Walt Disney was a legendary innovator in the entertainment industry. He developed novel problem solving techniques including the Walt Disney Creativity Strategy and storyboarding. The Creativity Strategy involved taking on the perspectives of a dreamer, realist, and critic to generate ideas and critically evaluate solutions. Disney also pioneered storyboarding to plan animated films, which involved arranging drawings in sequential order on storyboards. These techniques transformed film production and helped Disney build an entertainment empire.

1. Problem Solving
Techniques
Walt Disney Approach
This report highlights the main approach for solving problems by one of the
greatest genius of the entertainment industry, Walt Disney. His profound
imagination has led him to build one of the biggest companies on the
entertainment field. Disney is the main developer of the Walt Disney Creativity
Strategy and the Story Board.
2012
Pedro Sao Thiago Martins
CURTIN BUSINESS SCHOOL
3/19/2012

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Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................3
2. INVENTIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS....................................................................................3
3. PROBLEM SOLVING TECHNIQUES .....................................................................................4
3.1. Walt Disney Creativity Strategy..........................................................................................4
3.2. Story Board............................................................................................................................5
4. CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................8

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1. INTRODUCTION
One of the greatest dreamers of our time (Just Disney n.d.), Walter Elias Disney (also known
as Walt Disney) was born on the 5th
of December of 1901 and had lung cancer, which leaded
to his death on 15th
of December of 1966. One year later, his brother, Roy O. Disney, started
off the construction for the famous Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, which took more
than seven years of master planning and construction (Just Disney n.d.) before its
inauguration in October 1, 1971 (Wikipedia n.d.).
However, before Disney became one of the co-founders of the Walt Disney Productions, he
played different roles as a film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, entrepreneur,
philanthropist and animator. Later on, along with his brother, they have initiated the gigantic
corporation, the Walt Disney Company, which generated annual revenue of approximately
US$36 billion in 2010 (Wikipedia n.d.).
It was in 1937 that the Disney empire started to grow. At this same year, the Walt Disney
Studios released its first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which
introduced a whole different concept in cartoon animation and family entertainment (Walt
Disney Animation Studios n.d.).
However, Disney Studios was not exclusively used to produce animated cartoons. During the
World War II, shortly after the release of the cartoon Dumbo (1941), the U.S. Army
contracted 94% of Disney studio’s facilities (Just Disney n.d.), with the purpose of develop
military training and instruction films, as well as others government work (Wikipedia n.d.).
Even the great WWII was not enough to stop Walt Disney’s dreams. During this era his
studio managed to create and release the classic Bambi and The Three Caballeros.
Walt Disney is considered a legend due to his imagination, optimism and creation. His work
was beyond the studios. One of his concerns was to contribute and develop the artistic talent
in the individuals by providing a dedicated institute for arts. Therefore, in 1961 he founded
the California Institute of the Arts, which combined the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music
and the Chouinard Art Institute, creating a “community of the arts” (Just Disney n.d.) with an
entirely new approach to professional arts training.
2. INVENTIONS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
While alive, Disney has conquered many different things. Nevertheless, only some
achievements are highlighted in this report.
 Pioneer in television programming.
 First to present full-colour programming in 1961.
 Designed and built the Disneyland Park in 1955.
 Master planned the Walt Disney World Resort.

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 Created the concept and design of the Experimental Prototype Community of
Tomorrow (EPCOT).
 Developed the California Institute of the Arts.
 Developed the Walt Disney Creativity Strategy
 Created the Story boarding methodology.
3. PROBLEM SOLVING TECHNIQUES
It is fair to say that when a business faces any sort of unexpected problem, there are many
different tools and techniques that can be applied to either minimize or eradicate the issue.
There is not an exact method for solving problems, since they are usually distinct and,
therefore, should be dealt differently (Hicks 2004).
Based on the above statement, the Disney’s Creativity Strategy aims to find solutions for
problems in the most creative, realistic and questionable manner.
3.1.Walt Disney Creativity Strategy
Another remarkable characteristic that Disney had was the ability to look at something
from different perceptual angles. One of his animators has made a relevant insight, which
became the foundation of the Walt Disney approach for solving problems. Here is the
insight:
“...there were actually three different Walts: the dreamer, the realist, and the spoiler
(critic). You never knew which one was coming into your meeting."
 The Dreamer
The Dreamer mode allows the creation and inspiration for new ideas. Throughout this
phase, creativity must be unrestrained and it is usually used during brainstorming
sections to stimulate members’ creativity and gather the maximum of ideas for
dealing with a problem (Becker Associates n.d.). The dreamer can be exemplified by
the question: “If we had no constraints, what would we love to do next?” (Corporate
Coach Group n.d.).
Walt Disney believed that the creative dreamer was the starting point for possible
solutions to a problem. Additionally, Disney was always at ease in an unsure business
environment:
“That’s what I like about business, the certainty that there is always
something bigger we could do......... and the uncertainty of everything else!" –
Walt Disney (Dilts 1996).

