NORTH STAR INTERVIEW: Duncan Wardle (Former Head of Innovation & Creativity at Disney)
One of the most creative minds on the planet has some wise words how to stay employable in 2025 and beyond...
Make sure you get your ticket to TBD Conference ‘Eigengrau’ (March 6) - the line-up is stellar from big tech to behavioural psychologists, criminologists to top AI strategists.
This is Duncan Wardle. He’s the guy you want to talk to about creativity, and when you do, you’ll feel his Coca-Cola-level energy radiate through the conversation. Formerly the man behind the magic at Disney for 30(!) years, Duncan’s now the author of The Imagination Emporium: Creative Recipes for Innovation, a toolkit packed with easy-to-use recipes that make innovation fun, creativity accessible, and ideas tangible. Oh, and it’s the first-ever AI-generated, fully integrated book, featuring brAIn—a playful tool ready to dish out creative exercises and insights. You can see why I wanted to speak with him.
Ask Duncan about his favourite fictional animal, and he’ll tell you Mickey Mouse—not because of Disney, but for Mickey’s unshakable optimism. And if he were a vending machine? He’d dispense playfulness, because the most creative people he’s ever met are kids. Duncan’s mission: reigniting that spark in the rest of us. Awwwwwww.
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THE INTERVIEW
What inspired you to write ‘The Imagination Emporium’, and how has your perspective on creativity evolved through the writing process?
Bookshelves and coffee tables in offices around the world are strewn with business books that have never been picked up, because “we’re too busy to think, let alone read!” I wanted to design a toolkit rather than a book. One that is instantly accessible to normal busy people who don't have the time to read a whole book. So I modeled The Imagination Emporium after my mum’s cookbook. You want shepherd's pie, go to page 67, the rest of the book can wait. So the contents page in my book does exactly that. As an example,
“Fed up of going to brainstorms where nothing ever happens? Go to page x!
“Work in a very heavily regulated industry?” Go to page Y. Etc.
I wanted to create something that busy people can hop in and hop out of as they need it.
Love that. What unique experience or insight from you/Disney is embedded in the DNA of this book?
Working alongside the master storytellers at Disney, Lucas Films, Pixar and Marvel I learned that people absorb information 3 different ways. When you ask someone how many days there are in September they will tell you 30. Ask them how they knew and some will recite the rhyme, some will count their knuckles and others can just see a calendar. The rhymers prefer auditory learning. The calendar folk learn by seeing and the ones using their knuckles by doing. So the book is specially designed to appeal to all 3 learning styles. There are QR codes in each chapter that connect to Spotify for auditory learners, animated videos for visual learners and a QR code on the back of the book that leads you to a fully interactive A.I. experience for kinesthetic learners.
I also learned during my time at Disney that people don’t buy products. They buy experiences. I wanted to create an experience that takes the intimidation out of innovation, makes creativity tangible for those people uncomfortable with ambiguity or grey and makes the process fun. Give people tools they choose to use in their daily lives, be it business or personal.
How do Spark, Nova, and Zing guide readers through practical creativity—are they symbolic of different aspects of innovation?
In truth my original character for the book was Archie. He was a direct descendant of Archimedes, the Greek philosopher. Why? Because most of us always get our best ideas in the shower. Archimedes was in the bath when he had his Eureka moment! That said, as my daughter pointed out to me, Archie was hardly the most diverse character. So I created Spark, modeled on Edison, to take us through the Creative Behaviors (the BEING of Innovation) and Nova, a female robot that introduces you to the Innovation Tools (the DOING of Innovation.) I firmly believe that if you don’t get the culture right first, the tools alone are useless. And finally Zing, a gender neutral character that leads you through the Energizers. Exercises are then specifically designed to help us think more creatively.
You discuss five employable skills AI can’t replicate. Could you describe a real-world scenario where two of these skills have proven essential?
I have recently been engaged with Google on their Deep Mind A.I. project and I asked the lead engineer, “how are we going to compete with what you are creating?” Her reply was something I have long believed intuitively but couldn’t prove. Some of the most employable skill sets of the next decade will be those that are the hardest to program into artificial intelligence and they are inherent within all of us. We were all born creative. We used to be curious as small children, asking why, why and why again. We all had an amazing imagination as a child. We played with the box, not the toy. It was whatever we imagined it to be. We all know when someone is looking at the back of our head. Our Institution has served us right more times than it has proved us wrong. And then there’s Empathy. We all empathized with Syndrome in Pixar’s Incredibles even though he was the villain, when he finally caught up with Mr. Incredible and we flash back to all those moments when he tried to join a Superhero group but was rejected. We instantly empathize with him because we have all been rejected from a social group at some point in our lives. While Creativity, Imagination, Curiosity, Intuition and Empathy were not perhaps some of the most important skill sets of our careers to date, they are now!
