One of my favorite stories from the many books I’ve read about Walt Disney’s life and leadership comes from a book I’ve quoted on many occasions. The book is Think Out of the Box and was written by the team of Vance and Deacon in 1995. I love this book and I’ve included concepts and stories from it for many years in my writing and speaking. I’ve told this one particular story at dozens of conferences, virtually any time I’m speaking on the topics of creativity or strategic leadership. It has a great message for any of us who strive to lead others and grow our teams and organizations while meeting the ever-changing needs of the people we serve. I call this story “Pigs!” The book mentions the story and provides the punch line and leadership message, but I’m a storyteller, so please indulge me for a few moments as I tell you the story as I do when I am leading a workshop. Here goes.
When the animated movie “The Three Little Pigs,” hit the theatres it was dynamically successful. Walt was heralded a creative genius (again) and the film was a box office hit. Everybody loved the movie and it made Walt and his company a lot of money, which prompted Walt’s business advisors to urge him to make a sequel. Keep in mind that sequels were not as common as they are today, so the idea of another pigs movie didn’t excite Walt. However, the suits were relentless in their request for Pigs 2! Walt resisted for a very long time saying, “No more pigs. You can’t top pigs with pigs!” For Walt, doing a pigs sequel was the opposite of creativity and he didn’t want anything to do with it. However, the suits wouldn’t give up and Walt finally gave the go ahead to make a sequel.
Think for a moment. Do you know the name of “The Three Little Pigs” sequel? Does it ring in your memory? Can you say it out loud and bring back wonderful memories of that day you went to the theatre, had ice cream, and then spent 90 minutes in sheer rapture watching your three heroes? Well? Of course you can’t, because no one can. The pigs sequel bombed! Walt lost a ton of money and his team wasted a whole lot of time creating a film that was destined for failure before the first frame was drawn. It was a disaster! Here is the leadership lesson from this story which Vance and Deacon point out. “Once you’ve done pigs, move on!” The authors go on to state, “Invention, innovation, and originality are the lifeblood of any company or organization, [and] Disney was a good example…”
As we lead, we must keep in mind that our team and we may have successes we celebrate which will cause others to insist we keep doing the same things, over and over, sequel after sequel. Eventually, however, the lack of innovation and creativity will catch up with us and we may find ourselves with our own version of Pigs 2. Regardless of how great things have been, we can’t allow ourselves the luxury of resting on the successes of the past. We must move forward, do things differently, and constantly be taking the pulse of the people we serve. Culture never stops changing and neither should we in how we serve. You’ve heard me say before, “Stay in the creative stage.” I encourage all of us who lead to keep looking to the future and never forget, “Once you’ve done pigs, move on!”