Lenn Millbower Learnertainment

I have been in admiration with Disney ever since the first time I set foot on Disney Land in California in the very early 80’s. The quality of service and the settings of the place were absolutely stunning. In terms of entertainment nothing in the world can match Disney.

I came to know a fairly bit of the mode of operation of Disney when I attended a training seminar with Ansett Airlines of Australia in the early 90’s. The training was given by a subsidiary company of Disney, specialised in the concept of Fun Learning.

Down in Melbourne where Ansett was headquartered, the whole world wide organisation went through a 2 day program to know better Ansett and more importantly to understand the concept of team work within Ansett. It was just before the company went on a public listing on the stock market. The training company commissioned a theatre for six months and set up the place to give you the feeling of a Fun as if you were at a Disney entertainment park where we all had fun whilst learning. I was really amazed with the lessons I learnt whilst enjoying with fun and laughter…

I recall very clearly as I was impressed. To show us the need to play in tune with the organisation, we were assembled in the theatre and each of us was assigned a musical instrument:

1. An analogy to the company where each individual has a specific role as in an orchestra.

2. Each role has to be played to the best of our capability whilst respecting the music score.

3. To perform the best music, in respecting the beat, timing, volume, intensity etc.

4. Each musician whilst playing his own score has to be aware of the harmony of the orchestra.

Reading the profile of Lenn Millbower, today I can only suspect that he was involved with setting up similar learning seminars.

Lenn Millbower has coined his present business after working for years with Disney: Learnertaiment.

From Disney training leader to published author, from musician-magician to college professor, Lenn’s lauded Learnertainment® techniques have taught more than 1 million business leaders, trainers, educators and presenters how to keep their audience ‘awake so their message can take’.

Using the secrets of show biz, Lenn’s interactive brain-based entertainment-fused learning events, e training coaching system, open enrollment workshops, and keynote presentations Lenn can help you and your organization deliver the interactivity your audience wants and the results your organization needs.

His published works – including the CLOUT Creator Inventory©, Show Biz Training and Training With A Beat – have been used by instructional designers, trainers, educators, and speakers throughout the world to design and deliver five-star Oscar worthy learning programs.

On the other hand the creativity of Walt Disney himself is awesome. In NLP we have a special chapter where we study the creativity strategy of Walt Disney.

Frequent professional speaker at ASTD ICE, NSA, MPI, IAL, and other national events; workshop leader for Offbeat Training seminars including the Learnertainment® Skills Development Lab, From Out to CLOUTâ„¢, Learning With A Beatâ„¢, That’s Learnertainmentâ„¢, Razzle Dazzle Designâ„¢, Cultivate Your Creativity, and Business Brainstormâ„¢; and author of The CLOUT Creator Inventory©, Training With A Beat, Show Biz Training, Cartoons for Training, Game Show Themes for Trainers.

7 comments ↓

#1 Agni on 10.01.09 at 3:36 am

Didn’t Ansett go bankrupt since?
Did Disney send Mickey when the orchestra found out the conductor didn’t have the funds to pay for fuel and salaries?

#2 joseph on 10.02.09 at 11:14 am

Ansett was wipe out of the scene since. The reasons of its disappearance I am of opinion has not much to do with the spirit which prevailed in the company. I suspect it had more to do with the policies of the country: merger and take overs of the financiers, Quantas attempting to merge with British Airways and Trans Australia Airlines.

#3 Agni on 10.03.09 at 8:01 am

I was under the impression from your post that they were teaching Operations.
In case I’m wrong and it was all about service… I fail to see how opening the market to competition made them fail if they were so good?

Apparently Orange is also using Disney-like entertainment training techniques and even using them to motivate employees during work. I can very well understand how such type of practices (debasing adults to children) might lead some to jump off windows.

#4 joseph on 10.03.09 at 11:23 pm

Are not adults but grown up children? Albeit some more matured than others?

#5 Agni on 10.04.09 at 7:46 pm

So at those Disney training sessions, do they separate the “more matured” ones from the rest, or are they expected to surrender their will in order to tap into all that “fun”?
Or does the HR department conduct a secret selection prior to the session based on personality?

#6 joseph on 10.05.09 at 10:43 pm

was not in the secret on their intentions!
all repeat all the employees went thru the training…

#7 Agni on 10.12.09 at 7:36 pm

Adult is not the opposite of child as far as I know. The opposite of an adult is a minor.
Hence an adult is already a mature person.

Between childhood and adulthood the pre-frontal cortex develops. It is responsible for carrying out what’s called the executive function.
Hence I don’t understand what you mean by saying that adults are but grown-up children.
Unless they have been stripped of their responsibilities as adults or they have failed to develop the pre-frontal cortex of their brain.

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