Red Rose Tavern at Disneyland–Facebook Live

With the new Beauty and the Beast film currently in theaters, the folks at Disney came up with a creative (and revenue generating) approach to celebrating the film via the Red Rose Tavern at Disneyland. Our most recent Facebook Live event takes us to the former Pinocchio’s Village Haus, which has been temporarily transported into a new experience. As you can see, there is quite a line of people:

Here are some images from this transformed restaurant::

Lessons at The Exit

As you exit the new Red Rose Tavern, you notice Sultan (yes, he has a name), the ottoman dog from the film:

But there’s a story to why Sultan has put a lasso around the exit sign and is trying to drag the exit sign more to the left. When Disneyland opened, there was no attraction based on the journeys of Pinocchio. So, with the creation of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Imagineers developed a counter service concept based on Walt Disney’s second full-length feature film.

When Disneyland redeveloped Fantasyland in 1983, Imagineers sought to finally create an experience based on the film, but they also brought the same successful food and beverage concept too. There was only one problem: When installing the exit sign, something got messed up along the way and because of beams in the way, the exit feature ended up being installed off-center from the doorway. While it still functioned appropriately as an exit light, it simply looked silly. No problem. Imagineers painted Figaro tugging on the exit sign. Suddenly it seemed like it fit just fine.

However, Imagineers didn’t stop there. When they built the same style restaurant in Disneyland Paris, they remembered to get that exit sign right. To celebrate the lesson learned, they painted Figaro giving a big thumb’s up. In Disney-speak, that’s a sign for “good show”.

Souvenirs From Red Rose Tavern at Disneyland

In another Facebook Live event at the beginning of the week, we showcased a story about mistakes made when opening the Mark Twain, and how organizations need to develop a learning culture.

The message about this experience and the one at the Mark Twain is about learning from one’s mistakes and moving forward–which is the central message in Pinocchio. We all make mistakes, which are the result of incorrect, unwise, or unfortunate behavior caused by bad judgment or a lack of information.

Here’s how to learn from one’s mistakes:

Rule #1: Admit to it right away!

Rule #2: Clean it up!

Rule #3: Learn from the experience!

Rule #4: Do not make that mistake again!

Rule #5: Keep moving forward.

The latter is based on a quote from Walt Disney:

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

Curiosity thrives in a place where people can learn from their experiences. Without it, we become timid about taking chances. We become more concerned about what management and others will say–more than what might be possible. And this limits us enormously. When we create a culture of learning from our mistakes, we keep moving forward rather than backward.

Ask yourself:

• What does a culture of learning from one’s mistakes look like in our organization?
• What rules do we have that allow you to learn from one’s mistakes so you can move forward?
• What stories and symbols in your culture and organization emphasize this concept of learning from your mistakes?

If you like this kind of story, visit our other article on developing a learning culture at Pixar.