I’m in Houston for the SLA Leadership Summit. The opening keynote is Doug Lipp , author of Even Monkeys Fall From Trees. He’s using examples from when he worked at Disney. Picture Snow White encountering some small children with her wig pushed back, smoking a cigar, and complaining that the Seven Dwarfs haven’t showed up for work today. This was one way to convince Disnetyland employees to be pleasant and to distinguish Disney from the competition. Mini-mantra: “Be willing to change to remain the same.” Now he’s doing a handwriting exercise: Write your first and last name as many times as possible in 30 seconds. Score it quantitatively and qualitatively. Now do the same exercise using your other hand. (This is why I use keyboards not handwriting, although I do understand the point he’s trying to make.)

How much control will you have over change? The market around you changes. If you don’t control change, change will control you. Learn to do business with your non-dominant hand. Organizations that continually reinvent themselves will dominate their market. You can’t let the “sacred cows” rule. Don’t get stuck in a rut. Don’t fear failure or what the boss will say. Then there’s arrogance, complacency, and the one-trick pony. Don’t rest on your laurels. We need to become ambidextrous. You need to change the approach. Another challenge is blaming those around us. It’s always someone else’s fault is a non-productive approach. Skimping on employee education is the fourth obstacle he mentions. Risk taking is to be encouraged, but you need to provide enough training so they don’t crash and burn.

Now he’s on to opportunities: Number One is communication. (I’ll bet this one surfaces later on during the Leadership Summit.) Lipp says we should live the vision, practice consistency and discipline, and recognize that words + actions = execution. Information silos can be joined together by organization’s vision and values. At Disneyland, it was creating the happiest place on earth. Second opportunity is innovation and learning through teamwork. Good interactive exercise on counting squares to show how we can back ourselves into a corner if we don’t look creatively at a problem. Creativity as calculated risk is part of teamwork. You can create new products without giving up basic values. For Disney, that was G-rated movies. That’s one reason Disney created Touchstone—to create profitable movies that wouldn’t be confused with Disney’s “OK for kids” films. Hire contrarian thinkers is Lipp’s advice. He’s on to opportunity three: Create customer loyalty. Don’t make your data cumbersome to use. Prove your value. Watch for patterns. Think for your customer. What is the real question? Find the essence of the question. “When is the 3:00 parade” really means “When does the 3:00 parade pass the place I’m standing.”

We must aggressively plan for change. What things are you willing to start, stop and continue, both short and long term.