
Day dreaming is an important part of the process of strategic planning and envisioning your business’s future direction. It allows you to think big without the constraints of ‘reality’, it allows the mind the wander to places it might not normally go, to see new connections and create new ideas. Day dreaming is important because it has no boundaries, walls or barriers – anything becomes possible.
Walt Disney knew all about the importance of day dreaming. He attributed his phenomenal run of film release successes to his creative three-step process, later termed: ‘The Disney Strategy’. Here’s how the process works:Day dream stage
This is where the team collectively brain-storms new ideas and explores potential goals and intentions. No idea is to be rejected, anything goes and above all – NO criticism or critique. Ask: What is wanted? Why is it wanted? What are the benefits? How will it be recognised? By when can it be expected?Realist stage
Critic stage
This is where constructive critique, challenge and critical thinking are allowed. Questions considered here would be: What objections might there be? What could stop the plan? What’s the intent behind any critique? Finally it is important to revisit the day dream stage to determine; does it still stack up, or do we need to reject it and consider a new day dream? This is a powerful and engaging process that works very well because it engages both parts of our brains at different times. Imagine for a moment that we each have a mental slider in our heads that enables us to use different modes of thinking. At one extreme end of the slider we are able to relax our mind and engage our creative and intuitive thinking parts. At the other end of the slider we better engage the critical thinking parts of us – and this takes mental effort.Share this story