Disney Institute -- Loyalty

Disney Institute -- Loyalty, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

This pic is the sixth in a set of six visual facilitation pics covering the first day of an intensive seminar series on customer service.

How's this for an impressive reality about the economic value of customer-loyalty?

Disney has worked out that the average visitor to Disneyland in Orlando, Florida will spend US$50 000 over their lifetime.

I don't need to say a single word more, do I?

This painting was made live during the Disney Institute day of the Service Excellence Emporium 2007 seminar. I'm using ArtRage 2.5 on a Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc. No hearts or wallets were mutilated in the making of this painting.

Disney Institute -- Service

Disney Institute -- Service, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

This pic is the fifth in a set of six visual facilitation pics covering the first day of an intensive seminar series on customer service.

What's YOUR answer to this common question Disney castmembers face every day of their lives?

'What time is the 3 o'clock parade?'

Hint: the answer is NOT: 'Uh... 3 o'clock, you dumbthwuck!'

The answer lies BEHIND the question. What's the person REALLLLLY asking? So the answer might be something like...

'Sir, the parade itself starts down in Main Street at 3pm, and that's about forty minutes away from where we're standing right now. Are you going to be heading down there, or would you prefer to watch from that juice kiosk over there? When the parade comes round this corner at 3:40pm, you'll be able to take some of the most impressive photos Disneyland has to offer, because the Magic Palace is directly behind that parade. And, as a bonus, you'll be in the shade, out of the sun at that time. Does that answer your question?'

This painting was made live during the Disney Institute day of the Service Excellence Emporium 2007 seminar. I'm using ArtRage 2.5 on a Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc. No ducks were mutilated in the making of this painting.

Disney Institute -- Culture Creation and Staffing

Disney Institute -- Culture Creation and Staffing, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

This pic is the fourth in a set of six visual facilitation pics covering the first day of an intensive seminar series on customer service.

The key insights here are: hire the right people for your organisation (make sure they fit), and, design your culture very carefully and communicate it clearly and unambiguously.

If you treat EVERY employee as if they were valued customers, you'll be on the right road..

This painting was made live during the Disney Institute day of the Service Excellence Emporium 2007 seminar. I'm using ArtRage 2.5 on a Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc. No mice were mutilated in the making of this painting.

Disney Institute -- Steamboat Willie Says Take Risks

Disney Institute -- Steamboat Willie Says Take Risks, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

This pic is the third in a set of six visual facilitationpics covering the first day of an intensive seminar series on customer service.

'Steamboat Willie' is the first cartoon to feature synchronised sound. (Source: Wikipedia: Steamboat Willie.) It also happens to be the second time Mickey Mouse saw screen time. And it was the movie that made him the biggest mouse in the history of, uh, mice.

But Mickey wasn't Walt Disney's first success. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit has that honour. (Source: Wikipedia, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.) And Walt lost him in a court battle. (Which, incidentally, is why the Disney Corporation has such a vicious approach to intellectual property.)

But I digress.

The idea behind this session is that risk-taking is vital. The risks Mickey is talking about here pertain to the fact that Walt Disney was pretty much broke when he resigned from Universal over what amounted to the theft of Oswald. He and his family took huge risks in bringing 'Steamboat Willie' to the screen.

Later, Walt Disney took all sorts of risks, flouting expert opinion to make the world's first feature-length animated film, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. (Source: Film History of the 1930s.) The risks paid off.

This painting was made live during the Disney Institute day of the Service Excellence Emporium 2007 seminar. I'm using ArtRage 2.5 on a Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc. No mice were mutilated in the making of this painting.

Disney Institute -- Leadership

Disney Institute -- Leadership, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

This pic is the second in a set of six visual facilitation pics covering the first day of an intensive seminar series on customer service.

This session introduced Disney's approach to leadership. The key I took out of it was this: 'Every action tells a story.' Followed by this question: 'As a leader in your organisation, are you the kind of boss YOU would work for?'

Our two facilitators were excellent. Very witty. Very friendly. Very real. Extremely detailed knowledge of the Disney way of doing things. Genuinely infectious.

I had never intended to visit anything Disney-related. After this day, I'm determined to head out to Florida to see for myself.

That's a terribly unflattering rendition of Paul Macleish (who happens to be Scottish, with a bent for the bagpipes) on the left, and an even more unflattering version of Sharon Conroy on the right.

Top marks, guys. Your presentation rocked.

This painting was made live during the Disney Institute day of the Service Excellence Emporium 2007 seminar. I'm using ArtRage 2.5 on a Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc. No mice were mutilated in the making of this painting.

Disney Institute -- Service Excellence -- The First Step

Disney Institute -- Service Excellence -- The First Step, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

Please click on the pic for a much bigger, downloadable version of it on my Flickr gallery.

This pic is the first in a set of six covering the first day of an intensive seminar series on customer service.

Paul and Sharon are in South Africa from the Disney Institute, offering their insights into how Disney creates customer delight.

