Disney has always been a favorite of mine and who hasn’t grown up on some Disney movie whether it was Toy Story, Mulan, Snow White or my all-time favorite, Lion King. I was instantly drawn to the video that Dr. Culhane posted in this module and wanted to learn more about Walt Disney and his vision and dreams along with how the supported nexus and sustainability thinking. I have never been to Disney World so was not very familiar with the world of EPCOT or even what it stood for; Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. I will admit it and goes to show how naïve we all can be or unaware of things sometimes. Loving Disney as a child and having visited Disneyland when I was young, I just assumed Disney was all about play and fantasy and fun, yet this video opened the eyes of all the potential and Imagineering. Having Disney+ of course I decided to dive into this world. The next film I watched was “The Imagineering Story” that shows what it takes to design and develop the Disney parks and the magic that Disney is. As I learned more about this, I am always thinking about how this relates to nexus thinking and the sustainable efforts we are hoping to achieve.
The example in the first film of Walt Disney’s original vision of EPCOT about the layout of the community has been interesting as we see the growth of our cities today and urban development. Systems thinking is all around us and we do this on a daily with almost all the decisions we make, no matter how big or little they may be. We analyze all the potential outcomes and benefits or some of the negatives associated with this decision we make. In the original park of Disneyland, Walt Disney designed it around four main parks that branched off of main street or the hub to Fantasyland (film characters), Tomorrowland (promise of the future), Adventureland (natural environment) and Frontierland (spirit of exploration). These parks and concepts can be translated to sustainability pillars and nexus thinking with social, environmental and economic. In order to achieve these things, we have to be looking at the future, our environment and exploring new ways to grow in our globe. The other critical focus with Disney was on our youth and children as they are the future of our globe. This environment promoted this imagination thinking and ability to look at problems as not problems but what is the solution to this in order to make it better. It is an ever-evolving world just like nexus thinking as we always need to be thinking of solutions and new ways to promote sustainability as it is constantly changing.
From the mini-series “The Imagineering Story” it shared Walt Disney’s vision and how he thought about things. The opening resonated with me and how when we step into a Disney movie or theme park, we are surrounded by things that stimulate all our senses to transport us to a new world that we could only imagine. I believe this is a great example of system thinking and how in order to make this happen, you have to go through all the processes and experiences that an individual can or might experiences when they step into this world. All the things and events and rides and experiences that Walt Disney brought to life addressed all of these senses to make a complete environment. The Imagineers were a group of eclectic individuals all with unique talents that if you saw in a group, you would not know how they were together or got along. They all had talents and views that were opposite yet brought new ideas and vision to the table to create the masterpieces of Disney. This is how I see nexus thinking and the FEW nexus sometimes of how these things all come together and you would think things don’t fit nicely together if you saw them in a room, yet they all have unique parts and pieces that must be accounted for in order to work. Nexus thinking is a messy yet systemic way of thinking that if you can get one link to connect, you sometimes create ten more problems or issues to address, but you start to create a working system that way. This is why nexus thinking and system thinking regarding global sustainability is so critical today as we solve one thing and then other issues arise and we always need to be learning, researching and thinking of new solutions to support global sustainable development. Development and sustainable development always grows and that is where we are, just as Walt Disney stated, we will never be completed or achieve sustainable development as we will always be growing, learning and expanding in our experiences and global environment.
“Disneyland will never be completed as long as there is imagination left in the world.” -Walt Disney
