When Walt Disney opened Disneyland on July 17, 1955 he gave the world a great gift, a brand new one of a kind park where children and adults could have fun together. He had a dream and never veered from accomplishing his goal. It went in unexpected directions over the course of many years but in the end he achieved his goal.
“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.”
— Walt Disney
Within his park Disney developed five different themed lands. These included Main Street USA., Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. Disney wanted to capture his futurist views by showing park guests what the future could possibly look like. In a way he was educating the public about the great advancements of mankind and showing them what could be coming in the near future.
“Tomorrow can be a wonderful age. Our scientists today are opening the doors of the space age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future.”
— Walt Disney
I believe that this is something that we should all strive for in every aspect of our lives, and that includes our careers. The training that has been provided in the Digital IT Acquisition Professional (DITAP) program has been about changing the way we do things. Don’t be afraid to try something new as it could have tremendous results in the future. I hope to be my own personnel Walt Disney as I progress in my career in a post DITAP world. We discussed in the last classroom session what a future state could look like and they were all very good ideas, maybe a little over zealous at time. But if we follow the lead of Walt Disney that has to be only the beginning. We cannot accept a world where nothing is changing as the future is always in motion. We have to grab ahold of the changes and do what we can to help usher them through.
This future state would be a place where we are completing our acquisitions in a much quicker manner. We would be working smarter and not harder. We would have accurate data which leads to fewer and quicker meetings. If the data is correct we won’t have to spend as much time explaining the results. The requirements are not placed on the vendors, instead they are telling us how to get to our Tomorrowland. This represents our own personal dream of a Disneyland.
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
— Walt Disney
This sums up perfectly where we find ourselves after participating in this training for the last 6 months. We have talked about what the changes could mean but now it’s time to start implementing them. The agile methodology is very intriguing and has been proven over and over again, yet we get pushback when we first bring it up. We need to present this idea to our customers as an untapped potential. Using sprints to complete work is in many ways a much safer way to complete work then the old waterfall method. The Walt Disney Company applies this today with their ride development. Whether it is in the total design of a new ride or in the updates made over the years to existing rides. They take it one step at a time, and when that step is completed in a satisfactory manner they move on. If we take our planned future state, or Tomorrowland, and break it up into small manageable chunks we will be able to achieve our desired results.
“When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.”
— Walt Disney
I hope to be a real beacon of light when it comes to leading this change. The biggest problem that occurs when you are trying to bring about change is to become discouraged. When this happens we tend to back away from the proposed change and just accept that the change is too difficult and that the current way of doing things is good enough. We can’t allow ourselves to fall into this trap going forward. We have to be willing to push forward and sing the praises of the agile process. We must always present the wins that have occurred as a result of the change. Presenting the wins that have occurred in our agency will be even more effective. If the snowball starts to roll and we are willing to support it as it goes then there is nothing that can stop the momentum as it makes its way to its next stop, Tomorrowland.
Digital IT Acquisition Professional (DITAP) Program Blog 