This pic shows Brian Khumalo of Service Quality Solutions kicking off the event. The slinky gal with the mini-skirt is one of several babes acting as ushers and assistants to the speakers.

Because the first day was about Disney, Mickey Mouse was all over the place. Mostly in the form of helium-filled balloons.

I was sent to this R10 000 workshop by one of my clients -- Blue Moon. They're a corporate communications company, and I'm doing some high-level work for them on one of their key clients. So that's what brings me to these hallowed halls deep in the heart of the Indaba Hotel in Fourways.

I've decided to bring my tablet pc to the event. And to do a visual facilitation of everything. I'm doing this for many reasons.

First reason is that I've agreed to share my learnings with the Blue Moon staff. So what better way than through my own visual interpretation?

I also want to get more practice in the field of visual facilitation. Louise, the person who introduced me to the concept, has asked me to quote her on how much I would charge to do this sort of thing for her clients. Doing it in an ad hoc way like this allows me to do a time and motion study.

I also get to improve my Visual Facilitation portfolio.

Networking is another reason. Instead of TELLING people I'm a visual facilitator, I'm demonstrating it in action. If they like what they see, they'll be better equipped to imagine how I could help them in their companies.

But most importantly, I'm honouring my own learning style. I retain information better when I draw.

A final reason for doing this is that I'm sharing these pics with everyone who came to the seminar. There were a couple of hundred people. And I've told them that they're free to download these pics and use them as they see fit. Because they were there, they'll know what some of the more obscure captions mean. And it'll jolt their memories and help their retention of the overwhelming amount of material we've received.

Thanks for taking a look at them. I hope they make at least SOME sense to you. And the bits that don't make sense... hmmm... I hope they intrigue you and challenge your thinking in some way.

This painting was made live during the Disney Institute day of the Service Excellence Emporium 2007 seminar. I'm using ArtRage 2.5 on a Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc. No mice were mutilated in the making of this painting.

2007-08-20 A Monday Night at AACA -- Repetition

2007-08-20 A Monday Night at AACA -- Repetition, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

AACA tonight was pretty much about the value of repetition in learning new habits.

One of my hassles with the twelve step programs, though, is that the twelve steps themselves seem to promote a repetition of some pretty dangerous things.

The subconscious believes pretty much anything we tell it. So when we repeat things such as: 'Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character', we're opening ourselves to two key problems.

The first problem is that we keep 'doing' these steps, and thereby keep telling ourselves about our defects of character. We keep delving for these things. And the nature of such delving is that we'll keep finding them.

If we were to focus rather on the things about ourselves that are right, that are working, that are functional, that would be an entirely different story.

The other shortcoming for me in the repetition I've mentioned above is that it hands off the individual's power and responsibility to some outside force, the concept of 'god'.

I'm not interested in the theology of this statement. I'm interested in the neurolinguistics of it. If I keep repeating to myself (and more particularly, my un-critical subconscious) that I am unable to do anything about my shortcomings, and that only 'god' is able to deal with them, then I'm pretty much giving myself permission to continue with my so-called 'defects of character'.

So hey. To me, the repetitions must be approached with a pretty good dose of caution and awakeness.

The AACA group is working for me in that it normalises the way I grew up. I AM an adult child of abuse. And there's no escaping that as a fact. But I'm NOT powerless over this fact. I'm doing pretty hard work, and getting pretty good results, in overcoming my childhood.

This painting started out as a doodle in my Moleskine in tonight's AACA meeting. I then scanned it, popped it into ArtRage 2.5, painted out an unwanted character, and then spent three hours colouring.No need to repeat that. I'm sure you got it the first time.

2007-08-18 Jennifer and Roy Drawing Each Other From Opposite Ends of the Bed

2007-08-18 Jennifer and Roy Drawing Each Other From Opposite Ends of the Bed, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

On Saturday morning, Jennifer and I woke up pretty late, and lay in bed reading. At a certain point, I picked up my Moleskine, turned to a clean spread, and did a rough sketch of Jennifer.

She had popped a pile of pillows at the foot of the bed, and was lying with her feet near my shoulder. Luxury.

When I was done, I handed the sketch to her, and said, 'Hey... Why don'tcha do a quick drawing of me?'

When we were away recently in Mpumalanga, we both drew in my proper sketchbook. That was the first time she's ever handled artist's tools. She really enjoyed that.

'But I can't draw!' she said, when I handed her the Moleskine in bed.

'It's not about drawing,' I said. 'It's about having fun. And later, we can colour it together after I've scanned it. Just have fun.'

So we both had fun.

Jennifer did the colouring of her portrait of me, and I did the colouring of my version of her.

We then both worked together on getting the highlights and shadows done.

This painting was made in three phases... (1) I drew Jennifer in my Moleskine. (2) Jennifer drew me. (3) I scanned the pic, then imported it into ArtRage 2.5, and Jennifer and I both coloured it while we had coffee at Mugg & Bean in Parkhurst. We were working on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc mounted on its mobile easel.