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 The Realist
The Realist mode aims to plan the innovations and is quite pragmatic and practical.
The realist must assess the dreamer’s ideas and evaluate either they can be put into
practice or not, before creating a plan for the thoughts. The Realist can be exemplified
by the question: “How in practice, could we make this work?” (Corporate Coach
Group n.d.). Additionally, Disney’s realist phase was the one that would motivate him
and his co-workers to make the ideas and dreams happen.
 The Critic (Spoiler)
The Critic mode (or Spoiler mode) analyses the ideas and usually check facts by
putting them in evidence. The critic can be exemplified by the question: “There is
something wrong with this. What is wrong with this?” (Corporate Coach Group n.d.).
Therefore, the critic’s role is to constructively evaluate the ideas brought up by the
dreamer and/or the realist and always try to point it out the flaws of the plan, in order
to adjust it before put the plan into practice.
Moreover, the Critic has the role to bring a project close to perfection by going
through its limitations (McGuinness 2009).
After analysing each of those phases, it is relevant to mention that each of them
complement each other and should work as a cycle. Therefore, using the Disney
methodology, the members should firstly gather ideas (Dreamer); secondly plan for the
selected ideas and concretise them (Realist); third, criticise whether the plan is
appropriate (Critic) and if it will achieve the desired results.
Accordingly, it is not so difficult to imagine the problem that would be in a room with
four critics and one dreamer, since only one person would come up with ideas in a
brainstorming session and, without any Realist, the ideas would probably be criticised
even before elaborating a plan for it.
3.2.Story Board
Walt Disney was not only capable of being creative for developing cartoons and films,
but also to use his imagination to conduct his own business. He had the mental ability to
produce great ideas (Becker Associates n.d.).
In 1934 Disney started the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which, as
previously mentioned in this report, was the first full-length animated film in history.
Moreover, creating a full feature cartoon meant that he and his staff members had to

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produce a few thousands of drawings. In other words, managing all those papers was
foreseen by Disney as a major concern for the film production.
Therefore, in order to solve this problem, he developed the Story Boarding technique. It is
merely a wall where everyone involved with the project could arrange the drawings in
sequential order and then pin them up. Hence, the story could be planned and visualised,
and editing the animated film became significantly easy, since team members could shift
parts of the story around.
The storyboard is separated by four independents header topics:
- The Topic Header: gives a title/name for the problem or issue.
- The Purpose Header: specifies the reason for exploring the issue.
- The Miscellaneous Header: gathers extra information that cannot be part of any
other header but it feels important for the team to keep them.
- The Content Header: contains some of the ideas (usually five to seven) from the
Topic Header, which are selected by the team after a brainstorming session is
carried out.
4. CONCLUSION
Based on the above statements, Walt Disney’s creativity methodology brings together various
personalities that, when appropriately combined, becomes a powerful tool that stimulates
relevant and creative ideas that can be applied for solving distinct problems. He had the
ability of freeing his mind by not to being afraid of dreaming, as well as a realistic view of
the world, which have become an extraordinary tool that led the cartoonist to build the Walt
Disney Company empire, one of the biggest entertaining companies of all time (Encyclopedia
Britannica 2004).
Moreover, Disney was a person that did not limited himself from his dreams and ideas, and at
the same time, was able to foreseen whether those thoughts could be put into practice or not.
As a result, this feature ended up being one of the greatest factors within his personality that
led him to innovate methods for conducting work, and to bring his company to the upmost
success.
When analysing Disney’s methods more deeply, it is possible to say that his strategies can be
used as a first response for solving any sort of issue. Furthermore, his strategy might not be
the one that will directly fix a problem, but it might be a good plan to use his strategy to help
finding the best method in the occurrence of a problem.
Consequently, stakeholders can conduct brainstorming sessions, in order to find the most
suitable solutions and methodologies to be applied for that specific case. Later on, those ideas
can be planned and evaluated prior to be criticised whether they are the best solution for
fixing the current problem or not.

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So, it becomes simple to realise that Disney’s strategy to creativity is not limited to animated
feature films production. It is an approach for success in any creative endeavour
(McGuinness 2009). It is believed that every project should integrate the three factors of
creative imagination, realistic action and critical assessment.
To sum up, Walt Disney’s Strategy can help many organisations to elaborate numerous
creative possibilities to solve a problem, based mainly on personal ideas, knowledge and
experiences that are put to the test. Thus, it encourages people to come up with innovative
solutions that will assist companies to carry on with their activities and to endure to any type
of adversities or difficulties.

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REFERENCES
Becker Associates. Becker Associates. http://www.becker-
associates.com/disney_product_development.html (accessed March 18, 2012).
Corporate Coach Group. Squidoo. http://www.squidoo.com/waltdisneymodel (accessed March 18,
2012).
Dilts, Robert. The Article of the Month. 1996. http://nlpu.com/Articles/article7.htm (accessed March
18, 2012).
Encyclopedia Britannica. Walt Disney: Biography. 2004. http://www.biography.com/people/walt-
disney-9275533?page=1 (accessed March 19, 2012).
Hicks, Michael J. Problem Solving and Decision Making: Hard, Soft and Creative Approaches. London:
Cengage Learning, 2004.
Just Disney. Long Biography: Just Disney.
http://www.justdisney.com/walt_disney/biography/long_bio.html (accessed March 18,
2012).
McGuinness, Mark. The Seret of Walt Disney's Creativity. May 4, 2009.
http://lateralaction.com/articles/walt-disney/ (accessed March 19, 2012).
Walt Disney Animation Studios. Disney Animation.
http://www.disneyanimation.com/aboutus/history.html (accessed March 18, 2012).
Wikipedia. Article: Walt Disney. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney#Mickey_Mouse (accessed
March 18, 2012).