family life are contributing to the nuclear family's happiness, comfort, etcetera. And like, again, where is the value flowing? You've got home, school, extracurricular, extended family, vacations. You know? Like, all those kinds of things. And how are they related? And how are they feeding each other?

Pete: Wow. That's a use case I had not considered.

Jen: Right?

Pete: Yeah. There's a few companies I'm working with, at the moment. And, you know, as with most companies, at some point, someone said, "We need to collaborate more effectively. You know, there's too many silos." Someone actually (really geniusly) pointed out, "We use the word 'division' to describe different parts of the business."

Jen: Woah, I had never thought of that.

Pete: "What does that word actually suggest?" And I was like, "Oh my god, that is such a great insight." And they're trying to improve the way they collaborate. And everyone, you know, talks about the silos they're in. I feel like getting them to do a version of this, to help them see that they're more reliant on each other or there's more value to be created with one another than they realize. And that acting in a silo is a sort of falsehood of the reality of running a business. You can't just act in a silo because look at all these other parts of the business, these other nodes that all feed and interact with one another. I feel like that could be a useful activity.

Jen: Right? I think it could be a really useful activity.

Pete: Hmm.

Jen: Yeah. And actually, that was my...we do a monthly challenge in the Career Collective at JWS Online. And the challenge for the month was to pick either the 30,000 foot view of your career or like one small slice of it, and actually create your own map. And I'm really excited to see what is on other people's maps. Because I imagine someone will articulate a relationship between two things, in a way I hadn't even considered.

Pete: Yeah.

Jen: And then, I'll get to add more value to my own life by observing theirs. I'm just really excited about this.

Pete: I love it. I feel like I want to revisit the one that I came up with two years ago. And in particular, look at...I don't know if my nodes have changed that much, but I'm very curious to look at the arrows. Because I don't think I spent as much time thinking about the direction of the arrows, as you have pointed out to me. So, stay tuned. I'm going back to the Walt Disney Map for Human Periscope.

Jen: So listeners, if you do this exercise, will you please send us a photo?

Pete: Yeah.

Jen: We would love to see your work. Okay? Send it to hello@thelongandtheshortpodcast.com. Hello@thelongandtheshortpodcast.com. Happy mapping.

Pete: And that is The Long and The Short Of It.