2007-08-15 Illustration Friday Night -- All You Need is Meat

2007-08-15 Illustration Friday Night -- All You Need is Meat, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

I'm a bit late on this week's submission to Illustration Friday Night. But hey. Thursday isn't quite Friday, is it?

The topic this week is 'All You Need is Meat'.

Having grown up with a mom who was a cat fanatic, I can testify to the power of fleas. They can make a boy leap over billiard tables, I tell you.

Powerful little muthasuckas, they are.

So who's to say they can't command a waiter to bring them a nice fresh, hot, dog?

I painted this on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc, using ArtRage 2.5 for all of the hard slog. Then I exported to Photoshop CS2, and cleaned things up, and adjusted angles and stuff.

This piece is absolutely going to go on various Zazzle items. Take a look at my Zazzle store to see if it's on an item YOU want. If it's not, lemme know what item you want, and I'll make it SPECIALLLLLLY for you. You say jump, I jump.

2007-08-15 Kgone

2007-08-15 Kgone, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

This is a very rough approximation of Kgone, the lady who cleans my flat once a week.

To international readers, the way to pronounce her name is kinda difficult to describe. But I'll try.

The 'K' is almost inaudible, but definitely present.

The 'g' is a soft sound, sort of like the 'ch' in 'Lichtenstein.

The 'o' is similar to the 'or' in 'dormitory', but without the 'r' sound.

And the 'ne' is close to 'neh'.

So, putting it all together -- Kgone sounds like this: k-ch-oh-neh. But the k is much less present than it looks.

The word ,'kgone', in Sotho, means 'to help'. Though it also seems to have several other connotations. As Kgone translates it, the meaning is close to 'beneficial', or 'helpful'.

This painting was made in my lounge, using ArtRage 2.5, on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc. Kgone was having a cuppa tea while I did the initial quick sketch. She didn't know I was drawing her.

If you like this image, you can pop it onto a piece of merchandise at my Flickr-approved Zazzle shop!!!

2007-08-05 -- Allow the Defect -- a Monday Night at AACA

2007-08-05 -- Allow the Defect -- a Monday Night at AACA, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

Every Monday night at AACA, people share their lives, and, in sharing, release their demons, and help others release their demons.

I like doodling. So during AACA meetings, my pen flies around my Moleskine, picking out things that stand out for me.

I scan the pics, then colour them in ArtRage.

This point here, that we should 'Allow the Defect', refers to a tendency that adult children of abuse have. We tend to be perfectionists. We tend to believe that our 'defects' need to be constantly overcome.

One of the ways through the effects of being an ACA (adult child of abuse) is to recognise the traits that 'govern' us. Awareness allows us to moderate our responses.

And as we all know, perfectionism is its own enemy.

I've spent about eight hours on this pic getting the colours right. I fussed and fussed and fussed. And you know what? It's okay. This pic works. Even though it could be better.

I made this painting in two phases... A pen-on-paper sketch in a Moleskine. Scanned, then coloured, using ArtRage 2.5 on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc.

If you like this image, you can pop it onto a piece of merchandise at my Flickr-approved Zazzle shop!!!

2007-08-07 Ben Zander at Jeppe Girls High

2007-08-07 Ben Zander at Jeppe Girls High, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

This afternoon I attended a talk by Benjamin Zander at Jeppe Girls High. I took my computer and easel with, and thought I'd do a visual summary of the session. This is the result.

Benjamin Zander is co-author (with his wife, Rosamund Stone Zander) of the book, THE ART OF POSSIBILITY. It's a must-read. A must-live.

Check him out on www.benjaminzander.com.

And if he's ever in your part of town giving a talk or conducting an orchestra (or even a string quartet as he did this afternoon), be sure to catch his talk. He's a lovely dude. With a lovely attitude. And he's infectious. In a good way.

This painting was made on my Toshiba Tecra M4 tablet pc as an exercise in Visual Facilitation. I used ArtRage 2.5 to do the painting, and Photoshop CS2 to do the tweaking. And Ben signed my book. Yay!!!

UPDATE: Ben has included the pic on his website.

Tags: benjamin zander, ben zander, zander, royblumenthal, roy blumenthal, blumenthal, coffeeshopschmuck, illustration, visual facilitation, graphic facilitation, graphic recording, art, tabletpc, artrage

At last -- Roy Blumenthal's artworks are available on clothing and other items! Check out Zazzle!

Here's a little Flash widget showing a rotating view of all of the products I've got up for sale at Zazzle. If you don't have Flash installed, you'll need to go directly to the gallery to see the stuff I'm selling.



One of the best things about Zazzle is that it allows you to choose any of the products on the site -- and there are hundreds -- and the buyer is allowed to modify each item as they see fit. You choose colour, style, size, whatever you want.

If you buy any of my offerings, I get a 17% commission. If you head on over to someone else's offerings and buy, I get 7%. That's pretty damn good, if you ask me.

If any of my images appeal to you, please zap me an email, or leave a comment here on my blog, and I'll whip it up for you.

Tags: royblumenthal coffeeshopschmuck illustration art zazzle flickr