What was the toughest innovation challenge you faced at Disney, and how did you push through organisational resistance to overcome it?
When people think of the biggest obstacle to visiting the Disney theme parks they will always think of the lines first. Eliminating lines when you are hosting millions of people a year would certainly be in the top 10 most challenging projects I worked on. We overcame a lot of the resistance from our senior leadership team by making the experience real. We took over a warehouse and prototyped the entire Magic Band system where our executives could actually put on a Magic Band and use it to operate park and resort features, by using a Creative Behavior I call “Illustrate!” It’s about bringing an idea to life for others using visual, auditory and kinesthetic cues.
For those in corporate environments, how can they create “magic” when constrained by rigid structures and outdated processes?
For most people the biggest barrier to innovation is not, “I don't have time to think," but our own River of Thinking. The more senior level we are in our careers the more expertise and experience we have allowing us to make quick and informed decisions and that served us well for most of our careers. But then came the global pandemic and generation Z entering the workplace, who are motivated by purpose, not profit. In addition, global climate change and A.I. We don't get to think the same way we always have. None of us are going back to business as usual. We are all now in a world of business that is unusual, so I have developed a series of tools specifically designed to get us all out of our River of Thinking, allowing us to embed a culture of innovation and creativity onto everyone's DNA.
What if?! “our industry rules" could be metaphorically broken? Where Else?! could we look outside of our own industry for insights innovation. How Else?! Might we reframe our challenge to get us out of our River of Thinking?! Who Else?! might get us to think differently. etc
Can you explain the long-term impact of MagicBand technology on the guest experience and where you envision the future of guest-tech interaction?
The concept of the magic band came from using two tools in the book I call “How Else?” and “Where Else?” How Else works by reframing a challenge to get us out of our “River of Thinking" (our experience and expertise) and allowing us to think differently. Instead of asking how we might make more money, we asked how we might solve the biggest consumer pain point, lines? Then we used a tool I call “Where Else” that looks outside your industry for insights for innovation and we found a pharmacy in Japan using RFID to prevent people from having to stand in line. We borrowed back the underlying principles to create Disney’s magic band. Had we asked how we might make more money we could have increased the gate price to hit our quarterly results. But by reversing the challenge and asking how might we solve the biggest pain point of visiting a Disney theme park - the average guest now has 2 hrs free time each day they didn't have before, resulting in record return and record revenues. You don't get to iterate in post pandemic, Gen Z, Climate Change, A.I. world. You innovate or die.
Do you envision theme parks evolving into fully immersive, tech-driven experiences like holodecks? What’s the most radical innovation you anticipate?
I firmly believe that Augmented Reality will dominate a lot of industries in the near future, not VR until it gets much better. You only have to look at the success of 19 crimes of the red wine brand. By simply using a QR code on the label, they turned just another product into a fully immersive experience and became one of the fastest growing red wines in the U.S. Now fast forward a few years, with the Apple Vision Pro simply a pair of glasses and a few hundred dollars. How many fans will be able to sit alongside their favorite players on the bench, inside the stadium, live during the game. How soon before you will be able to conjure up your child’s favorite character out of a Happy Meal QR code, to personally wish your child a happy birthday in their language, anywhere in the world.
And then — there’s gaming. Hollywood hasn’t realized it yet, but yes A.I. is here and no the next gen consumer does not want a static experience. The same one that has been on offer since the industry was born. What if we could be in the movie, play your favorite characters, determine the outcome? Not only that but Wall Street demands that you don’t create too many blockbusters that lose millions of dollars, So what if Chat GPT could write us a new script, storyline and character development for Indiana Jones based on what has worked well in the past, but not lately and use an algorithm to analyze of the top performing steaming movies/shows in the action and adventure category, to develop a sure fire hit? And don't get me started on the actors that don’t even exist, speak every language, don't take breaks etc. If you don’t like change, you’re going to hate irrelevance!
