Bursts of Color - Star Wars Edition
In honor of "May the Fourth" this week and the soft economic re-openings in Florida and California, I'm using this opportunity to opine on two of my favorite dorky subjects: Star Wars and Disney. Beyond the good clean fun of their storytelling, I've long admired the companies, which both began as founder-led startups with extraordinary commitment to nailing the details.
Star Wars Land @ Disney Parks
In case my nerd credentials were in question: this year my birthday wish was a weekend trip to Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland. If you're a Star Wars fan and haven't been yet, put it on your list for when the parks re-open. The level of detail is off the charts. And from a business ops perspective: imagine fielding 100,000 high-churn employees in Southern California alone and somehow still delivering smiling hosts and spotless sidewalks. Impressive.
Your Weekly Exec Staff (aka Jedi Council) Meeting
Many of your companies are already big enough to have a management team and accompanying weekly meeting. Others are ready to start one. I've attended a lot of these staff meetings over the years and started taking notes about what worked best... so a few months ago I wrote this blog post about Your Weekly Jedi Council Meeting. This was written with a conference room in mind, but you may find that some of these keys (like small group, clear owner and tight agenda) are even more important for remote meetings.
Related Business Reading
Company narratives are a great way to learn some tips, tricks and pitfalls from other people's businesses... all in the friendly guise of a story. Three Disney-themed ones I've enjoyed are:
The Ride of a Lifetime (Disney CEO Bob Iger's recent memoir)
Disney War (by James Stewart of Den of Thieves fame)
Creativity Inc (the Pixar story, by co-founder Ed Catmull)