The next industry in gaming’s sight has to be the world of education - the industry that kills our imagination, creativity and curiosity by the time we enter adulthood. “Don’t forget to color in between the lines!” “Stop asking why as there’s only one right answer!” What if the students of tomorrow could walk into the Senate in Rome, debate with the Senators and tell Julius Caesar to "look behind you!” Gen Z are here and they are demanding experiences, not only in entertainment, education, but also employment!
Beyond AI as a tool, how do you see it transforming the role of human creativity in problem-solving?
When I ask audiences anywhere in the world what they find to be the biggest barrier to innovation and creativity at work, over 75% always answer “I don't have time to think!” Well here comes A.I.. that very quickly will take over all the mundane tasks that take up a huge percentage of our working day, our weekly reports, accounting, expense reports, forecasting, feedback surveys etc and will give us time to think! To be more creative, to innovate.
Now think further into our future. When we were kids we could remember every phone number of all of our friends. Then long came the iPhone and our brains quickly figured out we didn't need to store that information any more and opened up more space on our hard disc (our brain) to think. Then here comes the neural link, which is only a matter of time. We wont carry iPhones anymore, we will be walking wikipedias and with all the knowledge stored in the depths of our brain, we will be capable of infinite thought! We will not compete with A.I. we will merge with A.I. taking the best of the algorithms of technology and our innately human assets (creativity, empathy etc) to become a super human race.
Who influenced you most in your journey, and what was the pivotal moment where they changed your course?
Richard Branson, the head of Virgin. I had the immense pleasure to work with Richard on the launch of the Tinker Belle Virgin plane, the Virgin Mega Store at Disney World and several other projects, but have always admired his, “Screw it, Let’s Do It!” mantra. He once told me if someone asks you if you can do something, say yes and figure it out later. Think of the amount of products he has brought to market over his career that don't exist anymore, but you would hardly call him unsuccessful. You never hear Richard referred to as a CEO, indeed I believe most people would describe him as an entrepreneur.
He is also one of the first heads of an organization that genuinely always believed it was employee first, customer second and in the industries he oversees, he understood before anyone, that it is your employees that touch the customer day in day out and that they have more influence over the customer experience than anyone else. Many other companies talk about it but they don't walk it. I believe that it was only after the partnership with Virgin Atlantic that Delta Airlines also understood the importance of employees first and offered a profit sharing scheme to their employees.
What advice fundamentally shaped the way you approach creativity, and how has it evolved in the context of today’s challenges?
I have lived most of my career by Walt Disney’s quote, “All of our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." The only A I ever got in school was “absent” because I didn't show up for the exam. I was a disaster as a student and often believed to be the best candidate to go nowhere in life. Since then I rose from the cappuccinoLad in the London office of Disney, to head of Innovation and Creativity, helping my colleagues at Pixar, Lucas Films, Marvel and Disney to dream up some incredible storylines and immersive experiences for guests around the world. Indeed I now teach innovation and creativity masterclasses at Yale, Stanford and Notre Dame.
Every time I was told, “that’s not the way we do it here” or “we tried that last year," that only incentivized me to find a creative solution to some of the most audacious ideas. I sent Buzz Lightyear (my son’s toy) into space for the launch of Toy Story on Space Shuttle Discovery where he became the longest consecutive astronaut in space, serving over 18 months on the International Space Station. I built an Olympic size pool down Main Street USA for Michael Phelps to swim down on this return from the Olympics. Not because it was easy, but because it was hard.
A book that isn’t at book?! Why Not? Spotify playlists, animated instruction videos and fully integrated A.I.! A tool kit for innovation that is simple, powerful and fun! And why shouldn’t work be fun?
What’s the most unexpected question you’ve never been asked, and why is it so essential for understanding you and your work?
More of a quote than a question but so essential to our working lives. The biggest challenge we all seem to face that prevents us from innovating and being more creative is “I don’t have time to think!” There is a very well known quote, “there’s no TIME like the PRESENT!” Well what if we reversed that using how else (allowing us to reframe the challenge) and it becomes the best advice I can give anyone - “there’s no PRESENT like the TIME!” Give yourselves and your teams the gift of time to think!
What’s next for you?
When you hear words online training what one word pops into your mind? BORING! But what if it wasn’t? I am hoping to take the principles of the Imagination Emporium and gamify innovation and creativity training. Why? Because I don't know how to do it!